a501: Haitian Community to Protest Police Slaying (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. E s s e r <mabouye@escape.com>

Haitian Community to Protest Police Slaying of Another Haitian Man

Haitian community groups have called for mass demonstrations this
coming weekend to protest the Jan. 16 fatal shooting of a 23-year-old
Haitian man, Georgy Louisgene, in Brooklyn by New York City police
officers.

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

On Friday, Feb. 1, from 7 p.m. - 10 p.m., a coalition of Haitian
community groups and individuals will hold a demonstration in front
of the Marine Park Funeral Home at 3024 Quentin Road, in Brooklyn,
where the Louisgene's wake will be held.

On Saturday, Feb. 2 at 9 a.m., there will also be a rally in front of
the St. Jerome Church, at the corner of Newkirk and Nostrand Avenues
in Brooklyn, where the funeral will be held.

The groups are demanding that 1) the two cops who killed Louisgene be
removed from the force and tried; 2) the NYPD stop the killing and
acts of brutality against young Haitian men and against other
minorities and working people; and 3) that Mayor Michael Bloomberg
publicly condemn the killing.

"This is just one more case of another young Haitian being gunned
down because of the color of his skin," said Jacques Noisette,
president of the Alliance of Haitian Emigrés. "Although the big media
and the police have tried to portray Georgy Louisgene as crazy, this
was not the case and there was absolutely no justification for his
murder in cold blood."

Witnesses say that although Louisgene held a knife and hook to
protect himself from the gang that beat him, he was no danger to the
cops or to anyone else.

"The cops did not have to shoot him," said Janet McQuillar, in whose
third floor apartment at 3105 Foster Avenue Louisgene had briefly
taken refuge.

The coalition of community groups and individuals organizing the
actions includes the Alliance for Haitian Emigrés, the Haiti Support
Network, and Haïti Progrès newspaper.

Contact:

Jacques Noisette, Alliance of Haitian Emigrés, 718-493-0022

Ray Laforest, Haiti Support Network, 212-219-0022 x.113