Justice Roars

Community Profile: Betty Wells Allen

2012-01-29T18:08:00.003-06:00

From our friends at VOTE-NOLA:
Some members join VOTE out of a sense of social responsibility or a personal mission. For Betty Wells Allen it was all of these forces combined with the joy of helping ex-offenders understand how to thrive in society. “My son was convicted with a life sentence [for something] he didn’t do,” she explains. “I came to learn what I could do for my child because when you are knowledgeable about sentences and what a crime entails you can help more.”

Her personal interest in understanding her son’s conviction caused Betty to become an active member of VOTE. Grateful for the knowledge she learned in both the paralegal and street law classes, she hopes that she can use it to help unite ex-offenders in their common interests. “My goal is for the organization to be very widespread because it touches a lot of African Americans,” said Ms Allen. “But I’m not just looking for African Americans, it should be ex-offenders all together."

Betty’s central concern for ex-offenders re-entering society lies with the essentials like housing and jobs. She would like to see VOTE’s message become more widespread among people who are lacking these essentials.

Betty’s career working in the school system, both with children and parents, has illuminated the intersections between that system and the systems that VOTE seeks to change. “My work in the school system relates to the work I am doing at VOTE because they both have to do with people helping people, trying to give everyone a chance in life.”

During her time at VOTE, Betty has had many new transformative experiences, especially through the trips and gatherings that VOTE has been involved with. “[VOTE’s recent trip to] L.A. was one of the best experiences that I have ever had,” she says. “From getting a lot of information at the conferences I realized how intertwined we were with the other groups of ex-
offenders.”

At the end of the day, Betty’s passion for VOTE comes from being part of the organization’s community and part of the community for which VOTE advocates. “Learning how to interact with different people, it’s a joy in the midst of all this work,” explains Ms. Allen.

Inside Orleans Parish Prison, By Rosana Cruz

2012-01-25T05:47:00.001-06:00

From the Bridge the Gulf blog:
In a letter to the editors of the Times-Picayune this month, New Orleans resident Mona Castillo wrote that the key to decreasing crime is to make prison "less comfortable." She wrote, "At the present time, jails are more like hotels. Many prisoners live better there than they did on the outside."

This struck a nerve for a member of the Orleans Parish Prison Reform Coalition (OPPRC), who has a very difference experience of the Orleans Parish Prison. In submitting that member's letter to the editors of the Times-Picayune, the OPPRC wrote:

"We are requesting an exception to the Times-Picayune policy that in order to be considered for publication, letters must be signed. The member who wrote this letter has deep and legitimate fears that if her name were included, the relative who is in prison might experience retribution from the Sheriff or other prison staff. Given the attacks on those who spoke out at recent forums regarding prison conditions, we hope you will agree that this fear is very real and legitimate and make an exception to your otherwise understandable policy. We would appreciate a response from you regarding whether you are willing to waive your policy and consider publishing this letter."

The Times-Picayune did not publish that letter, and so we are publishing it here:

As someone with a relative in Orleans Parish Prison, I challenge Mona Castillo’s opinion that jails are more like hotels, where the living is enjoyable. For the last two years I have known OPP through a pre-trial detainee’s experiences, documented by our daily telephone calls, visits, and conversations with prison staff. Orleans Parish Prison is a cesspool. There is no air-conditioning and no heat, no maintenance is done on the buildings, showers are covered in mold. The only cleaning product available is bleach, which they use to scrub the walls in an effort to keep illness at bay.

Inmates are overcrowded and have very limited access to medical care. While they are supposed to be brought outside daily, they sometimes do not go in the yard for weeks or months at a time. In OPP, there are no cell phones, connubial visits, weight rooms, or other amenities. There are TVs, but they are shared, sometimes one for 40 or 50 men. Breakfast is served at 5:30 a.m., followed by dinner at 9:30 p.m. 'White' meat is left in the open for them to eat at risk to their health during the rest of the day. Cells are carpeted with roaches and rats.

Perhaps the largest problem is the lack of safety. OPP detainees go for 5, 6, 7 hours without seeing a guard. Being packed on each other like animals, treated like animals, and left unsupervised creates violence in the prison walls.

Ms. Castillo is correct about one thing – OPP does not foster a decrease in crime. On the contrary, the OPP environment breeds more crime. These inhumane conditions lead to both an increase in crime within the prison and without – spilling the internal violence back on to the streets when detainees are released. Even more unfortunate is the fact that many of these inmates have not yet been to trial, but are simply unable to make bail. Where is the presumption of innocence?

Rosana Cruz is Associate Director of VOTE (Voice Of The Ex-offender), and a member of the Orleans Parish Prison Reform Coalition. Previously Rosana worked with Safe Streets/Strong Communities and the National Immigration Law Center. Prior to joining NILC, she worked with SEIU1991 in Miami, after having been displaced from New Orleans by Katrina. Before the storm, Rosana worked for a diverse range of community organizations, including the Latin American Library, Hispanic Apostolate, the Lesbian and Gay Community Center of New Orleans, and People's Youth Freedom School. Rosana came to New Orleans through her work with the Southern Regional Office of Amnesty International in Atlanta.

Possible MLK Day Hate Crime Against Civil Rights Family in Washington Parish

2012-01-24T09:27:00.005-06:00

Family member had been founder of Bogalusa chapter of the Deacons for Defense and Justice

The following article was originally published by journalist Pete Tucker at TheFightBack.org:

Growing up in a civil rights family in Bogalusa, Louisiana, Chuck Hicks remembers the constant threats. “We were a marked family,” he told TheFightBack in an extended interview on the eve of the October dedication of the MLK Memorial. It turns out, Hicks’ use of the past tense may have been wishful thinking.

Around 3 a.m. on Jan. 16, Barbara Hicks Collins, Chuck’s sister, heard a loud knock. She opened the door only to find no one there and her Mercedes Benz in flames. It appears an attempt was also made to burn down the family home, where Collins and her 82-year-old mother, Valeria Hicks, live.

“It’s a suspicious fire,” State Fire Marshall Butch Browning told TheFightBack. “Hate crime is a possible motive,” he said, noting the timing of the fire which occurred on MLK Day. Browning said his office’s investigation of the incident is ongoing and is being done in coordination with the local police and FBI.

Washington Parish’s The Daily News noted that the investigation “uncover[ed] a small burned hole on the roof of the house and an apparent trail of accelerant leading from the ground below it to the car.”
After the Hicks’ home burned down in 2007 – due to an undetermined cause – the family installed fire-resistant shingles, which Collins called “a good investment.” “We are just wondering whether there’s a connection between this fire and that fire,” Collins toldTheFightBack.

In typical Hicks fashion, Valeria Hicks refused to let the incident slow her down. As investigators examined the car and house on the morning of Jan. 16, Ms. Hicks took part in an MLK parade, where she was honored, Collins said.

Ms. Hicks’ late husband, Robert Hicks, possessed a similar tenacity. He founded the Bogalusa chapter of the Deacons for Defense and Justice, a group whose members carried weapons in order to fend off attacks from the Ku Klux Klan.

But “his role in the civil rights movement went beyond armed defense in a corner of the Jim Crow South,” The New York Times noted in a 2010 obituary. “He led daily protests month after month in Bogalusa – then a town of 23,000, of whom 9,000 were black – to demand rights guaranteed by the 1964 Civil Rights Act.”

Whereas the Deacons used guns to fend off would-be attackers, now the weapon of social media must be utilized, Chuck Hicks said in a video message posted on YouTube. By spreading the word far and wide “we can ensure that protection is given to my family, as well as a thorough investigation,” Hicks said.

“I’m afraid. Very afraid,” Collins said. “There’s a possibility that they could come back and try again. That’s why we’re trying to reach out.”

Photo: The Hicks family's car. Photo courtesy of The Daily News.

New Orleans Filmmakers Are Hit of Sundance With Film "Beasts Of The Southern Wild"

2012-01-23T11:19:00.004-06:00

A new film by a collective of filmmakers based in New Orleans has emerged as one of the major success stories at this year's Sundance Film Festival with their new film that shines a light on the issues faced on Louisiana's Gulf Coast.

Variety, the insider journal of the film industry, has named director Benh Zeitlin one of ten directors to watch, while the film industry website indywire reports that film companies have started a bidding war over his new film, Beasts Of The Southern Wild, which reportedly received a standing ovation after its Sundance premiere. The Hollywood Reporter has already called it "one of the most striking films ever to debut at the Sundance Film Festival." According to Indywire:

After its immensely successful premier at the ongoing Sundance Film Festival - a debut that was met with a standing ovation and lots of applause at its end, for both the film and the director - several distribution companies have been circling the film with great interest.

It was just announced that Fox Searchlight is emerging to be the company with the most attractive proposal, whatever that is, and is in "active talks" to acquire Benh Zeitlin's feature film debut, the beautiful, whimsical and tragic Beasts of the Southern Wild. Variety reports that no deal is yet in place, but multiple sources privy to the negotiations say that Fox Searchlight is fully committed to "bagging" the film by any means necessary, and will close on a deal soon.

Other companies that were in the mix include Sony Pictures Classics, Focus Features, and The Weinstein Company. So let's see how this all shakes out; I suppose an announcement will come sooner than later; unless talks with Fox Searchlight fall apart for whatever reason.

Zeitlin's previous work includes the film Glory At Sea, which received the best short film award at the 2008 PATOIS Film Festival and the New Orleans Film Festival.While Glory At Sea movingly - and elliptically - dealt with post-Katrina themes, Zeitlin's new film was shot on Louisiana's southern coast in the aftermath of the BP Drilling Disaster and reportedly explores life in the coastal communities, where the land is disappearing out from under their feet.

The Hollywood Reporter's Todd McCarthy, one of the most influential film critics in the US, calls the film "Everything American independent cinema aspires to be but so seldom is." Below are more excerpts from the review:

One of the most striking films ever to debut at the Sundance Film Festival, Beasts of the Southern Wild is a poetic evocation of an endangered way of life and a surging paean to human resilience and self-reliance. Shot along the southernmost fringes of Louisiana, cast with nonactors and absolutely teeming with creativity in every aspect of its being, Benh Zeitlin’s directorial debut could serve as a poster child for everything American independent cinema aspires to be but so seldom is. A handcrafted look at the struggles of some of the poorest people in the United States is no prescription for commercial success, but the presence of a dynamite little girl at the center of things could, along with critical praise and enlightened handling, push this most unlikely but entirely elating drama into a successful specialized theatrical release.

The first few minutes alone establish Zeitlin as some kind of heir to Terrence Malick in the way he makes nature register onscreen. The images of thick green flora and fauna, the wetness, the wildlife that is always “feedin’ and squirtin,’ ” in the words of young heroine, the proximity of water and land and sense of the area’s precariousness, stuck out on its own away from the mainland but within sight of a hulking industrial area, all back up 6-year-old Hushpuppy’s contention that she and her dad live in “the prettiest place on Earth.”...

Undetectably based on a play, by co-scenarist Lucy Alibar, Beasts unequivocally casts a spell, one that emanates from the strange world it inhabits and evokes, as well as from the extraordinarily sensitive and expressive way Zeitlin and his colleagues have rendered it. The director, who made a short film called Glory at Sea in 2006, assembled a sort of collective of artisans to collaborate on this feature, and what has come of it, in the way the exquisite images, fleet cutting, exotic music, vivid naturescapes, native people and local language merge so seamlessly, is a movie that pulsates with the stuff of life. It’s very much an art piece, to be sure, but it feels like a genuine one that, while meditated, speaks fluently and truly for the place, people and culture it so indelibly depicts.

Ten Steps for Radical Revolution in USA, By Bill Quigley

2012-01-23T08:53:00.003-06:00

“I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values.” - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 1967

One. Human rights must be taken absolutely seriously. Every single person is entitled to dignity and human rights. No application needed. No exclusions at all. This is our highest priority.

Two. We must radically reinvent contemporary democracy. Current systems are deeply corrupt and not responsive to the needs of people. Representatives chosen by money and influence govern by money and influence. This is unacceptable. Direct democracy by the people is now technologically possible and should be the rule. Communities must be protected whenever they advocate for self-determination, self-development and human rights. Dissent is essential to democracy; we pledge to help it flourish.

Three. Corporations are not people and are not entitled to human rights. Amend the US Constitution so it is clear corporations do not have constitutional or human rights. We the people must cut them down to size and so democracy can regulate their size, scope and actions.

Four. Leave the rest of the world alone. Cut US military spending by 75 percent and bring all troops outside the US home now. Defense of the US is a human right. Global offense and global police force by US military are not. Eliminate all nuclear and chemical and biological weapons. Stop allowing scare tactics to build up the national security forces at home. Stop the myth that the US is somehow special or exceptional and is entitled to act differently than all other nations. The US must re-join the global family of nations as a respectful partner. USA is one of many nations in the world. We must start acting like it.

Five. Property rights, privilege, and money-making are not as important as human rights. When current property and privilege arrangements are not just they must yield to the demands of human rights. Money-making can only be allowed when human rights are respected. Exploitation is unacceptable. There are national and global poverty lines. We must establish national and global excess lines so that people and businesses with extra houses, cars, luxuries, and incomes share much more to help everyone else be able to exercise their basic human rights to shelter, food, education and healthcare. If that disrupts current property, privilege and money-making, so be it.

Six. Defend our earth. Stop pollution, stop pipelines, stop new interstates, and stop destroying the land, sea, and air by extracting resources from them. Rebuild what we have destroyed. If corporations will not stop voluntarily, people must stop them. The very existence of life is at stake.

Seven. Dramatically expand public spaces and reverse the privatization of public services. Quality public education, health and safety for all must be provided by transparent accountable public systems. Starving the state is a recipe for destroying social and economic human rights for everyone but the rich.

Eight. Pull the criminal legal prison system up and out by its roots and start over. Cease the criminalization of drugs, immigrants, poor people and people of color. We are all entitled to be safe but the current system makes us less so and ruins millions of lives. Start over.

Nine. The US was created based on two original crimes that must be confessed and made right. Reparations are owed to Native Americans because their land was stolen and they were uprooted and slaughtered. Reparations are owed to African Americans because they were kidnapped, enslaved and abused. The US has profited widely from these injustices and must make amends.

Ten. Everyone who wants to work should have the right to work and earn a living wage. Any workers who want to organize and advocate for change in solidarity with others must be absolutely protected from recriminations from their employer and from their government.

Finally, if those in government and those in power do not help the people do what is right, people seeking change must together exercise our human rights and bring about these changes directly. Dr. King and millions of others lived and worked for a radical revolution of values. We will as well. We respect the human rights and human dignity of others and work for a world where love and wisdom and solidarity and respect prevail. We expect those for whom the current unjust system works just fine will object and oppose and accuse people seeking dramatic change of being divisive and worse. That is to be expected because that is what happens to all groups which work for serious social change. Despite that, people will continue to go forward with determination and purpose to bring about a radical revolution of values in the USA.

Bill is a human rights lawyer who teaches at Loyola University New Orleans and works with the Center for Constitutional Rights. You can reach him at quigley77@gmail.com.

Dick Gregory vs. BP

2012-01-20T06:23:00.001-06:00

Journalist Pete Tucker, blogging at TheFightBack, reports that Gulf Coast residents have a new ally in the struggle for justice after the BP Drilling Disaster: Legendary comedian and activist Dick Gregory. The original report is posted below.
Comedian and activist Dick Gregory wasn’t thrown behind bars this week, but he may be soon, possibly at the Olympics.

