a768: Haitians denounce NYPD terror (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: radtimes <resist@best.com>

Haitians denounce NYPD terror

Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Feb. 14, 2002
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------

AT FUNERAL FOR LOUISGENE:
HAITIANS DENOUNCE NYPD TERROR

By G. Dunkel
Brooklyn, N.Y.

The drums came early. All through the funeral mass, as they
have done so often in the history of Haiti, they called for
resistance, solidarity and unity. This time it was because
of another police killing of a young Haitian man.

St. Jerome's Catholic Church was filled with over 800
mourners and the sound of the drums. Georgy Louisgene's
family had asked for them and for the political organizing
around his death. His sister Abelard Louisgene said, "The
whole community must face this terror. Georgy will not have
died in vain if we can end this reality and preserve our
community."

Louisgene was gunned down Jan. 16 by two officers from
Brooklyn's 67th Precinct, Sgt. James Muirhead and Officer
Joe Thompson. He had been badly beaten by a gang of men and
was asking the police to arrest them.

Ray Laforest, a Haitian trade unionist and activist, who co-
chaired the rally outside the church, told Workers World:
"Attending this funeral made me feel the traditions of
Haitian resistance, stretching back to Africa, which is now
fighting a monster destroying peoples' lives."

At the end of the mass, after the casket had been placed in
the hearse and people going to the cemetery had got in their
cars, others walked with the drums to the Foster housing
project where Georgy had been killed. Members of the
community joined the march.

After the candles and incense had been lit, people chanted,
"Stop police brutality!" "New York City police are racist!"
"The NYPD is a terrorist organization!" Young Haitian women
were particularly active in telling the police to their
faces what they were.

Johnnie Stevens, a People's Video Network coordinator and
member of ANSWER, said, "This was obviously a terror killing
by an experienced and well-trained sergeant. Bloomberg's
police commissioner, Ray Kelly, was head of the
International Police Monitors in 1994 that trained the
Tonton Macoutes and the ex-army officers for the Haitian
National Police. He appears to have brought their spirit
back to inspire the police force in New York."