Haïti ProgrèsAn open letter to Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes from families who lost loved ones to police brutality:
19 au 25 Avril 2000You Didn't Prosecute the Cops Who Murdered Our Children.
But You Are Prosecuting People for Standing up to Police BrutalityNicholas Heyward, Jr.... Frankie Arzuaga... Patrick Bailey... Yong Xin Huang... William Whitfield... Aswon "Keshawn" Watson... Gidone "Gary" Busch... Anibal Carrasquillo, Jr.... Anthony Merisier... Shu'aib Abdul Latif... Earl Black... These are just a few of the innocent people murdered by police officers in Brooklyn. DA Charles Hynes either refused to present the case to the grand jury or failed to indict the cops who murdered them.
On March 25, thousands of people filled the streets outside of Holy Cross Church in East Flatbush to pay their respects to Patrick Dorismond - yet another unarmed Black man shot down by the NYPD. Nicholas Heyward, Sr., whose son, Nicholas Heyward, Jr., was shot down by a housing cop in 1994 while playing with a toy gun with bright orange markings, said, "I did not understand the purpose of having so many police fill the streets of East Flatbush for a funeral of a man they had murdered days before. You do not murder a man and then send the same people to dictate where people can and cannot walk or stand. This was a funeral. The police should not have been there."
Police attacked the crowd outside the church. Mourners were beaten, pepper-sprayed, and knocked to the ground. At least 27 people were arrested, and some were charged with felonies. Errol Maitland, a reporter from WBAI who was covering the funeral, was among those arrested and brutalized. It is amazing how willing DA Hynes is to file charges against these people who had come to mourn the death of Patrick Dorismond but yet is unwilling or unable to prosecute cops who murder innocent people.
DA Hynes closed the case of the cop who murdered 13-year-old Nicholas Heyward, Jr. without ever presenting it to a grand jury. Nicholas was killed in the stairway of the building where he lived while playing cops and robbers with some friends. DA Hynes claimed the stairwell was dimly lit and that the officer was on a 911 call. Later, the officer's own testimony contradicted this - he said the staircase was well-lit and that he was on a routine patrol. But DA Hynes refused to re-open the case.
When the families of Anibal Carrasquillo, who was fatally shot in the back by a Brooklyn cop, and Yong Xin Huang, who was thrown through a glass door and shot in the head by a Brooklyn cop, went to the DA's office to demand that justice, Charles Hynes instead had the victims' mothers arrested.
Some people say that police brutality comes down to a few isolated incidents. But we know this is not the case. The book, Stolen Lives: Killed by Law Enforcement, documents over 2,000 cases of people killed by police and other law enforcement agents throughout the US in the 1990's. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. Our children are just a few of the people in this long list of victims.
Less than a week after Patrick Dorismond's funeral, two young Black men, Tasheen Bourne and Andre Fields, were shot down by police in Bushwick, Brooklyn, under highly suspicious circumstances. Cops claim that the victims were robbing them using toy guns that looked real. People accused of having toy guns are executed in the streets by police, while cops who kill people with real guns are set free to kill again.
DA Hynes' response is to launch a campaign to remove toy guns from store shelves. As Nicholas Heyward, Sr., said, "Cops mistake all kinds of innocent object for guns, so they claim. While they're at it, why not take wallets, key-chains, candy bars, cell phones, and beepers off the shelves? All of these objects have been used to justify police shootings, here and around the country."
To bring charges against the people who were at Patrick Dorismond's funeral is an uncivilized and cowardly act by a man who claims to represent justice. We demand that all these charges be dropped and that the DA's office instead prosecute the cops who murdered our children.
Signed,
Nicholas Heyward, Sr., father of 13-year-old Nicholas, Jr., shot to death by a housing cop in 1994
Dave & Lillian Flores-Muniz, parents of 15-year-old Frankie Arzuaga, shot to death by cops in 1996
Milta Calderon, mother of 21-year-old Anibal Carrasquillo, shot in the back and killed by police, 1995
Family of Yong Xin Huang, 16 years old, shot in the head and killed by a cop, 1995
Kevin Bourne, father of 19-year-old Tasheen Bourne, shot and killed by cops in Bushwick, Mar. 31, 2000