Survivors Village joined forces with Occupy NOLA to successfully disrupt a sheriff’s sale of foreclosed properties in New Orleans, shouting their demands in Occupy mic check style.

“This auction is illegal and immoral. It is a way to steal homes, redistribute wealth and prevent the right to return. The sale of blighted property is the city’s attempt to remove poor homeowners who have already suffered tremendously from economic and natural disaster. Blight has become an excuse to gentrify. Charging poor homeowners outrageous fees in order to steal their homes is an underhanded way to keep people displaced. Stop capitalizing off of crisis! This process is corrupt! You are stealing homes! STOP NOW!”

We took a stand against stealing people’s property in the name of recovery. We also took a stand to save a space we care enough about to rebuild with our own hands. This is a space that was active before I arrived in New Orleans, but I am determined to work with my family of comrades to get it back in fighting shape.

Survivors Village isn’t just community space; it is a home base for those who understand the radical transformation necessary for us all to achieve liberation. And in this realization and the impending detriment that a loss of this space could be to realizing our vision and bringing it into the everyday reality bit by bit, we knew we had to stand up and shout, “Stop!”

Sometimes a battle is dropped at your front door and demands that you are the one(s) to make change happen, you are called as the one(s) to start, finish or progress this fight. Well, that is what happened when we were told that the City of New Orleans was trying to sell New Day Survivors Village through a sheriff’s sale. Not only was a piece of our livelihood being threatened, but we were also alerted to the injustice that is being illegally perpetrated against homeowners.

Survivors Village was not served notice that it was one of the properties to be auctioned at a forthcoming sheriff’s sale until less than a month before it was to be held. A $575 blight fine that had ballooned to over $9,000 after daily penalties were tacked on was what put the sale into motion – the amount of the daily penalties being greater than half of the initial fine, per day.

Months before the decision to put the property up for auction, the initial blight cited had been remedied and improvements on the rest of the property were constantly being planned and carried out. We had not been notified that there was an ever increasing fee being lobbed against the property, nor were we aware that they decided to sell it.

Does the city really believe this is the best way to deal with blight? It appears to be an easy way to remove property from the hands of those who are poor and limited in their resources and ability to finish the necessary work on their homes. And with the lack of due process in getting a judge’s order – a law has been implemented making this obsolete – or hiring a non-affiliated curator to receive court documents on behalf of the defendant, who never receives them, the city is making it apparent that they are not concerned with reconnecting homeowners and displaced New Orleanians with their homes.

Instead they are satisfied being a huge obstacle for poor and displaced homeowners while placing advantage in the hands of the privileged, who can buy, renovate and make a profit on these homes, further gentrifying New Orleans in the process.

Survivors Village began as a tent city erected in June 2006 by residents of the St. Bernard Public Housing Development who like other public housing residents had been locked out of their homes since the flooding of New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. Since that time and after years of resistance by public housing residents and their allies, over 4,000 units of public housing, including the St. Bernard Development, have been demolished. On the day of this march, Jan. 15, 2007, displaced St. Bernard residents reclaimed the development, cleaned their apartments, which had been minimally damaged, but were soon driven out again.

There was immediacy in the planning due to the impending sale, so we congregated together with a crew of dedicated activists that were willing to sit through long meetings and democratically come up with a strategy to stop this sale. It can be difficult to achieve consensus and a unified vision for how things should be done. We didn’t always agree on what we were hoping to realistically achieve, how confrontational we should be with the bidders or the wording of our message, but in the end consensus was reached, which is necessary reinforcement to further our fight for the reclamation of true democracy and must be practiced as a pinnacle radical value.

As a group we thought that our action to disrupt and possibly prevent the sheriff’s stolen property sale could be disbanded quickly and we would be threatened with arrest, so we prioritized the language that needed to be delivered first. We had decided that this was not the most strategic time to take arrests, so we would get in there, say our piece while holding up the sale for as long as possible and then either be off or stay in a silent protest with signage, depending on the level of police suppression: a guerilla strategy for the initial incitement.

Every time the auctioneer spoke through his microphone to begin the auction, our mic check illuminating and vilifying the process leading up to and including the auction would begin. The auctioneer would try to speak over us, but “the people united will never be defeated.” We mic checked, sang and chanted intermittently and rotating, deciding that if he wasn’t trying to proceed then we could save our voices and just be present in protest.

We also distributed flyers educating the crowd about the realities of the auction. The flyers declared: “This is an auction of stolen properties. When a property in New Orleans is declared ‘blighted’ it is because homeowners are unable to complete the necessary work on their properties to comply with the city’s codes. The city gives the homeowner a fine of $575 and orders the homeowner to finish renovation or demolition of the property within 30 days and pay the fine or face additional fees of up to $500 per day. When poor homeowners are charged thousands of dollars each week – money they would put into their homes if they had it – the city leaves them no choice but to go bankrupt or hand over their properties. This is state sanctioned theft under the guise of ‘recovery.’”

After an hour and a half of this back and forth, start and stop, the police finally gave us a warning. We overestimated how long we would be tolerated and perhaps they overestimated how long we were willing to stay, which was longer than many of the potential bidders did. We gave two collective speeches after the first warning and then remained silent throughout the rest of the auction.

The auction did go on after two hours’ delay, but we felt successful. Our will was felt and our home base was spared, it being virtually unsalable due to taxes placed on it, which are not even applicable to the New Day nonprofit which owns Survivors Village – sometimes not doing paperwork on time is a benefit.

Another success was in connecting with people who are directly affected by this practice and these sales. A man at the auction asked for our help in stopping his house from being sold, so his property was included in the mic check: “Do not bid on property…” was the demand. And even though his house opened at a low price, it too was not bid on.

He was basically in the same position we were in, and the city refused to waive the extra outrageous daily fees and have him just pay the $575 even though he had complied with blight removal. It’s these people who don’t have the resources that we have, limited as they are, to fight the city who are the most vulnerable and need to be represented; it’s for these people that we stand up and shout, “STOP NOW!” It is for them and with all of those struggling with housing injustice that we will continue to fight until it is acknowledged and purported that housing is a human right.

To learn more, go to http://communitiesrising.wordpress.com/, the website for Survivors Village, where this story first appeared.

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by Lydia Pelot-Hobbs

At Occupy NOLA, as at Occupy encampments all over the U.S., anti-racism activists are finding plenty of work to do.

Here at Occupy NOLA (short for New Orleans, La.), I have been excited about the potential of making these bridges through the project of the anti-racism working group. In less than two weeks, this working group has been developing a collective analysis and strategy that I think has the possibility of contributing towards long-term movement building.

From difficult moments to moments of promise

This is not to say this work has been easy. Many of these conversations are painful and difficult. At the second General Assembly (GA), a debate emerged regarding the use of the livestream at the GA. Since the initial planning meeting, Occupy NOLA had been posting photos and videos on Facebook without the permission of those in attendance. Myself alongside several others from the anti-racism working group raised the concern that having the entire area videotaped led to the space not being safe or secure for a variety of folks: immigrants, trans folks, queer folks etc. and offered the proposal that one third of the space not be included in the livestream.

In response, several white men got up and declared the purpose of the movement was to be recorded and that having folks on video couldn’t possibly have the ramifications that we had explained, such as immigration sweeps or people losing employment or housing. Listening to these responses, I was frustrated by concrete concerns being seemingly disregarded, but even more so at how privilege operates to convince individuals that their experiences within society are universal – how security for some leads to making the lack of safety for others invisible.

Privilege operates to convince individuals that their experiences within society are universal – security for some leads to making the lack of safety for others invisible.

Following the GA’s inability to reach consensus on this subject, those of us on both sides of the debate were tasked with further discussing the issue. Cynically, I found myself assuming the people we had been debating weren’t actually committed enough to the process to enter into further conversation. However, immediately after the meeting, one guy came over to continue the discussion. Within a few moments, a group of a dozen people were talking about how power functions, how Latin@ folks are racially profiled as undocumented immigrants, the policing of trans folks – especially transwomen of color – the precariousness of service industry workers’ employment and so much more. Here we were, mostly strangers, spending our Friday night standing in Duncan Plaza engaged in political debate.

Did we end up agreeing on everything? No. Did we make steps together? Yes.

Making these steps together is why I’m involved in the Occupy movement. I recalled that my political analysis was not developed overnight; rather, it took investment from other activists. I’ve had years of guidance and mentorship within movements for social justice that has gotten me to the place I am today. Now is the time to offer the constructive encouragement to others that was offered to me when I was first becoming politicized.

But I also know about the rapid politicization folks can go through during moments like this – moments that radicalize people’s understanding of power, systems of oppression, the state, global capitalism and empire. These moments can literally transform people’s understandings of not just what we are struggling against but also what we are dreaming about – what collective liberation can potentially be.

Building strategies for collective liberation

For me, this is why it’s so crucial to organize with the anti-racism working group to build a structural analysis within Occupy NOLA of how we got to this period of advanced capitalism. Luckily, I think we have more resources to draw on for this than in previous periods. Even before the first GA to plan Occupy NOLA, white anti-racist folks here were reaching out to one another to discuss how to critically engage this moment.

Occupy NOLA gathered initially in Lafayette Square in New Orleans.

By the second day of Occupy NOLA, a multiracial crew of folks had come together for the first meeting of the anti-racism working group. Gathered together was a group of people with a range of backgrounds: long-term organizers, folks new to activism, people who already knew and trusted one another, and individuals who came knowing no one but believing in the purpose of the group.

Over the course of our first meetings, we strategized together what the purpose and goals of our anti-racism working group would be. Drawing on our collective knowledge gain from previous activism as well as our initial involvement with Occupy NOLA, we solidified together that our goals are based in the belief that this is a moment of possibility and potential.

We committed to working towards Occupy NOLA being accountable to local community organizing and acting in solidarity with their local struggles, fostering an intersectional structural analysis of power through political education projects, encouraging both Occupy NOLA and the broader #Occupy movement to center both the U.S. South and the Global South, deepening our analysis of how U.S. financial power has been built off the ravages of slavery and colonialism, and continuing to build off the momentum of this moment over the next year regardless of the outcome of this occupation.

We have also committed as an anti-racist working group to be actively participating in other working groups and building with others potential allies. Also, by participating in other working groups, we are able to share our skills in areas such as facilitation, media and direct action. For me, this is us moving beyond a critique from the sidelines to a structure that is focusing our efforts towards the success of other working groups

Central to our strategy has also been the ongoing dialogue and discussion with long-time New Orleans organizers of color. Folks from a range of organizations affiliated with the Greater New Orleans Organizers’ Roundtable have generously entered into conversations with the anti-racism working group about how can Occupy NOLA be pushed in a strategic direction that furthers the aims of local economic and social justice movements. This work has the potential to strengthen both Occupy NOLA and the work of already existing organizing by building a united front on the social justice issues in New Orleans.

It’s also been incredible to be organizing collectively with folks who are holding and working with the reality that we need to move quickly since we don’t know how long this occupation will last, while also thinking through how this work can make a long-term impact on movements for justice. Instead of organizing in crisis, we are organizing for the long haul.

Moving forward

We’re still grappling with a lot of questions: How do we actively engage and support other working groups? What are strategies for building an accountable Occupy movement here in New Orleans that supports and strengthens the long-term community organizing in the city around housing, police brutality, the prison industrial complex and immigration? Is our goal to build Occupy NOLA as a multiracial, multiclass movement or is there a benefit in leveraging the white and class privilege of the current formation in solidarity with community organizations? How do we both embrace the spirit of participatory democracy while also recognizing how these processes can be alienating?

These are complicated questions for a complicated moment. While I am sure that both the anti-racism working group and the broader Occupy NOLA will make mistakes along the way, I am just as sure of the necessity in critically engaging in this movement. We’re in the middle of a powerful opening to connect fresh new activists to radical political analysis, to develop their leadership skills, and to introduce them to the ongoing social and economic struggles here in New Orleans, across the U.S. and around the globe. Getting down in this messy process is more than just a commitment to the present Occupy moment; it’s an investment in our future movements for justice.

Lydia Pelot-Hobbs is a core member and trainer with AORTA (Anti-Oppression Resource and Training Alliance), a collective of trainers devoted to strengthening movements for social justice and a solidarity economy. Her writing has appeared in Left Turn Magazine and the Indypendent. She can be reached at lydia@aortacollective.org. She thanks Evan Casper-Futterman and Drew Christopher Joy for their feedback and guidance on this piece.

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by Caitlin Yoshiko Kandil, Bay State Banner

To pressure BP to pay the claims of the poor now that the rich have been paid, Dick Gregory, Art Rocker, along with Dr. E. Faye Williams and other prominent advocates are calling for a boycott against BP.

They target Ken Feinberg, the government-appointed administrator of the British Petroleum Deepwater Horizon Disaster Victim Compensation Fund for his alleged failure to fairly compensate the minority victims of last year’s oil spill in the Gulf Coast.

According to Gregory, while big companies and casinos have successfully won compensation, “ordinary people … who have no clout” have largely been ignored in the settlements. “It can’t be all minority people who didn’t have the right claims,” Gregory said. “I would like to look at the claims that the casinos put in.”

“The casinos in Mississippi have to be licensed by the state, so immediately they [BP] went in and paid the casinos for all the damage,” Gregory told the Banner over the phone. “And why? Because the government has the clout.”

