My phone rang last week while I was unpacking from a short but very invigorating trip to see my daughter in Florida. 

When I am away or off, I try to keep up with what is going on in “the world” both globally and locally. 

To my knowledge, before that call, the top story was the discovery of a little girl’s body in California, who had been missing for some time. 

After the call, that all changed.

I was told about an appellate court’s decision to overturn the convictions of three former cops accused of either violating Abner Louima’s civil rights or covering up the attack on the Haitian immigrant five years ago. 

I almost dropped the phone when I heard the news and double-checked myself to make sure I wasn’t asleep or delirious.

The shock was further exacerbated upon hearing that two of those convictions were completely overturned and those two men would not have to be re-tried.

Just when I began to think that the system worked, I was again forced to wonder if justice  really only means “just-us.” 

We will once again have to endure the possibility that only through the confessions of bad cops will abused people of color be able to know that the perpetrators of such crimes will get prison time for their actions.

Now, not only does the possibility exist that only one person will pay the price for this horrible act but two of the people, who in my opinion either knew about it or participated in it, could actually wear uniforms again. 

Oh my God!

I cannot imagine a greater insult to our community. 

I doubt their reinstatement will happen, but if you or I did something equally or even less heinous we might get an interview at McDonald’s if we had about 100 references.

I do not think Charles Schwarz, the only cop who has to go back to court, was the one in the bathroom while Justin Volpe admittedly assaulted Louima with a broken broom handle. 

But I do believe he knew who did and he chose to say nothing and contribute nothing to justice in the hopes he would just miss the swing of justice’s blindly guided sword. 

Instead he got cut.

No matter what anyone ever says to me, I will never believe that only one person could do that to another without beating them unconscious first. 

The lawyers for the cops, who first said this didn’t happen, now say they believe it did, but only one cop was involved.

What a crock! 

The message of Schwarz’s conviction is that if you stay silent, you run the risk of conviction and prison time just like the actual perpetrators of police misconduct. 

For me, no single thing shook the blue wall of silence like his conviction did. 

He got on “60 Minutes” before his trial and acknowledged to Ed Bradley he knew something terrible happened in that bathroom, on Aug. 17, 1997, but that he wasn’t involved. 

Over the last two years, his family has exhausted their financial means to win him an appeal while he sat in virtual solitary confinement. 

All this while the other two former convicts remained free on appeal –one of them no doubt just happy to have been missed by the justice system.

Louima may have been given $8 million for his pain and suffering, but what about the others who have or will encounter similar scenarios. 

Even to be stopped and frisked without warrant under the cloak of law enforcement is unacceptable to me since this is where cops like Justin Volpe begin to think they can get away with abusing the public, especially men of color — African American or Latino.

This is in part the reason why I tell young people, including my own children: do not even give the impression of impropriety and if you have to deal with law enforcement say nothing until you talk to a parent or lawyer.

— Gary Anthony Ramsay is a weekend anchor
and journalist on the all-news
cable station NY1 and along-time resident of Queens.