Riots erupt after New York's police kill a third unarmed black man in 13 months
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Your support makes all the difference.Violence erupted at the funeral of Patrick Dorismond, a Haitian immigrant, in New York at the weekend, leaving 23 police officers and five civilians injured and 27 people in custody.
Dorismond, 26, was shot dead on 16 March by plain-clothes police who suspected him of drug dealing. He was unarmed, and his death reignited the smouldering resentment felt by New York's blacks at what many see as overzealous policing sanctioned by the Republican mayor, Rudolph Giuliani.
Several thousand people had processed to the church in the heart of the Caribbean section of Brooklyn for Dorismond's funeral on Saturday afternoon. Led by the black activist, Rev Al Sharpton, they carried placards demanding "justice for Patrick" and chanted calls for the resignation of Mr Giuliani. On the fringes, the calls were more violent, threatening death to the mayor and his family.
As the procession wound towards the church, protesters grabbed the American flag that was draped, along with a Haitian flag, over the coffin, tore it to pieces and burned it. Then a section of the crowd pushed through barricades towards police lines, throwing stones and bottles. Some reports said the violence was triggered when Dorismond's mother, Marie, collapsed in convulsions.
Dorismond was the third unarmed black man to be shot dead by New York police in 13 months. He was killed in a scuffle with police outside a bar in Manhattan. According to eyewitnesses, a plain-clothes officer had asked him for marijuana. When Dorismond, who worked as a security guard and had two children, refused, a fight broke out and the officer summoned reinforcements. A gun went off, killing Dorismond.
His death came just weeks after the acquittal of four officers accused in the fatal shooting of Amadou Diallo, another unarmed black immigrant, and the furore was compounded when Mr Giuliani released details of Dorismond's criminal record, apparently to show that police suspicions were justified.
The events have propelled policing to the centre of Hillary Clinton's campaign to become the next Senator for the state - to her advantage, according to polls released yesterday which show that she now leads Mr Giuliani, her likely opponent, by three points.
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