Also attending the protest was Art Rocker, chairman of Operation People for Peace. Rocker’s Florida-based organization helps low-income and minority workers seeking compensation for lost livelihoods resulting from the oil spill, and so far it represents more than 10,000 clients.

“There’s probably 10,000 more,” Gregory commented.

According to Rocker, Feinberg agreed to a series of meetings in the past year to discuss settlements for the poor, but negotiations have fizzled and Feinberg has yet to pay out any money to these claimants.

Last week’s protest began outside Feinberg’s office building on Pennsylvania Avenue, just down the street from the White House. The protesters were arrested, however, when they moved inside the building to go to Feinberg’s office. The charges were later dropped.

Outside BP’s administrative headquarters on Pennsylvania Avenue, just down the street from the White House, Art Rocker and Dick Gregory (in background) are arrested as they picket BP for stalling on its promise to pay poor claimants still suffering from last year’s Gulf oil spill.

“What we’re doing now will have an effect on the stockholders more than anybody because the bad publicity makes the stock go down,” Gregory said. “So that’s what we’re trying to do now, is trying to get them to pay off the folks like they’ve paid off billions of dollars to other folks — the companies.”

“I’ve never understood nothing about shrimp, except the way it tastes,” Gregory continued. “I never put a face on the shrimp, but there’s people that work there. There’s maids that work in hotels that when the hotel goes — and the whole tourist season got wiped out — those maids don’t get paid. And these are the people we’re talking about — these are the ones we’re representing.”

The timing of the Sept. 3 demonstration was also strategic, designed to highlight the connection between the labor struggles decades ago with the struggles of the poor today.

“The reason we picked Labor Day weekend is because the same thing is happening to the poor folks, particularly minorities and women, that happened to labor before they had representation,” Gregory explained.

The next step in their campaign will be to approach the U.S. Department of Justice to request a thorough investigation of discrimination in the claims.

In addition, the group will be formally calling for a boycott of BP this Thanksgiving. Like the protest this weekend, the boycott will be strategically timed — but this time, for the 2012 Olympics in London.

According to Gregory, BP is “trying to be a big player in that,” so stockholders will be more sensitive to any negative publicity.

In the end, however, the simple principle of equality is Gregory’s bottom line — to “make them treat everybody the same as they treat the major companies that lost, the people with power who lost.”

This story first appeared in the Bay State Banner, a Boston-based Black newspaper.

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Political power has shifted to whites, but Blacks have not given up their struggle for a voice – and justice

by Jordan Flaherty

New Orleans police arrest a man on the Danziger Bridge Sept. 4, 2005, five days after Katrina, the same day police shot six other people there. – Photo: Alex Brandon, Times-Picayune

Six years after the federal levees failed and 80 percent of the city was flooded, New Orleans has lost 80,000 jobs and 110,000 residents. It is a whiter and wealthier city, with tourist areas well maintained while communities like the Lower 9th Ward remain devastated. Beyond the statistics, it is still a much contested city.

Politics continues to shape how the changes to New Orleans are viewed. For some, the city is a crime scene of corporate profiteering and the mass displacement of African Americans and working poor; but for others it’s an example of bold public sector reforms, taken in the aftermath of a natural disaster, that have led the way for other cities.

In the wake of Katrina, New Orleans saw the rise of a new class of citizens. They self-identify as YURPs – Young Urban Rebuilding Professionals – and they work in architecture, urban planning, education and related fields. While the city was still mostly empty, they spoke of a freedom to experiment, unfettered by the barriers of bureaucratic red tape and public comment. Working with local and national political and business leaders, they made rapid changes in the city’s education system, public housing, health care and nonprofit sector.

Along the way, the face of elected government changed in the city and state. Among the offices that switched from Black to white were mayor, police chief, district attorney and representatives on the school board and city council, which both switched to white majorities for the first time in a generation. Louisiana also transformed from a state with several statewide elected Democrats to having only one: Sen. Mary Landrieu.

While Black community leaders have said that the displacement after the storm has robbed African Americans of their civic representation, another narrative has also taken shape. Many in the media and business elite have said that a new political class – which happens to be mostly white – is reshaping the politics of the city into a post-racial era.

“Our efforts are changing old ways of thinking,” said Mayor Mitch Landrieu, shortly after he was elected in 2010. After accusing his critics of being stuck in the past, Landrieu – who was the first mayor in modern memory elected with the support of a majority of both Black and white voters – added, “We’re going to rediscipline ourselves in this city.”

The changes in the public sector have been widespread. Shortly after the storm, the entire staff of the public school system was fired. Their union, which had been the largest union in the city, ceased to be recognized. With many parents, students and teachers driven out of the city by Katrina and unable to have a say in the decision, the state took over the city’s schools and began shifting them over to charters.

“The reorganization of the public schools has created a separate but unequal tiered system of schools that steers a minority of students, including virtually all of the city’s white students, into a set of selective, higher-performing schools and most of the city’s students of color into a set of lower-performing schools,” writes lawyer and activist Bill Quigley, in a report prepared with fellow Loyola law professor Davida Finger.

In many ways, the changes in New Orleans school system, initiated almost six years ago, foreshadowed a battle that has played out more conspicuously this year in Wisconsin, Indiana, New Jersey and other states where teachers and their unions were assailed by both Republican governors and liberal reformers such as the filmmakers behind “Waiting for Superman.” Similarly, the battle of New Orleans public housing – which was torn down and replaced by new units built in public-private partnerships that house a small percentage of the former residents – prefigured national battles over government’s role in solving problems related to poverty.

The anger at the changes in New Orleans’ Black community is palpable. It comes out at City Council meetings, on local Black talk radio station WBOK and in protests. “Since New Orleans was declared a blank slate, we are the social experimental lab of the world,” says Endesha Juakali, a housing rights activist. However, despite the changes, grassroots resistance continues. “For those of us that lived and are still living the disaster, moving on is not an option,” adds Juakali.

W.C. Johnson of the group Community United for Change protests outside federal court in New Orleans in June on the opening day of the trial for five current or former New Orleans police officers charged in deadly shootings of unarmed residents on the Danziger Bridge shortly after the flood. All five defendants were convicted in the case. – Photo: Gerald Herbert, AP

In the aftermath of Katrina, media images famously depicted poor New Orleanians as criminal and dangerous. In fact, at one point it was announced that rescue efforts were put on hold because of the violence. In response, the second-in-charge of the New Orleans Police Department reportedly told officers to shoot looters, and the governor announced that she had given the National Guard orders to shoot to kill.

Over the following days, police shot and killed several civilians. A police sniper wounded a young African American named Henry Glover, and other officers took and burned his body behind a levee. A 45-year-old grandfather named Danny Brumfield Sr. was shot in the back in front of his family outside the New Orleans convention center.

Two Black families – the Madisons and Bartholomews – walking across New Orleans’ Danziger Bridge fell under a hail of gunfire from a group of officers. “We had more incidents of police misconduct than civilian misconduct,” says former District Attorney Eddie Jordan, who pursued charges against officers but had the charges thrown out by a judge. “All these stories of looting, it pales next to what the police did.”

District Attorney Jordan, who angered many in the political establishment when he brought charges against officers and was forced to resign soon after, was not the only one who failed to bring accountability for the post-Katrina violence. In fact, every check and balance in the city’s criminal justice system failed.

For years, family members of the victims pressured the media, the U.S. Attorney’s office and Eddie Jordan’s replacement in the DA’s office, Leon Cannizzaro. “The media didn’t want to give me the time of day,” says William Tanner, who saw officers take away Glover’s body. “They called me a raving idiot.”

Finally after more than three years of protests, press conferences and lobbying, the Justice Department launched aggressive investigations of the Glover, Brumfield and Danziger cases in early 2009. In recent months, three officers were convicted in the Glover killing – although one conviction was overturned – two were convicted in beating a man to death just before the storm, and 10 officers either pled guilty or were convicted in the Danziger killing and cover-up. In the Danziger case, the jury found that officers had not only killed two civilians and wounded four, but also engaged in a wide-ranging conspiracy that involved planted evidence, invented witnesses and secret meetings.

The Justice Department has at least seven more open investigations on New Orleans police killings and has indicated their plans for more formal oversight of the NOPD, as well as the city jail. In this area, New Orleans is also leading the way: In a remarkable change from Justice Department policy during the Bush administration, the DOJ is also looking at oversight of police departments in Newark, Denver and Seattle.

In the national struggle against law enforcement violence, there is much to be learned from the victims of New Orleans police violence who led a remarkable struggle against a wall of official silence and now have begun to win justice. “This is an opening,” explains New Orleans police accountability activist Malcolm Suber. “We have to push for a much more democratic system of policing in the city.”

In the closing arguments of the Danziger trial, DOJ prosecutor Bobbi Bernstein fought back against the defense claim that the officers were heroes, saying the family members of those killed deserved the title more. Noting that the official cover-up had “perverted” the system, she said, “The real heroes are the victims who stayed with an imperfect justice system that initially betrayed them.” The jury apparently agreed with her, convicting the officers on all 25 counts.

Jordan Flaherty is a New Orleans-based journalist whose award-winning reporting from the Gulf Coast has been featured in a range of outlets including the New York Times, Al Jazeera and Argentina’s Clarin newspaper. The author of “FLOODLINES: Community and Resistance from Katrina to the Jena Six,” he can be reached at neworleans@leftturn.org, and more information about “Floodlines” can be found at floodlines.org. For speaking engagements, see communityandresistance.wordpress.com. This story originally appeared in the The Root.

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by M. Endesha Juakali, J.D.

The residents of St. Bernard public housing, home to 6,500 people before the flood, fought for their right under international law to return to their well-built, minimally damaged homes in every way imaginable, including with a tent city called Survivors Village set up in 2006. Nevertheless, on Dec. 20, 2007, the epic battle culminated with the New Orleans City Council voting unanimously to let HUD destroy all 4,500 of the city’s public housing apartments. Yet still the residents, 95 percent Black, fought and continue to fight for their right to return to the “replacement” housing.

Last year, the prevailing thought was that the fifth annual event was going to be the last chance to really make a statement because after that, the media and others around the country and world would definitely move on to other events and disasters. That is probably true from a media-marketing perspective, but for those of us who lived and are still living the disaster, moving on is not an option.

The storm that brushed by New Orleans on Aug. 29, 2005, was never the cause of the disaster. The shoddy work of the U.S. government that led to the levee failures and flooded the city was only the beginning of our troubles.

The real disaster began immediately after the storm when the city’s white supremacist economic elite and its “colored” collaborators decided to remake the city in their image, which strongly resembles a 21^st century plantation. These collaborators, who included the mayor, city council, head of HUD and almost every Black elected official, thought that the plan would only affect the poor, who they never represented anyway!

They were not only unprincipled, but pretty misguided in not realizing that the majority of people in New Orleans were working poor and anything that affected them would change all the power relationships in the city.

It started almost immediately with the governor labeling Blacks in New Orleans “looters” and giving the police department and National Guard the power to shoot to kill. This was parroted by the then mayor. We can now see how that worked out.

St. Bernard was demolished in March 2008, part of a total 4,500 apartments destroyed. Ever since public housing residents were locked out after the flood, rent and homelessness in New Orleans have skyrocketed.

Then it was decided that certain areas in the city should not be repopulated. All of these areas, such as New Orleans East, the Lower 9th Ward and all of the traditional public housing developments, were areas that were almost exclusively Black and working class. Then the decision was made not to open the public hospital, which was a critical lifeline for the Black working poor community.

Then the political attacks began – and are still going on! Though the city is only 30 percent white, the white supremacist economic elite has used the weakened state of the Black community – as well as the failure of Blacks, other people of color and progressive whites to forge any kind of united front – to take away any semblance of power by Blacks and people of color in the city.

All of the major power bases in the city that were majority Black are now majority white. This includes the mayor, city council, district attorney, police chief, school superintendent and judges elected since the storm. In fact, any position of power that has been filled since the storm has most likely been filled by a white person or a non-New Orleans native.

This has been accompanied by a sustained war against the poor, the homeless and all other lower working class persons in the city. Since New Orleans was declared a blank slate, we are the social experimental lab of the world. Anyone with money and a new idea come to New Orleans, assuming “they will accept anything.”

Survivors Village held a Right to Return rally and sit-in May 28, 2010, at Columbia Parc, the purported replacement for St. Bernard, to protest the exclusion of former residents. The leaders were persecuted and prosecuted.

All people who believe in social justice should make it a point to march on Aug. 29. We cannot afford to move on because the disaster is not over. It’s an ongoing living event that seems to have gotten worse each year since 2005.

Therefore, we must march each year in order to remind ourselves that we are in a fight and cannot rest! We have lost many battles, but the war is ongoing and we must not quit!

I hope to see you at the levee breach on the 29^th!

And after the march and program at Hunters Field, everyone is invited to join the residents and former residents of the St. Bernard community in their annual “Unity in the Community Celebration of Life” at the Fightback Center, 3820 Alfred St., in the 3800 block of St. Bernard Avenue, from 4 p.m. until.

To learn more, contact Survivors Village and the St. Bernard Fightback Center at communitiesrising@gmail.com and the Katrina Commemoration Committee at katrinacommemoration@email.com or (504) 328-3159.