The longtime civil and human rights leader is fighting for compensation for victims of the 2010 Gulf Coast oil spill. It’s this effort that led to Gregory’s September arrest one block away from the White House in the office of Kenneth Feinberg, who’s in charge of dispensing (or not) BP’s $20 billion compensation fund.

After top BP executives met with the White House, President Obama announced the creation of the fund in June 2010. “This $20 billion will provide substantial assurance that the claims people and businesses have will be honored,” Obama said.

“All the casinos have been paid. All your multimillion dollar companies have been paid,” Gregory said Tuesday outside D.C. Superior Court after the trespassing charges against him were dropped. But while the rich have been paid, others haven’t, said Gregory. “It just looks like it’s a poor people thing. It’s a minority thing. It’s a women thing.”

“BP is spending millions of dollars on public relations trying to state that they have cleaned [up the Gulf Coast],” said E. Faye Williams, attorney for Gregory, and national chair of the National Congress of Black Women. “[But] we don’t see all of this cleanup that they’re talking about.”

“We’re aware of people who’ve become very ill, who’ve actually died as a result of what has happened in the Gulf,” said Williams, who’s originally from Louisiana. “Little towns are suffering… All of these places that have no cash industry… depended upon those little fish sandwiches they sold, or people pass[ing] through the town, going down to the Gulf.”

Art Rocker, chairman of Operation People for Peace, is working with impacted families along the Gulf Coast. “There are really two presidents involved,” Rocker said, standing beside Gregory and Williams. “One is named Bob Dudley, [who's] with BP. And the other one is named President Barack Obama, who recommended Ken Feinberg.”

A great deal of power has consolidated in the hands of Feinberg, whose firm is paid by BP. While the Wall Street Journal called him “Mr. Fairness,” BBC investigative reporter Greg Palast calls him other things. “When the Energy-Finance Combine needs to screw the public, they hire a screwdriver. And they call him Mr. Fairness,” Palast writes in his new book, Vultures’ Picnic.

“Feinberg immediately did something quite odd,” notes Palast. “He required all the victims in his trust, if they took payment, to sign away their right to sue other wrongdoers at fault in the Deepwater Horizon explosion. There’s Haliburton, the company that pumped in that dodgy nitrogen cement, and Transocean, the Swiss rig owner of the Deepwater Horizon that fled from responsibility. Should they make a contribution? A trustee usually tries to ‘increase the estate,’ a fancy term for getting more money for the beneficiaries. Not Mr. Fairness.”

“I don’t think there’s any [issue] that’s as important right now,” said Gregory. His commitment to the cause landed him in London recently, where he attempted to meet with BP (British Petroleum) executives, but they sent him back to see Feinberg in DC.

Feinberg’s (in)actions, however, may send Gregory back across the Atlantic yet again, just in time for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. “BP is right in the middle of the Olympics,” said Gregory. As the eyes of the world turn to England, if need be, said Gregory, “we’ll go there and demonstrate and go to jail.”

Photo above by Art Rocker.

Working and Poor in the USA, By Bill Quigley

2012-01-19T12:37:00.005-06:00

“Our nation, so richly endowed with natural resources and with a capable and industrious population, should be able to devise ways and means of insuring to all our able-bodied men and women, a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work.” - Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1937
Millions of people in the US work and are still poor. Here are eight points that show why the US needs to dedicate itself to making work pay.

One. How many people work and are still poor?

In 2011, the US Department of Labor reported at least 10 million people worked and were still below the unrealistic official US poverty line, an increase of 1.5 million more than the last time they checked. The US poverty line is $18,530 for a mom and two kids. Since 2007 the numbers of working poor have been increasing. About 7 percent of all workers and 4 percent of all full-time workers earn wages that leave them below the poverty line.

Two. What kinds of jobs do the working poor have?

One third of the working poor, over 3 million people, work in the service industry. Workers in other occupations are also poor: 16 percent of those in farming; 11 percent in construction; and 11 percent in sales.

Three. Which workers are most likely to be working and still poor?

Women workers are more likely to be poor than men. African American and Hispanic workers are about twice as likely to be poor as whites. College graduates have a 2 percent poverty rate while workers without a high school diploma have a poverty rate 10 times higher at 20 percent.

Four. What about benefits for low wage workers?

Ten percent of US workers earn $8.50 an hour or less according to the US Department of Labor. About 12 percent have health care and about 12 percent have retirement benefits. Nearly one in four get paid sick leave and less than half get paid vacation leave.

Five. What rights do the working poor have?

Most workers have a right to earn at least the federal minimum wage of $7.50 an hour. Tipped employees are supposed to get at least $2.13 each hour from their employer and if the worker does not earn enough in tips to make the $7.50 minimum wage, the employer must make up the difference. People who work more than 40 hours in a workweek are entitled to one and one-half of their regular pay for each hour of overtime.

Six. What about wage theft from the working poor?

Many low wage workers have part of their earnings stolen by their employers. Examples include not paying people the full minimum wage, not paying required overtime, stealing from tipped employees, or fraudulently classifying workers as independent contractors. A survey of over 4000 low wage workers in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York conducted by university and non-profit researchers found: 26 percent of the workers were paid less than the minimum wage in the previous week, a majority were underpaid by more than $1 an hour; a significant number worked overtime the previous week and were not paid the legally required overtime; many were required to come early or stay late and work “off the clock” and were not paid for it; almost a third of the tipped workers were not paid the minimum wage and more than 1 in 10 tipped workers had some of their money stolen by their employer or supervisor.

Seven. What is a living wage in the US?

Dr. Amy Glasmeier of Penn State University has created a Living Wage Calculator that estimates the hourly wage needed to pay the cost of living for low wage families in the US. It breaks down the cost of living by state and locality across the nation. In New Orleans, a mom with one child needs to earn $17.52 to make ends meet. In New York, the mom with one child should earn $19.66 to make it. If we now realistically calculate the number of people who work and do not earn a living wage, the numbers of working poor in the US skyrocket to several tens of millions.

Eight. What about jobs for the unemployed and underemployed?

The US Labor Department estimated recently that 13 million people were unemployed. Another 8 million people were working part-time but wanted full-time work. Even more millions who are not working are not counted in those numbers because they have been unemployed so long.
A study by Northeastern University found that in the poorest families, unemployment is nearly 31 percent. Underemployment is also much more of a problem in poor homes, with over 20 percent of those workers reporting they are working part-time but seeking full-time work.

Our nation can do so much more. We say our country values work. It is time to do something about it.

If the US truly values work, we need to support the millions of our sisters and brothers who are low wage workers. Steps needed include: raising the minimum wage to a living wage; protecting workers from getting ripped off; making it easier for workers to organize together if they choose to; and creating jobs, public jobs if necessary, so that everyone who wants to work can do so. Many are already working on these justice issues.

For those interested in learning more about this, see the websites of Interfaith Worker Justice, the National Employment Law Project, and the National Jobs for All Coalition.

Bill teaches law at Loyola University New Orleans and is Associate Legal Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights. Thanks to Rob Dordan and Kim Bobo for help with this. A version with sources is available. You can reach Bill at quigley77@gmail.com.

Deon Haywood, Leader in Struggle Against Louisiana's Crime Against Nature Statute, Named Queen of Krewe du Vieux

2012-01-13T00:12:00.006-06:00

Deon Haywood, who has tirelessly led the successful struggle against Louisiana's so-called Crime Against Nature statute, has been named Queen of Krewe du Vieux, the raucous parade that signals the start of Mardi Gras parade season.

Haywood, who was also just named as one of the People Who Made a Difference in 2011 in the struggle against HIV and AIDS, is executive director of the organization Women With A Vision (WWAV). WWAV was cofounded by Haywood's mother and several other black women in 1991 as a response to the non-existence of HIV prevention resources for those women who were the most at risk: poor women, sex workers, women with substance abuse issues, and transgender women.

According to the official announcement from Krewe du Vieux and WWAV:

Wearing a V for Victory and an A for the Apocalypse in carnival colors the 2012 Parade this year is on Saturday, February 4, 2012 and the Krewe will be rolling and stumbling through the Marigny Triangle and the Lower French Quarter. This year’s theme is Crimes Against Nature, a tribute to WWAV’s internationally renowned work through our NO Justice project, and the 2012 Krewe du Vieux Queen is our very own Deon Haywood.

What is Krewe du Vieux? The Krewe du Vieux is a New Orleans Mardi Gras or Carnival krewe, originally and more fully known as the Krewe du Vieux Carre (“Vieux Carre” being another term for the city’s French Quarter). It is one of the earliest parades of the New Orleans Carnival calendar, and is noted for wild satirical and adult themes, as well as for showcasing some of the best Brass and Jazz Bands in New Orleans.

The Krewe will walk through the French Quarter and Faubourg Marigny on Saturday, February 4 at 6:30pm. The Krewe du Vieux’s seventeen subkrewes will each present their own interpretations of the theme.

A portion of the proceeds from the parade's official afterparty, the Krewe du Vieux Doo, will donated to WWAV.

Louisiana Justice Institute Joins Challenges to Racist French Quarter Curfew

2012-01-09T12:46:00.001-06:00

The New Orleans City Council Decision to impose a curfew on minors in the French Quarter has been called a racist policy by critics, who have called it "the equivalent of a Black code." Louisiana Justice Institute joins those who have condemned the law, and is taking action. As local station WWNO has reported:

The Louisiana Justice Institute is sending what attorney Tracie Washington says are testers of the 8pm curfew. The New Orleans City Council approved an ordinance that took effect Monday banning unaccompanied minors from gathering in the French Quarter and parts of nearby Frenchmen Street. Supporters say it's aimed at protecting children from violent crime. Mayor Mitch Landrieu signed the ordinance, and backs another pending change that will make the 8pm curfew effective citywide.

Washington says "testers" are African-American males 17 years old or more who, she says, have a constitutional right to assemble in the area - even without identification. Neither Landrieu nor Police Superintendent Ronal Serpas could be reached for comment. Washington says a boycott she announced last week for the French Quarter to begin on Martin Luther King Day is now being reviewed.

The new law comes in the context of a long history of racial discrimination in the French Quarter. On New Year’s Eve in 2004, nine months before Hurricane Katrina hit, bouncers in the Bourbon Street club Razzoo’s killed a Black college student named Levon Jones. The outrage led to near-daily protests outside the club, threats of a Black tourist boycott of the city and a mayor’s commission to explore the issue of racism in the French Quarter. Despite widely publicized advance warning, a “secret shopper” audit of the Quarter, conducted by Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center, found rampant discrimination in local businesses. Bars had different dress codes, admission charges and drink prices—all based on whether the patron was Black or white.

Many in New Orleans are still upset that City Council President Jackie Clarkson recently spoke fondly of the New Orleans of the 40s, 50s, and 60s, and expressed her hope that the city was returning to the "glory" of that era. When Black residents of New Orleans East complained, she refused to apologise, and simply added that one of her father's "best friends" was Black, adding, "My father never built a white playground without building a black playground."

Angola Warden Burl Cain on "Black Pantherism"

2012-01-08T22:43:00.004-06:00

Last week, the newsletter of the International Coalition to Free the Angola Three published recently transcribed testimony of the October 2008 deposition of Burl Cain, Warden of Angola Prison, questioned by Nick Trenticosta, an attorney representing former Black Panther and Angola Three member Albert Woodfox. The testimony, quoted below, reveals a lot about Cain's view of Black Panthers and others who have engaged in prison organizing.
NICK TRENTICOSTA: I would like to show you State's Exhibit 30. Are you familiar with this document? It purports to be a letter, and who is it from?

BURL CAIN: Albert Woodfox.

NICK TRENTICOSTA: Is this letter significant to you?

CAIN: Yes, it is. You can read here, "I view amerikkka" - and he spelled it real crazy, more like the Black Panther would, I suppose - "and her lies, capitalism, imperialism, racism, exploitation, oppression, and murder of the poor and oppressed people as being highly extreme. It is my opinion that anyone who views these situations as anything other than extreme is petty bourgeois or a capitalist fool!!! History has taught us that revolution is a violent thing but a highly necessary occurrence in life. Revolution is bloodshed, deaths, sacrifices, hardships. It is the job of the revolutionary forces in this country to manufacture revolution instead of trying to avoid it. To do otherwise is the act of an opportunist." This is very scary because it means that it needs revolution. Violent revolution is scary for America, for us.

NICK TRENTICOSTA: What is the date of that letter?

CAIN: September 9, 1973.

NICK TRENTICOSTA: And do you know whether his political views have changed since that time?

CAIN: That is what is scary to me. I think not because even in 1997 we had the protest in front where - "Release the Panther" and "Angola is a shame, Burl Cain to blame" - there was a Black Panther demonstration there. Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace is locked in time with that Black Panther revolutionary actions. Even when Robert King Wilkerson came with Congressman Conyers to Angola, they gave me a little pack of pralines, Congressman Conyers did, and on that pack of pralines was a Black Panther.

NICK TRENTICOSTA: Let's look at State's Exhibit 3. You stated, if I can paraphrase, Woodfox was throwing human waste?

CAIN: Apparently they were throwing human waste at each other. It's on their cell bars, both of them. So either he was throwing it out or throwing it in.

NICK TRENTICOSTA: Could it possibly be someone throwing human waste at Mr. Woodfox?

CAIN: It could be, and I would ask why. How did Mr. Woodfox provoke him to throw human waste at him?

NICK TRENTICOSTA: You have some mentally ill people that live on CCR, don't you?

CAIN: I have 1,900 inmates taking psychotropic medicines. I don't know where they live, but I would hope the medicine would tame them down.

NICK TRENTICOSTA: An inmate only gets human waste thrown on them when they provoke it to happen? Is that your testimony?

CAIN: Not only, but if you're throwing human feces at somebody, you have to have normally a reason. You just wouldn't throw it at the wall.

NICK TRENTICOSTA: Are you aware that a federal judge has ruled that Mr. Woodfox's conviction is now reversed?

CAIN: Until we get release papers, he's in our prison guilty of the murder of Brent Miller.

NICK TRENTICOSTA: So it's your understanding everybody in jail is guilty? Come on.

CAIN: In Angola. Because he's in Angola.

NICK TRENTICOSTA: In the last five years he has done pretty good, hasn't he?

CAIN: He's like a man on death row could do good, but he is still on death row. He's just good because he is locked in CCR, not because he's good at heart.

NICK TRENTICOSTA: He didn't cause very much trouble, correct?

CAIN: Because the lion in a cage can't cause much trouble, you see.

NICK TRENTICOSTA: Let's just assume, if you can, that he is not guilty of the murder of Brent Miller.

CAIN: I would still keep him in CCR. I still know that he is still trying to practice Black Pantherism, and I still would not want him walking around my prison, because he would organize the young new inmates. I would have me all kinds of problems, more than I could stand, and I would have the whites chasing after them. I would have chaos and conflict.

NICK TRENTICOSTA: Warden Cain, what is Black Pantherism?

CAIN: I have no idea. I know they hold their fists up. I know that they advocated for violence.

NICK TRENTICOSTA: Assume that he did not kill Brent Miller and he is not a member of the Black Panther party, because you don't know what the Black Panther party is, then why are you considering him so dangerous?

