Haitian workers have been at the center of the largest protests, demanding justice in the death of Marc Dorvil. The killing and the police cover-up and slander against Dorvil led to a June 2 rally of 1,000 initiated by Haitian-American rights organization Veye Yo. A June 23 funeral of some 500 people for Dorvil--who died while in custody of North Bay Village police--became the second mass protest demanding the truth and that action be taken against the cops responsible for Dorvil's death.

Dorvil, a carpenter at the Friedman Brothers plant in nearby Medley, and a part-time minister, was involved in a minor traffic accident May 14. The police claim it took eight of them to subdue Dorvil, who they hog-tied and placed face down in the back of a patrol car. The Miami Herald repeated the cops' story as fact, stating Dorvil "banged his head against the window" of the patrol car and that he was having a "cocaine fit." An ambulance was called to treat the police but Dorvil was left unattended in the back of the police car.

The medical examiner's report confirmed there were no drugs in his system, something Dorvil's friends had insisted on. But the report then rejected charges of police wrongdoing by claiming Dorvil suffered from a "rare brain chemical malady" that caused his behavior to resemble that of violent reaction to cocaine and that he died of "acute exhaustive mania."

The June 23 funeral brought together workers and others angered by the killing and the cops' refusal to provide information on Dorvil's death. Souvenie Hilasse was one of four sewing machine operators from the Goodwill Industries plant to attend the funeral. She has been paying attention to the many police shootings here and pointed out, "Every time the police kill people they don't go to jail, so they keep on doing it. To get justice we must do everything we can--petitions, demonstrations, and phone calls."

Ynecesse Belhomme worked as a machine operator at the same factory as Dorvil and came to the funeral to express his support for the family and anger at the cops' "brutality and discrimination. It could happen to anybody," he said. "Black, white, woman, or man. If there are not more demonstrations this will only get worse." Belhomme said that he could have just as easily been killed by the police because the cops stopped the van he was driving several weeks earlier, telling him that "this car costs too much for someone like you," and then grabbed him by the throat and threw him into the back of their patrol car. He had to prove to the cops that the van was not stolen before they would release him.

At times during the funeral ceremony members of the audience would shout out "Justice!" "Justice for Marc Dorvil!" and "Racist police!" Speakers at the funeral included several members of Dorvil's family, a wide range of ministers in Miami, elected officials, and activists in the fight against police brutality.  
 
Shoot first, ask questions later
Two other police shootings have broken into the news in the month since the killing of Marc Dorvil. In each case the police blatantly asserted their authority to shoot first and ask questions later.

On June 6 a Miami police officer killed Richard Beatty, a homeless Vietnam veteran, in a 17-shot burst of fire. City homicide detectives refuse to make the cop's name public, but he was part of what the Miami Herald described as a "parade of police" following Beatty, who they claim had threatened an all-night cafeteria worker with a pocketknife.

The police followed Beatty for nearly a mile, tried to surround him with patrol cars, and then hit him with a face full of pepper spray before gunning him down. Miami police public information officer Lt. William Schwartz defended the killing, claiming that "the officers used incredible restraint" in handling Beatty and his pocketknife.

On June 17 North Miami Beach police officer Dennis Fogelgren shot and killed wheelchair-bound Alphaeus Dailey with eight rounds in the back. The cops immediately labeled Dailey, 30, a "career criminal" and released extensive details about his arrest record and claimed that the gun they found in the area was his. In contrast, Fogelgren was reported as having a favorable record, leading all street patrol officers last year with 571 citations and 149 arrests, about three times the average for his shift.

More than 100 people turned out the next day to question the cops at a meeting at the Washington Park Community Center near where Dailey lived and was killed. When North Miami Beach police chief William Berger called for quiet, then-Miami NAACP president Victor Curry responded: "The powers-that-be take the lives" of African-American men "then tell us to calm down. Tell the police officers to calm down."

Miami police chief Raul Martinez announced to Black rights and community activists June 19 that the investigation into the April 30 police shooting of 18-year-old Nicholas Singleton had been completed. But he released no details and said it was now up to the state attorney's office to decide whether any of the three cops involved in the shooting will be prosecuted.

Singleton was killed by a bullet to the back of the head as he was chased by police for allegedly stealing a car. Despite initial police reports that he and others with him had fired shots, no weapon was found. Instead, searches of the neighborhood turned up 19 spent shells from police handguns and tests showed that Singleton did not have gunpowder residue on his hands.  
 
Frame-up unravels
The case of Jerry Townsend, however, has provided some of the most damning evidence of police lies, coercion, and cover-up. Townsend, 49 and mentally disabled, was released from prison last month nearly 22 years after being sentenced to life without parole for seven murder and rape convictions. When DNA test results on April 27 showed that he could not have committed two of the murders the other convictions unraveled rapidly.

At the heart of the police and prosecutor's frame-up of Townsend were the series of confessions forced out of the mentally disabled man. All but one of the seven convictions were based solely on his confessions. Richard Ofshe, an independent analyst of police interrogations, said, "What emerges is as horrible an example of victimization of somebody who is handicapped as I have ever seen."

A Miami Herald review of Townsend's cases showed that the police detectives fed him information, corrected his "mistakes," and showed him crime-scene photos to influence his confessions. At one point in the taped confession, a detective asked Townsend how he had killed a young woman who had been strangled with her brassiere. The reply: "a little thin wire." In response the detective said, "I think you're getting a little confused," and turned off the recorder. When the tape comes back on Townsend says, "I choke her with her own bra." The independent analyst Ofshe concluded that the cops' "conduct is immoral and unconscionable."
 
 
Related article:
Cleveland rally condemns shooting by cop  
 
 
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