Louima speaks by phone to Oct. 22 rally


Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit

source: mnovick@laedu.lalc.k12.ca.us

Louima speaks via phone to rally against police brutality

Associated Press, 10/22/97 23:23 

NEW YORK (AP) - A Haitian immigrant whose charges of police abuse have
sparked demonstrations and investigations spoke Wednesday to a rally
against brutality while recuperating at home. 

Speaking by telephone from his living room, Abner Louima said: ``We are in
a war for our lives.'' 

Louima's cousin, speaking with him via a cell phone from a stage at City
Hall Park, passed on Louima's message to the cheers and applause of about
200 demonstrators dressed in black. 

``I know that the road to justice is long, but don't be discouraged,''
Louima said through his cousin, Samuel Nicolas. ``I want you to keep on
fighting until we win the war.'' 

Louima was released almost two weeks ago from the Brooklyn Hospital Center.
He had been there since an Aug. 9 attack in a Brooklyn police station,
where he says officers battered and sodomized him with a wooden stick,
rupturing his colon and bladder. 

Four officers have been charged in the alleged attack. 

Louima's allegations have become a rallying cry for those who say police
are abusive, particularly to minorities. It also has been an issue in the
mayoral campaign and the subject of protest marches. 

Louima's condition had improved since his hospital release but he still
must undergo a third operation in four weeks to repair his colon, his
lawyer said. 
 
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nytrc-10.23.97-10:49:56-31534