CAIN: You would like me to say yes to everything you say so you can go say I did, but you can't go there, and you're trying everything in the world to get me there. I'm happy. I'm laughing at you. I'm not mad. You just ain't going to get me there. That's just Angola. What can I say? He's bad. He's dangerous. I believe it. He will hurt you. They better not let him out of prison.

Of Traitors and Fools: Robert King Comments on Brandon Darby

2012-01-08T15:19:00.000-06:00

In a recent newsletter published by the International Coalition to Free the Angola Three, former New Orleans Black Panther Robert King has written his first comments on notorious FBI informant Brandon Darby. His comments are quoted here:
Unfortunately this year has seen the rise of the far right and it saddens me that people have the propensity to be gullible, tricked and trapped by the lies spun by the likes of Brandon Darby who by his own actions has undermined his credibility.

In a recent presentation to a far right group, Darby recalls his endeavors within the progressive movement and his abrupt epiphany which led him to become an informant. However he fails while telling his tales to disclose he only had a short life as a credible informant. He now continues to spin his lies to far right groups who have no regard for the truth.

One word describes Darby: deranged. He continues to mislead people and he continues to attempt to rewrite the truth. In the final analysis, he goes the way of the fool, he impales himself on his own sword.

Robert H. King, a.k.a. Robert King Wilkerson, is the only freed member of the Angola 3. Along with his comrades Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace, he was targeted for his activism as a member of the Black Panther party. After 31 years in Angola prison in Louisiana, 29 spent years in solitary confinement, King was released in February 2001. Since that time he has been described as an author, a candy maker, a former political prisoner and an activist. His life’s focus is to campaign against abuses in the criminal justice system and for the freedom of Herman and Albert, who are now serving their 40th year in solitary confinement.

City Council to Establish Allison “Big Chief Tootie” Montana Day

2012-01-05T06:59:00.000-06:00

From a press release from Faces of Culture/Allison Montana Institute of Art, Culture, and Tradition Yellow Pocahontas Mardi Gras Indian Tribe:
New Orleans City Council Pays Tribute to the Legacy Of Allison “Big Chief Tootie” Montana by Acknowledging and Establishing the first day Carnival /Mardi Gras as the Allison “Big Chief Tootie” Montana Day in the City of New Orleans

Today at 10am, members of the New Orleans City Council and Mardi Gras Indian tribes, community members, supporters, friends, and family gather in City Council chambers to pay tribute to the legacy of Allison Marcel Montana, “Big Chief Tootie” “Chief of Chiefs, and Chief of the Yellow Pocahontas Mardi Gras Indian Tribe. Allison Montana, a master artisan, dedicated more than 53 years to the indigenous cultural tradition of “Masking Indian.”

June 27, 2005, Allison “Big Chief Tootie” Montana, a cultural warrior and leader, tragically passed away while he was addressing the Council on the unwarranted, violent, and illegal assault on Mardi Gras Indians, neighborhood residents, senior citizens, and children. Big Chief Tootie was in the middle of recounting half of a century of history of police harassment and abuse when stricken. His last words were “I want this to stop.”

Television news cameras captured his fall as the chiefs and others who loved and respected him took up the hymn “Indian Red.”

After his passing, the public hearing was originally scheduled to reconvene in September of 2005 but, because of Hurricane Katrina, the levee breach, and the aftermath, a hearing was never rescheduled. Today, establishing the first day of Carnival/Mardi Gras as the Allison “Big Chief Tootie” Montana Day will serve as impetus for conversations among members of the New Orleans City Council, City Administration, the New Orleans Police Department, and all Cultural Bearers, namely, the Mardi Gras Indians, to address the lack of understanding and appreciation for indigenous traditions unique to our city. Most importantly, these conversations, along with policies and procedures regarding culture and traditional practices will end the harassment, disrespect, and cruelty exhibited by some police officers.

Seven years after his passing, those same cruelties Big Chief Tootie spoke of continue today. It must stop!

Allison “Big Chief Tootie” Montana died a warrior’s death in council chambers fighting for the respect of a cultural tradition that defines the City of New Orleans. Today the Indian community hopes the city will provide real and lasting protection and respect for the indigenous traditions of the Mardi Gras Indians and all Cultural Bearers as well as develop a profound understanding of those they aim to serve and see the world as the cultural community sees it. The Mardi Gras Indian community, supporters, friends and family of Allison "Big Chief Tootie” Montana appreciates the leadership and commitment of the New Orleans City Council. Collectively, we look forward to the city taking more permanent action to ensure that the sacred tradition is forever respected and protected. Moreover, the yearly acknowledgement and celebration of the legacy of Allison “Big Chief Tootie” Montana will spark the interest of the young, perpetuate the “Masking Indian” tradition, and ensure full protection and respect for New Orleans indigenous cultural traditions.

The public is invited to attend a wreath laying by the Montana family at the Allison “Big Chief Tootie” Montana statue inside of Armstrong Park at 4:00 pm on Friday January 6, 2012 followed by a Mardi Gras Indian Film Festival at 5:00pm at the Golden Feather Mardi Gras Indian Gallery and Restaurant located at 704 North Rampart Street across from the historic Congo Square.

Haiti: Seven Places Where the Earthquake Money Did and Did Not Go, By Bill Quigley and Amber Ramanauskas

2012-01-03T09:16:00.003-06:00

Haiti, a close neighbor of the US with over nine million people, was devastated by earthquake on January 12, 2010. Hundreds of thousands were killed and many more wounded.

The UN estimated international donors gave Haiti over $1.6 billion in relief aid since the earthquake (about $155 per Haitian) and over $2 billion in recovery aid (about $173 per Haitian) over the last two years.

Yet Haiti looks like the earthquake happened two months ago, not two years. Over half a million people remain homeless in hundreds of informal camps, most of the tons of debris from destroyed buildings still lays where it fell, and cholera, a preventable disease, was introduced into the country and is now an epidemic killing thousands and sickening hundreds of thousands more.

It turns out that almost none of the money that the general public thought was going to Haiti actually went directly to Haiti. The international community chose to bypass the Haitian people, Haitian non-governmental organizations and the government of Haiti. Funds were instead diverted to other governments, international NGOs, and private companies.

Despite this near total lack of control of the money by Haitians, if history is an indication, it is quite likely that the failures will ultimately be blamed on the Haitians themselves in a “blame the victim” reaction.

Haitians ask the same question as many around the world “Where did the money go?”

Here are seven places where the earthquake money did and did not go.

One. The largest single recipient of US earthquake money was the US government. The same holds true for donations by other countries.

Right after the earthquake, the US allocated $379 million in aid and sent in 5000 troops. The Associated Press discovered that of the $379 million in initial US money promised for Haiti, most was not really money going directly, or in some cases even indirectly, to Haiti. They documented in January 2010 that thirty three cents of each of these US dollars for Haiti was actually given directly back to the US to reimburse ourselves for sending in our military. Forty two cents of each dollar went to private and public non-governmental organizations like Save the Children, the UN World Food Program and the Pan American Health Organization. Hardly any went directly to Haitians or their government.

The overall $1.6 billion allocated for relief by the US was spent much the same way according to an August 2010 report by the US Congressional Research Office: $655 million was reimbursed to the Department of Defense; $220 million to Department of Health and Human Services to provide grants to individual US states to cover services for Haitian evacuees; $350 million to USAID disaster assistance; $150 million to the US Department of Agriculture for emergency food assistance; $15 million to the Department of Homeland Security for immigration fees, and so on.

International assistance followed the same pattern. The UN Special Envoy for Haiti reported that of the $2.4 billion in humanitarian funding, 34 percent was provided back to the donor’s own civil and military entities for disaster response, 28 percent was given to UN agencies and non-governmental agencies (NGOs) for specific UN projects, 26 percent was given to private contractors and other NGOs, 6 percent was provided as in-kind services to recipients, 5 percent to the international and national Red Cross societies, 1 percent was provided to the government of Haiti, four tenths of one percent of the funds went to Haitian NGOs.

Two. Only 1 percent of the money went to the Haitian government.

Less than a penny of each dollar of US aid went to the government of Haiti, according to the Associated Press. The same is true with other international donors. The Haitian government was completely bypassed in the relief effort by the US and the international community.

Three. Extremely little went to Haitian companies or Haitian non-governmental organizations.

The Center for Economic and Policy Research, the absolute best source for accurate information on this issue, analyzed all the 1490 contracts awarded by the US government after the January 2010 earthquake until April 2011 and found only 23 contracts went to Haitian companies. Overall the US had awarded $194 million to contractors, $4.8 million to the 23 Haitian companies, about 2.5 percent of the total. On the other hand, contractors from the Washington DC area received $76 million or 39.4 percent of the total. As noted above, the UN documented that only four tenths of one percent of international aid went to Haitian NGOs.

In fact Haitians had a hard time even getting into international aid meetings. Refugees International reported that locals were having a hard time even getting access to the international aid operational meetings inside the UN compound. “Haitian groups are either unaware of the meetings, do not have proper photo-ID passes for entry, or do not have the staff capacity to spend long hours at the compound.” Others reported that most of these international aid coordination meetings were not even being translated into Creole, the language of the majority of the people of Haiti!

Four. A large percentage of the money went to international aid agencies, and big well connected non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

The American Red Cross received over $486 million in donations for Haiti. It says two-thirds of the money has been contracted to relief and recovery efforts, though specific details are difficult to come by. The CEO of American Red Cross has a salary of over $500,000 per year.

Look at the $8.6 million joint contract between the US Agency for International Development (USAID) with the private company CHF for debris removal in Port au Prince. CHF is politically well-connected international development company with annual budget of over $200 million whose CEO was paid $451,813 in 2009. CHF’s connection to Republicans and Democrats is illustrated by its board secretary, Lauri Fitz-Pegado, a partner with the Livingston Group LLC. The Livingston Group is headed by the former Republican Speaker-designate for the 106th Congress, Bob Livingston, doing lobbying and government relations. Ms. Fitz-Pegado, who apparently works the other side of the aisle, was appointed by President Clinton to serve in the Department of Commerce and served as a member of the foreign policy expert advisor team on the Obama for President Campaign. CHF “works in Haiti out of two spacious mansions in Port au Prince and maintains a fleet of brand new vehicles” according to Rolling Stone.

Rolling Stone, in an excellent article by Janet Reitman, reported on another earthquake contract, a $1.5 million contract to the NY based consulting firm Dalberg Global Development Advisors. The article found Dalberg’s team “had never lived overseas, didn’t have any disaster experience or background in urban planning… never carried out any program activities on the ground…” and only one of them spoke French. USAID reviewed their work and found that “it became clear that these people may not have even gotten out of their SUVs.”

Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton announced a fundraising venture for Haiti on January 16, 2010. As of October 2011, the fund had received $54 million in donations. It has partnered with several Haitian and international organizations. Though most of its work appears to be admirable, it has donated $2 million to the construction of a Haitian $29 million for-profit luxury hotel.

“The NGOs still have something to respond to about their accountability, because there is a lot of cash out there,” according to Nigel Fisher, the UN’s chief humanitarian officer in Haiti. “What about the $1.5 to $2 billion that the Red Cross and NGOs got from ordinary people, and matched by governments? What’s happened to that? And that’s where it’s very difficult to trace those funds.”

Five. Some money went to for profit companies whose business is disasters.

Less than a month after the quake hit, the US Ambassador Kenneth Merten sent a cable titled “THE GOLD RUSH IS ON” as part of his situation report to Washington. In this February 1, 2010 document, made public by The Nation, Haiti Liberte and Wikileaks, Ambassador Merten reported the President of Haiti met with former General Wesley Clark for a sales presentation for a Miami-based company that builds foam core houses.

Capitalizing on the disaster, Lewis Lucke, a high ranking USAID relief coordinator, met twice in his USAID capacity with the Haitian Prime Minister immediately after the quake. He then quit the agency and was hired for $30,000 a month by a Florida corporation Ashbritt (known already for its big no bid Katrina grants) and a prosperous Haitian partner to lobby for disaster contracts. Locke said “it became clear to us that if it was handled correctly the earthquake represented as much an opportunity as it did a calamity…” Ashbritt and its Haitian partner were soon granted a $10 million no bid contract. Lucke said he was instrumental in securing another $10 million contract from the World Bank and another smaller one from CHF International before their relationship ended.

Six. A fair amount of the pledged money has never been actually put up.

The international community decided it was not going to allow the Haiti government to direct the relief and recovery funds and insisted that two institutions be set up to approve plans and spending for the reconstruction funds going to Haiti. The first was the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (IHRC) and the second is the Haiti Reconstruction Fund (HRF).

In March 2010, UN countries pledged $5.3 billion over two years and a total of $9.9 billion over three years in a conference March 2010. The money was to be deposited with the World Bank and distributed by the IHRC. The IHRC was co-chaired by Bill Clinton and the Haitian Prime Minister. By July 2010, Bill Clinton reported only 10 percent of the pledges had been given to the IHRC.

Seven. A lot of the money which was put up has not yet been spent.

Nearly two years after the quake, less than 1 percent of the $412 million in US funds specifically allocated for infrastructure reconstruction activities in Haiti had been spent by USAID and the US State Department and only 12 percent has even been obligated according to a November 2011 report by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO).

The performance of the two international commissions, the IHRC and the HRF has also been poor. The Miami Herald noted that as of July 2011, the $3.2 billion in projects approved by the IHRC only five had been completed for a total of $84 million. The Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (IHRC), which was severely criticized by Haitians and others from its beginning, has been effectively suspended since its mandate ended at the end of October 2011. The Haiti Reconstruction Fund was set up to work in tandem with the IHRC, so while its partner is suspended, it is not clear how it can move forward.

What to do

The effort so far has not been based a respectful partnership between Haitians and the international community. The actions of the donor countries and the NGOs and international agencies have not been transparent so that Haitians or others can track the money and see how it has been spent. Without transparency and a respectful partnership the Haitian people cannot hold anyone accountable for what has happened in their country. That has to change.

The UN Special Envoy to Haiti suggests the generous instincts of people around the world must be channeled by international actors and institutions in a way that assists in the creation of a “robust public sector and a healthy private sector.” Instead of giving the money to intermediaries, funds should be directed as much as possible to Haitian public and private institutions. A “Haiti First” policy could strengthen public systems, promote accountability, and create jobs and build skills among the Haitian people.

Respect, transparency and accountability are the building blocks for human rights. Haitians deserve to know where the money has gone, what the plans are for the money still left, and to be partners in the decision-making for what is to come.

After all, these are the people who will be solving the problems when the post-earthquake relief money is gone.

Bill Quigley teaches at Loyola University New Orleans, is the Associate Legal Director at the Center for Constitutional Rights and volunteers with the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti. Amber Ramanauskas is a lawyer and human rights researcher. A more detailed version of this article with full sources is available. Bill can be reached at quigley77@gmail.com. Amber can be reached at gintarerama@gmail.com.

Community Profile: Eugene Dean

2012-01-02T08:50:00.000-06:00

From our friends at VOTE-NOLA:
Eugene Dean has been with VOTE from the very beginning, when the organization sprang from an effort of incarcerated men within Angola to organize people both inside and outside of the prison around the right to vote. “We had the Angola Special Civics Project and then we continued to work trying to change policies and laws,” explains Dean. "We really focused on trying to get some laws passed regarding parole eligibility.”

