The meeting was called in response to a wave of police killings in this city. The largest demonstrations against the cops have been in the case of Marc Dorvil, a Haitian-American carpenter who died in police custody. Veye Yo has played a prominent part in demanding justice for Dorvil. Numerous Veye Yo members were at the meeting, which was translated into Creole and Spanish.

A student from Edison High School in the Little Haiti community of Miami came and videotaped the program to show at school the next week. Nearly half the forum participants were youth, including a half-dozen activists from Food Not Bombs, who came from as far away as West Palm Beach. Some said they learned about the meeting when a fellow high school student sent an e-mail to them with the forum announcement. Several people planning to attend the Cuba-U.S. Youth Exchange in Havana also showed up, as well as other members of the Miami Coalition to End the Embargo of Cuba.

Supporters of Brothers of the Same Mind, an organization of ex-convicts, and of the Coalition Against Police Brutality and Harassment, were present. Both groups have been active in speaking out against police violence in the Black community. Members of the Haitian Women's Association came, with a display on the work of their organization. Activists from the Miami Workers Center, currently involved in a fight to raise the minimum wage, also participated.

Argiris Malapanis, a meat packer, chaired the forum and introduced Frances Sesler as the first speaker. Sesler is from Brooksville, Florida. Her family was part of the lawsuit of Black farmers against race discrimination by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In April of this year, Sesler's youngest son Demitreus was shot dead by Minneapolis police.

Sesler began by passing through the audience a large photograph of Demitreus with his daughter. An independent autopsy requested by the family "clearly states my son was shot and he was shot in the back.... He did not deserve to die a death like this," Sesler told the meeting. The police, she continued, "are only trained to point their guns and shoot you. These policemen should be prosecuted. They continue to build more jails, but I say, let them put the cops in jail!"

Max Rameau, from the Coalition Against Police Brutality and Harassment, was the next speaker. He expressed the view that "a police state has been put in place in the United States.... We need to work on neutralizing the police in our city."  
 
Prosecute and jail cops
Mike Italie, a garment worker and the Socialist Workers Party candidate for mayor of Miami, also spoke. Italie said as a candidate he is demanding the cops involved in all the recent killings in this city be prosecuted and sent to jail. He noted that another related case is that of five Cubans convicted here of "spying" recently, in a blatant frame-up and violation of democratic rights. The five should be freed, said Italie.

Marleine Bastien, leader of the Haitian Women's Association, was the final speaker. "They want to criminalize and dehumanize" those the police kill, she said, to justify their actions. Several speakers in the discussion related their own experience with the Miami police. Eugene LaFontant, a young Black man, described going to jail for six years on a trumped-up robbery charge.

Leroy Jones, a leader of Brothers of the Same Mind, said, "Crime is up--crime committed by the police against our people." He noted that one of the Miami cops' so-called anti-crime programs, "Operation Clean Slate," resulted in the arrest of 8,400 people in two months, all on misdemeanor charges. "We cannot trust the police to police themselves," said Marleine Bastien, "We need some body to do that."

Rameau proposed the body to do that be a civilian review board of the police, with power to subpoena evidence and fire cops. Rameau said that in his opinion "there is too much support for police programs right now; the majority of the white community supports them." A participant from the audience questioned that, noting that among whites who are workers, police brutality is also a reality. Frances Sesler noted, "If we as a people come together and we are strong, we might find out there are more people behind us."

Italie described his experience at the garment plant where he works at the time of the funeral of Marc Dorvil. There was considerable discussion among co-workers about attending the service, and he and several others eventually did so. "We need more protests against the police," said Italie, "especially those that can win support of working people and our unions. These are the forces capable of fighting and winning."

Civilian review boards have proven not effective against cop violence, the socialist candidate explained. Demanding the prosecution and jailing of the cops has been effective, as in the case of Haitian immigrant Abner Louima, who was tortured by New York City police. The main cop involved in that case was sentenced to 30 years in prison. "However, we need a political perspective that goes beyond each demonstration," Italie explained. "We need a socialist revolution that takes power out of the hands of those who control the cops and places it in the hands of workers and farmers."  
 
 
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