Note from Sakura Kone

The Aug. 29 march will begin with a healing ceremony 10 a.m. at the Lower 9th Ward levee breach on Jourdan and Galvez. Immediately following the healing ceremony begins the Katrina Commemoration March and Secondline, a combination of traditional New Orleans secondlining, African drummers, New Orleans brass bands, social aid and pleasure clubs, various community organizations and the community-at-large. It travels through the streets of New Orleans down North Claiborne Avenue for about three miles to St. Bernard Avenue. The march/secondline ends at Hunters Field, located on the corner of North Claiborne Avenue and St. Bernard Avenue.

The Fightback Center works to maintain the culture of the St. Bernard community. The property at 3820 Alfred St. has always been the focal point of the St. Bernard community. As the headquarters of the New Day Black Community Development Organization, it provided economic assistance, advocacy against injustice, day care services, job banks, GED programs, a youth club and many other social, political and recreational services. There is not much left of what used to be our community physically, but the spirit, culture and love for St. Bernard still lives. The Fightback center is the perfect place for the yearly Mother’s Day reunions that the Big 7 parade has become. To see some pictures from this year’s parade, go to http://communitiesrising.wordpress.com/2011/05/12/fight-back-center-works-to-maintain-the-culture-of-the-st-bernard-community/.

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• New Orleans police violence trial begins
• On the fifth anniversary of Katrina, displacement continues

A scene of devastation in New Orleans’ 9th Ward April 1, 2006, unchanged since the floodwaters receded in September 2005 – Photo: Minister of Information JR

The suit alleged that the formula used to allocate grants to homeowners through the Road Home program – the single largest housing recovery program in U.S. history – had a discriminatory impact on thousands of African American homeowners. Road Home program data shows that African Americans were more likely than whites to have their Road Home grants based upon the much lower pre-storm market value of their homes rather than the estimated cost to repair damage.

For example, one African American plaintiff whose rebuilding grant was based upon pre-storm value received a $1,400 grant from the state to rebuild her home, but she would have received a grant of $150,000 had her rebuilding grant been based on the estimated cost of damage to the home.

These types of shortfalls played a key role in slowing down the recovery effort. Under the terms of the settlement, HUD and the state of Louisiana will direct additional funds to individuals in heavily affected parishes whose grants were based upon pre-storm value.

The lawsuit was brought by the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center, the National Fair Housing Alliance and five African American homeowners in New Orleans, representing a potential class of over 20,000 people. All plaintiffs are represented by co-lead counsel: the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll, as well as Wilmer, Cutler, Pickering, Hale & Dorr.

In response to the plaintiffs’ housing discrimination lawsuit, HUD and the state of Louisiana changed the Road Home program grant formula to provide full relief to more than 13,000 homeowners. All eligible low and moderate income homeowners received supplemental grant awards totaling $473 million based upon the estimated cost of damage to their homes, rather than the original grants based merely upon the much lower pre-storm market value of their homes.

By virtue of the settlement agreement, HUD and the state of Louisiana have agreed to amend the Road Home program to offer additional large supplemental rebuilding grants at an estimated value of over $60 million and a one-year extension of the re-occupancy covenants, giving more money and time to rebuild to several thousand homeowners whose initial Road Home Option 1 grant awards were based on the pre-storm market value of their homes and who have been unable to rebuild their homes.

“I am glad that by standing up against this flawed program we made a difference for so many other people,” said Almarie Ford, one of the individual plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

Shanna Smith, president and CEO of the National Fair Housing Alliance said, “In addition to providing significant relief for individual homeowners, the Road Home lawsuit will serve as a warning to HUD and state officials nationwide to avoid the future use of pre-storm market value or similar market-driven criteria that have an obvious discriminatory impact on low-income and minority homeowners.”

During the almost six years since the storm hit, countless homeowners struggled to rebuild. Many have not yet succeeded, particularly in Orleans Parish.

“Regrettably, the Road Home program became a road block for many,” said James Perry, executive director of the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center. “This settlement is a step in the right direction toward getting more hurricane-affected homeowners back into their homes. HUD and Louisiana must keep America’s promise to build a better New Orleans. And they must do so in a manner that is fair and equitable for all people regardless of their race.”

John Payton, director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF), said: “People who had similar homes and suffered the same type of damage should not have been treated differently simply because of the neighborhoods in which they live. All New Orleanians, and all Louisianans, deserve a fair chance at rebuilding their homes and communities.”

The coalition of homeowners and organizations that brought the lawsuit has vowed to continue providing assistance to homeowners and working for a fair recovery for all.

This is an abbreviated version of a story that first appeared in Minority News at BlackRadioNetwork.com.

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by Jordan Flaherty

Illustration of the Danziger Bridge tragedy - Photo: Jordan Flaherty

The officers’ conviction on all 25 counts – on two counts, the jury found the men guilty but with partial disagreements on the nature of the crime which could slightly affect sentencing – comes nearly six years after the city was devastated by floodwaters and government inaction. The verdict helps rewrite the history of what happened in the chaotic days after the levees broke. And the story of how these convictions happened is important for anyone around the U.S. seeking to combat law enforcement violence.

The results of this trial also have national implications for those seeking federal support in challenges to police abuses in other cities. New Orleans is one of four major cities in which the Department of Justice has stepped in to look at police departments. Any success here has far reaching implications for federal investigations in Denver, Seattle, Newark and other cities.

The Danziger Bridge case begins with Hurricane Katrina. As images of desperate survivors played on television, people around the world felt sympathy for people waiting for rescue after the storm. But then images of families trapped on rooftops were replaced by stories of armed gangs and criminals roaming the streets.

News reports famously described white people as “finding” food while depicting Black people as “looting.” Then Chief of Police Eddie Compass told Oprah Winfrey that “little babies (are) getting raped” in the Superdome. Then Gov. Kathleen Blanco announced she had sent in troops with orders to shoot to kill; and the second in charge of the police department reportedly told officers to fire at will on looters.

Evidence suggests that the NOPD acted on these instructions. On Sept. 2, just days after the storm, a Black man named Henry Glover was shot by a police sniper as he walked through a parking lot. When a Good Samaritan tried to help Glover get medical help, he was beaten by officers who burnt Glover’s body and left it behind a levee.

New Orleans' citizens take to the streets to march for justice in the Danziger Bridge trial - Photo: Jordan Flaherty

The following morning, two families were crossing New Orleans’ Danziger Bridge, which connects Gentilly and New Orleans East, two mostly middle-to-upper-class African American neighborhoods. Without warning, a Budget Rental truck carrying police officers arrived and cops jumped out. The officers did not identify themselves and began firing before their vehicle had even stopped.

Officers had heard a radio call about shootings in the area; and according to prosecutors, they were seeking revenge. James Brisette, a 17-year-old called “studious” and “nerdy” by his friends, was shot nearly a dozen times and died at the scene. Many of the bullets hit him as he lay on the ground bleeding.

Four other people were wounded, including Susan Bartholomew, a 38-year-old mother who had her arm shot off of her body, and her 17-year-old daughter Lesha, who was shot while crawling on top of her mother’s body trying to shield her from bullets. Lesha’s cousin Jose was shot point-blank in the stomach and nearly died. He needed a colostomy bag for years afterwards.

Further up the bridge, officers chased down Ronald Madison, a mentally challenged man, who was traveling with his brother Lance. Ronald was shot in the back by one officer and then stomped and kicked to death by another. Lance was arrested and charged with firing at officers and spent weeks behind bars.

At the time, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported that officers “sent up a cheer” when word came over police radios that suspects had been shot and killed.

Photo: Jordan Flaherty

Eddie Jordan, the city’s first Black district attorney, pursued charges against the officers in late 2006. When the cops went to turn themselves in, they were greeted by a crowd of hundreds of officers who cheered for them and called them heroes. Before the case could make it to trial, it was dismissed by a judge with close ties to the defense lawyers and soon after that Jordan was forced to resign.

After the dismissal of Jordan’s charges, the story of police violence after Katrina remained untold. Jordan believes an indifferent local media bears partial responsibility for the years of cover-up. “They were looking for heroes,” he says. “They had a cozy relationship with the police. They got tips from the police. They were in bed with the police. It was an atmosphere of tolerance for atrocities from the police. They abdicated their responsibility to be critical in their reporting. If a few people got killed that was a small price to pay.”

Other elected officials, like the city coroner, went along with the police version of events. For example, the coroner’s office never flagged Henry Glover’s body, found burned in a car, as a potential homicide.

But the Madisons, the Bartholomews and the Glovers, along with family members of other police violence victims, refused to be silent. They continued to speak out at press conferences, rallies and directly to reporters. They worked with organizations like Safe Streets Strong Communities, which was founded by criminal justice activists in the days after Katrina, and Community United for Change, which was formed in response to police abuses.

NOPD has finally been found culpable for the heinous murder of Ronald Madison on Sept. 4, 2005.

Activists worked to not only raise awareness of specific issues of police violence, but to say that these problems are structural and that any solution must get at the root causes.

“This is about an entire system that was completely broken and in crisis,” says former Safe Streets co-director Rosana Cruz. “Everyone’s job in the criminal justice system depends on there being a lot of crime in the city. The district attorney’s office doesn’t work on getting the city safer; they work on getting convictions at any cost. As long as that’s the case, we’re not going to have safety.”

Former District Attorney Jordan feels that investigators should pursue charges up to the very top of the department, including Warren Riley, who was promoted to police chief shortly after Hurricane Katrina and served in that role until 2010. “Riley, by his own admission, never even read the report on Danziger,” Jordan points out. “It’s so outrageous, it’s unspeakable. It’s one of the worst things that anyone can do. It’s hard to understand why he’s not on trial as well.”

“Fish start rotting at the head,” adds Jordan. “This was all done in the backdrop of police opposition at the very top. It’s not surprising that there was a cover-up. You just have to wonder how far that cover-up went.”

In 2008, journalist A.C. Thompson did what New Orleans media had failed to do and seriously investigated the accusations of police violence. His reporting, published on ProPublica and in The Nation, spelled out the shocking details of Glover’s killing and pointed toward police coordination with white vigilantes in widespread violence. It brought national attention to the stories that had been ignored. Activists took advantage of the exposure and lobbied the Congressional Black Caucus and the Justice Department for an investigation.

Blacks “loot,” while whites “find” food as the levees fall and floodwaters rise.

When FBI agents confronted officers involved in the Danziger case, five officers pleaded guilty and agreed to testify about the conspiracy to cover-up what happened. They revealed that officers had planted evidence, invented witnesses, arrested innocent people and held secret meetings where they worked to line up their stories.

Before last week’s verdict, the Justice Department had already won four previous police violence convictions, including of the officers who shot Glover and burned his body as well as of two officers who killed Raymond Robair – a pre-Katrina case in which officers beat a man to death and claimed, with the support of the city coroner, he had sustained his injuries from falling down.

About half a dozen other investigations are ongoing. The Justice Department is also looking at federal oversight of the NOPD, a process by which they can dictate vast changes from hiring and firing to training and policy writing.

The Danziger trial has been the most high-profile aspect of the federal intervention in New Orleans and this verdict will have far-reaching implications for how the effectiveness of federal intervention is perceived. The convictions and guilty pleas in the case reveal a wide-ranging conspiracy that reaches up to sergeants and lieutenants. Marlon Defillo, the second-in-charge of the NOPD, was recently forced to retire because of his role in helping cover up the Glover killing.

After murdering his mentally impaired brother Ronald, New Orleans police humiliated and jailed Lance Madison. – Photo: Alex Brandon, New Orleans Times-Picayune

The defense team for the Danziger officers was steadfast in describing their clients as heroes. Attorney Paul Fleming described the cops as “proactive,” saying: “They go out and get things done. They go out and get the bad guys.” Police attorneys in the Glover and Danziger trials also sought to use the so-called “Katrina defense,” arguing that the exceptional circumstances following the storm justified extra-legal actions on the part of officers. With these convictions, the juries have definitively refuted this excuse.

During closing statements, lawyers for defense and prosecution directed what often sounded like personal attacks against each other as well as key witnesses while laying out very different versions of what happened on that fateful day.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Theodore Carter said that officers deliberately did not follow procedure, and that if they had done what they were supposed to, no one would have died that day. “It was unreasonable for these officers to fire even one shot,” said Carter, who referred to video footage from that day which he said showed at least “54 seconds of gunfire.”

In a spirited defense that seemed to echo Tea Party themes, police attorney Frank Desalvo told the jury, “We know that the United States is the greatest country on earth; and the only thing wrong with it is the people running it.” Depicting Justice Department attorneys as furthering an anti-cop agenda, he told the jury that the prosecutors in this case do not represent the United States and that they are the true Americans.

Desalvo also accused the prosecution of speaking “meaningless, emotional drivel” and giving ammunition to “a segment of the community that believes police are always brutal.”

In her closing arguments, Bobbi Bernstein, deputy chief of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, fought back against the claim that the officers were heroes, saying the family members of those killed deserved the title more. Noting that the official cover-up had “perverted” the system, she said, “The real heroes are the victims who stayed with an imperfect justice system that initially betrayed them.”

The police officers who came to be known as the “Danziger Bridge 7” and their attorneys walk between lines of hundreds of police supporters to turn themselves in on Jan. 6, 2007, confident they’ll be exonerated. – Photo: Ellis Lucia, New Orleans Times-Picayune

In comments immediately after the verdict, family members of those killed on the bridge expressed gratitude for those who had helped them reach this point, but stressed that their pain continued.

