Tag: white vigilantes

The New York Times sent Gary Rivlin to Baton Rouge and New Orleans, days after the storm, to cover Katrina as an outsider. Rivlin’s instincts had him looking forward “to the mess ahead. Eventually the flood waters would recede. How would New Orleans go about the complicated task of rebuilding?” This carefully researched, beautifully written book describes that process from then until now.

Opening arguments begin today in what observers have called the most important trial New Orleans has seen in a generation. It is a shocking case of police brutality that has already redefined this city’s relationship to its police department and radically rewritten the official narrative of what happened in the chaotic days after Hurricane Katrina.

This story, dictated by Malik Rahim to the Bay View two days after Katrina, was the call heard round the world that Black and poor New Orleanians were being abandoned in nothing less than attempted genocide and volunteers were needed. Now Malik is in a winnable race for Congress Dec. 6. Go Malik!