#2968: Dorismond: New Haitian Coalition (fwd)

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From: K. M. Ives <kives@gateway.net>

Haitian Coalition for Justice, 1218 Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn, NY
11226

For immediate release
March 22, 2000
                                  Ernest Banatte: (718)284-0889
                                  Yvon Kernizan: (917) 425-6343

New Haitian Coalition Calls for Campaign to Immediately Oust Giuliani

Several long-standing Haitian organizations and activists of different
political tendencies have
come together to form the Haitian Coalition for Justice. The objective
of this coalition is to
strive to make Patrick Dorismond the last victim of racist police
terror in New York.

“I would like to see three million people in the streets on the day of
my son’s funeral,” André
Dorismond, Patrick’s father, said during a meeting with members of the
coalition. Patrick’s sister, Marie Andrée, added that people should
remain mobilized “so that what has happened to our family happens to
no other.”

As they warned the family, coalition members are warning the wider
community to beware of
certain charlatans in the Haitian community who in the case of Abner
Louima plotted with the
Giuliani administration to blunt popular protests.

The Haitian Coalition for Justice has launched a “RACHE MANYÓK”
campaign to force
Mayor Giuliani’s immediate removal from office. “Rache manyók” means
to pull out by the roots, in the Creole language. The coalition
believes that this campaign is imperative because Giuliani has created
an atmosphere of racial tension in the city and has given the NYPD a
green-light to terrorize Black, Latino, and other oppressed
communities.

The Coalition is calling for city-wide participation in the following
events:

Friday, March 24th from 5pm - 10pm
Vigil for Patrick Dorismond in front of the Torregrossa Funeral Home
at 2265 Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn, between Fillmore Avenue and
Avenue R.

Saturday, March 25th 9:30 am
Mass demonstration at the funeral of Patrick Dorismond in front of the
Holy Cross Church
located on Church Avenue between Rogers Avenue and Bedford Avenue. The
coffin of Patrick Dorismond will be carried by hand down Church Avenue
from Flatbush to Rogers.

Sunday, March 26th, 5pm-8pm
Large community meeting in the Parish Center of St. Francis Church
located at the corner of
Nostrand Avenue and Lincoln Road in Brooklyn.

                               -30-