Speaking outside the courthouse after the verdict, Sherrel Johnson, the mother of James Brisette, said that the officers “took the twinkle out of my eye, the song out of my voice and blew out my candle,” when they killed her son.

Jacqueline Madison Brown, the sister of Ronald Madison, told assembled press, “Ronald Madison brought great love to our family. Shooting him down was like shooting an innocent child.” Commenting on officers who had testified for the prosecution in exchange for lesser charges, she added, “We regret that they did not have the courage and strength to come forward sooner.”

Kenneth Bowen, Robert Gisevius, Anthony Villavaso and Faulcon, the officers involved in the shooting, could receive life sentences. Sgt. Arthur Kaufman, who was not on the bridge but was convicted of leading the conspiracy, could receive a maximum of 120 years. Sentencing is scheduled for December but will likely be delayed.

Jordan Flaherty is a journalist and staffer with the Louisiana Justice Institute. His award-winning reporting from the Gulf Coast has been featured in a range of outlets including the New York Times, Al Jazeera and Argentina’s Clarin newspaper. He is the author of FLOODLINES: Community and Resistance from Katrina to the Jena Six. He can be reached at neworleans@leftturn.org and more information about Floodlines can be found at floodlines.org. For speaking engagements, see communityandresistance.wordpress.com. This story first appeared on ColorLines. Added to it are excerpts from the previous piece in this series; headlined “Deliberations Begin Today in Danziger Trial,” a version of that story first appeared on the New Orleans Tribune/TribuneTalk website.

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by Jordan Flaherty

New Orleanians who have long complained about police terrorism and impunity are seeing NOPD’s crimes laid bare in the Danziger trial.

Lesha Bartholomew, who was 17 at the time of the incident, broke into tears as she described seeing her mother wounded, with her arm nearly shot off. “She was saying Lord help us,” said Lesha, describing how she tried to shield her mother from the gunfire as they both lay behind a concrete barricade.

“I got closer,” she said, “So she wouldn’t get shot again.”

Bartholomew’s testimony punctuated the last days of the prosecution’s case that were spent mostly on the testimony of FBI Agent William Bezak, who has been in charge of the FBI investigation of the case since January 2009.

As a so-called “summary witness,” Bezak laid out the government’s view of the shootings on Danziger Bridge and cover-up from beginning to end. Over the past two years, Agent Bezak interviewed nearly all witnesses associated with the case – including 75 NOPD officers – and reviewed what he said were thousands of pages of documents. As part of his testimony, the government also played an extended video from a television news crew that had been stationed nearby and audio from a three-hour conversation between officers Jeffrey Lehrmann and Robert Gisevius. Officer Lehrmann, who has pleaded guilty to aiding in the cover-up, secretly recorded the conversation as part of his cooperation deal with the government.

On the profanity-filled audiotape, Gisevius repeatedly says that he thinks none of the officers who were on the bridge that day will “break” or “sing.” Lehrmann, tasked by the feds to get Gisevius to admit guilt, continually presses Gisevius on who will talk or not.

When Lehrmann tells Gisevius that the government has shown him the TV news video, Gisevius asks if the tape shows him “shooting people on the ground.” In the taped conversation, Gisevius also expresses scorn for the government, calling prosecuting attorney Bobbi Bernstein a “Jew” and a vulgar word associated with female genitals. On another part of the tape, Gisevius tells Lehrmann that he shouldn’t worry, because Kaufman took a lead in writing the reports. “You were his note-writing bitch,” says Gisevius. Speaking of another officer who hasn’t been charged, he adds, “Waguespack could be in as much trouble as anybody. He signed off on that shit.”

In nearly two days of cross examination, defense attorneys questioned the government policy of not tape-recording interviews, expressing doubt about the testimony Agent Bezak had gathered, most of which was based on his handwritten notes, and questioned his interpretation of the evidence. They also asked questions that implied the prosecution had avoided calling some key witnesses whose testimony would not go along with the state version of events. Among the key witnesses not called were officer Robert Barrios, who has already pleaded guilty, and Leonard Bartholomew III, who was shot several times on the bridge.

Lawyers for the defense began calling witnesses on the afternoon of Thursday, July 21. The trial is expected to last at least three to four more weeks.

Lawyers for police in Danziger shootings offer passionate defense

Whatever the verdict at the end of the Danziger trial, lawyers for the accused have offered a passionate defense of their clients. The five officers on trial for killing Ronald Madison and James Brisette and wounding four others on Sept. 5, 2005, are represented by six lawyers: Lindsay Larson and Paul Fleming, both representing officer Robert Faulcon; Eric Hessler, representing Sgt. Robert Gisevius; Stephen London, representing Sgt. Arthur Kaufman; Timothy Meche, representing officer Anthony Villavaso; and Frank DeSalvo, representing Sgt. Kenneth Bowen.

Danziger Bridge

Meche said that the officers were part of a task force that took on the most dangerous assignments and that they are “proactive and help people and rescue people.” Kaufman attorney Stephen London derided the prosecution for even investigating his client, saying, “For the government to come here six years later and look over his shoulder is inexcusable.”

Former officer Jeffrey Lehrmann, who began his testimony on the morning of July 11, was the subject of a withering cross-examination by Kaufman attorney Stephen London. Much of the defense tactic in questioning officers who have testified for the prosecution involves going over past testimony and asking repeatedly about discrepancies. For example, in questioning Lehrmann, London asked repeatedly about the gun he said Kaufman had planted at the crime scene. In one telling of his story, Lehrmann had said Kaufman handed the gun to him. In other telling, he said Kaufman had handed the gun to officer Gisevius then him. “You’re nitpicking,” said Lehrmann, insisting that the differences were irrelevant and minor. “It is different. Big time different,” replied London.

Bowen attorney Frank DeSalvo also mocked prosecutors in his opening statements, perhaps hoping to appeal to anti-government sentiments on the jury. He said that the government’s case sounded like something out of a “Grisham novel” written by someone who knows a little bit of law. DeSalvo added that many of the government’s witnesses were liars, while others were deluded.

DeSalvo, who in his work with the Police Association of New Orleans has defended countless police officers over the years, has been involved in the Danziger case since the beginning. Some questioned his involvement in the state case against the Danziger officers, which was dismissed by Judge Raymond Bigelow in 2008. DeSalvo’s daughter, Emily DeSalvo Blackburn, was a minute clerk for Judge Bigelow and is the wife of one of DeSalvo’s law partners.

One of the most strident defenders has been Paul Fleming Jr., who appears to have taken a leadership role among the attorneys. Fleming was the first attorney to speak for the defense in opening arguments and he began by forcefully declaring the words, “These men are not guilty.” He has frequently been the first to question witnesses and is often the first to object in court to the government’s line of questioning.

Unlike DeSalvo, Fleming is not known for defending police, but he does have a history that involves some notorious cases – mostly in Jefferson Parish – and often involving the death penalty. He is probably best known as the lawyer for Vince Marinello, the well-known local sportscaster who was convicted of killing his wife. Fleming was also the lawyer for Charles Atwood, a Metairie man who pleaded guilty in 2003 to killing and dismembering at least three women.

Jordan Flaherty, a New Orleans-based journalist and staffer with the Louisiana Justice Institute, is the author of the book, “Floodlines: Community and Resistance from Katrina to the Jena Six.” He can be reached at neworleans@leftturn.org. This story first appeared in The New Orleans Tribune.

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by Jordan Flaherty

Dick Gregory, left, and Art Rocker, right, along with National Congress of Black Women Chair Dr. E. Faye Williams head the National Leadership Group that interviewed and presented claims for 10,000 underserved and underrepresented victims of the BP Gulf Coast disaster to Kenneth Feinberg, but none have been paid. They are shown with Louisiana State Missionary Baptist Convention President Dr. C.S. Gordon Jr. With strong support from church, community and congressional representatives, they will travel to BP headquarters in London Aug. 1-4 to press the claims and present evidence of vast disparities between the response to claimants in Black versus white areas. Speaking to an audience of over 4,000 in Alabama, Dick Gregory declared, “Black churches and Black women, which are both the foundation of our community, have been destroyed by the BP oil spill.”

In a devastating report released July 27, Advocates for Environmental Human Rights (AEHR) − a public interest law firm that has taken a leadership role in environmental justice struggles on the Gulf Coast − has documented the hypocrisy and injustice behind Feinberg’s policies. [The authors are Nathalie Walker and Monique Harden. Monique has been assisting Bayview Hunters Point in our struggle for environmental justice as well. – ed.]

Up to this point, Feinberg has denied all damage claims for illnesses associated with exposure to the toxic BP crude oil and/or toxic chemical dispersants that were applied to the oil spill. In doing so, he has said that he requires medical proof of causation showing that the illnesses were caused by toxic exposures during the BP oil cleanup work. In their report, AEHR shows the problem with this position:

“Feinberg’s requirement of medical proof of causation for BP illness claims is a break from his past practices in processing claims and payouts in the 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund and the Agent Orange Settlement Fund. As the administrator of those funds, Feinberg did not require medical proof that a claimant’s illness or disability was caused by being exposed to toxic air pollution resulting from the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks or the toxic chemicals in Agent Orange sprayed during the Vietnam War.

“These disaster fund programs paid claimants based on a showing that they were in the vicinity where harmful chemicals were present and had a medically diagnosed illness or disability. The rationale for not requiring medical proof of causation in the Agent Orange Settlement Fund, which was replicated in the 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund, is ‘the inconclusive state of the scientific evidence’ to demonstrate that a specific toxic exposure caused a specific physical harm.”

By creating a significantly higher burden of proof standard for illness claims by people exposed to toxic chemicals during their cleanup of BP’s oil disaster, Feinberg effectively denies all damage claims for illnesses associated with exposure to the toxic BP crude oil and or toxic chemical dispersants that were applied to the oil spill.

Feinberg’s unprecedented standard implies that the sacrifices that cleanup workers and volunteers have made to protect the coastal communities, livelihoods, culture, marine species and wildlife of the Gulf Region from the largest environmental disaster in the history of the United States are of lesser importance.

It also implies that people living in or visiting the Gulf Coast who were exposed to BP’s oil and or chemical dispersants do not deserve the same level of protection afforded to the residents and visitors in the vicinity of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorists attacks, who received financial compensation for toxic exposure-related illness without medical proof of causation.

This is not the first time that AEHR has intervened for justice in the claims process. On June 11, 2010, less than two months after the BP oil drilling disaster, AEHR exposed the fact that BP contracted with a claims processing company that promoted its record of reducing lost dollar payouts for injuries and damage caused by its client companies. This company, ESIS, Inc., was administering the claims filed by people who suffered injuries and losses from the BP oil disaster.

A few weeks later, Kenneth Feinberg was appointed as the administrator to take over the BP claims process and he established the Gulf Coast Claims Facility. Clearly, the fight for justice for those affected by the BP disaster is not over.

The report can be downloaded at ehumanrights.org.

Jordan Flaherty, a New Orleans-based journalist and staffer with the Louisiana Justice Institute, is the author of the book, “Floodlines: Community and Resistance from Katrina to the Jena Six.” He can be reached at neworleans@leftturn.org. This story first appeared on Huffington Post.

Black leaders travel to London to press BP for $488 million in claims for voiceless citizens

by Ivan Thomas

A rally, prayer vigil and press conference outside St. Paul Cathedral in London at noon Aug. 2 will be led by Art Rocker, a social justice leader and founder of Operation People for Peace, a multi-racial organization of religious, business and community leaders formed to advocate for the poor people impacted by BP’s oil spill in the Gulf Coast region. He will be joined by legendary entertainer and social activist Dick Gregory, Dr. E. Faye Williams, chair of the National Congress of Black Women, and Jimmie Gardner, police chief of Pritchard, Alabama.

The delegation represents citizens, churches, hoteliers and small businesses and others without significant political and economic clout. In pursuit of its goal to persuade BP to meet its obligations to them, the delegation has requested a meeting with BP executives.

Rocker said the delegation will be pushing for a $488 million settlement of outstanding claims. “It has been determined that better than 90 percent of our claimants are single parents with an average of two children,” he said. “Their earnings are below the poverty line; they live in geographic locations and are engaged in occupations that were impacted the most by the economic fallout that followed the spill.”

Pritchard, Alabama, offers a good example of how inadequate BP’s offers have been so far, Rocker said. Half the town is out of work, yet they have received only $54,000 – about $1 per person, Rocker said. “That’s a disgrace and a shame.” Neighboring areas have received much larger settlements, he said.

“The oil spill decimated the Gulf’s travel and tourism industries, which represent 46 percent of the Gulf’s economy, and sadly it is estimated that the oil spill has caused the loss of at least 1 million jobs,” Williams added. “British Petroleum must pay the underserved! Not to do so is unconscionable, and we will do everything in our power to get the underserved paid.”

Said Gregory: “Mr. Kenneth Feinberg, a representative of BP who has been allotted $20 billion to settle the claims for damage caused by the BP oil spill, has done nothing to ease the pain of the poor and underserved. Mr. Feinberg has done nothing more than make false promises of payment. I have come to the conclusion that his job is simply to block payments to poor people, not to settle them. His intentions may be good, but it seems that he has no authority to actually pay claims to the people we represent, so it’s time to move our efforts to another level. That’s why we are traveling to London.”

Ivan Thomas can be reached at ivan@jerrythomaspr.com.

