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VOLUME 19 NUMBER 948
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demonstrations outside the Holy Cross Roman Cathelic Church
after the funerol services for police shooting vietim Patrick
Deorismond ended, Saturday, March 25, 200’. Police formed o
human borricade against the surging crowd and used their
batons 1o knock back flying glass as they made arrests. (AP Photo
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Haitian activist: Funera
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violence a warning signa
By MICHAEL NORTOM
A » feel } Wil
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti
I'he rift between New York City's black community and its police force
15 widening dangerously, a Haitian human rights activist said Monday
after violence broke out at the New York funeral of Haitian-American
Patrick Donsmond
“Ihe Umited States 18 supposed to be a human rights model, and now
it 1% setting a bad example. Frustration against racism 1s growing, and
the situation can degenerate,” said Pierre Esperance, director in Haiti
- of the National Coalition for Haitian Rights
New York police officers shot and killed Dorismond, the son of
e wned Hutian singer Andre Dorismond, during a scuffle outside a
} har on March 16. Dorismond was unarmed
On . , following a funeral service for Dorismond in Brooklyn,
pohice clashea with bottle-throwing mourners at a protest march, Twenty
three officers were ijjured and 27 civilians arrested, Those arrested were
arraigned Sunday and most were released on their own recognizance
New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani blamed marchers for the vio-
See CLASH, page 2A
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City gets nowhere on minority loan fund
No meetings, no progress ~ 3A
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BL’s Country Kitchen
Good Food, Good Company ~ 1B
11 ( B & ¢ e FLBEE &
Serving Metropolitan = Augusta, South Carolina and the Central Savannah River Area
MARCH 30 - APRIL 5, 2000
NAACP wants state flag
lowered at Sheraton
®Hotel faces S.C.-style
boycott unless flag which
includes confederate emblem
is lowered. Sheraton spokes
man says, African-American
employees don’t complain.
By Eileen Rivers
AUGUSTA FOCUS Staff Wniter
AUGUSTA
The Augusta NAACP is prepared to begin
economic sanctions against the Sheraton
Augusta Hotel, located on Perimeter Park
wav Fhot~lmanagegent “does r 4 nromptly
remove the Georgia flag” flying above its
grounds
“This flag 1s a slap in the face of democ
racy, and obviously is not a symbol for all of
Georgia,” Alexander Smith, president of the
Augusta NAACP, said. “It s a direct insult
to black people . it serves as a banner flown
by those who believe in racial supremacy
and slavery.”
More than 225 NAACP members are will
ing to take action against the hotel, and any
other restaurant or public place, flying the
flag on its grounds, and encourage all Afri
can Americans in and around the local area
to do the same, Smith said.
The Sheraton has consistently flown the
flag for the past 10 years —— despite com
plaints lodged against the hotel requesting
that management remove it
“The present Georgia flag ... 1s a divisive
symbol which is grossly offensive and insult
ing to African Americans,” Rep. Tyrone
Brooks (D-Atlanta), and presidentof GABEO
(Georgia Association of Black Elected Offi
cials) wrote to former Sheraton Hotel man
ager, David Jones. “We hope that you will
join us in condemning the ideology of this
confederate symbol by removing the Geor
gia flag from display at your hotel.”
Jones, who is the current general man
ager at the Partridge Inn, did not respond to
‘ the letter, stating that Brooks was never a
client at his hotel, and that none of his
employees, the majority of whom were Afri
can American, ever complained about the
flag.
A-NIC member complains:
Contract designed for failure
#Feeling hamstrung by a
“tight” contract, A-NIC board
members seek release of addi
tional SIOO,OOO from the city
for administrative costs.
By Timotty Cox
AUGUSTA FOCUS Sass Writer :
WSS R
Some members of the Augusta Neighbor
hood Improvement Corpoeration (A-NIC)
strongly believe the city of Augusta would
rather their efforts to rebuild inner city Au
gusts collapne, insteid of boooming i sucoess
Some A-NIC membors think one way of guar
anteving failure ok plisce 1 the developuient
of # contraet betwosn ANIC and the city of
Augusta — acting through its Housing and
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“I believe that I had open lines of communi
cation with my employees, and that they
would have come to me and said something
about the flag if it bothered them,” he said.
“This letter came from a person that I don’t
ever recall staying at my hotel, so I didn’t do
anything about it. But I did send the letter to
the regional and corporate offices.”
Brooks wrote the letter after traveling
through Augusta on a business trip in 1994;
however, no one at the corporate or regional
offices ever received it.
“This office has never heard about that
complaint,” Peter Aberhof, executive vice
president and chief operations officer for In
terstate Management and Investment Cor
poration, regional owner of the Augusta
Sheraton, said. “I've been working here for
the past 10 years and it is customary to fly
Neighborhood Development department.
In a contract, which was agreed upon last
December, A-NIC believes the city has unfairly
tightened its grip on A-NIC, by curtailing the
amount of up-front funding allocated to A-NIC.
In typical instances, state and federal contracts
usually allow as much as 20 percent of the total
contract amount to be released to the recipient,
according to sources who work with general
contracts.
Because the agreed-upon contract is worth
$1 million, funds that are derived from the
federal Community Development Block Grant
project are administered by the aty, instead of
20 percent (or S2OO ,000) being distributed to A
NIC, the local group is receiving 10 percest (or
$100,000).
AL ANIC's March 28 meeting, discussion on
whiat's being critacally called o “tight” contract,
wis the prunary topic — aithough contract
conerns were not on the meetang agends With
uvatlable foder ), state and private funding A
NIC's olpoctive v W constraat new houses und
50 CENTS
BULK RATE
U.S. POSTAGE PAID
NC. 302 AUGUSTA, GA
three flags: one with the corporate logo, the
American flag, and the state flag.”
But the company may not have removed
the flag even if they had received the letter.
According to Aberhof, the fact that the
confederate emblem may have been offen
sive to some of their African-American chi
entele was never a consideration before
hanging the flag, and may not have pushed
them to bring it down.
“This flag is the state symbol,” he said.
“We never take things like that [people
being offended] into consideration before
hanging the state flag, and according to
management policy wedon’t really have the
power to remove it.”
But, Deborah Bernstein, pubiic relations
See STATE FLAG, page 3A
renovate other dwellings in inner-city neigh
borhoods — startingin the Laney-Walker Blvd.
area.
As city administrator, Randy Oliver said he
has no objections discussing amending the
contract with A-NIC. At this time, however,
Oliver feels the contract is best suited for what
the city had in mind in terms of establishing
what he calls “incentive-based” funding for A
NIC and their mission. Oliver, along with city
attorney Jim Wall and Housing and Neighbor -
hood Development department head Keven
:l.:t. helped construct the contract, Oliver
“You can call it pay for performance,” said
Oliver. “1 don't want the aty of Augusta o put
out $200,000 worth of sdaunistrative money
andonly get s few homes busdt,” sad the admin
witrstor, while reflecting on past situstions
when the oty oflered o grester percentage of
See A-NIC, puge 34
The Sheraton
Augusta Hotel is
one of the few
hotels in the
area that flies
the state flag.
Civil rights and
black political
leaders urge ine
management to
stop flying the
banner because
it contains the
confederate
embiem.
Photo by Charles Jones