Thousands protest N.Y. police torture

by Daniel Vila

This article was reprinted from the August 23, 1997, issue of the People's Weekly World. For subscription information see below. All rights reserved - may be used with PWW credits.

BROOKLYN, NY.- Chanting "Seven O, shut it down" and "KKK must go", 10,000 protestors, many waving toilet plungers, marched down Flatbush Avernue Aug. 16 to protest the torture of Abner Louima, a Haitian immigrant, by officers of the 70th Precinct..

Louima had a toilet plunger pushed up his rectum by a police officer in the precinct's lavatory while another policeman held him down. The cops then shoved the plunger covered with fecal matter into his mouth, breaking several teeth. Louima was so severely injured in the atrocious August 9 assault that he was listed in critical condition after surgery for a torn rectum and lacerated bladder.

Louima has said that while the cops were beating him they were shouting "This is Giuliani time, not Dinkins time" referring to Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and his African American predecessor, David Dinkins.

Sergeant Tony Miranda, from the Latino Officers Association, recently told a radio interviewer, "Giuliani has encouraged aggressive behavior of police officers and now many feel they have a carte blanche."

The August 16 protest, organized by a coalition of Haitian organizations, started with a rally in front of the Club Rendez-Vous restaurant where the assault on Louima began. The protestors then marched to the 70th Precinct where a cousin of Louima's told the crowd that she and her family had "come to this country in search of justice, and this is what we found. Shame on you," she added, pointing to police headquarters.

Other speakers pointed out that Giuliani gave the go ahead to police violence at a rally in front of City Hall in 1992 during his campaign for mayor. It turned into a "police riot" with Giuliani denouncing the creation of an independent Civilian Complaint Review Board. Police at that rally hurled racial slurs against Dinkins and pummeled African American city council members.

Ray Laforest from the Disney/Haiti Justice Campaign and Roger Leduc from Haitian Mobilization both told this reporter the vicious police assault underscores the need for a truly independent Civiian Review Board with the power to subpoena witnesses. Leduc proposed eliminating the 48-hour rule which allows criminal cops to remain silent for two days when accused of improper conduct. But he emphasized that the most important thing is for communities to become vigilant of the police.

Police arrived at the Rendez-Vous restaurant about 4:30 AM Aug. 9 to intervene in an argument between two women. Police claim that Louima, a security guard, assaulted an officer. But a young man who witnessed the incident told this reporter that there was no fighting until officer Justin Volpe arrived and began pushing and hitting people. Then a scuffle broke out in which Louima was arrested.

Louima was handcuffed and driven to a deserted stretch of Nostrand Ave. where four officers took turns beating him. They were identified by Brooklyn District Attorney Charles J. Hynes as officers Volpe, Charles Schwarz, Thomas Wiese, and Thomas Bruder, all white.

Louima was then driven to the 70th Precinct where police officers stripped him from the waist down. Officer Schwarz led him into the precinct bathroom and held him while officer Volpe assaulted him with the plunger.

Charges have since been dropped against Louima, and both Volpe and Schwarz were arrested and charged with aggravated sexual abuse and first degree assault. Since then, seventeen officers at the 70th Precinct have been either arrested or suspended in the case.

The Louima family has filed a $55 million lawsuit charging the City of New York with "negligence." Volpe is free on a $100,000 bail. In 1995 a complaint was filed against him for punching, kicking and cursing. But a police internal review found the charges "unsubstantiated."

Schwarz was suspended in 1992 for punching a man in the face while off-duty during the St. Patrick's Day Parade. He has been accused in three complaints of excessive force, cursing and using ethnic slurs. Officers Bruder and Wiese, who had been cooperating in the investigation were arrested Monday August 18 on charges of "aggravated assault" for beating Louima on the way to the station.

Inspector Jeremiah Queenland and Captain William F. Walsh, have been transferred to another location. Many of the protesters felt that their transfer was an attempt to protect them and cover up their responsibility. The same Precinct 70 lavatory was the scene of a shooting in 1993 that killed Danny Cook after he supposedly took an officer's gun and wounded two cops. Police have alleged that Cook committed suicide.

The block where the Rendez-Vous Restaurant is located was the scene of a fight between cops and funeral mourners two weeks ago. For two hours the cops let people who were mourning a slain taxi driver double park, then suddenly began putting parking tickets on their cars.

In the last five years, the New York Civiian Complaint Review Board has received 20,000 complaints of police abuse. Incredibly, only one officer has been dismissed as a result of those complaints.

At an August 17 rally in front of the 70th Precinct, Michael Greys of One Hundred Black Men in Law Enforcement, demanded that the officers who tortured Louima be charged with attempted murder since Louima was left bleeding for more than hour and a half before he was taken to a hospital. With Police Commissioner Howard Safir standing stony- faced during a news conference, U.S. Attorney Zachary W. Carter called the attack on Louima "an act of almost incomprehensible depravity." He said the boldness of the assault and the large number of officers implicated, "suggest a mindset that they could possibly get away with this extraordinarily heinous offense," he said, adding: "There might be some reason for them to suspect they could get away with it."