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by Kelly Parker, Special from The Louisiana Weekly

Each summer when a news conference is held to announce the Rethinkers’ recommendations for their schools, the youngsters – mostly middle school students – conduct it themselves. – Photo: Andy Cook

The correlation between unhealthy food choices and crime and violence was at the focal point of this year’s Rethink press conference. “Candy Bars, Prison Bars — How Schools Can Reverse the Major Youth Epidemics of Our Time” took place last Thursday at the New Orleans Charter Science and Math high school in uptown New Orleans.

“Here in Louisiana, we have the fourth highest obesity rate in the nation; 20 percent of our children in this state are obese,” Rethinker Vernard Carter stated. “The school-to-prison pipeline is when children are pushed out of school because of many policies and pushed into the juvenile justice system.”

Carter added that this year, there are over 4,000 youth under the supervision of the Louisiana Office of Juvenile Justice. “Why? he asked. “What’s wrong here?”

Rethink’s kids’ Rethink New Orleans Schools summer news conferences have become a post-Katrina tradition packed with school officials and community members who listen closely to these advocates for New Orleans school reform — many of them middle schoolers. Thursday’s event was no different. On hand was Karen DeSalvo, City of New Orleans commissioner of health; Troi Bechet, executive director, Center for Restorative Approaches; Marsha Broussard; Benjamin Marcovitz, founder and principal of New Orleans Charter Science and Math Academy (Sci Academy); and Recovery School District Superintendent John White.

School officials and community leaders and residents turned out en masse for the Rethink New Orleans Schools new conference July 21. – Photo: Andy Cook

Rethinkers, that is, school reformers, aged 8 to 18 have set out to cease what they call “the two biggest youth epidemics of our time” — childhood obesity and the school-to-prison pipeline. Last month, the Rethinkers received a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Funders’ Collaborative on Youth Organizing to conduct a youth-driven campaign to stem childhood obesity in area schools. The July 21 news conference marked the official campaign launch.

“Over the summer, we learned that childhood obesity and the school-to-prison pipeline are connected,” Vernard Carter told those in attendance. He continued:

“First, they both affect a disproportionate amount of low-income Black youth. Second, when students eat unhealthy, sugary foods, have no exercise and have a lot of stress, they tend to act out in school, which often leads to suspension and expulsion, which basically puts them in the juvenile justice system.

“We as young people most affected by these epidemics should be at the forefront of this fight for change.”

The Rethinkers delivered 12 recommendations to their superintendents, principals, charter school operators and fellow students.

The Rethinkers showed off their best moves to prove they practice what they preach. – Photo: Andy Cook

The group also asks that teachers reward students with healthier treats in place of candy bars. “That’s really not helping us to be healthy and fit,” says Rethinker Arieanna McKnight. Another goal of the Rethinkers is to provide healthier options in school vending machines.

This parallel addressed by the group is nothing new. In 2009, research led by Simon Moore, a senior lecturer in violence and society research at Cardiff University in the U.K., showed that “kids with the worst problems tend to be impulsive risk takers and that these kids had terrible diets — breakfast was Coke and a bag of chips,” for example.

“We are thrilled at the kind of thinking and work that the Rethinkers are doing,” City Commissioner of Health Karen DeSalvo said. “You guys are a wonderful voice, not just of youth but, I think, for everybody who cares about us being healthy. I hope we can become a model for other cities.”

The Rethinkers are asking that schools provide all students from grades K-8 with 30 minutes of physical exercise a day — which is a Louisiana state law. They also recommend the inclusion of the innovative Instant Recess Activity, a concept introduced by Dr. Toni Yancey, a UCLA professor, which consists of regular 10-minute exercise breaks that can be incorporated at work, in the community and in the classroom twice a day, giving more exercise options to all students.

The Rethinkers are dead serious about their work. Starting with a campaign against the pesky “sporks,” the plastic spoon-forks that plagued their lunchtimes, the topics they’ve investigated have grown more challenging over the years since they began after Katrina. This year, they’ve taken on junk food and the school-to-prison pipeline, topics that many of our nation’s leaders fear to address. – Photo: Andy Cook

Ron Triggs, a fourth-grade “PreThinker,” says: “All students need to exercise, so they can burn off energy and focus in class. If some don’t exercise, they will act out and get in trouble. We have P.E. in my school, but not every week.”

The group highly stressed the need for community-building activities in every homeroom, along with support groups including teachers, counselors and students. To the Rethinkers, the issue of conflict resolution is a key component in this campaign.

“After someone has participated in a restorative justice circle, they are 60 percent less likely to get in trouble again,” says Vernard Carter. “We strongly suggest that restorative justice be placed in all schools in place of suspensions and expulsions.”

RSD Superintendent White invited the Rethinkers to meet with his staff to take the next step in helping change many of the policies the group has addressed.

“I’d like to invite a committee of the Rethinkers to come in and meet with me and experts who have advised us on the issues.”

Kelly Parker is a freelance reporter for The Louisiana Weekly, where this article first appeared.

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Did New Orleans media contribute to police violence after Hurricane Katrina?

by Jordan Flaherty

As thousands swelter and starve and babies and old folks die of heat and dehydration in the days they were trapped at the New Orleans Convention Center, military forces ignore their needs as they patrol for looters. – Photo: MCT

The shootings occurred on Sept. 4, 2005, as two families were fleeing Katrina’s floodwaters, crossing New Orleans’ Danziger Bridge to get to dry land. Officers, who apparently heard a radio report about shootings in the area, drove up, leapt out of their vehicle and began firing. Ronald Madison, a mentally challenged man, was shot in the back at least five times, then reportedly stomped and kicked by an officer until he was dead.

His brother, Lance Madison, was arrested on false charges. James Brissette, a high school student, was shot seven times and died at the scene. Susan Bartholomew, 38, was wounded so badly her arm was shot off of her body. Jose Holmes Jr. was shot several times; then as he lay bleeding an officer stood over him and fired point blank at his stomach. Two other relatives of Bartholomew were also badly wounded.

Danziger is one of at least nine recent incidents involving the NOPD being investigated by the U.S. Justice Department, several of which happened in the days after the city was flooded. Officers have recently been convicted by federal prosecutors in two other high-profile trials. In April, two officers were found guilty in the beating death of Raymond Robair, a handyman from the Treme neighborhood. In December, a jury convicted three officers and acquitted two in killing Henry Glover, a 31-year-old from New Orleans’ West Bank neighborhood, and burning his body.

From Survivors to Looters

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, people around the world felt sympathy for New Orleans. They saw images of residents trapped on rooftops by floodwaters, needing rescue by boat and helicopter. But then stories began to come out about looters and gangs among the survivors, and the official response shifted from humanitarian aid to military operation. Then-Gov. Kathleen Blanco, sent in National Guard troops, announcing: “They have M-16s and are locked and loaded. These troops know how to shoot and kill and I expect they will.” Warren Riley, at that time the second in charge of the police department, reportedly ordered officers to “take the city back and shoot looters.”

New Orleans police murdered Ronald Madison Sept. 4, 2005, on the Danziger Bridge.

There is evidence that local media could have done a better job. Alex Brandon, a photographer for the New Orleans’ Times-Picayune newspaper who later went on to work for Associated Press, testified in the Henry Glover trial that he knew details about the police killings that he didn’t reveal. “He saw things and heard things that proved to be useful in a criminal investigation. He didn’t report them as news,” wrote Picayune columnist Jarvis DeBerry after the Glover trial concluded.

Former Orleans Parish District Attorney Eddie Jordan, who led an initial investigation of the Danziger officers, believes an indifferent local media bears partial responsibility for the years of cover-up. “They were looking for heroes,” he says. “They had a cozy relationship with the police. They got tips from the police, they were in bed with the police. It was an atmosphere of tolerance for atrocities from the police. They abdicated their responsibility to be critical in their reporting. If a few people got killed, that was a small price to pay.”

Family members and advocates tried to get the stories of police violence out through protests, press conferences and other means. Peoples Hurricane Relief Fund, an organization dedicated to justice in reconstruction, held a tribunal in 2006 where they presented accusations of police violence – among other charges – to a panel of international judges and members of parliament from seven countries. Activists even brought charges to the United Nations, filing a shadow report in February 2008 with the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in Geneva.

After police murdered his brother, Ronald, they accuse Lance Madison of shooting at them. – Photo: Alex Brandon, Times-Picayune

In 2009, after years of pressure from activists and the national attention brought on by AC Thompson’s reporting, the U.S. Justice Department decided to look into the accusations of police violence. This has led to one of the most wide-ranging investigations of a police department in recent U.S. history. Dozens of officers are facing lengthy prison terms, and corruption charges have reached to the very top of the department.

The Danziger trial is expected to last two months. Kenneth Bowen, Robert Gisevius, Anthony Villavaso and Robert Faulcon, the officers involved in the shooting, could receive life sentences if convicted. Sgt. Arthur Kaufman, who was not on the bridge, is charged only in the conspiracy and could receive a maximum of 120 years. Justice Department investigations of other incidents are continuing, and it is likely that some form of federal oversight of the department will be announced in the coming months.

Jordan Flaherty is an author, journalist and staffer with the Louisiana Justice Institute. He is the author of “Floodlines: Community and Resistance from Katrina to the Jena Six,” and his award-winning reporting from the Gulf Coast has been featured in a range of outlets including the New York Times, Al Jazeera and Argentina’s Clarin newspaper. He can be reached at neworleans@leftturn.org, and more information about “Floodlines” can be found at floodlines.org. For speaking engagements, see communityandresistance.wordpress.com.

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An elderly prisoner battles lung cancer in the prison hospice, far from loved ones. – Photo: DocumentaryMagazine.com

The bill, H.B. 138, passed June 20 by the Louisiana Senate after it was passed two weeks ago by the state’s House of Representatives, will enable some prisoners to go before a parole board upon turning 60 years of age. The board can then decide to grant parole to those individuals who would pose no danger to the community upon release.

“Louisiana should not be using taxpayer dollars to lock up elderly individuals when they pose no danger to our communities,” said Marjorie Esman, executive director of the ACLU of Louisiana. “The state’s legislature deserves credit for tackling the state’s problem of over-incarceration by passing bills like this one.”

Louisiana has the largest incarcerated population of any state in the nation and half of those behind bars in Louisiana are there for non-violent offenses. The state has 1,224 people over the age of 60 locked up, 3 percent of the state’s total prison population.

The Louisiana Department of Corrections estimates that while it costs $19,888 to house a state prisoner for a year, it costs $80,000 to house an ailing inmate.

Research also shows that the likelihood of recidivism drops significantly with age. According to state corrections statistics, only 0.3 percent of those released at age 55 or older recidivate and end up reincarcerated.

With the passage of today’s bill, Louisiana tackled what is a national problem of needlessly incarcerating elderly prisoners. Across the nation, more than 35,000 people over the age of 60 are in prison, or 2.3 percent of the nation’s total prison population.

“Today, more Americans than ever before are unnecessarily and unfairly deprived of their liberty with no benefit to public safety and at great expense to taxpayers,” said Inimai Chettiar, policy counsel with the national ACLU. “Louisiana is to be commended for looking for ways to reduce its bloated prison population, and other states around the country should follow Louisiana’s lead.”

More information about the ACLU of Louisiana is available at www.laaclu.org. More information about the ACLU’s national initiative to combat mass incarceration is available at www.aclu.org/combating-mass-incarceration.

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Thousands more Black home owners who lost their homes when the levees burst in 2005 would rebuild and return to New Orleans if the Road Home program would treat them fairly.

Post-Katrina housing case continues after D.C. Circuit ruling

On April 8, a federal court of appeals issued a ruling explaining its decision to set aside preliminary injunctions previously granted against the state of Louisiana regarding its administration of the Road Home program. The preliminary injunctions were granted at the request of two fair housing groups and African-American homeowners in New Orleans who filed suit on behalf of families displaced in the wake of hurricanes Rita and Katrina.

The plaintiffs have argued that the formula used to award grants under the Road Home program – under which African Americans were more likely than whites to receive grants based on pre-storm home values rather than the cost of repair – was discriminatory. Therefore, we requested and received temporary relief from the court to prevent the discriminatory effects of the formula from harming more families.

Today’s decision states that we have not yet provided enough evidence to convince this court that we would ultimately prevail. However, the decision sends the case back to the lower court and gives plaintiffs the opportunity to seek additional evidence to prove their case. Thus, the case is not over and we will continue to pursue relief for the thousands of families affected.

We are pleased to hear that state officials share our commitment to reaching a resolution that benefits families without the need for further litigation. And we pledge to continue working with state and federal officials toward that end.

The Road Home case, styled as Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center v. HUD, alleges that the formula used to allocate grants to homeowners has a discriminatory impact on African-American homeowners. Program data show that African Americans are more likely than whites to have their Road Home grants based upon the pre-storm market value of their homes, rather than the estimated cost to repair damage.

The plaintiffs in this case are five African-American homeowners in New Orleans representing a potential class of thousands of African-American homeowners and two fair housing organizations, the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center and the National Fair Housing Alliance. Plaintiffs are represented by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll, the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center, the National Fair Housing Alliance, and Wilmer, Cutler, Pickering, Hale & Dorr.

