20105: Esser: Haitian-born city cops want to return to train local police (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser torx@joimail.com

Newsday, NY
http://www.newsday.com

Haitian-born city cops want to return to train local police

By Ron Howell
Staff Writer

March 7, 2004

Over the past decade, more than 20,000 gun-toting Americans have gone
to Haiti as peace keepers or law enforcers.

And none were more attached to their job than the two dozen
Haitian-American cops who went there to train rookie Haitian officers
in the late 1990s, some of those immigrants say. In interviews last
week, as Haiti again veered toward chaos, some of those
badge-carrying immigrants said they are willing to go again and try
once more to put Haiti on a path of law and order.

"With us, you have a total package. We can go out and not only train
cops but we can interact with the people," said Lt. Guy Cethoute, a
17-year NYPD veteran who spent a year training Haitian rookies as
part of a U.N. program involving cops from the United States, Canada,
France and other French-speaking countries.

André Fleury, who like Cethoute took a yearlong leave of absence to
go to Haiti, said he and other Haitian officers have been heartsick
with desire to help their native country. The program ended five
years ago.

"Haiti deserves a better chance," said Fleury, 44, who is assigned to
Patrol Borough Manhattan South. "A lot of us feel we did not have the
chance the last time to help out the way we should. Haiti doesn't
need a quick fix."

What Haiti needs, he said, is a long-term, well-funded police
training program run by competent, caring professionals- -- like some
of the approximately 300 Haitian-Americans in the NYPD.

At a news conference Friday, U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton said would
soon speak with Police Commissioner Ray Kelly- -- who served in Haiti
ten years ago and created the short-lived Haiti police training
program -- about how to set up a longer-lasting one that would
involve Haitian officers.

"I would like to see if there's a way they could volunteer again,"
Clinton said, speaking of the Haitian-Americans. "I think it's
important to do whatever we can to quickly stabilize Haiti."

Told of Clinton's remarks, Haitian-American officers were elated.

"I think it's an excellent idea," said Sgt. Hervé Guiteau, president
of the Haitian-American Law Enforcement Fraternal Organization,
HALEFO, a group of about 150 Haitian immigrants working as police
officers, correction officers and court officers.

HALEFO was formed in 1998 by the Haitian immigrants who had served as
trainers in Haiti. "Quite a few members have expressed an interest in
going and helping. I feel that in order for Haiti to get from here to
where it should be, the diaspora have to help in whatever way we
can," added Guiteau, a 20 year veteran, using the term for Haitians
living outside Haiti.

Guiteau said he was scheduled to go to Haiti in 1997 but his leave of
absence was cancelled after Abner Louima , a Haitian immigrant, was
tortured by white police officers at a Brooklyn precinct, increasing
racial tensions in the city.

Reflecting on his year as a police trainer in Haiti, Cethoute
recalled directing Haitian rookies as they intervened in numerous
instances of "street justice," in which people had to be stopped from
beating suspected thieves.

He recalled with special pride the actions of two Haitian-American
officers, who traveled in the dead of night by helicopter to the
remote island of Gonave, where they spent seven tense hours talking a
mob out of torching the local police station and killing the Haitian
cops stationed there. The crowd was angry because one of the Haitian
officers had shot and killed someone, in a shooting residents felt
was unjustified.

The Haitian-American officers -- who spoke French and Creole, the
languages of Haiti -- kept the peace until a squadron of Pakistani
soldiers arrived in the morning. None of the other international
police officers -- from France, Canada or French-speaking Africa --
had been willing to make the trip at night on such a dangerous
assignment, Cethoute said.

Many Haitian-American officers, like Fleury, developed a renewed
affection for their home country. Fleury has traveled there once or
twice a year since his time as a trainer, between April of 1997 and
April of 1998.

The Haitian-American police officers were granted leaves of absence
from the NYPD and, as UN employees, they were paid salaries roughly
equivalent to their city salaries, they said. Of the two dozen
Haitian-American officers, several were from other cities, including
Boston and Miami, the officers said.

Cethoute said his wife had been at first opposed his going to Haiti
as a trainer. "But we compromised," he said.

What did she get in return?

"She got to share her husband with Haiti and help in fulfilling a
dream that was a unique opportunity that doesn't come often in life."

Copyright © 2004, Newsday, Inc.
.