Haïti ProgrèsThis week in Haiti:
12 au 18 Avril 2000A Call to End
Police Brutality
Stop Giulianism in its Tracks!
On April 20, 1990, over 100,000 Haitians flooded across the Brooklyn Bridge to protest their classification by the FDA as carriers of the AIDS virus. The demonstration shut down lower Manhattan and shocked the world.On the tenth anniversary of that historic march, the Haitian community is again planning to shake the Brooklyn Bridge, but this time to demand the ouster of New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.
The Haitian Coalition for Justice, which has called the march, is an alliance of Haitian community groups and activists which was formed on March 20 in response to the killing of Haitian-American Patrick Dorismond by a New York City policeman. The following is a declaration issued by the Coalition on April 10.
In New York City today, the buck stops with Rudolph Giuliani. The police torture of Abner Louima, the blood of Amadou Diallo and Malcolm Ferguson, the "good kill" of Tysheen Bourne and Andre Fields, as well as all the thousands of other victims of police abuse and murder are all on Giuliani's hands. While he did not himself pull the trigger, Giuliani killed Patrick Dorismond twice: first by granting the police a license to terrorize and to kill, and then by criminalizing Dorismond's past to justify his assassination. But it's not just the beatings and the killings. Thousands of Black and Latino youth are picked up every month on their way to school, crossing the street or just for "showing an attitude," and put through the system. Under the guise of a "Quality of Life" campaign, Giuliani is criminalizing an entire generation of Black and Latino youth.Rudolph Giuliani is the force of authority encouraging police brutality in New York City. He has no respect for the law. He has no compassion. He is a racist who lacks the morality needed for sane government. He's bent on dividing instead of uniting the city's many ethnic communities. The residents of this city must come together and with one voice demand that Giuliani resign. Should he refuse, all activity in this city must cease until he is ousted from office.
The Haitian Coalition for Justice joins its voice to that of all the organizations and individuals in the city calling for Giuliani to step down. We call on the communities of color in New York City, on all the communities of worship, on the labor movement, on the youth who are the prime target of Giuliani's genocidal plan, on civil society and on all concerned people in general, to stop this madman from engulfing the city into a race war.
Giuliani must go right now! This madness must stop now! Police brutality must stop now!