BY AL DUNCAN
BROOKLYN, New York - Nearly 7,000 protesters waving signs and placards marched on the 70th precinct of the New York Police Department here August 16 to voice their anger over the heinous torture of Abner Louima, a Haitian immigrant, at the station house a week earlier.

Several cops arrested Louima outside a night club in Brooklyn on August 10. Yelling racist epithets at him, the cops beat Louima with their radios at a nearby alley and then drove him to the 70th precinct. There, at least two cops pulled the man's pants down, walked him into the station's bathroom, and shoved the bathroom plunger up his rectum and then into his mouth. Louima is hospitalized with a pierced lower intestine, torn bladder, and broken teeth.

"Seven O - gotta go," and "What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now!" the demonstrators chanted as they marched through the heart of Brooklyn's Haitian community.

Hundreds of people joined in as the protesters made their way down Flatbush Avenue on the way to meeting others already at the 70th precinct.

While the demonstrators were overwhelmingly Haitian, a significant number of other working people from New York also participated. Many of the protesters were young. The march was called by dozens of Haitian and other organizations - including Haitian Women for Haitian Refugees, Haitian Constituency-USA, Haiti Support Network, Haitian-American Juvenile Foundation, Connecticut Haitians for Justice, Haiti-Progrés, Radio Peuple, National Congress for Puerto Rican Rights, Asian-American Legal Defense Fund, Center for Constitutional Rights, December 12 Movement, Free Mumia-Abu Jamal Coalition, Socialist Workers Party, and Workers World Party.

Demands included the immediate firing of all police personnel from the 70th precinct implicated in this act of brutality, trial and conviction of all cops involved, an end to police brutality, and U.S. and all foreign police out of Haiti.

Several of the demonstrators carried bathroom plungers - in a dramatic enactment of the vicious assault by the cops.

Signs carried by a number of marchers bore pictures of officers Justin Volpe and Charles Schwarz, two of the four cops who have been indicted for the inhuman attack so far, with horns drawn on their heads above the slogan "devil in a blue suit." Others carried placards that described the NYPD as the Ku Klux Klan.

The sheer barbarity of the attack has angered many working people in the New York area.

"I'm very mad," said Rheza Boucard, who works as a nurse in New York. "I find it difficult to express my feelings. If this is the world's first city, if this is [New York mayor Rudolph] Giuliani's time, how can they be giving this kind of example? This isn't a Black thing, it's a human thing. The Ton Ton Macoutes [rightist paramilitary thugs who terrorized the population under U.S.-backed military dictatorships in Haiti] were sent by the American government to Haiti. Only when they train the macoutes to go to a country this happens."

Many at the protest expressed their dissatisfaction with the fact that only two cops had been indicted in the case as of the time of the march, when as many as eleven or more officers were probably implicated.

"All the cops involved should be jailed and fired," Harvey Coty, 36, said. "All those responsible should be prosecuted. This why they need to hear our voices."

Louima moved to New York from Haiti six years ago. He lives with his wife and one-year-old son in Queens and works as a security guard.

What happened on August 10?
According to an interview Louima gave that was published in the August 13 Daily News, this is how the events unfolded on the early morning hours of August 10.

Around 4:30 a.m. that day, Louima was outside the Rendez- Vous Palace nightclub near the corner of Glenwood and Flatbush Ave. after a party. As the club emptied out, a fight broke out between two women. "I didn't know the women," Louima said. "I was there with my brother and my cousin." Soon the cops arrived.

"The white cops started with some racial stuff," Louima said. "They said, `Why do you people come to this country if you can't speak English?' They called us niggers.

"A cop said to shut up. I didn't think he was talking to me. He pushed me to the ground and handcuffed my hands. Two cops put me in their patrol car and drove me to the corner of Glenwood and Nostrand. There was another car there. They kicked and beat me with their radios. They were yelling, `You people can't even talk English, I am going to teach you to respect a cop.' None of the cops had their nametags on. They put me back in the car and drove me to the corner of Glenwood and Bedford. They met two other cops and beat me again."

Then, he said, he was driven to the 70th precinct, led to the duty sergeant's desk and strip searched.

"My pants were down at my ankles, in full view of the other cops. They walked me over to the bathroom and closed the door. There were two cops. One said, `You niggers have to learn to respect police officers.' The other one said, `If you yell or make any noise, I will kill you.' Then one held me and the other one stuck the plunger up my behind. He pulled it out and shoved it in my mouth, broke my teeth and said, `That's your s - t, nigger.' Later, when they called the ambulance, the cop told me, `If you ever tell anyone I will kill you and your family."

As is usual in such cases, the cops tried to make the victim look like the criminal. They charged Louima with assault, resisting arrest, obstructing government administration and disorderly conduct. These charges were subsequently dropped without further explanation.

NY mayor acts to defuse anger
Meanwhile, New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani - who is running for a second term - has been working overtime in an effort to diffuse the anger and limit the damage to his police forces.

Besides the two cops who have already been indicted, New York police commissioner Howard Safir has relieved a number of senior officers from their posts at the 70th precinct and reassigned a number of other cops to modified tasks pending the outcome of what he claims is an open investigation by the police internal affairs department.

Complicating things for Giuliani is his record of defending cops accused of brutality and killings. The most recent occasion was his support for police officer Anthony Pellergeri who shot in the back and killed 16-year-old Kevin Cedeno.

Two weeks before the assault on Louima, New York cops and FBI agents terrorized residents of the Park Slope area of Brooklyn, who are of Middle-Eastern decent, claiming they were after "suicide bombers" in the area.

According to press reports, the 70th precinct has a higher average number of police brutality complaints compared to other cop stations in the city.

Louima reported that officer Volpe, who is charged with forcing the plunger in the man's rectum, shouted as he was carrying out the assault, "This is Giuliani time, not Dinkins time." Volpe was referring to former New York mayor David Dinkins who is Black.

"This is not a corruption case," said Brian Figeroux, one of Louima's lawyers. "This is a torture case. Cops are going to jail."

When asked by this reporter if he thought actions like the August 16 demonstration could make a difference in bringing justice against the cops in this case, Jean Laguerre, a 34-year-old roofer who lives in the area of the incident, said "Of course. But we have to keep marching because this is what they want - for us to stop. We have to keep the pressure on."

Another demonstration has been called for Friday, August 29, at 10:00 a.m. Protesters will assemble at Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn, walk across the Brooklyn bridge, and march to the city hall to "Demand Justice for Abner Louima!" In addition to Haitian and other organizations, this action is also endorsed by David Dinkins, Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel, and Rev. Herbert Daughtrey.

Al Duncan is a member of the United Transportation Union in Newark, New Jersey. Ruth Nebbia, who is also in the UTU in Newark, contributed to this article.  
 
 
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