One year after police fatally shot Georgy Louisgene, his family and activists continue to demand justice. On the freezing night of Jan. 16, they lit candles at the place in the Vanderveer housing development where the 23-year-old was shot six times.

Still grieving and angry about their loss, police brutality, and the city’s ruling in the criminal portion of the case, Louisgene’s family urged others to protest because the next victim could be their loved ones.

“If they’re killing in our back yard today, tomorrow it could be your son,” Abellard Louisgene, the victim’s older sister, shouted into a megaphone to passersby. “We need justice here.”

In June, the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office concluded its investigation, finding that the shooting was justified. The family has filed a civil lawsuit.

Police relations

The city reports that the crime rate is down and the New York Police Department is continuing its efforts to interact more positively with all communities. But some residents are not pleased with the job they’re doing.

During the past year, thousands experienced problems with officers of the police department, according to the Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB). Police misconduct continues to proliferate in the Haitian community, according to the CCRB.

Raymond Patterson, of the CCRB, said the number one category of police misconduct was “abuse of authority.” That means the police officer allegedly “threatened or somehow caused a problem for the civilian.”

“Just by looking at the numbers, it [police misconduct] appeared to have increased,” Patterson said.

Civilians filed 4,339 complaints last year, compared with 4.251 filed in 2001. In 2000, 4,097 reports were filed.

A study by the board found that blacks were more likely to be stopped and frisked than any other racial group. Wile whites were stopped usually because they were in “high crime” areas, the CCRB found that officers sopped blacks and Latinos because they noticed a “bulge” or saw the person shift his or her waistband.

“These are just complaints that were filed,” Patterson said. “This is no indication that the police officers involved were guilty.”

During the first days of 2003, police fatally shot several people, reviving ire against the police. One person who had a bad experience with the NYPD was Louineau Louisjuste, a Queens man. Hesitant to tell his story for fear it might damage his case, Louisjuste’s wife Mari “Mamoun” Louisjuste spoke on record.

She said that the police mistreated her husband. One officer put a gun inside her husband’s nose, causing it to bleed, and the booking officer at the 105th Precinct called an ambulance to take him to a hospital, Mrs. Louisjuste said. He has since hired a lawyer and is undergoing therapy for his injuries.

“What happened to my husband can happen to anybody in the street,” she said. “We’re not involved in anything, we’re not in people’s business, and I don’t see why this happened. Now, if I see a police [officer] passing by, I almost have diarrhea.”

Sanford Rubenstein, whose firm is representing Louisjuste., said, “What happened to him should not have happened.”

Patterson said about 50 percent of the cases filed are closed because the complainant does not pursue the claim. Less than 10 percent of the police officers accused face disciplinary action on claim filed with the CCRB.

“The fact of the matter is, you have to have proof,” Patterson said. “It’s hard to prove that [misconduct occurred] because it’s one on one.”

Police officials said they are trying to improve relations with the various communities in the city.

“It’s always a work in progress,” said Lt. James Woods of Patrol Area Brooklyn South Community Affairs, which covers the parts of Brooklyn with the most Haitians. “We really have to have increase communication between the community and the department.”

But for families such as the Louisgenes, the hurt and anger is still raw. At the spot on Foster Avenue where Louisgene was shot, friends and activists chanted reggae songs and used burned pieces of paper to keep warm in the freezing weather.

Not only did they chant the classic “No justice, no peace,” they also shouted, “We will never forget, we will never forgive.”