The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) is America’s premier legal organization fighting for racial justice. Through litigation, advocacy, and public education, LDF seeks structural changes to expand democracy, eliminate disparities, and achieve racial justice in a society that fulfills the promise of equality for all Americans. LDF also defends the gains and protections won over the past 70 years of civil rights struggle and works to improve the quality and diversity of judicial and executive appointments.

Rights groups sue Louisiana over voting rights violations

The NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Inc. (LDF), Project Vote and New Orleans attorney Ronald Wilson filed a complaint in federal court April 20 on behalf of the state conference of the NAACP and several private individuals, alleging that Louisiana is disenfranchising minority and low-income voters by failing to offer them the opportunity to register to vote as required by the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA).

“By failing to comply with the National Voter Registration Act, Louisiana is denying minority and low-income voters across the state equal access to the ballot box,” said Dale Ho, assistant counsel with LDF’s Political Participation Group.

The NVRA requires public assistance agencies that provide services to low-income residents to offer their clients the opportunity to register to vote with every application for benefits, renewal, recertification or change of address transaction. The complaint cites evidence showing that Louisiana agencies are failing to carry out their responsibilities under this law.

Despite consistently high numbers of participants in Louisiana’s food stamp and Medicaid programs, voter registration applications originating from public assistance agencies have been surprisingly low. As of 2008, voter registration applications originating in these agencies had dropped 88 percent from 1995, despite increased participation in public assistance programs. The complaint also cites the results of agency investigations and interviews with public assistance recipients showing widespread non-compliance.

“Registration at public assistance agencies is important for reaching populations that are less likely to register through other means, including low-income residents, minorities and persons with disabilities,” says Nicole Zeitler, director of the Public Agency Voter Registration Project at Project Vote. “By ignoring this vital law, Louisiana is denying this right to thousands of its residents every year.”

“Of course, we would have preferred to resolve this matter absent the need for litigation,” said New Orleans attorney Ronald Wilson. However, continued Wilson, “the state’s refusal to make the changes required to bring it into compliance with federal law left us with no other alternative.”

In recent years, similar lawsuits in other states have resulted in tremendous increases in voter registration numbers. For example, the number of clients registering through public assistance agencies in Missouri and Ohio has increased more than tenfold following settlement of NVRA lawsuits in those states.

Project Vote is a national nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that promotes voting in historically underrepresented communities. Project Vote takes a leadership role in nationwide voting rights and election administration issues, working through research, legal services, and advocacy to ensure that our constituencies are not prevented from registering and voting.

For more information, contact Mel Gagarin at mgagarin@naacpldf.org.

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by A.C. Thompson

This is the burnt car in which the remains of Henry Glover were found. – Photo: ProPublica

Judge Lance Africk sentenced ex-officer David Warren to 25 years for shooting Glover with an assault rifle and sentenced former cop Greg McRae to 17 years for torching the man’s corpse as it lay in a car parked on the banks of the Mississippi.

Travis McCabe, a former police lieutenant, has also been convicted in connection with Glover’s death, but he is pushing for a new trial and has yet to be sentenced. Judge Africk is scheduled to hear McCabe’s appeal on April 21.

Spurred by an investigation from ProPublica and The Nation magazine linking the killing to the New Orleans police force, federal agents began probing the matter, eventually bringing charges against Warren, McRae, McCabe and two others, Lt. Dwayne Scheuermann and former Lt. Robert Italiano.

The five were tried late last year, with the jury acquitting Scheuermann and Italiano.

The slaying of Glover, a 31-year-old father of four, the desecration of his body and the police coverup have captured international media attention and sparked calls to reform the long-troubled police force, a process now under way. Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Justice released a 158-page study documenting “systemic violations of civil rights” by New Orleans police and suggesting the police force had a pattern of covering up questionable conduct by cops.

Looking into incidents in which officers opened fire on civilians during the past two years, Justice Department investigators found the New Orleans police showed little interest in determining whether these shootings were proper and legally justified.

“The systemic deficiencies in NOPD’s investigation and review of officer-involved shootings are so egregious that they appear in some respects to be deliberate,” states the report. “NOPD officer-involved shooting investigations consistently fail to gather evidence, establish critical facts, or fairly analyze the evidence that is readily available.”

Feds find ‘systemic violations of civil rights’ by New Orleans Police Department

The U.S. Department of Justice released a 158-page report March 17 on the New Orleans Police Department, identifying a host of deep systemic problems, including a pattern of discriminatory policing, the routine use of “unnecessary and unreasonable” force and a chronic failure to discipline officers involved in misconduct.

ATF Special Response Team and the NOPD SWAT team search the Convention Center after Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans on Sept. 5, 2005. – Photo: Alex Brandon, New Orleans Times-Picayune

The report also suggests that NOPD officials may have sought to cover up evidence in incidents in which police shot civilians. “NOPD’s mishandling of officer-involved shooting investigations was so blatant and egregious that it appeared intentional in some respects,” the report says.

As ProPublica has reported, federal prosecutors have built a string of criminal cases against 20 current or former officers over the last three years. In December, one former cop and two members of the force were convicted in connection with the murder of a man and incineration of his body in the days after Hurricane Katrina.

But today’s report describes a department with deep-rooted, comprehensive flaws that extend far beyond a small number of cops.

Now the effort to transform the police department will likely wind up in the hands of a federal judge. At a press conference releasing the report, Thomas Perez, the assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division, signaled his intent to seek a consent decree, a move that would place the police force under the supervision of a court.

Police Chief Ronal Serpas said today he was steering the police force in that direction as well. “When we finish this process with the Department of Justice, there will be oversight by a court,” said Serpas, who took the helm last spring and has implemented a series of reforms.

Interestingly, the NOPD was in a similar position in the mid-1990s, when a string of crimes by police officers – including murders – prompted the Justice Department to consider imposing federal oversight. At that juncture, however, the agency decided not to seek a consent decree, allowing Police Chief Richard Pennington to overhaul the NOPD’s training and disciplinary systems without the involvement of a judge.

Clearly, the improvements initiated by Pennington – who left the police force after losing a bid to become mayor of New Orleans in 2002 – didn’t stick.

In an interview last year, we asked Perez, who grappled with the NOPD’s problems while working for the Justice Department during the ‘90s, what lessons he’d drawn from that experience.

“There was nothing that was ever memorialized in writing. There was no accountability tool,” said Perez in the interview, which was conducted for “Law & Disorder,” a documentary produced by ProPublica, PBS “Frontline” and the New Orleans Times-Picayune. “Hindsight is 20/20 and the fact of the matter is the reforms were not sustained and that is why we’re working in a much different way this time around.”

A.C. Thompson, now with ProPublica, previously wrote for the San Francisco Bay Guardian and SF Weekly. He is co-author of the book “Torture Taxi: On the Trail of the CIA’s Rendition Flights” and can be reached at A.C.Thompson@propublica.org. Both these stories first appeared on ProPublica.org, “Feds Find ‘Systemic Violations of Civil Rights’ by New Orleans Police Department” at http://www.propublica.org/nola/story/feds-find-systemic-violations-of-civil-rights-by-new-orleans-police-departm/ and “Judge Hands Out Tough Sentences in Post-Katrina Killing by Police” at http://www.propublica.org/nola/story/judge-hands-out-tough-sentences-in-post-katrina-killing-by-police.

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Race and politics in a rural Louisiana town attract national attention

by Jordan Flaherty

Mayor Bobby Higginbotham

While the mayor and police chief were both found guilty last year, their defenders say the trials have not resolved the conflict. Rachel Conner, a lawyer representing Higginbotham in his appeal, says she has never seen a case with so many flaws. “Essentially, every single thing that you can do to violate someone’s constitutional rights from beginning to end happened in his case,” she says.

The charges and counter charges are difficult to untangle. At the center of the case is a state audit of Waterproof that found irregularities in the town’s record keeping. The parish district attorney says the audit shows mayoral corruption. The mayor says the problems pre-date his term, and he had taken steps to correct the issues. The mayor’s opponents claim he stole from the town by illegally increasing his salary. His supporters say he received a raise that was voted on by the town aldermen.

The mayor initially faced 44 charges; all but two were dropped before the trial began. Those charges – malfeasance in office and felony theft – were related to the disputed raise and use of the town’s credit card. Miles Jenkins, the police chief, faced charges related to his enforcement of traffic tickets.

The mayor was quickly convicted of both charges but lawyers have raised challenges to the convictions, bringing a number of legal complaints. For example, in a town that is 60 percent African-American, Mayor Higginbotham had only one Black juror.

Higginbotham’s counsel was disqualified by the DA, and the public defender had a conflict of interest, leaving the mayor with no lawyer. Two days before trial began, the DA gave Higginbotham 10 boxes of files related to his case. Higginbotham’s request for an extension to get an attorney and to examine the files was denied.

There’s more: During jury selection, when Higginbotham – forced to act as his own lawyer – tried to strike one juror who had relationships with several of the witnesses, he was told he could not, even though he had challenges remaining. There was also a problem with a sound recorder that the court reporter was using, and as a result there is no transcript at all for at least two witnesses’ testimony. Finally, during deliberation, the judge gave the jury polling slips that had “guilty” pre-selected and then later hid the slips.

When Higginbotham was convicted, the judge refused to set bail in any amount. Although a possible sentence for the crime was probation and despite former mayor’s obvious ties to the community, Higginbotham has spent the last 10 months in jail while his lawyers have worked on his appeal. “He’s not a flight risk,” says Conner. “He’s tied to Waterproof and he’s got a vested interest in clearing his name.”

Civil rights and Black political power

Waterproof, Louisiana, is a rural town near the Mississippi border best known for holding an immigration detention center. The town – population approximately 800 – sits in Tensas Parish, a mostly agrarian region of the state. Community members say the civil rights movement came late to Tensas; it was the last parish in the state where Black residents were able to register to vote, and the Klan was active until late in the 20th century.

The current troubles began in September of 2006, when Higginbotham was elected mayor of Waterproof. Soon after, he appointed his associate, Miles Jenkins, as chief of police. Jenkins, who served in the U.S. military for 30 years and earned a master’s degree in public administration from Troy University in Alabama, immediately began the work of professionalizing a small town police department that had previously been mostly inactive.

Police Chief Miles Jenkins

The charges against Higginbotham come in a context where many African Americans in Louisiana feel that Black political power in the state – and in the country – is under attack. Tens of thousands of African-American, mostly Democratic, voters remain displaced from the state post-Katrina.

For the first time since the post-Civil War era, both houses of the legislature have Republican majorities, and every statewide elected official is Republican. The newly-dominant Republican majority will oversee the state’s legislative redistricting as well as passage of Gov. Bobby Jindal’s agenda, which includes large cuts to public education and other services, including the elimination of Southern University of New Orleans, a historically Black state university.

The allegations also come at a time of corruption investigations around the state that many civil rights activists say have disproportionately targeted Black elected officials. Tommy Nelson, the Black mayor of the Louisiana town of New Roads, recently filed a motion in U.S. District Court that accuses government investigators of exclusive targeting of Black elected officials, beginning with a National Conference of Black Mayors gathering in New Orleans in June 2008. The investigation Nelson refers to resulted in racketeering charges against him, as well as Black elected officials in the Louisiana towns of White Castle and Port Allen. While the Waterproof case is not connected to these other corruption investigations, the cases add context to the charges from allies of Higginbotham that Black political power is the real target of the investigations.

Black political power is the real target of the investigations.

For Conner, the fact that the former mayor remains locked in jail awaiting appeal is the most shocking part of this case. “The vindictiveness and whatever else is going on under the surface – I think that’s where it shows itself,” she says. Pointing to much more high-profile cases, with much more money involved, Conner asks why Higginbotham is still locked up. “William Jefferson is out on bail. Tom Delay is out,” she says. “And then you’ve got a guy with errors in his trial from A to Z. They didn’t even set $3 million dollars as his bond. They set no bond.”

The mayor and his allies have filed legal appeals and are hoping for the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate or for national media to come in. Tens of thousands of people have signed a petition, initiated by Color of Change, asking Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal to intervene. Chief Jenkins, who still has pending charges, believes that once word gets out, justice will come to Waterproof. “People need to see exactly what is going on in these little Southern towns around here,” he says.

Jordan Flaherty is a journalist and staffer with the Louisiana Justice Institute. His award-winning reporting from the Gulf Coast has been featured in a range of outlets including the New York Times, Mother Jones and Argentina’s Clarin newspaper. He has produced news segments for Al-Jazeera, TeleSur and Democracy Now and appeared as a guest on CNN Morning, Anderson Cooper 360 and Keep Hope Alive with the Rev. Jesse Jackson. For Flaherty’s previous coverage of this story, see “Did a White Sheriff and District Attorney Orchestrate a Race-Based Coup in Northern Louisiana?”His new book is “Floodlines: Community and Resistance from Katrina to the Jena Six.” He can be reached at neworleans@leftturn.org. For speaking engagements, see communityandresistance.wordpress.com.

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by Jamilah King

Orleans Parish Prison

The ordinance paves the way for construction of a 1,438-bed jail — less than a third of the size of the originally proposed expansion that called for more than 4,000 beds. As a point of comparison, before Hurricane Katrina the city’s jail complex had about 7,500 beds and housed prison inmates who had already been tried, convicted and sentenced.

