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![handle is hein.journals/jlawp7 and id is 117 raw text is: Deborah Small*
Good afternoon. It's been a while since I've been in a law
school environment, and the first thing that hit me is the serious-
ness on everyone's faces when they came into the room. At first,
I chalked it up to the fact that I'm in a law school environment.
Then I thought about the fact that it is appropriate that be so,
because it is a serious topic that we are talking about today.
I want to tell you about how it was when I first came to be on
the Abner Louima case.1 Last Summer I had the good fortune of
being able to travel with a group of African-Americans to South
Africa to attend a conference. While I was there I had the privilege
of being able to attend some of the hearings of the Truth and
Reconciliation Commission.2 The hearings that I attended were in
* Practicing attorney in New York; former Legislative Director, New York
Civil Liberties Union.
' On August 9, 1997, Louima was arrested by New York City police officers
following a scuffle outside a nightclub in Brooklyn. Dan Barry, Charges of
Brutality: The Overview; Officer Charged in Man's Torture at Station House,
N.Y. TIMES, Aug. 14, 1997, at Al. Louima alleges that, following his arrest,
police officers from the NYPD's 70th precinct attacked him in the station house.
Id. Among Louima's most publicized accusations was that the accused officers
had sodomized him with the wooden handle of a toilet plunger. See David
Kocieniewski, Injured Man Says Brooklyn Officers Tortured Him in Custody,
N.Y. TIMES, Aug. 13, 1997, at BI (describing Abner Louima's allegations of
police brutality while he was in the custody of officers at the 70th Precinct). Five
New York City police officers have been charged by the U.S. Attorney's Office
for the Eastern District of New York for their roles in the alleged assault. Henri
E. Cauvin, Rally for Louima, DAILY NEWS (New York), Aug. 10, 1998, at 18.
2 The Truth and ReconciliationCommission (TRC) is a government body
that has been delving into human-rights abuses of the apartheid era of racial
separation. Dean E. Murphy, U.S. Reportedly Encouraged Chemical Arms in
South Africa, BUFFALO NEWS, Aug. 1, 1998, at A5. The TRC's efforts were
intended to foster racial harmony by exposing the crimes committed by both
whites and blacks during the apartheid era. Id. For two and a half years the
TRC held nationwide hearings on human rights abuses during the apartheid era;
confessions, accusations and testimonies [that were included in a] comprehensive
report. Charlayne Hunter-Gault & Brooke Gladstone, Weekend Edition. South](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/jlawp7&div=14&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)