This week in HaitiHaïti Progrès
2 au 8 Août 2000
NEW YORK:
District Attorney Orchestrates
Impunity for Dorismond's KillerOutraged Community and Family Protest According to New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani, Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, and the New York Police Department, Patrick Dorismond was to blame for his own death.In a move which has outraged the Dorismond family and Haitian community, Morgenthau announced on Jul. 27 in a four-page report that a grand jury under his stewardship had cleared Detective Anthony Vasquez of any "criminal liability" after he shot the unarmed Dorismond on Eighth Avenue in Manhattan on Mar. 16.
"I think it is clear from the report, and the report says quite clearly, that the aggressor was Mr. Dorismond," Giuliani said.
Once again, the city government, courts, and cops have come together to help another cop get away with murder. Dorismond was the fourth unarmed black man to be shot to death by the NYPD over the previous 13-months. In all the shootings, the police have been acquitted through rigged trials or had charges dismissed through rigged grand juries.
Vasquez's absolution by Morgenthau's grand jury flies in the face of the testimony of Kevin Kaiser, a friend who was at Dorismond's side on the night of Mar. 16. He was the principal witness to the deadly scuffle with police, who were the aggressors, he said.
In a press conference shortly after the shooting, Kaiser said that the three undercover cops, one of whom had asked Dorismond to sell him drugs, taunted the victim with animal noises when Dorismond angrily reacted to the request. He also asserts that it was Det. Anderson Moran who threw the first punch at Dorismond, sparking the deadly brawl. As Dorismond lay bleeding to death on the ground with a bullet through is heart, one of the cops yelled "Cuff that motherfucker!," according to Kaiser.
Even the Morgenthau report notes that "one witness said that he saw Dorismond struck repeatedly by an officer's gun and saw the officer shoot at Dorismond, while Dorismond was directly facing the officer, from a distance of approximately twelve inches to twenty inches." Morgenthau brushed such testimony aside because of what he contended were "ballistics and criminalistics tests" which supposedly indicated that the gun went off "in actual contact with Dorismond's clothing." The Morgenthau/police version claims the discharge was accidental as Dorismond and Vasquez grappled for Vasquez's gun.
The Dorismond family, Haitian community activists, and police brutality opponents say that the true version of events could be established by listening to the tape of the confrontation, which Giuliani claimed existed the day after the shooting. Det. Moran was supposedly wearing a microphone to record what transpired as his "buy and bust" team moved down Eighth Avenue. However, there has been nothing but silence about that alleged tape since Giuliani mentioned it. Did the grand jury hear this tape? Why have its contents not been revealed? Morgenthau's office did not return calls from Haïti Progrès asking about the tape.
In response to this latest travesty of justice, on Saturday, Jul. 29, about 150 Haitians and other anti-police brutality protesters marched from the Dorismond home on Parkside Avenue in the East Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn to the Holy Cross Church on Church Avenue, where the police cracked down on demonstrating mourners during Patrick's funeral on Mar. 25. At that time, twenty-seven protestors were arrested, and many are still being prosecuted by the same courts which have exonerated Vasquez.
The demonstration was hastily organized in 24 hours by the Haitian Coalition for Justice (HCJ), the broad coalition of Haitian community groups and activists which led the April 20th march of 10,000 people against police brutality across the Brooklyn Bridge (see Haïti Progrès, Vol. 18, No. 6, 4/26/2000).
Patrick Dorismond's family took part in the protest rally and urged their neighbors to join in. "Being that Patrick's soul still lives right here on Parkside Avenue, I really expect the whole block to come out here because Patrick was your brother too," his sister Marie André said through the megaphone to the row of tall red brick apartment buildings that line the street. "You all watched him grow from a little baby to a man. Where are you?"
But clearly many potential demonstrators were intimidated by the massive police presence deployed for the march. Hundreds of cops were massed along streets and intersections surrounding the demonstration's route of march, most sporting riot gear. Dozens of police cars and vans with lights flashing lent an ominous tension to the neighborhood.
"I ain't going to have my head busted today," one young man said as he walked by a group of gathering demonstrators who had urged him to join them.
"I know a lot of people aren't coming out because they are afraid," Marie André Dorismond said. "We understand that. We know they are home and praying in their hearts for us."
The police also prevented the protestors from marching down Flatbush Avenue, the publicized march route. Instead, the demonstrators were directed down Rogers Ave., a shorter and more residential itinerary.
Nonetheless, the march was spirited and militant, loudly chanting "No Indictment, No Peace," as it slowly moved down Rogers Ave. behind the HCJ's banner reading "Stop Police Brutality." Despite tears, Marie André Dorismond helped lead the chants, along with HCJ leaders.
At one intersection, several young men wearing baggy jeans and bandanas sheepishly watched the passing demonstration from behind a row of policemen leaning on a steel barricade which completely blocked off the street. A Haitian police detective, wearing a light-blue Community Affairs jacket, directed the line of policemen to open up the barricade to allow the young men to join the march. The row of mostly white policemen leaning on the barricade didn't move a muscle.
"Here is a country that goes all over the world trying to preach to other nations how to respect human rights, when it is the biggest violator of human rights in the world," said Paul Maurice François, known as Mèt Paul, of the popular community station Radio Lakay.
Other speakers included Elombe Brath of the Patrice Lumumba Coalition, Colette Pean of the Dec. 12 Movement, and a speaker from the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement.
"It seems that the only lesson Giuliani's police learned from that unjust acquittal is that they have a license to kill and kill and kill again," Pat Chin of Workers World Party and the International Action Center told the crowd. "They always walk because they work to protect the interests of the rich and foster racism to divide us."
In front of Holy Cross, seven women dressed in black funeral veils linked hands and spread out across the entire width of Church Avenue in a solemn chain of solidarity.
Kevin Kaiser also came out to show his support and called on the demonstrators to continue their protests. "I am shocked by the ruling," he said. "I gave my testimony and told the truth, but it wasn't good enough" to get justice.
One of the day's most poignant moments came when Marie Dorismond, Patrick's mother, addressed the crowd in front of the church. "It is me they killed when they killed my son," she said in a voice choked with emotion. "Patrick will go down in history as the first black to get killed for saying no to drugs."
She closed by entreating the community to remain mobilized and to keep marching for justice. "Believe me," she said, "if there is no justice, there will be no peace."
For more information about future actions, contact the Haitian Coalition for Justice at (718) 284-0889.