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Writer's pictureHaitianbeatz

Recap of one of the Darkest Day in HMI History



By Haitianbeatz


One of the darkest moment in Compas history, took place almost 27 years ago in Brooklyn, at a local club where Haitian band Phantoms was performin.  While going through my file, I ran into this article that I wrote at the time: For the sake of historical flashback in the HMI, I share this article with you.


On a hot Summer night  of August 9, 1997, Phantoms had just finished performing their weekly gig inside Rendez-vous night club, located on Flatbush Ave. As I stepped outside the entrance of the club, I noticed a big commotion right in front of the club. It was a group of female arguing, which is a regular weekly ritual after almost every performance. But this usually led to nothing big. However, the tenants who live in the apartment above the club called the police. Several officers from the 70th Precinct arrived to the scene where Abner Louima and a few other men had been observing the back and forth, involving the two ladies, including myself. Police, supporters, and various people all became involved in the fight outside the club. Police officers Justin Volpe, Charles Schwarz, Thomas Bruder, and Thomas Wiese, and others responded to the scene. Abner Louima and his cousing were very close to the altercation when the police arrived. The officers were very aggressive and one of them, office Volpe ended up pushing one of the ladies. By that time Abner and his cousing started to walk towards their cars and away from the ongoing altercation. However they were both sttoppedand arrested. Volpe said that Louima had attacked him. Louima was charged with disorderly conductobstructing government administration, and resisting arrest. Later, Volpe admitted his accusation about Louima being his assailant was fabricated .


On the ride to the station, the arresting officers beat Louima with their fists, nightsticks, and hand-held police radios. On arriving at the station house, they had Louima strip-searched and put in a holding cell. The beating continued later, culminating with Louima being sexually assaulted in a bathroom at the 70th Precinct station house in Brooklyn. Volpe kicked Louima in the testicles, and while Louima's hands were cuffed behind his back, he first grabbed onto and squeezed his testicles and then sexually assaulted him with a broken broomstick. According to trial testimony, Volpe walked through the precinct holding the bloody, excrement-stained instrument in his hand, bragging to a police sergeant that he "took a man down tonight."


Photo of Louima taken after his beating used in the criminal trial, as Government Exhibit#82

Louima's teeth were also badly damaged in the attack when the broom handle was jammed into his mouth. He testified that a second officer in the bathroom helped Volpe in the assault but could not positively identify him. The identity of the second attacker became a point of serious contention during the trial and appeals. Louima also initially claimed that the officers involved in the attack called him a racial slur and shouted, "This is Giuliani-time" during the beating. Louima later recanted that claim. The reversal was used by police defense lawyers to cast doubt on the entirety of his testimony.


The day after the incident, police took Louima to the emergency department at Coney Island Hospital. Escorting officers explained away his serious injuries, saying they were the result of "abnormal homosexual activities." An Emergency Department (ED) nurse, Magalie Laurent, suspecting that Louima's extreme injuries were not the result of consensual sex, notified Louima's family and the Police Department's Internal Affairs Bureau of the likelihood that he had been sexually assaulted and beaten in custody.Louima suffered severe internal damage to his colon and bladder in the attack, which required three major operations to repair. He was hospitalized for two months after the incident.


Haitians took to the streets, and demonstrated and demanded justice . The marchn was organized by Haitian Enforcement Against Racism, a watchdog organizations of mostly students, during the early 90's. All the offiers were later found guilty of all charges.

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