#3332: NYC Protesters Denounce Mayor (fwd)

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From:nozier@tradewind.net

Friday April 21 9:08 AM ET 
 NYC Protesters Denounce Mayor

 By DONNA DE LA CRUZ, Associated Press Writer 

 NEW YORK (AP) - More than 2,000 people marched from Brooklyn to City
Hall demanding Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's resignation over his handling of
fatal police shootings of unarmed black men. Protesters on the
three-mile march also vowed to make sure Giuliani doesn't win his
 bid for the U.S. Senate. ``You all have got to vote!'' shouted Marie
Dorismond, whose brother, Patrick, was killed by police outside a
Manhattan bar. ``All of this will mean nothing if you don't vote. One
vote will make one big difference. I'm tired of crying for black
brothers.'' The mostly Haitian-American crowd specifically chanted the
names of Amadou Diallo, Dorismond and Malcolm Ferguson, punctuating
their cries with: ``Giuliani must go!''
 Diallo was shot to death in 1999 by four white police officers, who
were acquitted of all charges. Ferguson, who was fatally shot during an
undercover drug raid, and Dorismond were killed this year.In each case,
Giuliani has vociferously defended the police. He sometimes sought to
shift blame for the shootings to the victims and was criticized for
releasing Dorismond's sealed juvenile criminal record. Giuliani's office
did not return a telephone call for comment on the rally but said
 earlier in the day: ``People have a right to protest, I really have no
problem with that at all as long as they do it peacefully.''
 There was no mention by speakers at the rally that if Giuliani loses
the Senate race in November to Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton, he will
remain mayor until 2001. The protesters voiced anger toward the NYPD as
well, but their real focus was Giuliani, and sign after sign depicted
the mayor as the devil or as Adolf Hitler. The signs were cheered by
about hundred onlookers as the marchers came off the Brooklyn Bridge
into Manhattan. ``Giuliani violates human rights,'' ``Giuliani, the new
Hitler,'' and ``Stop and frisk Giuliani, book him up for racism,'' read
some of the signs. One person was arrested during the protest, but he
was later released and the arrest voided.