#3239: This Week in Haiti 18:4 4/12/00 (fwd)

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

"This Week in Haiti" is the English section of HAITI PROGRES
newsweekly. For information on other news in French and Creole,
please contact the paper at (tel) 718-434-8100, (fax)
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                           HAITI PROGRES
              "Le journal qui offre une alternative"

                      * THIS WEEK IN HAITI *

                        April 12-18, 2000
                         Vol. 18, No. 4

A CALL TO END POLICE BRUTALITY
Stop Giulianism in its Tracks!

On April 20, 1990, over 100,000 Haitians flooded across the
Brooklyn Bridge to protest their classification by the FDA as
carriers of the AIDS virus. The demonstration shut down lower
Manhattan and shocked the world.

On the tenth anniversary of that historic march, the Haitian
community is again planning to shake the Brooklyn Bridge, but
this time to demand the ouster of New York Mayor Rudolph
Giuliani.

The Haitian Coalition for Justice, which has called the march, is
an alliance of Haitian community groups and activists which was
formed on March 20 in response to the killing of Haitian-American
Patrick Dorismond by a New York City policeman. The following is
a declaration issued by the Coalition on April 10.

-----

In New York City today, the buck stops with Rudolph Giuliani. The
police torture of Abner Louima, the blood of Amadou Diallo and
Malcolm Ferguson, the "good kill" of Tysheen Bourne and Andre
Fields, as well as all the thousands of other victims of police
abuse and murder are all on Giuliani's hands. While he did not
himself pull the trigger, Giuliani killed Patrick Dorismond
twice: first by granting the police a license to terrorize and to
kill, and then by criminalizing Dorismond's past to justify his
assassination. But it's not just the beatings and the killings.
Thousands of Black and Latino youth are picked up every month on
their way to school, crossing the street or just for "showing an
attitude," and put through the system. Under the guise of a
"Quality of Life" campaign, Giuliani is criminalizing an entire
generation of Black and Latino youth.

Rudolph Giuliani is the force of authority encouraging police
brutality in New York City. He has no respect for the law. He has
no compassion. He is a racist who lacks the morality needed for
sane government. He's bent on dividing instead of uniting the
city's many ethnic communities. The residents of this city must
come together and with one voice demand that Giuliani resign.
Should he refuse, all activity in this city must cease until he
is ousted from office.

The Haitian Coalition for Justice joins its voice to that of all
the organizations and individuals in the city calling for
Giuliani to step down. We call on the communities of color in New
York City, on all the communities of worship, on the labor
movement, on the youth who are the prime target of Giuliani's
genocidal plan, on civil society and on all concerned people in
general, to stop this madman from engulfing the city into a race
war.

Giuliani must go right now!  This madness must stop now! Police
brutality must stop now!

All articles copyrighted Haiti Progres, Inc. REPRINTS ENCOURAGED.
Please credit Haiti Progres. 

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