#2992: Marchers Protest Police Shooting---Clashed With Police (fwd)

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From:nozier@tradewind.net

Marchers Protest Police Shooting ___  By Lukas I. Alpert
Associated Press Writer Saturday, March 25, 2000; 2:54 p.m. EST

NEW YORK –– A crowd of angry protesters threw bottles and briefly      
clashed with police Saturday during a funeral procession for the latest
unarmed black man killed by New York officers, this time a Haitian  
immigrant who rebuffed an undercover officer's request for drugs.      
The disturbance came after a miles-long procession of protesters and    
mourners followed a hearse carrying the body of 26-year-old Patrick  
Dorismond, who was shot to death March 16. It's our blood, it's not
cheap. We must let them know this must stop,"said Michel Eddy, a
26-year-old Haitian immigrant. As car horns blared loudly, protesters
chanted and knocked down police barricades. Many demanded the mayor's
resignation over the killing – the third of an unarmed black civilian by
undercover officers in the city in the past 13 months. Two police
officers were injured, one suffering a possible broken nose when
barriers and people crushed him. Police did not have an immediate count
of how many people had been arrested.  A car driving the wrong way on
the street was plastered with banners, including one that read: "If you
shoot one of my children, I  shoot five of you," and others threatening
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's family. A man walking through a crush of people
shouted: "Rudy, I'll blow you up to kingdom come, cut you with a chain
saw, and feed you to the dogs!" Another protester's sign named others
caught up in police-linked violence: "Diallo, Louima, Baez, Bumpers,
enough." Phone calls to Giuliani's office Saturday were not immediately
 returned.  Dorismond, a security guard and the son of Haitian singer
Andre Dorismond, was shot after an officer conducting a drug sting      
allegedly asked Dorismond if he would sell him marijuana. The two 
scuffled, backup officers arrived and one officer's gun went off,   
killing Dorismond. The shooting happened just two weeks after another
undercover officer fatally shot an unarmed man in the Bronx near where
unarmed immigrant Amadou Diallo was shot and killed in hail of 41 police
 bullets last year. The four officers in the Diallo case were acquitted
last month.  As Dorismond's coffin was brought out of the funeral home
draped in Haitian and American flags Saturday morning, what had started
as a quiet family gathering grew into a loud protest march of at least
3,000 people. The Rev. Al Sharpton headed the procession from the
funeral home to a church mass with supporters hoisting a banner that
read "Justice for Patrick."  At the entrance to Holy Cross Roman
Catholic Church, a few  protesters surged forward and snatched the U.S.
flag off Dorismond's coffin, tore it to shreds, then set the pieces on
fire.  Cathy Dumont, 26, a Haitian-born Brooklyn resident, compared
 Haiti's decades of military rule with America's democracy.         
"Mrs. Dorismond took her son out of a military regime and brought      
him here because she thought it would be better and safer, but        
Giuliani and the way he's empowered the police have proved her       
wrong," she said.  Giuliani had been criticized since the shooting for
releasing information from Dorismond's police record, including sealed
 juvenile files, and for not visiting Dorismond's family.  At
Dorismond's wake Friday evening, thousands paid their respects as sobs
drifted through the largely Haitian crowd of family, friends           
and supporters. One mourner, Blaise Lambre, described Dorismond as "a
person who just enjoyed life," and he blamed Giuliani for failing to
show sympathy for the family. "I'm angry at the fact that he died,"
Lambre said. "It was wrong. To me, it's murder, simple as that."