This week in HaitiHaïti Progrès
14 - 20 June 2000
New York:
Dorismonds Demand Indictment of Cop Who Killed Their SonLast week, New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani tried to arrange a private meeting with the parents of Patrick Dorismond, the young Haitian-American gunned down by New York City undercover policeman Anthony Vasquez on Mar. 17. But the Dorismonds refuse to meet privately with the mayor, saying that they must be accompanied by their lawyer, Johnny Cochran, as well as the Rev. Al Sharpton and Haitian community leaders.
"Giuliani wants to do something secret, without any media coverage," Marie Dorismond, the victim's mother, told Haïti Progrès. "He wants it to be just him, me, my husband, and a priest. Myself I don't want anything secret with that guy because when he maligned my son he did it at noon on the television and the whole world was watching. Now, if he has something to say to us, we want our lawyer, Sharpton, and our Haitian community leaders there. We won't go without those people."
Now the Dorismonds have added an even more important condition: they want the officer who shot their son to death to be indicted. "Already my daughter, Marie Andre, has said publicly to Giuliani: before you go asking anybody anything, you know what you have to do," Mme. Dorismond said. "You have to fire your policeman and convict him! You have to indict him. If you can't do that, you can't come to people carrying all your sins."
Up until now, Officer Vasquez has only been placed on desk duty and has not been disciplined or charged with any crime.
Meanwhile the Haitian Coalition for Justice and other groups have called a protest rally in front of the offices of Robert Morgenthau, the Manhattan District Attorney, at 100 Centre Street in Manhattan on Monday, June 26, from 3:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. to demand that Vasquez and the two other cops involved in Dorismond's shooting be indicted.
"Giuliani is trying to soften his image in the hopes that our demands will just fade away," said Ray Laforest, a leader in the HCJ. "Well they won't. We still want justice and we still want him to resign."
These demands were prominent in two massive Haitian community marches on Mar. 25, during the victim's funeral, and on Apr. 20, the tenth anniversary of the historic march against the Food and Drug Administration's policy of designating Haitians as AIDS carriers. Giuliani's popularity hit all-time lows, with over two-thirds of New Yorkers disapproving of his handling of the Dorismond shooting.
Then, Giuliani deflated. He announced on Apr. 27 that he had early signs of prostate cancer. The following week, his history of marital infidelity was headline news. Then he dropped out as Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate from New York. He held a televised "town meeting" where he spoke of reconciliation and used the word "love" over 13 times, remarkable from his lips. The mainstream press began to praise the mayor's "courage" and applauded his new "compassionate" style.
But the Haitian community leaders grouped in the HCJ remain unimpressed. "There's some change of rhetoric, but no change of substance," Laforest observed. "He deserves no sympathy when so many have been tortured and killed by the police on his watch. And he continues to prosecute those protesting his policies." The June 26 demonstration will also demand that the Brooklyn DA, Charles Hynes, drop charges, both misdemeanors and felonies, against some two dozen protestors arrested at the Mar. 25 funeral and that the Bronx DA, Robert Johnson, drop charges against protestors arrested while protesting the acquittal of the four policemen who shot African immigrant Amadou Diallo in Feb. 1999.
Diallo's mother has reportedly expressed willingness to sit down with Giuliani. But the Dorismonds, backed by an angry and militant community, are not likely to be seduced by the mayor's public relations stunts. Instead, Marie Dorismond calls on the community to turn out en masse on Jun. 26 rally in front of the Manhattan DA. "That demonstration is a great necessity," she said. "In fact, we need several of them."
Mme. Dorismond also doubts that she and her husband André will ever sit down with the mayor. "You know the Haitian proverb which sums up the situation," she concluded. "Chat konnen, rat konnen, barik mayi a reste la." The cat knows, the rat knows, and the barrel of corn just sits there.
GRAND GOÂVE:
Three Arrested, Two Dead After Drug Drop Gone BadIn the early morning hours of Friday June 9, two yachts from Colombia attempted to drop an estimated four to five thousand kilos of cocaine at a private beach called "Sensation" in the Ti Paradi section of the southern town of Grand Goâve. A flatbed truck with 200 cement sacks, in which to hide the cocaine, was waiting at the rendezvous point.
Unfortunately for the traffickers, the local population somehow got wind of the operation and chaotically boarded the two vessels, making off with most of the precious powder. Local police observed the melee but were unable to intervene until reinforcements from the the Office to Fight Against Drug Trafficking (BLTS) and a SWAT team arrived on the scene. The agents seized a mere six sacks of drugs containing 147 kilos of cocaine, the rest spirited off by the local marauders.
Three men were arrested: the beach owner and two others caught in the act of grabbing up drugs. In addition to the yachts and the truck, the police also seized a jet-ski, a shotgun, an automatic rifle, and two handguns.
In the scramble to gather up the packages of cocaine, one man, Tataille Louis Jean, was shot in the head and killed. Victorious Lavalas Family mayoral candidate Jocelyn Wilhomme was also killed that day by his own security guard, Leslie Timo. Radio Haiti reported that, according to an unnamed source, Wilhomme had lent his gun to Timo to rob 8 kilos of cocaine from a third man. When Wilhomme went to recuperate the gun and drugs, Timo shot him in the stomach.
Lavalas Family spokesman Jean Renel Julien vigorously denied the report, saying that Wilhomme had gone to Timo's home on the evening of Jun. 9 when the guard had failed to show up to work. "The mayor was not involved in drugs," Julien said. "All during the day he had been at home dealing with his business. The security guard normally came at around 6 p.m.. Around 7 p.m. he saw the guy hadn't come, so he decided to go to [Timo's] house to find out what was up. As he entered [Timo's] house, the guard shot him... The security guard betrayed him."
Authorities are still trying to find out how much cocaine is still in Grand Goâve. "We don't really know the total amount of cocaine which came in aboard those yachts which the police seized," said police spokesman Jean Dady Siméon. "But everybody in town says that everybody else came into possession of some of the cocaine, and so the police will continue to investigate in the area so as to recover those drugs."
Cap Haïtien:
Alleged Thief Stoned to DeathOn the night of Sunday June 4, Emmanuel Saintil was stoned to death by two guardians (jeran) of the Felix Box School on Rue 17 in Cap Haïtien. According to Willy Duchesne, one of the guardians, Saintil was trying to steal from food stored for students. Duchesne, whom Saintil struck several times with a hammer, admits that he and the other guardian killed Saintil with rocks during an extended fight.
Judge Emmanuel Dorcé, who inspected the crime scene, found several pieces of evidence indicating that Saintil had indeed been committing theft. Nonetheless, he declared that the two guardians would be put on trial for the killing.
The school remained closed all day on Monday, June 5 since the police had not yet removed Saintil's body.