From his own experience re-registering to vote, Eugene has realized how much the community still needs the consciousness raising and mobilization that VOTE undertakes. “When I went to register to vote the lady in the voter registration office said she didn’t know if I could vote and I had to explain it to the head person in charge, “he says. "He told me I sounded like I knew what I was talking about and signed my letter.”

These misconceptions are not just limited to those that have no experience with incarceration, but are also perpetuated within communities that are directly impacted by the criminal justice system. “I think that misconceptions happen because at the time people’s offense takes place, they aren’t educated [about voting],” adds Dean. “People have been led to believe that once you get a conviction you lose all your rights.”

Eugene is a living example of the principle of education leading to advocacy. Now that he has regained the right to vote, he works constantly to give civic and legal advice to family and friends. “My favorite aspect is bringing incarcerated people’s issues to light,” he says. “My family and friends call me with advice because I have been through the legal system.”

Eugene’s advocacy doesn’t stop at the issue of re-enfranchisement. One of the ways that being in VOTE has got him thinking about the criminal justice system is by becoming involved in jail reform issues connected to OPP. “I didn’t know all the interaction in the way that things are structured, as far as how the sheriff goes about getting his funds,” he explains. “The jail issue brought me to the next level.”

A member from the very start, Eugene has been able to witness the things that VOTE has accomplished in a first-hand way that helps him brainstorm for future efforts. “I’m excited about future work on ban the box,” he says, adding, “I’d like to see more young people involved.”

ACLU of Louisiana Sues NOPD Over Use of Tasers

2011-12-22T17:59:00.003-06:00

From our friends at the ACLU of Louisiana:
Combat veteran was hit with Taser while seeking emotional support; ACLU seeks remedy in federal court

Today the ACLU of Louisiana assumed representation of Geoffrey Clayton, a resident of the state of Washington and a combat veteran of the Iraq war. During a May 2009 visit to New Orleans, Mr. Clayton suffered an episode brought on by post-traumatic stress disorder, a condition that has plagued him since his military service. While in the French Quarter talking on the phone with his former Army Sergeant, Mr. Clayton flagged down a passing police car to ask for help. In return, he was Tasered by Officer David Zullo, who had asked him to put his phone down. As a result of the Tasering, Mr. Clayton fell to the ground and suffered serious and lasting head injuries that left him unable to perform his military duties and forced him to resign from service.

“This is the second lawsuit brought by the ACLU over NOPD Taser practices since 2007,” said Marjorie R. Esman, ACLU of Louisiana Executive Director. “Last year, the City of New Orleans paid monetary damages to Steven Elloie, who in 2006 was Tasered by police officers while tending to his family-owned business in Central City. While that case was pending, the officer in this case misused a dangerous weapon against an innocent combat veteran who did nothing more than ask the police for help. It’s clear that the New Orleans Police Department hadn’t changed its practices, and the reward to Mr. Clayton for seeking help was grave personal injury instead of the assistance that he sought and needed.”

The lawsuit, Clayton v. City of New Orleans, was filed last year. Today the ACLU of Louisiana assumed representation of Mr. Clayton to ensure that his rights are fully protected. “Tasers are dangerous weapons that can inflict serious, even fatal injury,” Esman continued. “Tasers should not be used on someone who poses no threat. Using one on a combat veteran in distress, who simply needed assistance from a police officer, shows flagrant disregard for the rights of the public and of the intended use of this dangerous device. It's past time for the New Orleans Police Department to ensure the safety of the public it is sworn to serve, and to stop using dangerous weapons on people who pose no threat.”

The case is pending in the U. S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

A copy of the lawsuit is available here.

Did Closing the Large Housing Projects in New Orleans Create a Spike in Crime and Violence? By Dr. Lance Hill

2011-12-21T15:09:00.004-06:00

One of the post-Katrina policies touted as a way of reducing poverty and crime was to demolish most of the large housing projects and disperse the poor throughout the city (and the nation). Apparently the planners were not paying attention to what happened in Memphis when this policy was implemented.

In New Orleans, dispersing the poor also meant dispersing some of those who deal drugs, which would inevitably lead to a new war over drug markets. Combine that with a generation of untreated Katrina-traumatized poor youth, expelling them or driving them out of the new profit-driven charter schools, and skyrocketing Black unemployment and poverty rates because Blacks have been locked out of the billions in recovery money, and one can see the futility of proposals to “arrest and imprison” our way out of this problem or blame fragmented and dispersed families and local communities for problems that were imposed on them by social planners who wanted a whiter and more affluent New Orleans.

Now there are cries to bring out the National Guard to meet the problem of traumatized youth who could care less about the criminal justice consequences of their actions because they expect to be quickly executed in retaliatory actions for their crimes. The National Guard tactic was tried in Puerto Rico several years ago but only showed some success because crime and violence was concentrated in a few public housing neighborhoods, which we no longer have for the most part. The National Guard assisted local police in New Orleans after Katrina, but that was in a city largely depopulated. Now that we have forcibly dispersed the poor internally in a 180 square mile area, the chance of anticipating and preventing violence through policing seems very unlikely.

But we do have proven solutions that overcome geography and trauma. They begin with remedying the injustices of the Katrina recovery. Opening tens of thousands of jobs to local residents would reduce, not increase violence. It would not end it, but it would improve on the 37% Black poverty rate we have now—a rate higher than before Katrina. We had $20 billion to spend on hiring local workers and we did not; we now have another $20 billion in recovery dollars and there is no plan to change the policy of relying on cheap, itinerant, outside labor. People who self-medicate their emotional pain with street drugs can be removed from the deadly drug market by providing comprehensive mental health programs and prescription drugs for the indigent. And we can ban the practice of expelling special needs students and low-performing students from our schools and also stop driving them into dead-end “prison prep” dumping schools just so that privatized charter schools can inflate their test scores and make a profit.

What does the future hold? We now have 65% of Black children under the age of five living in poverty in New Orleans, facing a bleak future. The Census Bureau says that as of 2010, there is not a single white male between the ages of 13 to 15 living in poverty in the city of New Orleans. Is there a correlation to the relative low crime and violence rate among young white males and the fact that, although they too experienced the trauma of Katrina, they came back to private mental health care, free anti-depressants and counseling, and their parents' homes were not demolished nor were their jobs stolen? They face a bright, secure, future.

The model for solving the problem of New Orleans Black youth crime and violence is right in front of us: it’s just across St. Charles Avenue.

Dr. Lance Hill is the Executive Director of the Southern Institute for Education and Research, a tolerance education and race relations research center based at Tulane University in New Orleans. He is the author of The Deacons for Defense: Armed Resistance and The Civil Rights Movement (University of North Carolina Press, 2004).

On Heels of Shooting, B.W. Cooper Residents Deliver Petition to Mayor for Job Training

2011-12-21T14:45:00.001-06:00

From our friends at Stand with Dignity:
Community members of B.W. Cooper were joined today by members of Stand with Dignity from the Iberville Community to deliver to Mayor Landrieu a 295-signature petition for job training in the Iberville redevelopment. Residents were disappointed at the Mayor’s lack of urgency on the issue of job training in low income communities.

After the tragic death of a baby girl this weekend in B.W. Cooper, community members from B.W. Cooper and Iberville join together to demand an end to the violence through job training and access to jobs. The petitioners today were asking for training in Iberville so that when the redevelopment starts, there will be an opportunity for low income residents to start a new career in a city that is under construction and will be for years to come. The Mayor has said he is trying to Save Our Sons, but to do that he will have to make sure that there are jobs for our sons, fathers, mothers, sisters, and brothers.

Mark Harris, member of Stand with Dignity explained to the mayor, “15 months ago you came to Iberville to ask the residents what they wanted to see happen to Iberville, how they wanted to see it rebuilt, and would they be interested in the training that would be coming. We are here today to give you those answers as experts on our own community.”

“Yesterday, at the vigil in B.W. Cooper, the mayor asked us how we could end the violence in our community. I told him, these guys need jobs.” said Latoya Lewis, “I was disappointed that he was so naive to say that we just need to teach them how to stop killing each other- what kind of a plan is that? Do we just stand out in the street and tell guys with guns—No no, don’t do that?”

“It is a shame that I am living in a city with so much work to be done and this Christmas, for the second year in a row I cannot provide even simple gifts for my kids.” Said Keith Sims, “Mr. Mayor we need jobs and training with pay in our community- this is a crisis and we can’t wait any longer.”

Migrants’ Rights are Human Rights! Take Police Out of Immigration Enforcement

2011-12-19T17:50:00.003-06:00

By Sunita Patel, Staff Attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights and Bill Quigley, Associate Legal Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights
Nations and organizations around the globe observed yesterday as International Migrants Day. Twenty-two years ago, on December 18, 1990 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families, affirming the fundamental principle of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that “all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.” Unfortunately, this year the United States’ treatment of migrants has been dismal— record numbers of deportations without adequate due process, increased fear and isolation of migrant communities and a slew of anti-immigrant and xenophobic measures passed by state legislatures.

Last week the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division (DOJ), to its credit, made public the findings of its investigation, initiated in March 2009, into civil rights violations in Arizona by the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office (MSCO) headed by the notorious Sheriff Joe Arpaio. The investigation uncovered what many local advocates have suspected for years: that Sheriff Arpaio and his subordinates engaged in a pattern and practice of racial profiling against Latinos and also unlawful retaliation against individuals critical of the Sheriff’s policies. Shortly after the DOJ’s findings became public, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ended its agreement allowing certain Maricopa County deputies to act as immigration agents on behalf of the federal government— a step community leaders have demanded for years. In ending this 287(g) agreement with Maricopa, DHS acknowledges that abuse of authority will occur when law enforcement agencies, especially those like Arpaio’s, get in the immigration business.

While DOJ’s investigation and DHS’ suspension of the 287(g) agreement with Maricopa are steps forward, a hugely problematic situation remains. DHS continues to have a relationship with MCSO through Secure Communities, the federal deportation dragnet program which will continue its legacy of mass deportations and destruction of communities.

Through Secure Communities, local law enforcement agencies automatically provide immigration authorities fingerprint information for every person arrested. After comparing the fingerprint information with its own databases, ICE can either try to deport the person or store the information in a massive database for future use. Secure Communities is already used in 1882 jurisdictions and 44 states, even in places where local officials and organizers have asked not to have any part in the program and in jurisdictions with human rights records as horrific as Maricopa County.

Think about the consequences of such a widespread program. With Secure Communities, immigration agencies automatically learn the identity of any non-citizen in the custody of local police and can initiate deportation. This is the case even if the arrest was illegal and even if the charges are dropped or never prosecuted.

Secure Communities Through a Human Rights Lens:

First, a central norm in human rights is proportionality: the punishment must fit the crime. With Secure Communities, we have witnessed record deportations and detentions – nearly 400,000 in the past year – often for minor offenses where the criminal courts don’t even seek jail time.

Second, even though human rights standards require freedom from all forms of discrimination, Secure Communities is plagued with racial and ethnic profiling. Anti-immigrant jurisdictions use it to hide illegal and race-based arrests, and the federal government allows places like Maricopa County, Los Angeles, New York and New Orleans with histories of racial profiling and abusive cops to use Secure Communities without meaningful oversight.

Third, human rights principles require full and fair hearings and urge release from detention over incarceration, but in localities with Secure Communities, immigration holds prevent release of thousands of non-citizens at the expense of local jailers and with the consequence of coercing criminal pleas and deportation.

Fourth, human rights treaties provide special protections to women, children and victims of violence, but Secure Communities is criticized for placing trafficking and domestic violence survivors at risk of removal.

Fifth, a common thread in human rights is the idea of engagement. A government should listen and engage with the people it represents and allow us to have a real voice in setting policy. But Secure Communities, despite heavy resistance and requests by states and localities to end the program, has been forced on us. Even though the people and officials of places like San Francisco, Santa Clara, and Arlington, and entire states such as New York, Illinois and Massachusetts have said they don’t want anything to do with Secure Communities, it’s being implemented anyway.

The Center for Constitutional Rights has the honor and privilege of representing one of the national leaders in the movement towards immigrant justice – the National Day Laborer Organizing Network – in a lawsuit against federal agencies for information about Secure Communities. Through this lawsuit we have uncovered literally thousands of pages of internal documents that expose a record of the federal government’s deceit and misrepresentation. These documents have been used in a national campaign to uncover the truth behind police and ICE collaborations. Advocates around the country have questioned the government’s policy, educated local police and state officials and created a groundswell of resistance against merging the criminal and immigration systems.

Secure Communities is now a symbol of government dishonesty and deception. The Obama administration was not transparent with Congress about Secure Communities’ true purpose when it asked for over $2 billion for the program; it tricked state and local officials into believing they could limit or opt out of the program; and worst of all the government sold untruths to the public to get this program launched at any cost.

Kofi Annan, former Secretary-general of the United Nations, once said: “Human rights are what reason requires and conscience demands. They are us and we are them. Human rights are rights that any person has as a human being. We are all human beings; we are all deserving of human rights. One cannot be true without the other.”

The United States has failed to recognize the universality of human rights— rights we are all entitled to just because we are human. As we begin a new year, let’s take a step forward toward recognizing the fundamental human rights of all people. The United States must change course. DHS should recognize the complete failure of programs like Secure Communities that put local police at the center of immigration enforcement and terminate them immediately especially in cities with open DOJ investigations or historic records of police misconduct.

Image above by Favianna Rodriguez.

Mayor Landrieu (Hardly) Responds to one of New Orleans' Most Urgent Issues, By Rosana Cruz

2011-12-18T16:20:00.005-06:00

From our friends at Bridge the Gulf:
On November 29th, a coalition of over 30 local organizations delivered a petition with more than 2,200 signatures to Mayor Mitch Landrieu, calling for reform of Orleans Parish Prison. Specifically, the petition demanded that the Mayor formally commit to capping the size of the new facility being built by the Sheriff’s Office at 1,438 beds, and that the City Council end the “per diem” budget system for the jail. Under the “per diem” system, the Sheriff’s budget is set per person per day they’re held in the jail, creating an incentive to keep people in jail for longer.  

The petition delivery happened just days before the City Council was set to vote on the Mayor’s budget, which included the Sheriff’s budget for the jail.  

Two days later, rather than providing leadership and making clear his position on the jail size issue, the Mayor’s office sent the following reply to Orleans Parish Prison Reform Coalition (OPPRC):

December 1, 2011

Dear Concerned Citizens:

Thank you for your passion and energy regarding this extremely important issue. I am committed to transforming New Orleans’ criminal justice system and a right-sized jail is an important piece of the puzzle. Throughout the last year my administration has initiated a transparent public process regarding the prison facility. This open dialogue has been constructive and is still ongoing. I look forward to continuing this work together.

Sincerely,

Mitch

Mitchell J. Landrieu
Mayor, City of New Orleans

This condescending response is completely devoid of any mention of the 1,438 cap or the per diem system. We at OPPRC fear that the Mayor’s non-committal stance is an indication that back-room deals are still being cut, in order for the Sheriff to build a larger facility. 

