A decade ago, the Haitian community was coming into its own. But on a steamy August night, the eyes of the world turned on it as one of its sons, Abner Louima, was sodomized inside a police precinct station.
Today, the community, which rallied around Louima, is now struggling to move to the next level of acculturation and make sense of the often tense police relations with people, particularly young men.
For Louima, the experience was life changing and he moved to Florida shortly after settling a civil lawsuit for nearly $8 million. He dabbles in real estate and has invested in entertainment, promoting couple concerts a few years ago in Miami.
Louima, a father of three, said his experience has given him the opportunity to be at the forefront of police brutality, which continues, despite much improvement by the police department.
“There is a little bit of improvement,” Louima said in a telephone interview. “Before, police brutality used to be very isolated that no one talks about it. Now the media is more involved; there is more. Police will think twice before they do something.”
One tangible result was that the hiring of Creole-speaking Haitian-American officers in the force. Haitian-born or Creole-speaking officers are a staple of Brooklyn and Queens precinct, although the NYPD would not give the number of Haitian-American officers. There is a fraternal organization of Haitian officers.
“As a result to the incident the people in charge of Brooklyn think it was necessary to have the police know the Haitian community better,” said Sergeant Herve Guiteau, president of Haitian American Law Enforcement Fraternal Organization (HALEFO), in Brooklyn. “That’s one of the reasons I was hired at this office.”
Louima, who now lives in Florida, will take part at a rally Thursday at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) headquarters to commemorate the infamous incident.
“This rally symbolizes a lot for me. I’m still alive; I want to show people that I didn’t forget they rally for me. Now I’m able to work. I’ll continue to fight so that what happened to me will never happen to anybody,” he said.
The incident began on sweltering night on August 9, 1997. After working an evening shift as a security guard in a sewage treatment plant, Louima went to Le Rendezvous, a nightclub in Flatbush to listen to Phantoms. Mistaken for someone who had thrown a punch at a cop, Louima was arrested, booked and, with his pants pulled below his knees, walked in handcuffs across the 70th Precinct stationhouse. In the prisoners’ toilets, a broken broomstick was jammed up his rectum by Officer Justin Volpe while Louima was held by another officer.
At the hospital, the medical people first grasped the damage when Louima passed feces in his urine. He had three major surgeries to repair his torn colon and bladder. He nearly died from infection. He spent 64 days in the hospital.
Louima lay in a cell for hours before he was taken to Coney Island Hospital, where a Haitian nurse, Magali Laurent, repulsed by his conditions, called the NYPD, which tried to cover up the case until the bright light of the media uncovered broke the so-called blue wall of silence. Soon, officers began to talk.
A rookie, Eric Turetsky, was the first cop to come forward. He told prosecutors he saw Officer Charles Schwarz lead Louima into the bathroom. He said Justin Volpe brandished the stick “like a sword.”
After lengthy trials, Volpe and Schwarz were put behind bars and four other cops – Thomas Bruder, Thomas Wiese, Rolando Aleman and Francisco Rosario – pleaded guilty or were convicted. The patrol supervisor, Sgt. Michael Bellomo, was acquitted of lying.
Volpe will remain behind bars until 2025. Schwarz was released in May. The convictions of Bruder and Wiese were overturned, and both have filed suits to get their jobs back. Aleman and Rosario received probation.
In 2001, Louima got an $8.75 million settlement, through which he funds the education of Haitian children, said his attorney, Sanford Rubenstein.
“Because of what happens to Louima the 70 Precinct was trying to educate the community about the police,” said the Rev. Leslie Thomas, a community activist. “They make an effort to inform the community about what the police are doing. I think police are more cautious in dealing with community.”
But Rubenstein said things have not gone far enough.
“We sill have serious problem in the city that has to be addressed,” said Rubenstein, who is representing the family of Sean Bell, who was shot dead by the police several months ago. “One of the ways to address it is to have independent prosecutor, independent District Attorney (DA) locally to prosecute police. Local DA depends on the police to make their cases and they have to prosecute the police.”
