Justice for Max Antoine!
Tortured immigrant 'determined to keep fighting
By Greg
Butterfield
"I am completely collapsed, physically and financially,"
police brutality-victim Max Antoine told Workers World Aug. 16.
"But I am determined to keep fighting."
People all over the world have heard of Abner Louima, the
Haitian immigrant worker who was tortured by New York police in
the summer of 1996. But the case of Max Antoine, a Haitian
immigrant from Irvington, N.J., has received little attention
in the media.
Antoine, too, was tortured by racist cops in 1996. And while
Louima has won some small measure of justice with the
imprisonment of Police Officer Justin Volpe--after a worldwide
outcry and mass demonstra tions in New York--Antoine is still
being openly persecuted by the powers that be.
Thirty-year-old Antoine faces trumped-up felony
charges--while the cops who permanently disabled him three
years ago remain untouched. A grand jury refused to indict the
police and the U.S. Justice Department has rejected requests to
intervene.
A protest march is planned for Oct. 16 from the Irvington
police station to the Essex County Court House. The Justice for
Max Antoine Committee is asking supporters to pack the
courtroom Oct. 18, when Antoine's trial is scheduled to
begin.
Cop: `I will teach him American law'
On June 2, 1996, Max Antoine was celebrating his sister's
birthday at her apartment in Irvington, N.J. Three police
officers came and demanded that the music be turned down,
apparently after a neighbor complained about the noise.
The stereo was shut off. But 15 minutes later, the three
cops--Phillip Rucker, Alfredo Aleman and Keith Stouch--returned
and began to rough up the guests, mostly Haitian
immigrants.
Antoine, a paralegal who was studying to be a lawyer,
demanded the officers' names and badge numbers. He told the
other guests they should file complaints because the cops were
not allowed to act like Tonton Macoutes, the infamous
right-wing death squads in Haiti.
That's when the cops singled him out. According to
witnesses, they stomped on his head, beat him with a
nightstick, handcuffed him and dragged him out of the
apartment.
When Antoine's sister, Marie E., asked the cops "What are
you doing with my brother?", one of them answered: "I will
teach him American law."
The cops dragged Antoine down the stairs and shoved his head
through a storm door, breaking the glass. He was pushed
head-first into a squad car. Then his eyes were sprayed with
mace. He was locked in a holding cell for two days without
medical attention and without being allowed to make a phone
call.
One cop reportedly told Antoine: "Shut up and die like a
man."
When he was finally released, local paramedics refused to
take Antoine to the hospital in their ambulance.
Couldn't kill his fighting spirit
Today Max Antoine is confined to a wheelchair. He is
permanently paralyzed from the waist down. His left eye was
destroyed by mace and he is deaf in one ear. He suffers from
severe injuries to his bladder, bowels and head. He requires
constant medication for pain, visits doctors twice a day and is
cared for by a round-the-clock nurse.
Antoine has had 20 operations since the attack. His hospital
bills are over $650,000-- and still climbing. He, his wife and
their two children survive on a meager Social Security
disability check.
But the cops couldn't kill his fighting spirit.
"I've received support from the Haitian community, Latinos,
all communities, white and Black," Antoine explained. "Recently
I was reading a report from Amnesty International that said
2,000 people have been shot by the police nationwide since the
early 1990s. So this is a problem that affects everybody."
Despite the great personal hardship involved, Antoine has
become an activist, speaking at local and national
demonstrations against police brutality.
Calling the conduct of local officials "loathsome," Steve
Cooper of the Justice for Max Antoine Committee said, "What the
state of New Jersey proposes to do is not only deny
responsibility for the atrocity committed against Max, but
theoretically to put him in jail. It's like something out of
the 16th century.
"If Max is sent to prison, it will be a death sentence for
him," Cooper told WW.
Antoine told WW that prosecutors have offered to drop the
charges--but only if he signs a waiver sacrificing his right to
seek civil-rights damages. Antoine refuses.
"I have nothing to hide and am determined to continue," he
said.
A civil suit is pending. "I am seeking monetary reparations
and an injunction against the police," said Antoine. "My case
is just one of the many police beatings and killings. For the
last ten years that has been a pattern of police abuse in
Irvington."
Contributions are urgently needed to help pay for Max
Antoine's legal defense and health care. Send contributions to:
Max Antoine Justice and Defense Fund, P.O. Box 330, Rochelle
Park, NJ 07662. To get involved with the Justice for Max
Antoine Committee, readers can call (201) 487-3748 or email
Justice4Max@hotbot.com.
This article is copyright under a Creative Commons License.
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