The fight over the jail size has been going on for more than a year. One year ago, in response to mounting pressure from a diverse range of community groups and individuals, Mayor Landrieu convened the Criminal Justice Working Group, to determine the size of the new jail facility. The Working Group recommended the City cap the number of beds at 1,438, and the New Orleans City Council included this number in the ordinance that approved zoning for the construction of the new jail facility. But Mayor Landrieu has made no formal commitment to adhere to this recommendation.

The time for a formal commitment from the Mayor has come.     “You can’t bring a group together to answer a vital question and then just abandon the answer that they offered when it becomes politically inconvenient,” said Norris Henderson, Executive Director of VOTE (Voice Of The Ex-offender), a member organization of OPPRC (and the organization I work for). “The fact is that OPP needs to be reformed and it needs to be smaller. We believe the Mayor should listen to the thousands of individuals who signed this petition and commit to the cap. New Orleans doesn’t need more than 1,438 jail beds.”  

The proposed cap would still leave New Orleans at 43.8% more jail beds per capita than the national average, even if the city reaches a population of 400,000.   

The City Council responded to the petitions by committing to end the per diem system within the year. At least they appear to be taking the issue more seriously then the Mayor. But the time for action to stop New Orleans’ over-incarceration is past due.   

New Orleans is at a crossroads. The Mayor can listen to the thousands of people, locals, criminal justice experts, crime victims who are asking for a brighter, smarter way forward, or he can choose to keep New Orleans in the dark ages, home of America’s largest jail. Let’s invest in real justice, Mr. Mayor. Save the city’s resources and invest in things that prevent crime, not this jail that has only made our crime problem worse. 

Rosana Cruz is Associate Director of VOTE (Voice Of The Ex-offender). Previously Rosana worked with Safe Streets/Strong Communities and the National Immigration Law Center. Prior to joining NILC, she worked with SEIU1991 in Miami, after having been displaced from New Orleans by Katrina. Before the storm, Rosana worked for a diverse range of community organizations, including the Latin American Library, Hispanic Apostolate, the Lesbian and Gay Community Center of New Orleans, and People's Youth Freedom School. Rosana came to New Orleans through her work with the Southern Regional Office of Amnesty International in Atlanta.

Community Profile: Peggy Rayas Matthews of VOTE-NOLA

2011-12-09T17:04:00.003-06:00

From our friends at VOTE-NOLA:

Though Peggy Rayas Matthews has been with VOTE for less than a year, her accomplishments have established her defining presence and commitment to the mission of the group. “I came out to a meeting this January for the first time and I was impressed with what VOTE was about,” she says. “It seemed everyone was on the same page and I joined that night.”

Matthews heard about VOTE from her co-worker, member Betty Allen who sparked her interest by advertising the paralegal class that was about to begin. Since then, she has expanded her involvement to include legislative research and outreach, participation in the Greater New Orleans Organizer’s Roundtable, and fundraising efforts for November’s leadership conferences, which she also attended.

Matthews’ passion for the issues VOTE endorses comes from both personal and professional experiences. “I have a 29 year-old son who has been involved in the criminal justice system on and off,” she says. Matthews has been a social worker for about 30 years, in which she has worked with the formerly incarcerated, the homeless, mentally ill, and the physically disabled. “The target population that seemed the most handicapped to me was the ex-felons,” she explains. “Formerly incarcerated people were getting the short end of the stick, which is why I choose to focus on that group.”

The community opportunities that VOTE provides are central to Matthews' experience, from the Undoing Racism training she participated in with the People’s Institute, to the Formerly Incarcerated and Convicted People’s Movement conference, to VOTE meetings themselves. “I feel we accomplish something coming together,” explains Matthews. “And the platform that the FIP movement presented was the epitome to me, that was something concrete in the end that we can go forth with.”

Matthews sees registering FIPS and pre-conviction detainees to vote as one avenue of concrete change. “When we have that 5,000 people behind us building that strong voting block, I think the sky is the limit,” she says. In the short-term, she sees VOTE’s economic improvement campaigns as urgent antidotes to present societal problems she encounters everyday on the job. In her future with VOTE, Matthews would like to help implement more classes and resources to aid FIPS immediately after their reentry. “Everything in this country boils down to economics,” says Matthews. “In this country it’s supposed to be we the people, so let’s let it be we the people.”

Photo above: Ms. Peggy works on legal research with other members of VOTE’s paralegal class.

Library of New Orleans Youth Prison to Feature LGBTQ-Centered Books as Part of Model Policy

2011-12-08T08:16:00.003-06:00

From our friends at BreakOUT!:
BreakOUT! member and formerly-detained youth, B., delivered a box of LGBTQ books to the Youth Study Center, New Orleans’ juvenile detention facility, on Friday.

The books, which came through generous donations from community members during a book drive held in September, were collected in appreciation for the facility’s adoption of a model LGBTQ policy. Among other best practices for the treatment of transgender youth and a requirement for staff training, the policy requires that “Books about being LGBT and LGBT-inclusive magazines will be made available to youth.”

Donated books, which will be placed in the facility’s new library, included both young adult fiction and non-fiction and ranged from books about gay civil rights leader Bayard Rustin to coming-of-age novels. The facility Director, Glenn Holt, and BreakOUT! thanks everyone who donated books for youth in custody. More information about the facility's policy can be found on the BreakOUT! blog.

Sojourner Truth Academy Suspends 20% of its Senior Class for Singing

2011-12-07T23:30:00.004-06:00

From our friends at Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana:
On Friday, November 18th, ten honor-roll seniors at Sojourner Truth Academy were suspended for singing in the school cafeteria during lunchtime. The suspensions occurred without notice or warning, and in violation of the school code of conduct's commitment that prior to a suspension, "a principal or designee must conduct a student conference and school level investigation." The suspension of ten students in a graduating class of forty-five represents one fifth of the senior student body and has threatened the students' access to scholarships, and for some students, their ability to graduate this academic year.

Currently, rates of suspension and expulsion in Louisiana schools are several times the national average. According to "Pushed Out: Harsh Discipline in Louisiana Schools Denies the Right to Education," Louisiana's expulsion rate is five times the national rate. In at least ten schools in New Orleans, the out of schools suspension rate during the 2009-2010 school year exceeded 30%, including Sojourner Truth Academy at 60%, by far the highest rate. Moreover, the overuse of harsh discipline disproportionately affects some Louisiana school children over others. African American students make up 44% of the statewide public school population, but 68% of suspensions and 72.5% of expulsions.

"While punitive discipline policies are a critical issue statewide, the suspension of ten students at Sojourner Truth for singing in one week is one of the most egregious examples of the inappropriate use of school discipline," states Carol Kolinchak, Legal Director of the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana, whose office is helping the students to file appeals on their suspension through a project called Stand Up for Each Other! "These girls were denied all of their due process rights before they were given the suspension, and this will have serious consequences for their educational future. It is shameful that a school administration should act in complete disregard of their mandate to educate the students that attend and inhibit graduation and college."

The inappropriate use of discipline is just one of many ongoing problems that have been identified at Sojourner Truth Academy, by parents, students, and teachers. Members of the school community report problems at the school including, inadequate resources for special education services, improper suspensions and expulsions, staff reassignments and inappropriate terminations, inadequate staffing and funding for programs, a lack of transparency in financial reporting, and threats and intimidation to faculty and staff. According to staff member Marika Barto, "our foremost concern is for the benefit of students at Sojourner Truth, particularly the graduating class of 2012. Our students deserve the same quality of education, the same level of respect, and the same opportunity for success as every other public school student in the state of Louisiana."

The ten girls have appealed their suspension and written a letter to the administration of the school, dubbing themselves the "Sojourner Ten;" they plan to testify at the next Sojourner Truth Board meeting regarding their suspension for singing, as well as broader problems at the school that have impeded the students from learning. "All we want is to complete our school year and graduate and for others to have these same opportunities," said Damonika Stokes, a member of the Sojourner Ten. "Nobody ever warned us that singing was against the code of conduct, or that it would result in punishment. We are hopeful that we can continue our education and move forward in our lives towards graduation."

Members of the Sojourner Ten; parents, including Anna Burns, who says she "is concerned that such a harsh decision on the part of school administration will hurt my child's chances of getting into college;" teachers; and other concerned citizens plan to testify regarding their concerns at the Sojourner Truth Board Meeting at 5:45 pm on Tuesday, November 29th in the cafeteria of the school located at 2437 Jena Street in New Orleans.

Occupy NOLA Activists Prevent Sheriff's Sale of Home and Community Center, and Also Win Injunction Against Eviction

2011-12-06T19:50:00.001-06:00

Note: In addition to the successful action described below, Occupy NOLA also won a victory in court today. A judge ruled that the city should not have evicted Occupy Nola, and that protesters have the right to move back into Duncan Plaza. According to a Times Picayune report:

Bill Quigley, a lawyer for the Occupy protesters, said he believes it is the first case to date in which a judge has allowed an Occupy protest to take up residence again after an eviction by the city. Davida Finger, another Occupy lawyer, said that the decision proved that "No one is above the law, even the city of New Orleans."

The report below comes from our friends at Survivors Village:

Hours after being evicted from encampment, Occupy NOLA joins forces with Survivors Village to disrupt Sheriff's sale of blighted homes

Survivors Village, a community group of former St. Bernard public housing residents and their allies, joined forces today with recently evicted Occupy NOLA protesters to successfully disrupt a Sheriff’s sale of foreclosed properties. Delaying the sale for two hours, the protesters announced:

“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!”

The sale was scheduled to begin at noon. At approximately 1:45 pm, after several potential buyers had already left, the police arrived and threatened the nonviolent protesters with arrest. Before declaring that the remainder of their protest would be silent, the protesters announced their intention to physically defend any properties sold: “We will be in court. We will be in the streets. We will be in the houses--defending them, boarding them up, and occupying them.”

Protesters specifically identified two properties and successfully urged buyers not to purchase them. The Fight Back Center, a long-time community center in the St. Bernard neighborhood in New Orleans’ 7th ward was slated to be auctioned at today’s sale despite city personnel having acknowledged that there were numerous legal problems with the process. “This is community space and we will fight to keep it that way,” protesters declared.

The Fight Back Center is currently being redeveloped and rebuilt by Survivors Village, which began in 2006 as a tent city of public housing residents who were locked out of their homes after Hurricane Katrina.

Protesters also urged buyers not to purchase the home of an individual who had approached them to express thanks for what they were doing. The individual’s home had been completely renovated, but the city refused his offer to pay the $575 fine that had been assessed, refusing to waive the thousands of dollars in fines that accrued daily since the home was declared blighted. He was financially unable to pay these fees and thus faced loss of his home. Following the protesters’ declared intention to defend these properties, neither received a minimum bid and thus remained unsold.

Protesters 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 thirty 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.'

The protesters’ disruption at the Sheriff’s sale occurred less than eight hours after Occupy NOLA was itself evicted from their encampment at Duncan Plaza. Around 4 pm, Occupy NOLA was issued a temporary restraining order by US District Judge Jay Zainey who said he was "not happy" that the city opted to clear the camp while a motion for a TRO was pending.

Today’s protest was also carried out in solidarity with a call from Occupy Wall Street, who declared December 6 a day of action on the foreclosure crisis.

View a video of today’s protest at this link.

Junebug Productions Premieres Homecoming Project, an Exciting New Place-Based Storytelling Performance Series

2011-12-02T11:12:00.004-06:00

From our friends at Junebug Productions:

Junebug Presents...
HOMECOMING PROJECT 2011!
Saturday, December 3rd
12pm - 5pm

THIS SATURDAY AFTERNOON! Junebug Productions is proud to present the inaugural installment of our new place-based storytelling performance series, HOMECOMING PROJECT, where YOU are the stars!

Be a part of the process, be a part of the show - bring the whole family, bring the whole neighborhood - as we lift up our unique cultural heritage and take it to the streets so that we may preserve and continue our traditions that make New Orleans HOME.

HOMECOMING PROJECT will feature performances from the Hot 8 Brass Band, Kumbuka African Drum & Dance Collective, Michaela Harrison, Roscoe Reddix Jr, Keisha "Peaches" Caldwell, VOIC'D (Voices Organized in Creative Dissent), and more surprises along the way!

Street art installations created by the Xavier University art students, under the direction of renowned New Orleans visual artist, Ron Bechet, will be unveiled along our Second Line route, and Institute for Womens & Ethnic Studies (IWES) will host a FREE Community Health and Resource Fair at the finale of the Second Line at the New Orleans African American Museum.

Additionally, documentarian, Royce Osborn of All On A Mardi Gras Day will be filming HOMECOMING PROJECT - be a part of history - be there! Tell us what HOME means to YOU.

For more information, or if you are interested in participating in or supporting HOMECOMING PROJECT, please contact us!

EVENT SCHEDULE:

12:00pm: Welcome & Libations @ Congo Square - 800 N. Rampart St.
w/ Performances by Kumbuka African Drum & Dance Collective
+ Michaela Harrison

12:30pm: Second Line begins northeast on N. Rampart St.
w/ Hot 8 Brass Band

3:00pm: Second Line dis-bands @ 1418 Governor Nicholls St.
w/ Community Health & Resource Fair hosted by IWES
@ New Orleans African American Museum

FREE! | ALL AGES

And after Homecoming Project, the party begins...
Junebug Productions & The Dynamite Dave Soul present...
A Junebug Official RENT PARTY Holiday Fundraiser
HOMECOMING PROJECT 2011 AFTERPARTY
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 3rd
10pm - until?
Featuring the sounds of The Dynamite DJ Dave Soul + MC Charlie V!
Join the cast and crew of Junebug and Homecoming Project in celebrating home with Dave Soul on his 33rd birthday.
$10 Admission | Proceeds Benefit Junebug's Community Programming
@ The GOLDEN FEATHER Mardi Gras Indian Restaurant & Gallery
704 N. Rampart St. | Across from Congo Square | 504.266.2339
[ 2nd Floor Loft ]
+ Visit Golden Feather for delicious traditional African and Creole foods for dinner from 6pm - 9pm downstairs!

Join us after the inaugural Homecoming Project 2011, happening from 12pm - 5pm in Treme on Saturday, December 3rd, in supporting New Orleans' historical community theatre organization, John "Junebug Jabbo Jones" O'Neal's Junebug Productions, at our seasonal fund-raiser and dance party!

This year, Junebug has joined forces with Dave Soul and Pont:Productions for our holiday fundraiser to help sustain one of New Orleans' cultural gems with another cultural gem - DJ Dave Soul - on the 1s and 2s for his 33rd Bornday Party!

Why not support our own legacy and cultural preservation this holiday season AND have a good time doing so? We can't think of a better way.

So bring your friends, your good spirits, and your dancin' shoes...

HOMECOMING PROJECT 2011 is made possible with the generous contributions of grants from: the Arts Council of New Orleans, Louisiana Division of the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, The City of New Orleans, Nathan Cummings Foundation, Creative Capital MAP Fund, Theatre Communications Group, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation, Greater New Orleans Foundation, Gulf Coast Fund, Open Society Foundations, and Alternate ROOTS.

Junebug Productions & Homecoming Project would also like to extend very special thanks to our community partners; Ashe Cultural Arts Center, Contemporary Arts Center, The New Orleans African American Museum, Institute for Womens & Ethnic Studies (IWES), The Black Men of Labor Social Aid & Pleasure Club (BMOL), Golden Feather Mardi Gras Indian Restaurant & Gallery, The Center for Public Service (CPS) and Students Organizing Against Racism (SOAR) at Tulane University, the Xavier University Art Department and Art Village, Mondo Bizarro, ArtSpot Productions, Kids ReThink Our Schools Program, Safe Streets, People's Institute for Survival & Beyond (PISAB), People United for Armstrong Park (PUfAP).

