a1053: Tensions between Haitians and NYPD (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: JD Lemieux <lxhaiti@yahoo.com>

 From: News and Views | City Beat |
Sunday, March 03, 2002

Spotlight on Tensions
Between Haitians & NYPD


By LESLIE CASIMIR
Daily News Staff Writer

gt. Herve Guiteau, a cop for 18 years, will never forget
the reaction he got long ago when a colleague learned he
was born in Haiti.

"He said, 'You don't look like a Haitian — because they
dress funny and they smell,'" recalled Guiteau, 44, a
community affairs officer in Brooklyn. "I explained to him
that Haitians happen to be very diverse people."

Guiteau said he doesn't hear comments like that anymore and
believes his co-workers are more sensitive to the people
they protect.

But many Haitians who encounter the police on the street
don't see it that way, pointing to the shooting deaths by
police of unarmed Flatbush, Brooklyn, residents Patrick
Dorismond in 2000 and Georgy Louisgene in January.

And last week's overturning of the convictions of three
cops in the Abner Louima torture trial reaffirmed old fears
and distrust that many older Haitian immigrants have for
people in authority.

"This is their country, and this shows you that black
immigrants don't have many rights," said Joseph Jacques
Prime, 51, a parking lot attendant who lives in Flatbush.
"They can continue to abuse us."

About 180,000 Haitians live in New York City, according to
the 2000 census. Many fled wretched poverty and brutal
dictatorships in their native country.

'Might Get Angry'

That fear of authority is reflected in the words of
Andre-Jean Bart, who helps his wife run La Cuisine
Haitienne on Nostrand Ave. in Flatbush.

"If a police officer tells you not to stand there, you
should listen to him and not discuss it with him because he
might get angry with you," Bart said. "They're like the
military — you have to respect them."

For several months, Garry Pierre-Pierre, coordinator of a
Haitian-police relations project at the National Coalition
for Haitian Rights, has been organizing a town hall meeting
for March 13 on community relations with police.

But he has had no luck in getting a response from the NYPD
on whether a high-ranking official will attend.

"There is a perception by Haitians that they feel they are
stopped by police because they are black, and then they are
mistreated because they are Haitian," said Pierre-Pierre,
also publisher of the weekly English-language Haitian
Times.

"The perception is that police see the community almost as
the enemy, and that's not good policing," he said.

Police officials did not return calls seeking comment.


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