What happened:
Patrick Dorismond has finished three to eleven security guard shift for the night and decided to go with his friend to the local bar for a drink. After this the time is about 12:30 and so Dorismond decided to call a cab home. Although At this point he is all alone and so an undercover cop approaches. The cop is following his job by asking for drugs and then choosing to arrest if he relieves a unlawful answer. Although Dorismond has no drugs on him he still finds this very insulting and starts to argue with the police officer. The arguing goes on until the undercover cop gets sick of it and throws a punch. At this point the two are now in a fist fight. The fight goes on and his two cop friends come to his aid the one in the fight yells “get to gun”. And while one cop ignores this the other (Vasquez) pulls out a gun and shoots Dorismond in the chest killing him. All of this went down at the Wakamba Cocktail Lounge, on Eighth Avenue. And the hole time Dorismond had no clue they were cops.
Background:
Patrick Dorismond had been a security guard for quite some time but had wanted to stretch his career and join the police force. On the other hand Vasquez had been a police man for quite some time but hadn’t been a good one. For example one night when he was off guard on February 1997 he had drawn his gun at a bar fight.
Protests:
It hadn’t been the first time that a racist death like this one has occurred. And therefore the community was getting fed up with it. An eruption of protests strung out with the biggest one being at his funeral. During the funeral there were about one thousand protesters. As they brought out the casket they all song the haitian national anthem. Signs were held up and banners were held up saying like, “justice for Patrick Dorismond” and after the funeral ended another two thousand joined for the protest making a total of three thousand. Unfortunately the protests begun to get out of hand although after so many racist kills who can blame them?
Result:
The case was taken to court and as a result the police had to pay the victims family 2.25 million $ for the death of Patrick Dorismond. Although besides that not much change was created. No rules were changed. No big speeches were made by the police department. And it didn’t stop the flow of racism within the police force. So in the end his death only further fueled the hatred.