...and YOU!

NOPD Officer Barrios Sentenced in Danziger Cover-Up

2011-12-01T18:38:00.003-06:00

From a US Department of Justice Press Release:
A former New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) officer was sentenced today to serve five years in prison for his role in covering up a police-involved shooting that occurred on the Danziger Bridge in the days after Hurricane Katrina.

Robert Barrios was one of several officers who rode in a large Budget rental truck to the Danziger Bridge on Sept. 4, 2005, where officers engaged in a shooting incident that left two civilians dead and four others seriously injured.

In April 2010, Barrios admitted that he agreed with other officers to obstruct justice during the investigations that followed the shooting. Barrios also admitted that, prior to giving a formal, audio-taped statement to NOPD investigators, he and other officers participated in a meeting with two sergeants assigned to investigate the shooting, during which the officers were instructed to get their stories straight before giving their formal statements. Barrios further admitted that he lied, in a formal NOPD statement, in order to help cover for his fellow officers, and that the purpose of the conspiracy he joined was to provide false and misleading information in order to ensure that the shootings on the bridge would appear to be legally justified and that the involved officers would therefore be shielded from liability.

Barrios is the fifth cooperating police officer to be sentenced in this case. Former Lieutenant Michael Lohman, former Detective Jeffrey Lehrmann, and former Officers Michael Hunter and Ignatius Hills are all serving federal prison sentences. The five officers who were convicted at trial – Sergeants Kenneth Bowen, Robert Gisevius, and Arthur “Archie” Kaufman; Officer Anthony Villavaso; and former Officer Robert Faulcon – are scheduled to be sentenced by U. S. District Court Judge Kurt Engelhardt on Feb. 14, 2012.

This case was investigated by the New Orleans Field Office of the FBI, and was prosecuted by Deputy Chief Bobbi Bernstein and Trial Attorney Forrest Christian of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, along with Assistant U.S. Attorney Ted Carter for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

The Fault Lines of US Policy

2011-11-28T15:35:00.003-06:00

Recently, Louisiana Justice Institute staffer Jordan Flaherty has been working with Al Jazeera English as one of the producers on their flagship documentary program Fault Lines. For several years, Fault Lines has offered in-depth explorations of the issues ignored by much of the media. Below is an announcement detailing the new season, which premieres tonight, airing at 5:30pm EST. You can watch Al Jazeera on your TV in several cities - including via Time Warner Cable in New York City and Comcast in Washington, DC - and wherever you live, you can watch it online.

After they air, episodes of Fault Lines are posted on YouTube and on the Al Jazeera website. You can also watch all of Al Jazeera's programming via their live stream, at aljazeera.com/watch_now/.

New Season of Fault Lines Premieres Tonight, Explores Drought in Horn of Africa, Unions' Declining Influence, Student Uprisings in Chile, and More

Al Jazeera’s latest season of Fault Lines premieres Monday November 28th, taking viewers beyond the daily headlines and holding the powerful to account, as the show examines the US role both at home and abroad. The new season launches as the 2012 Presidential election looms, and the fault lines in the US have never seemed deeper.
The award-winning Fault Lines will examine crises from the drought in the Horn of Africa to issues surrounding the upcoming US Presidential election. Subsequent episodes will examine America’s new approach to warfare, the decline of labor unions and the Chilean student uprising.

“The entire world is on edge and no one gets you closer to how the biggest crises are shaping up and what’s next than Fault Lines,” said Amjad Atallah, Al Jazeera English bureau chief of the Americas. “America’s role in how conflicts play out has never been greater and our correspondents take you inside the globe’s biggest movements. We’re very excited for the new season.”

Episodes include:

Crisis in the Horn of Africa: Warnings from the Drought Zone.- November 28th and December 5th
In a two-part series, Fault Lines asks how US policies intersect with drought, food insecurity and famine in the Horn of Africa. In part one, Fault Lines travels to Mogadishu to see the impact of Somalia’s famine, and asks if US policies have contributed to the disaster. In the second film, Fault Lines travels to Kenya to find out how US policies intersect with drought and hunger.

The Republican Race, the Religious Right, and the Tea Party- December 12th
Over 2 weeks, Fault lines followed Republican Presidential hopefuls as they campaigned in Iowa - to understand how the far-right Christian conservative movement is reshaping the American political debate.

The Decline of Unions in America- Dec 19th
America’s once powerful unions are locked in a battle for survival. Fault Lines examines the fight against organized labor, the fight back from the workers themselves, how it ties into the Occupy Wall Street movement and what it means for White House hopefuls in 2012.

Robot Wars- Dec 26th
The US Military has embraced robot technology to help it fight in Iraq and Afghanistan, and is now pouring billions into developing potentially autonomous robots that will be able to kill without human approval. Fault Lines investigates this growing industry of killing machines, and asks the questions: How can this be ethical? Who is benefiting? And what will the battlefields of the future look like?

Chile Rising- Jan 2nd
And as Occupy protests grow across America, Fault Lines travels to Chile, where students have been taking to the streets for months. The country has been gripped by massive demonstrations calling for a more fair distribution of income – in the wealthiest, but also most unequal country in Latin America.

The Houma Nation Fight for Recognition, By Adam Crepelle

2011-11-23T12:37:00.005-06:00

The Bridge The Gulf Blog recently posted a powerful report from a citizen of the United Houma Nation, about the tribe’s history and its ongoing struggle to be officially recognized by the US government. Below are excerpts from the posting.
I am a citizen of the United Houma Nation (UHN), Louisiana’s largest Indian tribe with over 17,000 citizens. Residing along the Gulf Coast, Louisiana's wetlands are an integral part of the Houma's culture. Coastal erosion has plagued the UHN for decades, but the BP spill has placed the Houma's traditional way of life against the ropes.

The Houma Indians were originally located near present day Baton Rouge when famed French explorer Robert de La Salle first encountered the tribe in the 1680s; accordingly, the French named Baton Rouge for the red stick used to mark the Houma's border with a rival tribe. As Europeans continued to move into Louisiana, the Houma migrated south. Naturally, the city of Houma is named for the Houma Indian village located there. To this day, most Houma remain in the Terrebonne and Lafourche Parish area, and many continue to practice the tribe’s traditional way of life.

The modern Houma speak a variant of French long thought to be derived from the Cajuns; however, tribal leaders say linguists have recently proven the Houma language is a distinct language. Houma-Francais consists predominately of the version of French spoken in France circa-1700 blended with pieces of the original Houma language, a Muskegon dialect.

Consequently, the Houma learned French from the French explorers who initially encountered the tribe and not the Cajuns. This means the Houma were speaking French before the Cajuns ever set foot in Louisiana. Unsurprisingly, Louisiana and France recognize the present day UHN as the progeny of the Houma tribe of old.

Recognizing the UHN as a tribe makes sense to me. After all, what other logical explanation is there for a contemporary Indian tribe located where the historic Houma tribe was last located, and speaking the language the historic Houma tribe would have spoken, than the contemporary tribe is the descendant of the historic Houma tribe? Plus many Houma continue to use the tribe’s traditional healing practices and remain dependent on wetlands for harvesting their meals.

Inferences like this led renowned anthropologist Frank Speck to state, “I should rate the Houma as a people possessing Indian blood and cultural characters to a degree about equal to that of the Creek, Choctaw, Catawbe, and Seminoles.” The aforementioned tribes are recognized by the federal government as the ancestors of the existing tribes. However, the federal government has been unable to connect the dots between the Houma encountered by de La Salle and today’s UHN; in other words, the US does not consider the UHN a tribe.

When it came to discriminating against the Houma, their "Indianness" was never questioned. Houma Indian children were forced to attend a segregated Indian school until passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Nonetheless, the US government has yet to determine the UHN's status as a tribe despite receiving the UHN’s petition for federal recognition in 1985.

The UHN was bitterly reminded of its lack of federal recognition in the wake of the BP spill. Like the entire state, the UHN has been devastated by the spill, so the Houma filed a damages claim with BP. BP denied the UHN's claim because the tribe is not federally recognized.

Oil companies have long been the UHN's major nemesis. Oil was initially discovered on Houma Indian land in the early 1900s. As the Houma did not speak English, oilmen were able swindle the Houma out of their lands. A common tactic employed by oilers was to communicate the transaction was a land lease; however, the contract was actually a quit-claim. Resultantly, the Houma lost ownership rights to the lands that had fostered their culture.

Environmental damage soon came to the land the Houma no longer owned but still were dependent upon for their survival. Oil companies dug canals through the wetlands to facilitate the transport of oil field equipment. Unquestionably, moving massive drilling paraphernalia through water is easier than carting it across marsh, but most easy roads in life have high long term costs. In this case, the road's toll is accelerated wetland loss. A byproduct of digging is piles of whatever you may be digging, in this case marsh. These "mounds of marsh" were simply tossed aside blocking the natural water flow.

The manmade canals also enable saltwater from the Gulf to creep into the marsh. If you have taken a biology course, you will probably conjecture saltwater colliding with life forms accustomed to less salty water equals problems for that life, and you would be right. The freshwater vegetation dies from exposure to saltwater meaning the root systems holding the land together are gone; thus, coastal erosion occurs. Coastal erosion has already washed away much of the Houma’s traditional land. Like most, if not all, Native American tribes, the Houma cherish the graves of their ancestors. Sadly, many of the Houma gravesites have been swallowed by the ever encroaching sea.

If the UHN had been federally recognized when oil was first discovered on their land, many of these ecological and cultural tragedies could have been averted. Groups such as the NAACP have stated oil lobbies do not want the Houma recognized because the land would be protected under the federal designation.

Federal recognition gives a tribe status as a sovereign nation. If federally recognized, the UHN would have a strong damages claim against BP; furthermore, the tribe would be eligible for educational opportunities, healthcare, and a myriad of other benefits--including disaster relief. Disaster relief would be extremely valuable to the UHN, as the tribe has been pummeled by Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Gustav, Ike and the BP spill all since 2005. Additionally, federal funds would likely be available to protect the tribe's land from coastal erosion.

I think justice demands the UHN be recognized as a tribe by the federal government. If the federal government allows a group of people to be oppressed because they are Native American, I think it is reasonable for the government to acknowledge the people as Native American. Accordingly, I think it is only fair for the federal government to recognize the people who were discriminated against because they were descended from the Houma tribe of old as the progeny of the Houma tribe.

The UHN currently has a petition before the U.S. government for federal recognition. More information can be found at this link. You can also get more information at UHN's Facebook page.

Adam Crepelle is a citizen of the United Houma Nation. He serves on the tribe’s Tribal Security and Community Services Committee and the tribe’s Diabetes’s Coalition. Adam received his degree in exercise science from the University of Louisiana Lafayette in 2009. He is currently in his second year at Southern University Law Center.

Ethics Issues Raised Regarding Chas Roemer and Kira Orange-Jones

2011-11-09T17:49:00.003-06:00

A recent blog post from the Louisiana Federation of Teachers highlights some of the issues that have recently been raised around candidates for the upcoming Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) election. Below are excerpts from the blog:
Two candidates strongly supported by Gov. Bobby Jindal, big business and even New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg are facing ethics issues in the waning days of the 2011 election season.

Kira Orange-Jones, candidate for the District 2 seat on the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, is the subject of a cease-and-desist order signed by a New Orleans judge.

According to the online publication New Orleans Agenda, "Orange Jones had claimed in her campaign advertising that she had voted for President Obama in November, 2008, but the plaintiffs provided the court with a sworn statement signed by Orange Jones on August 17, 2011, that she had never before been registered to vote in Louisiana or any other place."

The order says that Orange-Jones must "cease and desist from misrepresenting her voting record or her registration in violation of Louisiana Revised Statute 18:1463." It is illegal for candidates to make statements that they know to be false or misleading, according to the article.

Chas Roemer, in a runoff for re-election to his District 6 BESE seat, has run afoul of the Louisiana ethics code and must return some $10,000 worth of contributions, according to this article by Mikhail Zinshteyn in The American Independent.

It seems that when the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry pumped $20,000 into Roemer's campaign, the cash infusion lifted him way over the legal limit for PAC contributions.

Gov. Jindal recently sent a fund-raising letter on Roemer's behalf, and his campaign fund for the District 6 seat - which pays no salary - now holds over $220,000. His opponent, former Ascension Parish Superintendent of School Donald Songy, has raised less than $14,000.

Songy's campaign chest is about par for BESE elections. The really curious question is why all the big money is pouring into Roemer's campaign. It is an unprecedented expenditure for the state school board.

But that's not the only ethics question dogging Roemer. His sister, Caroline Roemer Shirley, is executive director of the Louisiana Association of Public Charter Schools. Because of her relationship with Chas, she is prohibited from speaking at BESE meetings, and does not do so.

As this article by Louisiana Voice reporter Tom Aswell points out, ethics laws also prohibit elected officials from voting "on any matter in which a member or his immediate family has a substantial economic interest."

The ethics board has never made a specific ruling in his case, but it would seem that Chas Roemer should abstain from any vote involving one of his sister's schools.

Instead, Aswell writes, "In December of 2010 alone, he made motions to approve charter school contracts of $50,000 and under, made motions to approve Crescent City School, the NET Charter High School, the Collegiate Academy Charter School, the Sarah T. Reed Charter Middle School, the ReNEW K-8 Charter School, The ReNEW Alternative High School, and in one case, made the motion to deny an application to commence operation of Joseph A. Craig Charter School in New Orleans."

New Orleans Is No Education 'Miracle' By Linda Tran

2011-11-07T14:32:00.003-06:00

An article recently posted on the Education Week website offers an important perspective on New Orleans' schools:
As a recent graduate of a New Orleans public high school, I find it very troubling that the national conversation about post-Katrina education amounts to little more than talking points about charter schools and test scores. The most telling indication of how we’re doing in the classroom actually comes from a youth-led research project showing the hard realities students continue to face every day. As New Orleans moves to become the first all-charter district in the country, students here must be heard.

The Vietnamese American Young Leaders Association, or VAYLA, surveyed a cross section of 450 students from six different public high schools among the schools overseen by the Orleans Parish school board and those in the state’s Recovery School District, or RSD, asking students for their opinions on everything from counselor availability and teacher effectiveness to school lunches and safety. Published this September, the surveys and testimony that VAYLA gathered contain more than 25,000 student observations. These student voices echo the feelings of many of us yearning to be heard by policymakers.

Louisiana education officials promised to build a world-class public school system after Katrina. But the survey shows that the historic inequalities faced by students of color and those from low-income communities were not washed away by the floodwaters.

An Orleans Parish charter school with a significant white population received high marks across the board, while the remaining five schools averaged what amounts to a C or D in areas like safety, academic rigor, counselor accessibility, classroom management, physical environment, and affordability. I can personally attest to how much these challenges impact a student’s ability to learn, grow, and earn the right to walk across that stage on graduation day.

Even though math and reading scores have improved in New Orleans, the challenge that traps so many people my age is the lack of a high school diploma or at least one that truly represents the education necessary to succeed in life. According to the Alliance for Excellent Education, one of every six New Orleans high schools fails to graduate at least 40 percent of its students. By 2018, about 3 million US jobs will be available without enough college educated workers to apply, according to the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce.

