[Author’s Name]
[Institution’s Name]
Essay on Abner Louima
Introduction
New York City and its police union have reached a tentative agreement to pay $8.6 million to Abner Louima, the Haitian immigrant who was tortured by a white police officer in a Brooklyn precinct bathroom in 1997. Mr. Louima clearly deserves financial compensation for an unspeakable act of brutality. But his agony also requires another response: a firm commitment by the city to pursue recent reforms designed to improve the way the police treats the city's minorities. These reforms are the most important civic legacy of Mr. Louima's suffering.
Mr. Louima was brutalized by Justin Volpe, the policeman sentenced to 30 years in prison for ramming a stick into Mr. Louima's rectum. One other officer was convicted of holding Mr. Louima down, and four others were convicted for covering up the illegal and inhuman act.
The Louima case always carried with it unrealistic hopes that it could expose the truth about racism in New York, police brutality and the law enforcement brotherhood that critics say fosters a blue wall of silence.
When word hit the streets, tens of thousands of people were electric with anger--New York rocked on the precipice of rebellion. The rulers scurried to contain things. Even the infamous police-brutality mayor Giuliani acted outraged though he, and others in the power structure, tried to minimize this atrocity calling it an "aberration" by "a few bad apples." Commissions were formed, reforms were announced and cops were arrested. The authorities wanted to regain control of a situation that was getting dangerously out of their control. In the face of mass outrage the government moved to restore faith in their system.
The Brutal Arrest
Abner Louima was arrested in front of the Rendez-Vous Club in Flatbush, Brooklyn late one night--when police arrived in force to break up a fight outside the club....
