Twenty Years Later: The Police Assault on Abner Louima and What it Means

"On August 9, 1997, police officers took Haitian immigrant Abner Louima — after yanking his pants down to his knee — in the bathroom of the 70th precinct in Brooklyn. There, Officer Justin Volpe used a broken broomstick to sexually assault the handcuffed man. Word of the attack shocked the city, and Louima would eventually testify in a federal trial that sent two officers to prison.

But today, many young New Yorkers don’t know about the case. Sitting outside a restaurant in downtown Brooklyn, 18-year-old Christopher Watson said he had not heard of Louima, though he could name others who died, like Michael Brown and Sandra Bland. "Those are the recent ones I heard," he said.

When WNYC News approached older New Yorkers, some initially confused Louima with Amadou Diallo. He was the West African immigrant who was shot 41 times in 1999 by Bronx police officers who mistakenly thought he was pulling a gun out of his pocket instead of a wallet."