Our economic future demands more from our education system and so should we. A majority of the high school students who responded to the VAYLA survey said they did not feel their school was preparing them for college; over 60 percent of students said they complete less than one hour of homework each night; and 20 percent of students also said they have never visited an academic counselor. Schools must find a way to support students with after-school study halls, Advanced Placement course offerings, accessible counselors, and other services that prepare them for college and careers.

As a student-advocacy organization, VAYLA recognizes that teachers and administrators cannot do it all on their own. Parents need to be engaged in the education process. One of the major barriers is language, with 50 percent of limited-English-proficient parents having never even met their kids’ teachers. Bilingual school staff and translation services would enable limited-English families to get involved and stay involved. Furthermore, an online parent portal would give working parents the chance to monitor their children’s progress.

Like many others, the schools VAYLA studied are in desperate need of new models that support English-language learners. The results indicate that nearly 70 percent of Asian and Latino students responding reported having been placed in an English-as-a-second-language class that did not fit their needs. Each of these students has a different level of proficiency, requiring tailored instruction. We must do more to ensure that every ESL class has a teacher who is certified in this field.

Hopefully, we can also agree to do something about the one in four students who report that they feel “unsafe” at school. We would know so much more about the dangers that exist if schools reported incidents of harassment and bullying. Without spending a penny, students and security-staff members could create a safety commission at each school to develop better solutions that do not rely on punishments and harsh discipline. Providing more counseling options would give students with emotional or social challenges the support they need to prevent dangerous behavior.

Other issues continue to hold students back, but no one looking at New Orleans’ schools seems to see what is actually happening on the ground: Sixty percent of students surveyed don’t use the restrooms at their schools; 70 percent of students say their classes do not have enough textbooks for every student; and half of students do not eat lunch every day. These are basic problems that still exist.

Six years after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans’ public high schools are still plagued by severe inequities. Just talk to the students.

Linda Tran was the Abramson Science and Technology Charter School's class of 2011 salutatorian. She was also a youth lead organizer and researcher for the VAYLA survey. She is now a freshman at the University of New Orleans.

“There’s Too Much Misinformation About Us Out Here" An Interview With Norris Henderson by Parnell Herbert

2011-11-03T01:55:00.008-05:00

Parnell Herbert sat with Norris Henderson, Co-Director of V.O.T.E. NOLA to discuss the fact and fiction about Black-on-Black crime in New Orleans.

While sitting with Norris Henderson upstairs at the RAE House, I couldn’t help but marvel at his calm, composed demeanor. Here is a man who served many years of his life at the Louisiana State Prison at Angola, a place that was once known as the Bloodiest and Most Brutal Penitentiary in the United States. And here he was talking to me about what we can do to try to stop our young African American males from killing each other. Norris is a selfless man and a giving individual who wants nothing more than to find ways to help others and to make the world a better place for us all.

Parnell Herbert: Norris, tell us a little about yourself and your organization.

Norris Henderson: I am a native New Orleanian and Director of VOTE “Voice Of The Ex-offender.” We work with the base population of people reentering society. Originally our focus was to organize Formerly Incarcerated People (FIP) around their right to vote. In this state FIPs do have a right to vote, and VOTE made that our rallying call. When people are civically engaged, they believe they are a part of something. They feel more involved.

PH: Sure, you mean you have something to say about what goes on in your life.

Norris Henderson: Yes. We have learned throughout this nine year process that there are collateral consequences that come with being formerly incarcerated, such as limited employment opportunities, lack of decent affordable housing, inadequate health care… For the past ten years Louisiana has led the nation in per-capita incarceration and New Orleans leads the state. Question is “Do we have bad boys or do we have a bad system?” Socio-economically the largest numbers of people of color to come out of that system are worse off than they were when they went in. We have created a vicious cycle. People can’t find a way to get off of it or out of it. Retaliation is Perpetuation applies not only to young Black males killing each other it, also applies to the system.

PH: You mean a perpetual cycle of poverty?

Norris Henderson: Exactly! Louisiana is first where we want to be last and last where we want to be first. We are on a parallel track with our crime rate and our incarceration rate. We should be first or last in one or the other. If incarceration is high then crime should be low. High incarceration could explain low crime. We could be high in one or the other. Not both. Prison is a growth industry and these young brothers are becoming the commodity.

PH: We know that prison perpetuates itself. While it does nothing to prepare inmates for their release, prisons remain prepared for their anticipated return. Our Governor Piyush Jindal is trying to sell a couple of prisons. We know that prisons are more than brick and mortar and bars. It is also people. When you sell a prison you sell the inmates, you sell human beings and that is called slavery.

Norris Henderson: In theory they say “You have paid your debt to society.” In this state “Revised Statue 37” addresses professions and occupations. It prohibits FIPs from getting 70 types of licenses. You could have been the best barber in the pen but when you come home you can’t get a license. They have complicated the process of expungement and made it cost prohibitive.

PH: You mentioned registering FIPs, but don’t you also register people while they are incarcerated?

Norris Henderson: Yes. That is one of the best kept secrets. A pre-trial detainee remains eligible to vote. As long as you are not under conviction, probation or parole you maintain your voting rights.

PH: Let’s talk about the census. Inmates are counted where they are incarcerated, not where they are from. In the military you are counted under your home address, not where you are stationed.

Norris Henderson: Large inmate populations are counted as residents of that community. West Feliciana Parish has a population of 10,000. Angola’s population of 5,000 is added to that so it appears that West Feliciana has 15,000 residents. And funds are allocated thusly.

PH: That also explains the hospice program in Angola. When asked why they don’t release these harmless, dying old men to go home and die with their families, it is because the prison and their parish continue to benefit from that inmates physical presence.

Norris Henderson: The program itself is a good one. It was needed because people were not getting out. They were dying in there and the quality of care was deplorable. We have some of the harshest laws and sentences in this country. When they increased the sentencing in Louisiana, crime increased. Because sentences were so harsh people did everything they could to avoid capture, which includes killing people to avoid conviction.

PH: I have read that over 85% of Angola’s inmates will die there, so there is little rehabilitation.

Norris Henderson: There is rehabilitation but its self- rehabilitation. Guys are rehabilitating themselves.

PH: Wow, I love that term “Self- rehabilitation.” Will you explain to us what that means?

Norris Henderson: Well it’s like “Each One Reach One. Each One Teach One.” Academically challenged individuals are encouraged by older inmates to get their GED and use this time to advance themselves in preparation for release.

PH: One of the things we want to discuss is how the system is set up for young Black males to do something dumb in the streets so they can take you off of the streets and benefit from your presence while incarcerated. Many of these young men depend on their weapons and their boys in the streets. What happens when the boys are not around and weapons are no longer available behind those prison doors?

Norris Henderson: Attitudes change immediately because you realize, this is a different playing field. No AK, no Uzi, no Mac… You are now in an environment where no one is afraid of you because they have done what you have done and worse. They realize very quickly I have given up so much for so little in return. If they have no kids there is no legacy. The world will never even know you were here. Your girlfriend drops off, your boys drop off there is no one to call no one answers your letters. You are alone and will someday just cease to exist. Retaliation is Perpetuation is so true. It’s like you kill my dog, I kill your cat. At the end of the day no one has a pet.

PH: Why do you think these young brothers are killing each other and what do you think we can do about it?

Norris Henderson: We have to create opportunities. Crime is about economics. Murder is the most serious. We have to get them to stop trying to come up on each other. In the game the hunter becomes the hunted. When you are out there hustling you have nothing. But the minute you come up you become the hunted. I know this personally because I lost a son to it. The people directly impacted will have to step up. When my son died his boys said “The streets are going to run red.” Standing in front of my sons casket dressed in prison garb and shackles I said “No. It stops here.” His friends had to respect that. God is the best planner. Everything happens for a reason. Someone directly impacted has to make that statement “It stops here” and others have to respect that.

PH: We discussed the use of the word “Madness” and I agree with you. Our kids are not mad. They are not insane or crazy but they do some dumb stuff. The most dangerous man alive is the one without hope. He feels he has nothing to lose and basically nothing to live for. We have to show them there is hope. Norris you and I came from the same place many of them are from and we are still here living proud and productive lives. We need young people to get that feeling of hopelessness out of their minds. As long as you are alive there is hope. “Don’t give up - you are not hopeless and this is not a hopeless world in which we live."

Norris Henderson: Seeing something better about you is hope. Hope is a good thing. You’ve got to have hope. If you don’t have hope you are just giving up on yourself. You have to be hopeful that you can achieve your objective in life.

Parnell Herbert is a recently returned New Orleanian who was previously displaced to Houston by Hurricane Katrina. He is active on many social justice causes, including the right of return for New Orleanians, and freedom for the Angola Three. His new play, Angola Three, has been performed in New Orleans and other cities.

Confederate Flag in Caddo Parish to Come Down

2011-11-03T01:36:00.001-05:00

From The Louisiana Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty:
After more than sixty years since it was raised, the Confederate Flag outside the Caddo Parish Courthouse will come down.

The decision comes after two hearings at the Caddo Parish Commission (2002 and 2011), one hearing in the Louisiana Supreme Court, a visit from Professor Charles Ogletree of Harvard Law School’s Charles Hamilton Houston Institute on Race and Justice, and national and international attention in the media. In a 11‐1 vote, the Caddo Parish Commission authorized the flag’s removal from the grounds of the Caddo Parish Courthouse, where it has been raised each day for 61 years.

“Taking down the Confederate Flag from our Courthouse removes a significant barrier to full participation," said NAACP President Lloyd Thompson during the Commission meeting, "It gives our communities confidence to work together for the benefit of Caddo Parish as whole."

“It is the first step in the right direction,” said Reverend Mary Richard of The Church of the Holy Cross at the meeting. “The cost of the flag has been mistrust in the fair and equal meting out of justice in the Courthouse; this decision means we can finally begin to move forward and work to restore that trust.”

The Confederate Flag was erected in 1951 during a time of deep civil unrest and resistance to the advancement of African‐American citizens in Caddo Parish. The Shreveport Journal reported: “Caddo Parish police jurors voted unanimously in their meeting Wednesday to erect a Confederate flag on the statute of the courthouse building. The approved motion… brought the remark: ‘Harry Truman isn’t going to like this.’”

In a submission to the Caddo Parish Commission in 2002, social and architectural historian Eric Brock explained: “During this time, many southern cities and towns hoisted Confederate banners in reaction to federal legislation dealing… with civil rights, integration, and African‐American voting rights.“ Brock noted that the Flag was the symbol of “Shreveport’s own role in resistance” to civil rights and equality under the law.

Since the reinstatement of capital punishment in 1976, fourteen African‐American men have been sentenced to death in proceedings that took place under the Confederate Flag. The Louisiana Supreme Court recently recognized in State versus Felton Dorsey that the Flag was a symbol of endemic racism but declined to address the issue based upon the defense lawyer’s failure to object. Carl Staples, an African‐American juror, was removed from service in the Dorsey case when he asserted that real justice could not be administered under the Confederate Flag.

The vote to remove the Flag signals an endorsement of Mr. Staples’ observation, and movement in favor of full and equal participation of African‐Americans in the democratic process.

A recording of the commission meeting is online at http://www.caddo.org/minutes.cfm.

NOPD Lieutenant Who Testified in Danziger Trial Sentenced to Four Years

2011-11-02T21:12:00.001-05:00

Michael Lohman, the NOPD Lieutenant who conspired with other officers to cover-up the police killings on Danziger Bridge, and later became a key early witness against his fellow officers, was sentenced today. From the US Department of Justice press release:

A former lieutenant with the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD), was sentenced today for his role in a conspiracy to obstruct justice and for misprision of a felony (for concealing a known crime), in connection with a federal investigation of two police-involved shootings that left two civilians dead and four others seriously wounded in the area of the Danziger Bridge in the days after Hurricane Katrina.

Michael Lohman, 41, of Terrytown, La., was sentenced in federal court to serve four years in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release. During the first year of supervised release, Mr. Lohman is to perform 300 hours of community service. Additionally, he has been ordered to meet with NOPD recruit classes to serve as a warning to officers tempted to disobey the law. The court also imposed a $2500 fine. On Feb. 24, 2010, Lohman pleaded guilty in federal court in New Orleans before U. S. District Court Judge Ivan L. R. Lemelle.

Mr. Lohman admitted to helping with the Sept. 4, 2005, cover up and also admitted – first during his guilty plea and later when he testified at the trial of five fellow officers -- that he knew that the shootings on the bridge were unjustified, and that he helped other officers cover up what had happened on the bridge.

Lohman arrived on the scene shortly after the shootings, he noticed that there were no guns on or near the dead and wounded civilians. After determining that the involved officers could not come up with any evidence to justify the shooting, he concluded that they had been involved in a “bad shoot.” Rather than reporting the shooting as a bad shoot, Lohman, a well-respected lieutenant with NOPD, participated in a conspiracy that involved, among other things, writing false reports about the incident, planting a gun and making up false witness statements.

Deputy Chief Bobbi Bernstein, a prosecutor on the case, said in court that Lohman’s crimes were reprehensible, and that he needed to be punished with prison time. However, she also asked the judge to sentence Mr. Lohman to less than the five years called for by sentencing guidelines, in recognition of the fact that he provided cooperation that was critical to the prosecution of others. Ms. Bernstein noted that the victims of the Danziger Bridge shooting have been “an inspiration” for the prosecution, and that every recommendation the government has made for sentencing – including any requests the government has made for leniency for cooperating police officers – has been with the blessing of those victims.

“I’m pleased with today’s sentence,” said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. “Mr. Lohman owes a serious debt to society for betraying the badge he had been trusted to wear. But he also deserves some leniency for the critical role he played in allowing other offenders to be brought to justice. The government is outraged by Mr. Lohman’s crimes, but grateful for his cooperation in this case.”

U.S. Attorney Jim Letten stated: “The sentencing of former New Orleans Police Officer Michael Lohman today was the product of his important admission of guilt, his essential and truthful testimony at trial, and the government’s request to the court for leniency by appropriately recognizing his substantial and even critical assistance. Such tremendously important cases and the just results they produce can often only be brought with such cooperation. Moreover, our request that Mr. Lohman’s sentence require his conducting outreach to future NOPD officers was not only appropriate but essential in ensuring that such violations of public trust are not repeated. As United States Attorney and as a citizen, I—along with the prosecution team—believe that our resolution of this case and our request for consideration in sentencing Mr. Lohman is the right course to take.”

David Welker, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI New Orleans field office stated, “The law must be respected by those that are entrusted to enforce it. If the law is to be honored, it must first be respected by those who enforce it. Unfortunately, Lt. Lohman failed to remain faithful to the oath he took as a police officer and as a result tarnished the badge that many wear so proudly.”

This case was investigated by the New Orleans Field Office of the FBI, and was prosecuted by Deputy Chief Bobbi Bernstein and Trial Attorney Cindy Chung of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, along with Assistant U.S. Attorney Ted Carter of the Eastern District of Louisiana.