Local and national activists have applauded the vote. In a mailing to its members, advocacy group Color of Change called the move a major victory:

“The significance of this cannot be overstated. New Orleans has been notorious for locking up a higher percentage of its adult population than any other large city in the nation. Stories abounded of men and women going to jail for offenses that routinely only merit tickets in other cities. The frequent arrests were spurred on by the jail’s funding structure, which created a perverse incentive to keep the jail as full as possible.”

A 2009 report by the U.S. Department of Justice cited abusive and poor health conditions inside Orleans Parish Prison, the official name for New Orleans’ city jail.

“During the time the size of the new jail has been discussed, the murder rate in our city has, unfortunately, not decreased,” Orleans Parish Criminal Sheriff Marlin Gusman told the Times-Picayune.

Gusman presented the original proposal that called for more beds and issued a statement last week harshly criticizing the ordinance. In it, the sheriff said that the ordinance’s many provisions may prevent the jail from being built altogether, which at the end of the day he said would “be costly to taxpayers and prolong the use of antiquated prison facilities.”

It’s been a tough road to last week’s vote. When supporters of the smaller jail compared New Orleans with neighboring Jefferson Parish’s 1,200-inmate facility, Gusman called it “ludicrous” and naive to the city’s obvious realities.

“We are not an average city,” Gusman told the Times-Picayune last September, adding that New Orleans is urban and largely poor, while Jefferson Parish is a “bedroom community.”

For criminal justice reform advocates, that’s exactly the point. They claim that having smaller jails will force the city to explore alternatives to incarceration that tackle systemic issues like joblessness and poverty.

In that vein, nearly 50 of the city’s faith leaders are standing by the council’s vote. The Times-Picayune reported that a group of leaders from several different faiths recently released a letter they sent to the council saying that building a jail with more beds “will threaten the city’s efforts to transform our criminal justice system into a more humane, effective and efficient system that is capable of ensuring equal justice for all.”

San Francisco native Jamilah King is the news editor at Colorlines.com, where this story first appeared, coordinating story assignments and news breaks as well as covering urban politics, youth culture and Internet policy. She tweets at @jamilahking.

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by Bill Quigley

Anthony Cohen, homeless since 2005, protests outside City Hall in New Orleans. – Photo: Kenneth Hawkins, New York Times Student Journalism

The eight young people, estimated to be in their late teens and early 20s, remain unidentified. “We don’t know their IDs,” said the Fire Department. “They were so burned we cannot even tell their genders.”

Audrey, a young woman with brown dreads and a Polish last name, arrived at the scorched scene. She spent the night in the warehouse a couple of times. Because last night was so cold she and a few others begged money from people in the French Quarter and got enough to spend the night in a hotel.

Do you know who was in there? “Usually 10 to 15 people. Nobody uses last names, but Katy, Jeff, Sammy, Nicky, John and Mooncat usually stay there,” she sobbed. Why did people stay here? “A lot of freight hoppers stay here,” she said, pointing to the nearby trains. “We are just passing through, hopping trains. We don’t have any money.” Behind her a group of young people were crying and hugging as they picked up pieces of a navy blue sweatshirt from the burnt remains.

There are an estimated 1.6 to 2.8 million homeless youth in the U.S., people between the ages of 12 and 24, according to a June 2010 report by the Center for American Progress. Most are homeless because of abuse, neglect and family conflict. Gay and transgender youth are strikingly over-represented.

The fire happened in an area of abandoned warehouses at the end of Prieur Street, two blocks towards the train tracks down from the new Family Dollar on Claiborne. It is a modest neighborhood. Some people are back; some aren’t. One block from the warehouses is a long lime green shotgun house with a beautiful red rose bush in front. Next door stands a big gray double shotgun with a wide open door and tattered curtains hanging out broken windows. Untouched since Katrina, the gray house sports “OWNER HAS DOG” spray painted on the front and the date, “10.8.5.” “After Katrina, people don’t have the money to fix their houses up,” said the firefighter.

Across the street from the blackened warehouse is a vacant lot with a tiny handmade wooden shelter at its end. No electricity, no water. Inside are a mattress and some clothes. Follow the path through the weeds and there is another long vacant building that looks like it was once a school. Clearly people stay here as well. Empty cans of baked beans, chili and Vienna sausages are piled next to Four Loko cans, jars of peanut butter and empty juice boxes. “Where’s our skate park?” is painted onto the wall in blazing red. A Thanksgiving card with a teddy bear on the outside lies on the pavement. Nana wishes the best to granddaughter Heather and son Dave.

: Calvin Sampson wraps himself in a blanket, trying to stay warm as temperatures plummet to the low 30s. He is homeless in the area of Claiborne and Canal Street, New Orleans. – Photo: Chris Granger, New Orleans Times-Picayune

Since Katrina, New Orleans has a severe homeless problem because of the scarcity of affordable housing. HUD and local governments demolished over 4,000 affordable public housing apartments after Katrina. “The current housing crisis in New Orleans reflects the disastrous impact of the demolition policy,” according to the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing in a February 2010 report very critical of the United States. Rents rose. Tens of thousands of homes remain vacant. Over 30,000 families are on the waiting list for affordable housing.

A November 2010 report from the Greater New Orleans Community Data Center pegs the number of vacant and blighted properties at over 40,000 in New Orleans with more in the suburbs – 14,000 of which are owned by the government.

Unity for the Homeless has been asking for help for people living in abandoned buildings for years. They have four outreach workers who nightly check on people living in abandoned buildings. Five recommendations from Unity to help these thousands of people: convert abandoned building into housing for the homeless; fund case managers to help people with disabilities move into housing; fund additional outreach and housing search workers; create a small shelter with intensive services for people with mental health problems who are resistant to shelters; and make a serious investment in affordable rental housing. There are several hundred housing vouchers available for disabled homeless people but no money to fund the caseworkers they need.

Nationally, the U.S. has severely cut its investment in affordable housing despite increasing need from the foreclosure and economic crises. Homelessness is of course up all over. The U.S. Conference of Mayors reported in December 2010 that demands for food and housing are up across the country. The causes? Unemployment, high housing costs and low wages.

Will we look into our abandoned buildings and look into the eyes of our abandoned daughters and sons and sisters and brothers? Will our nation address unemployment, high housing costs and low wages? Will we address the abuse, neglect and family conflict that create homelessness for millions of youth, especially gay and transgender youth? Or will the fires continue and the lives end?

Bill Quigley is legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights and law professor at Loyola University New Orleans. You can reach him at quigley77@gmail.com

More Than A Roof Trailer from NESRI on Vimeo.

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A struggle over the size of New Orleans’ jail could define the city’s future

by Jordan Flaherty

Orleans Parish Prison, with 3,500 beds the largest per capita county jail of any major U.S. city, is a giant complex in Midcity New Orleans made up of several buildings spread across a dozen blocks. It’s a small empire under the absolute control of the city sheriff, who can use jail employees for election campaigns and send out prisoners to work for local businesses. Almost 60,000 people have passed through OPP in the last 12 months. – Photo: David Grunfeld, Times-Picayune

With 3,500 beds in a city of about 350,000 residents, Orleans Parish Prison (OPP) is already the largest per capita county jail of any major U.S. city. Sheriff Marlin Gusman, the elected official with oversight over the jail, has submitted plans for an even larger complex.

A broad coalition of community members is seeking to take the city in a different direction. They want a smaller facility, and they are demanding that the money that would be spent on a larger jail be diverted to alternatives to incarceration, like drug treatment programs and mental health facilities.

At first, it seemed like an expansion of OPP was inevitable. This is a city with one of the highest rates of violent crime in the U.S., and politicians rarely lose votes by calling for more jail cells. But in a city that has led the nation in incarceration, residents across race and class lines are questioning fundamental assumptions about what works in criminal justice.

A broad array of criminal justice experts and community leaders has spoken in favor of a smaller jail. This is an issue that has allowed the religious foundation Baptist Community Ministries and prison abolition organizers from Critical Resistance to find common ground. The online activist group ColorOfChange.org also recently joined in the conversation, with an appeal that has generated hundreds of emails to the mayor and city council.

A broad array of criminal justice experts and community leaders has spoken in favor of a smaller jail.

“In all the work we’ve been doing on criminal justice reform, this is definitely a pivotal moment,” says Rosana Cruz, the associate director of VOTE, an organization that seeks to build power and civic engagement for formerly incarcerated people. “We’re finally getting local and state government to think about public safety from a perspective of real safety, not an incarceration perspective.”

The OPP Reform Coalition, a pre-Katrina alliance that has recently been revitalized, has led the campaign. In September, when it seemed like the prison expansion was proceeding without public debate, they took out a full-page ad in the city’s daily paper listing other things that the money spent on OPP could be spent on.

The ad featured an assortment of New Orleanians – including musicians, local politicians, community leaders, and members of the cast and crew of the HBO show Treme. The diverse assembly of public figures not only signed the ad, but also helped pay for it, donating $22.39 each, the amount that the jail currently charges the city for every prisoner. In the aftermath of the ad, attention turned to a working group formed by the mayor to address the issue.

Incarceration industry

Orleans Parish Prison is a giant complex in Midcity New Orleans, made up of several buildings spread across a dozen blocks employing nearly a thousand nonunion workers. The city jail is a small empire under the absolute control of the city sheriff, who can use jail employees for election campaigns and send out prisoners to work for local businesses. The majority of the metropolitan area’s mental health facilities are also located within the jail, meaning that for many who have mental health issues, the jail is their only option for treatment.

Louisiana’s incarceration rate is by far the highest in the world – more than 10 times higher than most European countries and 20 times higher than Japan. Pre-Katrina, OPP had 7,200 beds. In a city with a population of about 465,000, this came to about one bed for every 65 city residents. Neighboring Jefferson Parish has 100,000 more people than Orleans Parish and has only 900 beds. Caddo Parish – in the northeast of the state – has more violent crime but still imprisons far fewer people. If OPP had the same number of beds as the national average of one for every 388 residents, the jail would shrink to about 850 beds.

Aside from its size, OPP is unique in other ways. Under the terms of a lawsuit over prison conditions filed in 1969, the jail’s budget is based on a per-diem paid by the city for every inmate in prison. The more people locked in OPP, the higher the funding Sheriff Gusman has at his disposal. “Our current funding structure is creating a perverse incentive to lock more people up,” explains Dana Kaplan, the director of Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana, a criminal justice advocacy organization and member of the OPP Reform Coalition.

Under the terms of a lawsuit over prison conditions filed in 1969, the jail’s budget is based on a per-diem paid by the city for every inmate in prison. The more people locked in OPP, the higher the funding Sheriff Gusman has at his disposal.

The institution of OPP is also exceptional in that it is a county jail and a state prison combined into one entity. About 2,700 people in the jail are mostly pre-trial detainees – the majority being held for drug possession, traffic violations, public drunkenness or other nonviolent offenses – and are legally innocent. An additional 800 people are state prisoners who have been convicted in court, who may spend years or even decades at OPP.

Almost 60,000 people passed through OPP in the last 12 months, a staggering figure for a city of this size. The average length of stay was 20 days. The largest portion of pre-trial prisoners in the jail are there for nonviolent, municipal offenses that even under conservative standards should not warrant jail time, including 20,000 arrests this year for traffic violations.

“New Orleans is basically the incarceration capitol of the world,” says Kaplan. “You’re hard-pressed to find a resident of New Orleans – especially in poor communities – that hasn’t had their lives disrupted in some way by this institution.”

An article by journalist Ethan Brown in one of the city’s weekly papers noted, “Thanks to the profound misallocation of law enforcement resources in New Orleans, you’re more likely to end up in Orleans Parish Prison for a traffic offense than for armed robbery or murder.”

Ultimately, this struggle over the size of the jail is also about the city’s incarceration priorities. If the city builds a larger jail, it will have to keep filling it with tens of thousands of people. If a smaller facility is built, it will change who is arrested in the city and how long they spend behind bars.

Because much of the jail was underwater during Katrina, many of the buildings have either been closed or need massive renovation. By one estimate, the new jail that the sheriff seeks would cost $250 million, much of that to come in reimbursements from FEMA.

The sheriff has yet to reveal how much of the construction costs would come from federal dollars, although the state chapter of the ACLU has filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the information. Even if most of the construction were paid for by FEMA, as the sheriff has indicated, the continued upkeep would fall to the city.

Sheriff Gusman did not respond to requests for comment, but he has said, at a meeting of mayor’s task force on the jail, “I’ve always advocated for a smaller facility,” and spoke of being satisfied with 4,200 beds. The plans he has submitted to various planning bodies, however, indicate otherwise.

The sheriff has issued several conflicting statements and reports about the size of the jail he is seeking, as well as where the funding will come from. A “Justice Facilities Master Plan,” prepared in collaboration with the Sheriff’s Office, called for 8,000 beds, which would give the jail capacity to imprison nearly one of every 40 people currently in the city. A planning document recently prepared by the sheriff called for 5,800 beds. No plans or public documents issued by his office have called for building a jail smaller than the current facility.

Spotlight on abuse

With seven reported deaths in jail this year, OPP is under the spotlight for violent and abusive treatment of prisoners. A September 2009 report from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) found, “Conditions at OPP violate the constitutional rights of inmates.”

The DOJ went on to document “a pattern and practice of unnecessary and inappropriate use of force by OPP correctional officers,” including “several examples where OPP officers openly engaged in abusive and retaliatory conduct, which resulted in serious injuries to prisoners. In some instances, the investigation found, the officers’ conduct was so flagrant it clearly constituted calculated abuse.”

