26736: Hermantin(News)Demonstrators protest against what they say is unfair treatment o (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

FORT LAUDERDALE

Sun-Sentinel

Demonstrators protest against what they say is unfair treatment of Haitian 
residents



By Jean-Paul Renaud
Staff Writer

November 27, 2005



FORT LAUDERDALE -- A large crowd gathered in front of the offices of one of 
this county's most prominent landlords Saturday afternoon -- holding signs and 
chanting for justice -- after the State Attorney's Office chose not to charge 
him with a hate crime.

About 100 people lined both sides of Northeast 13th Street Saturday directly in 
front of Cooper Properties, holding signs that read, "Cooper to Jail" and 
bellowing chants into a microphone.

"What do we want?" Fred St. Amand Sr. asked the crowd.

"Justice!" demonstrators answered.

"Today is the beginning of new things to come," St. Amand later said. "You're 
dealing with better-educated Haitian-American people who know their rights, and 
we are not going to permit people like Mr. Cooper to keep doing business. We 
are committed."

In October, Caldwell Cooper was accused of pepper-spraying a crowd of Haitian 
residents -- including an 11-month-old baby -- as they gathered for a wake at 
one of his rental properties in Fort Lauderdale. Those in the crowd said 
Cooper, son of businessman Gerald Cooper, also screamed out racial insults as 
he tried to disperse mourners.

The Fort Lauderdale Police Department said it would investigate the matter as a 
hate crime. But the State Attorney's Office said earlier this month that it 
would charge Cooper with four misdemeanor counts of battery, but not the hate 
crime the Haitian community hoped for.

"If I did something wrong, I would go to jail for sure," said Elverce Georges, 
whose family had gathered to mourn his father's death last month. "I want to 
know whether Cooper didn't go to jail because he's white, or because he has 
money."

Neither the State Attorney's Office nor Cooper could be reached for comment 
Saturday.

In October, Cooper told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel he was defending himself 
when he fired his pepper spray.

Cooper didn't know the crowd of about seven people was gathered for a funeral, 
he said, and approached them merely to ask if they could move their chairs so 
that a crew could mow the lawn.

Instead, Cooper said the crowd backed him in and threatened to beat him up.

"Because they're Haitian and I'm white, they want to make it into a racial 
situation," Cooper said last month. "It has nothing to do with that. It has to 
do with we're the landlord, they're the tenant."

Demonstrators, who came from Broward and Miami-Dade counties, said this is not 
the last time they will visit Cooper Properties.

"We're not going to stop," Georges said. "This is the beginning. Next time, 
that whole street will be blocked."

Jean-Paul Renaud can be reached at jprenaud@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4556.


Copyright © 2005, South Florida Sun-Sentinel