#3011: Family's Angered By Clash & Arrests (fwd)

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From:nozier@tradewind.net

Family's Angered  By Clash & Arrests 
Original Publication Date: 03/27/2000 
By LESLIE CASIMIR and BILL HUTCHINSON  Daily News Staff Writers

Patrick Dorismond's sister yesterday said her family's grief was
compounded by the violence and the arrests that came as they laid her
brother to rest. "I am angry. I am upset at [Mayor] Giuliani," said
Marie  Dorismond, 28, who believes the mayor's reaction to her  
brother's shooting contributed to the tension that led to Saturday's
bottle-throwing melee. "My brother's funeral was ruined by the NYPD,"
she said.  The Dorismond family went to church yesterday at Brooklyn's
Evangelical  Crusade of Fishers of Men, where the uncle of police
torture victim Abner Louima is pastor.                                
The Rev. Philius Nicholas prayed with Dorismond's parents, Marie and
Andre, at the Flatbush house of worship and asked God to protect people
from the police. "We are defenseless, we are without weapons," he
prayed."Instead of protecting us, they [the police] are assassinating
us. Keep your eyes on us, Lord. Protect us. We ask for justice."       
Marie Dorismond, whose face has been creased by grief and stained by
tears for her lost 26-year-old son, shed more tears yesterday as she
sang "Hallelujah" with the mostly-Haitian congregation.               
On Saturday, Anthony Vasquez, the cop who shot the  unarmed, off-duty
security guard on a Manhattan street March 16th, issued a statement
extending his "heartfelt condolences" and prayers for the Dorismonds.   
But the heartbroken parents refused publicly to acknowledge        
Vasquez's words yesterday, saying they had no comment on the statement.
The Rev. Al Sharpton attended the church service and from  the pulpit
called on the federal government to investigate Saturday's discord
between riot-ready cops and bottle-throwing mourners.He charged that the
presence of police officers in riot gear provoked the violence.        
"We have never advocated or condoned violence in this community, but
there were forces that wanted there to be violence," Sharpton said.