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, thousands of people who had not been convicted of any crime were lost in the city’s prison system. Last month a jury awarded two men from Ohio a $650,000 judgment for their treatment after the storm. The men were on a road trip and stopped in New Orleans for a drink on Bourbon Street. They were arrested for public drunkenness and spent a month disappeared in the system, without being allowed even one phone call to their families.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, thousands of people who had not been convicted of any crime were lost in the city’s prison system.

In a city under fiscal crisis, advocates have focused not only on the decades of evidence that mass incarceration has only made people in the city feel less safe, but also on the financial costs of this massive jail. In addition to calling for reforms that would cause fewer people to be locked up, the reform coalition demands that “funds dedicated to building a bigger jail must be reallocated to building the infrastructure of a caring community, including recreational, educational, mental health and affordable housing facilities.”

“Parents are crying out, saying where’s the recreation for our children?” explains Andrea Slocum, an organizer with Critical Resistance. Slocum says that when she talks to city residents, the idea of redirecting money from the prison has wide support.

“It’s an exciting time for the city in a lot of ways,” says Michael Jacobson of the Vera Institute of Justice, a nonprofit organization that has been advising the city, including the sheriff. Jacobson, who served as correction commissioner for New York City in the mid-‘90s, managed to reduce the population of New York City’s jail system even in the midst of the mass arrests of the Giuliani administration.

He believes similar change is possible in New Orleans. “You can’t create or innovate unless you’re willing to step out and change what you’re doing,” he says. The Vera Institute has received funding from the U.S. Department of Justice for a pre-trial services program that has reduced incarceration in other cities, and they project New Orleans will also be able to see a reduction.

But the drive to build more jail cells is hard to stop, and many barriers remain. Sheriffs in Louisiana have no term limits, and there are few leverages on their influence. Sheriff Gusman was first elected in 2004 and has faced little opposition since then. The previous criminal sheriff held the position for 30 years, only leaving when he ran for state attorney general.

Meanwhile, the Sheriff’s Department has begun construction on a building to hold 400 additional beds. He initially told reporters that he would close other facilities and the new construction would not add up to additional capacity. However, in a letter to the State Bond Commission, he predicted increased revenue from holding additional inmates.

Advocates believe that the tide is beginning to turn, but the new construction already underway indicates that there is still a lot of work to be done and not much time. “We really need to keep the pressure on and the momentum consistent,” says Rosana Cruz. “They’ll shake our hands and make these promises but meanwhile these deals are being made behind closed doors.”

Resources mentioned

Color of Change: http://www.colorofchange.org/opp/?id=2283-505986

Vera Institute of Justice: http://www.vera.org

Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana: http://www.jjpl.org

VOTE (Voice of the Ex-offender): http://vote-nola.org

Critical Resistance: http://www.criticalresistance.org

Other resources

Louisiana Justice Institute: http://www.louisianajusticeinstitute.org

Justice Roars: http://louisianajusticeinstitute.blogspot.com

Left Turn Magazine: http://www.leftturn.org

Jordan Flaherty is a journalist and staffer with the Louisiana Justice Institute. He was the first writer to bring the story of the Jena Six to a national audience, and his award-winning reporting from the Gulf Coast has been featured in a range of outlets including the New York Times, Mother Jones and Argentina’s Clarin newspaper. He has produced news segments for Al-Jazeera, TeleSur and Democracy Now and appeared as a guest on CNN Morning, Anderson Cooper 360 and Keep Hope Alive with the Rev. Jesse Jackson. His new book is “Floodlines: Community and Resistance from Katrina to the Jena Six.” He can be reached at neworleans@leftturn.org, and more information about Floodlines can be found at floodlines.org. Jordan is currently traveling with the Community and Resistance Tour. For more information on the tour, see communityandresistance.wordpress.com.

Stop OPPression in New Orleans! from Critical Resistance on Vimeo.

New Orleans Sheriff Marlon Gusman and other city officials are trying to push forward the expansion of the notorious Orleans Parish Prison (OPP) which would add 5,800 new beds, extend the prison nine or 10 city blocks and cost $250 million. Orleans Parish Prison is already the largest per capita county jail of any major U.S. city, while resources for housing, education, job training and health care continue to be cut or remain deeply underfunded.

In an effort to stop construction and shrink the prison system in the city, Critical Resistance New Orleans has been working nonstop with allies and community members trying to build people power in order to shift vital resources away from the prison industrial complex and toward building thriving, sustainable, self-determined communities.

For more information and to get involved, contact CR New Orleans, 930 N. Broad St., New Orleans, LA 70119, (504) 304-3784 or crno@criticalresistance.org.

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by Eugenia Brown, LPN/LVN

Eugenia Brown with her family

My daughter and granddaughter will be homeless if I can’t get the assistance that I need to correct these unfair situations that tenants are having to endure from slum landlords. And now myself and my son will be homeless also because we requested that the owners make necessary repairs to our unit or switch us to a better unit. Request denied.

The owner refused the rent for September that the City of Houston Homeless Prevention Program was paying. But he took the October rent and then filed an eviction.

The owner states that there are laws for people from New Orleans and for the people that are from Texas. They stated that they want me and my family to leave Texas and return to New Orleans because we do Voodoo.

Now tell me, do you think that is fair? Even my work has slowed. I had a position that was perfect and the salary was great, but when the individual inquired as to where I was from and I told him that I was from New Orleans, he called the agency and asked for a replacement.

He and his family said they were afraid of all New Orleans people because the people from New Orleans do spells and witchcraft and they had already had a member of their family that had a spell put on them and that family member never recovered. Now I’m seeking other work outside of my nursing career.

Also, we had just purchased a car and we were in the process of getting the required stickers and registration. The landlord had our car towed because we didn’t have the stickers. When I spoke to him, he told me he can do whatever he damn well pleases and if I did not like it, me and my voodoo family should return to New Orleans where we came from.

I’m not giving up. I’m trying to return to New Orleans, but with limited funds and both of my children having had nervous breakdowns because of all the mold in both apartments, we all have developed serious respiratory infections, with my 6-year-old granddaughter having the worst.

The stress is really something to deal with and I know that if I break, then my family unit will be no more. So all I can do is fast and pray and wait upon the LORD. I cannot lose the faith – no, not now – because what I’m fighting so hard for will benefit not just me and my family but will help others.

Please keep us and others that are enduring unfair treatment in your prayers. Also keep Lenwood Johnson in your prayers. He has given so much and he never seems to get tired of helping those that are in need. This is my calling to be an advocate for those that are not able to speak for themselves.

As I send this to you, I’m asking GOD for a miracle. My electric will be shut off soon and I only have $10. I really don’t know where the $100.57 is going to come from, but I will not lose my faith. I need my electric because my daughter and granddaughter are with me and my son. We go to county court on Nov. 29 because I filed an appeal on the eviction.

I have contacted everyone that I could, and no one wants to get involved or they are out of funds or they will tell me and my family just to let it go and return to New Orleans because Texas is their own country and no one will ever be able to change that.

Eugenia Michelle Brown, LPN/LVN, can be reached at jeannie_1256@yahoo.com or (832) 894-8671.

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by Benny Amon

Rethinkers work on musicianship, discuss issues in their schools and write lyrics conveying their ideas. At right are Angelamia Bachemin and Ginger Tanner, directors of Jazz Hip Hop Orchestra – Photo: Colin Lenton ©2010

The library turned conference room at the newly rebuilt Langston Hughes Academy fell silent as Rethinkers Earl Poole Jr. and Terriana Julien took the stage. Drummer Tori Washington created a meditative texture with crescendoing cymbal rolls as Poole and Julien began to sing “Reee…storative Juuuu…stice.” Following the mood setting performance, and as the jam-packed audience of media, education activists, school administrators, principals and proud parents clapped, Lucy Tucker, Renee Smith and Kamau Johnson took the stage. Addressing a pensive audience, they discussed the culture of violence and discipline in their schools, and stated they wanted an alternative to suspension and expulsion – practices, they said, that add to school dropout rates and the “school to prison pipeline.” Their alternative: something called restorative justice.

We are specialists, the best

After months of forced relocation due to Hurricane Katrina, families began to return to New Orleans to a shrunken school district in turmoil and contention over competing visions for schools. The public schools, among the poorest in the country prior to the storm, were largely taken over by the state of Louisiana in the newly created Recovery School District (RSD). The RSD operated most of the schools at first, but a charter school movement quickly grew. Today New Orleans has more charter schools than any other city in the U.S.

Grassroots media consultant Jane Wholey and a group of community organizers began advocating after Katrina for a radically simple idea: Give students a role in rethinking and rebuilding the post-Katrina schools. Together, they decided to form Rethink, with Wholey at the helm. They believed that an organization of student education reformers could gain credibility because, as stated by Wholey, “No one in the world can claim that students are not experts on their own schools.”

Realizing and leveraging their own expertise for years now, the Rethinkers have identified fundamental areas for reform. During the early years they addressed “bathroom reform,” successfully convincing RSD Superintendent Paul Vallas to renovate 350 bathrooms. He also added their design for a “21st Century Green Bathroom” to the Public School Facilities Plan for the City of New Orleans. After bathrooms, the Rethinkers tackled school lunches, exploring ways that school lunch programs could provide local, fresh and enjoyable foods. Then in 2009 they set out to address “dignity in schools” and humane security measures that can really keep children safe – not the metal detectors that greet many elementary school children at New Orleans schools.

Healing schools one circle at a time

This past summer, the Rethinkers identified the punitive practices of suspension and expulsion in their schools as a barrier to healthy, truly safe school environments. The Rethinkers understand first hand the culture of violence and distrust that marks many of their schools. As Rethinker Lucy Tucker explains, schools treat offenses in a very simple way, by suspensions and expulsions, leading to a culture of distrust between students, teachers and administrators.

The Rethinkers realized that an alternative to this vicious cycle could be restorative justice, a whole new way of dealing with offenses, focusing on repairing the harm that has been done between members of a school community. In restorative justice programs, students talk out their problems in a safe space, examine the harm done, and come to an agreement about how the harm can be repaired and the relationships mended. The agreement is monitored by an adult.

Restorative justice programs have had impressive success in other parts of the country. Press conference guest speaker Dr. Beverly Title reviewed the success of restorative justice in Colorado and relayed how state law in Colorado now mandates restorative justice practices prior to formal discipline, further underscoring the appropriateness and timeliness of Rethink’s advocacy for the expansion of restorative justice programs throughout the RSD and charter schools. Their vision is that by the 10-year anniversary of Katrina in 2015, all New Orleans schools will have restorative justice programs.

Rethinking music education

Following on this theme, the students wrote and performed songs that added lasting weight and meaning to their ideas. The Rethink summer program partnered with the Jazz Hip-Hop Orchestra – JHO for short – led by Director Angelamia Bachemin and Vocal Director M. Gingerbread Tanner. Bachemin established JHO during her years as a professor at Berklee School of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. The JHO became one of the most popular ensembles at Berklee, touring across the country and recording.

Upon returning to her birth home of New Orleans in 2003, Bachemin expanded the mission and reach of JHO as an educational and community-building ensemble. Partnering with Tanner, JHO has become a vital umbrella for youth music education projects throughout New Orleans. The two women began working with Rethink in the “Rethink Clubs,” teaching percussion at various public schools during the past academic year.

Building on the musical skills learned during the school year, the Rethink summer program enabled students to merge music with their visions for better schools. Sitting in a circle in the mornings, Rethinkers identified specific problems in their schools, envisioned solutions and developed recommendations for change. By the afternoons, the Rethinkers were ready for music and movement, reflecting on the work of the mornings, while exploring their artistic selves and creating music that could strengthen the power of their recommendations at the fast approaching press conference.

Tuning into Mother Nature

At their press conference, the Rethinkers presented their design for the outdoor Reconciliation Circle to be built at Langston Hughes Elementary and to serve the new Restorative Justice Program for the new school year. – Photo: Ricardo Amon ©2010

George Carter explained to the rapt audience at the press conference, pointing to a rendering of the circle design, “Having a beautiful space outdoors in Mother Nature can get kids in the mood to solve their problems.” George’s older brother Vernard, a rising junior, went on to explain the Rethink design, “We drew one path in and a different one out. That symbolizes coming in one way and leaving out on a different path.”

Redefining possibilities, ensuring outcomes

The Rethinkers have earned respect in the New Orleans educational community for not only protesting against the poor state of their schools, but actively developing solutions and holding the powers-that-be accountable. Their recommendations have often been implemented, leading to tangible improvements in the quality of the education, the physical surroundings and the community climate of New Orleans schools.

With one pilot restorative justice program already underway in a high school and a new pilot program beginning at an elementary school in September – the Langston Hughes Academy – the landscape for creating more restorative justice programs in New Orleans is promising. An organization called the Center for Restorative Approaches runs both these programs. But in the case of the elementary school, the Rethinkers will take an active part in organizing and educating students.

The Rethink model remains the same since 2006: Empower young folks to think and act big and develop power among peers for change. Rethinkers have gone beyond protest for a long time now, and with the communicative power of music, their sense of personal empowerment is growing ever stronger. More people all over the country are listening both to their protests and their solutions.

Benny Amon, a student at UC Berkeley and a musician, recently finished working at the Rethink Summer Camp. You can reach him at bamon@berkeley.edu.

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