Cop gets off in Dorismon killing
By Heather Cottin
New York
Almost three years to the day after New York City Detective
Anthony Vasquez shot unarmed security guard Patrick Dorismond
to death, the office of the U.S. Attorney, the FBI and the
Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department have concluded
that the killing was not even a violation of Dorismond's civil
rights.
Dorismond, who had been sitting in a midtown bar, had
angrily rejected an offer to sell him drugs by the undercover
narcotics cop, who then shot and killed him.
Dorismond's shooting followed a spate of police killings in
Black communities here. In October 1999, undercover narcotics
police in the Bronx had fired 41 bullets at an unarmed African
immigrant, Amadou Diallo, while he was merely standing in the
entry of his building. The cops who killed him went free. On
March 1, 2000, cops in the Bronx shot to death an unarmed
youth, Malcolm Ferguson, just days after he participated in a
protest over Diallo's murder.
New York cops were on a murder spree.
When Vasquez shot Dorismond on March 16, 2000, Mayor Rudy
Giuliani expressed no sympathy to the family. He instead
maligned the victim by releasing his sealed juvenile arrest
record. The Haitian community expressed outrage at this murder
and character assassination.
In a city where racist cops continue to terrorize the Black
community, Muriel Goode-Trufant of New York's special fed eral
litigation division called Doris mond's death an "accident."
The city agreed to pay Dorismond's family $2.25 million to
settle a lawsuit. This was an indication, said the family's
lawyer, Derek Sells, that "the city believes there was some
wrongdoing." He added, "There's no amount of money that can
replace Patrick."
Meanwhile, the detective who shot Dorismond is armed,
dangerous and, like all the other killer cops, back on the
streets of New York.
Reprinted from the April 3, 2003, issue of
Workers World newspaper
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