What Will It Take to Stop The Murders? By Parnell Herbert

2011-11-02T20:13:00.004-05:00

“We can save ourselves”
For many years New Orleans has maintained one of the highest per capita death rates in the United States. Crimes of violence and murder in the Black community is not only a social justice problem, it is a public health issue. This is a designation none of us wants, and our bureaucrats appear powerless to change. One wonders if they really care. Certainly they do not want this distinction – it frightens their tourists. But do they really care?

Some would say Black self-hatred is the cause of this statistic; others would say fear. New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu and police chief Ronal Serpas say it is our culture. How ridiculous! Crime has no culture - just victims. Although mass murder and serial killing is commonly attributed to white perpetrators we don’t label it as white culture.

We can save ourselves when we learn what it will take to stop the madness. First, we must understand why young Black men kill other young brothers. Second, we must provide a way out; the easy answer is jobs and education. So what else is new?

The Diagnosis

We were conditioned to take the law into our own hands. The African American community in New Orleans was taught decades ago that we could not depend on law enforcement. If we wanted justice we would have to handle it ourselves. We also learned that consequences for murdering a Black man would never be as grave as consequences for killing a Caucasian.
Internalized Racial Oppression Inferiority “A Multi-generational Process” developed to teach us to believe that we are inferior. To believe that Black life is dispensable and white life holds greater value.

There is nothing more dangerous than a man without hope. When there is no hope there is no reason to live. There is nothing to live for. No consequence is greater than that hopelessness.

The Cure

We must teach young people to believe that there is hope. As long as there is life there is hope and consequences are more severe than they can imagine. This can best be explained to them by someone who has lived it. Many incarcerated and formerly incarnated persons are begging for the opportunity to teach our young people through their experiences. They do not want to see young lives wasted. They want to tell them the horror of being locked in a cell and haunted by the spirit of their murder victims. They speak of the arrogance and defiance they felt when they received life sentences. Reality doesn’t always sink in with the clang of prison gates behind them. But some day sometime years later the reality sets in and they wake up to a nightmare.

Protesters marching on City Hall will not solve this problem; murderers don’t read protest signs. Pep Rallies at UNO Arena won’t solve this problem; murderers don’t listen to this rhetoric. Young people must be addressed directly and made to realize there is value to their lives and that all human life holds value. Revenge is not the solution – it simply contributes to the problem. What was the plan? Has the strategy backfired? When flooding us out did not work, starving us out would not. Survivors will find ways to survive. Rather than hiring New Orleans natives to rebuild their own city the local elite chose to recruit impoverished people from south of our borders and others who say they are here to help us rebuild. A starving man will steal, rob and yes kill to survive. Self preservation is the first law of nature.

Parnell Herbert is a recently returned New Orleanian who was previously displaced to Houston by Hurricane Katrina. He is active on many social justice causes, including the right of return for New Orleanians, and freedom for the Angola Three. His new play, Angola Three, has been performed in New Orleans and other cities.

Culture of Violence or Culture of Poverty? By Dr. Lance Hill

2011-11-02T14:54:00.000-05:00

The culture of violence is a product of a culture of poverty. How can we talk about 16 shootings in one day and not mention 65% of black children under the age of five now live in poverty in New Orleans—that poverty rate for black adults has regressed to the 1999 level?

Systematic discrimination against Blacks in Katrina recovery jobs has created poverty where it did not exist before. Children growing up in families where there appears to be no prospect for work are likely to turn to the drug trade. In the drug trade, business conflicts are settled with weapons. As weapons spread through the drug subculture, law-abiding citizens in low-income communities live in fear and come to believe they need to arm themselves to protect themselves from attack.

Ordinary conflicts between law-abiding people occur in situations in which everyone is armed. As much as the authorities would like us to believe these are primarily drug-related violence, the fact is that the violent drug subculture affects ordinary citizens. Reports are that the wealthy and privileged are arming themselves and they too risk becoming part of the trigger-happy culture of violence.

The “culture of violence” has its roots in the “culture of poverty” which has its roots in the “culture of indifference” displayed by the elites who control employment and housing. We will never change the culture of poverty until we change the culture of indifference.

Imagine if those in power demanded that all of the $20 billion in recovery contracts—schools, hospitals, roads, etc.) required 50% of the jobs to go to New Orleans residents instead of outside itinerant workers? Would that lift families out of poverty and provide children with a belief that there is a future for them?

We can’t solve a culture of behavior until we recognize that all maladaptive destructive behaviors develop because people are trying to fulfill basic human needs such as employment and decent housing. If we don’t satisfy those human needs, we can never change the culture of violence.

While we can’t take guns out of people’s hands, we can take the people out of poverty.

Dr. Lance Hill is the Executive Director of the Southern Institute for Education and Research, a tolerance education and race relations research center based at Tulane University in New Orleans. He is the author of The Deacons for Defense: Armed Resistance and The Civil Rights Movement (University of North Carolina Press, 2004).

Acclaimed Author Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts to Appear at Community Book Center

2011-11-02T10:52:00.000-05:00

Among the many great artists and writers living in New Orleans, we are truly fortunate that the author Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts has made her home here. Her new book Harlem is Nowhere: A Journey to the Mecca of Black America, has already brought rave reviews in the New York Times, NPR, Salon, and many others. The film also has inspired a short trailer by Arthur Jafa, the acclaimed cinematographer behind Daughters of the Dust and Crooklyn, and an excellent mixtape, available for free online.

New Orleanians will get a chance to here from the author, this Thursday at 6:00pm, at Community Book Center, 2523 Bayou Road.

From the book's website:

For a century Harlem has been celebrated as the capital of black America, a thriving center of cultural achievement and political action. At a crucial moment in Harlem’s history, as gentrification encroaches, Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts untangles the myth and meaning of Harlem’s legacy. Examining the epic Harlem of official history and the personal Harlem that begins at her front door, Rhodes-Pitts introduces us to a wide variety of characters, past and present. At the heart of their stories, and her own, is the hope carried over many generations, hope that Harlem would be the ground from which blacks fully entered America’s democracy.

Rhodes-Pitts is a brilliant new voice who, like other significant chroniclers of places-Joan Didion on California, or Jamaica Kincaid on Antigua-captures the very essence of her subject.

Angry Mob of Officers Defends Accused Cops

2011-10-29T17:25:00.007-05:00

Few in New Orleans can forget the sight, in January of 2007, when New Orleans police officers involved in the killings on Danziger Bridge walked into Central Lockup on to be booked on murder and attempted-murder charges.

The accused were surrounded by two hundred or more other officers, who came to show their support, cheering and applauding and hugging the officers who had shot down unarmed civilians in cold blood.

Yesterday, a similar scene played out in New York City. According to the New York Times, hundreds of officers came out to applaud and support sixteen officers who faced a combined total of more 1,600 criminal counts. While the majority of the charges stemmed from widespread ticket-fixing, officers were also accused of drug offenses, grand larceny, attempted robbery, and more.

New York's Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, the union for NYPD officers, was deeply involved in the alleged crimes. According to the Times, "During the investigation, overseen by the Bronx district attorney’s office, prosecutors found fixing tickets to be so extensive that they considered charging the union under the state racketeering law as a criminal enterprise, the tactic employed against organized crime families." Similarly, PANO, the officer's union in New Orleans, was closely connected to the Danziger officers.

The hundreds of NYPD officers engaged in what the Times called, "a stunning display of vitriol," against prosecutors, and also displayed hostility towards the press, "blocking cameras from filming their colleagues, in one instance grabbing lenses and shoving television camera operators backward." While there, officers also yelled insults at welfare recipients who were lined up at a facility across the street.

The lessons from New Orleans' struggle against police violence are relevant to today's scenes from New York City.

On September 4, 2005, two innocent civilians were killed and four were wounded. Seventeen-year-old James Brissette died from several bullets in his back, fired by NOPD officers. Lesha Bartholomew, also 17, was shot in the back while she lay on the ground, attempting to shield her mother's body with her own. NOPD officers were defending these actions.

The officers involved in the Danziger killings were finally convicted this year. If their fellow officers had not stood behind them and defended them, despite the evidence of their involvement in murder, they would no doubt have faced justice sooner.

At the Danziger trial this year, one of the NOPD officers who later plead guilty in the killings testified about the support they had received. "We were treated pretty much like heroes,” said officer Michael Hunter. “Nobody thought we did anything wrong,” he added. “They thought we were being persecuted.” Hunter also testified that his fellow officers involved in the shootings enjoyed the attention, saying that Officer Anthony Villavaso, another of the accused (and later convicted), “was reveling in it.”

As described in the Times, the officers' behavior showed they were not on the side of law, but on the side of their fellow officers, right or wrong.

Forming a wall four deep in the main foyer, they applauded as the defendants appeared. The indicted officers waved and pumped their fists. A court official who came out to calm the crowd drew insults...On the street outside the courthouse, some 350 officers massed behind barricades and brandished signs...When the defendants emerged, many in the crowd burst into raucous cheers. Once they had gone and the tide of officers had dispersed, the street was littered with refuse.

Despite the progress made in New Orleans, there are still no officers who have come forward proactively to report wrongdoing by their fellow officers. It's no wonder people in New Orleans, New York, and around the country are seeking alternatives to policing.

New Orleans Activist Embraces Love and Forgiveness, Not Revenge

2011-10-27T09:55:00.005-05:00

Yesterday, the racial justice website ColorLines paid tribute to New Orleans activist Rafael Delgadillo, who has chosen to forgive the men who shot him in the head last month. Below is an excerpt from the ColorLines report:

Last month, a random act of violence nearly took Rafael Delgadillo’s life. The 29-year old was at a stop sign in the Mid-City neighborhood of New Orleans when two young men approached his vehicle in an attempted carjacking. As he drove off, they opened fire, shooting him in the head. Miraculously, he survived, although the bullet lodged in his brain still threatened to leave him without his eyesight.

Delgadillo, whose family is from the Dominican Republic, is an active community leader and youth mentor. He received both a Bachelor’s and a Master’s Degree in History from the University of New Orleans. His work with Puentes, a non-profit community development organization for Latinos in the Greater New Orleans area, has garnered him support, respect and many friends—which was evident when over 150 people came together at the vigil held for him days after the shooting. The crowd was relieved to hear from Delgadillo’s father that their beloved Rafa had regained his sight, though not entirely. It continues to improve, slowly but surely.

For the dedicated activist, this experience has fueled his passion to continue the important work of mentoring young men of color, fighting the systemic issues of youth violence. While it would be easy for a victim of such a violent crime to succumb to anger or to the pursuit of punishment for the teenagers who did this to him, Delgadillo is of a greater vision. “If I had them face to face, I mean, I’d…I’d embrace them, you know. I’d forgive them,” he said.

The wisdom in his compassion is not hard to understand when the loving network of friends and family is revealed. That his father sees the assailants, two black teenagers, as victims themselves is telling. That a close friend’s words implore others not to not seek retaliation is significant. And when Rafael insists that he is lucky to have had his father in his life, his African American college professor as a mentor, and the director of Puentes take him under his wing in his professional growth, he notes his blessing that the most influential people in his life have been people of color.

As Rafael wells up with emotion thinking about all the people that live him, he reflects: “I was raised to treat people right, and not look for nothing in return. And that’s what I’ve done. And I’ve been doing the right things, apparently.”

It is no wonder that the outpouring of love and support he received mirrors his own.

Photo from the Dear World Website.

Tulane Law Student Among Steering Committee for National Movement to End Discrimination Against Formerly Incarcerated

2011-10-27T09:41:00.003-05:00

From a press release from the Formerly Incarcerated & Convicted Peoples Movement:
National Movement to End Human and Civil Rights Abuses Against Formerly Incarcerated, Convicted People and Their Families Kicks Off Nov. 2 in Los Angeles, CA

Formerly incarcerated people from around the country will convene in Los Angeles on November 2 to ratify the National Platform of the Formerly Incarcerated and Convicted Peoples Movement (FICPM) and discuss an agenda for action. Participants will discuss plans to register and mobilize one million formerly incarcerated people to vote in the 2012 elections and strategies to expand the “Ban the Box” employment rights campaign that has yielded legislation in six states easing discrimination against job seekers with a conviction history.

Key organizers of the gathering include Dorsey Nunn, Executive Director of Legal Services for Prisoners With Children and the organizing project All of Us or None, based in San Francisco, CA, Susan Burton, Executive Director, A New Way of Life Reentry Project in South Central Los Angeles and Pastor Kenny Glasgow, Director of The Ordinary People’s Society (aka TOPS) in Dothan, Alabama.

The new movement emerges at a time when the US has the largest incarceration rate in the world and approximately two million children under the age of 18 with at least one parent behind bars. An estimated 600,000 will be released from prison per year over the next five years. According to the latest US Bureau of Justice statistics, over four million people were on parole and over 800,000 were on probation.

“The abuse of my rights as a formerly incarcerated person is not just an individual issue. Sure, my right to vote, my right to work is important to me, but discrimination against our voting and employment rights has a huge impact on civic engagement and the economic well-being of Black and brown communities in general,” said convening co-organizer, Dorsey Nunn.

“The War on Drugs is the biggest cause of disenfranchisement” said co-organizer Pastor Kenny Glasgow. In 2008 Glasgow won a groundbreaking lawsuit restoring the voting rights of the currently incarcerated and those convicted of drug crimes in Alabama. “As formerly incarcerated people we are hindered from becoming the productive people in society we actually want to be. With this work we are serving our country after serving our time. We want to create harm reduction and public safety for all.”

“There are 60 million people who are struggling with the quality of their lives as the result of mass incarceration in this country. This meeting will allow us to come together as formerly incarcerated people in a way that’s never been done before. It will connect us and strengthen us so that we can push forward with a common agenda and a common goal. Our goal is to end the discrimination against us,” said co-organizer and Los Angeles host, Susan Burton, Executive Director of the New Way of Life Reentry Project.

According to Dorsey Nunn, the convening is open to the public but only participants who identify themselves as formerly incarcerated or convicted people will be allowed to vote to ratify the National Platform. “Where else has anyone asked us what we wanted? Everyone else has always prescribed what we needed. We’re more than somebody else’s client-base, more than somebody else’s patient. The process to develop a national platform represents the first time we’ve asked ourselves, what do we want?”

The gathering will include workshops for youth and family members and trainings on how to overcome growing barriers to voter registration and “Get Out The Vote” and how to “Ban the Box” that appears on employment forms asking for felony conviction history.

The FICPM gathering is scheduled to coincide with the International Drug Policy Reform Conference in Los Angeles, November 2-5. The conference hosts, Drug Policy Alliance, will honor Dorsey Nunn, key organizer for the FICPM gathering, with the Robert C. Randall Award for Achievement in the Field of Citizen Action at an awards reception on Saturday Nov. 5 at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel.

Participants are attending from around the country. The Steering Committee includes:

Malik Aziz, Men United for a Better Philadelphia: Founder and Chairman of the National Exodus Council, with a presence in 24 cities across the nation. He began organizing while incarcerated in Graterford Prison, and eventually found a role in the Philadelphia mayor’s office developing alternatives to incarceration and recidivism.

Susan Burton, A New Way of Life, Los Angeles: After cycling in an out of the criminal justice system for nearly fifteen years, Susan gained freedom and sobriety and founded A New Way of Life Reentry Project in 1998. Dedicating her life to helping other women break the cycle of incarceration, homelessness, addiction and despair, Susan becoming a recognized leader in the criminal justice reform and reentry rights movements, and was recently nominated as a CNN hero in the category of “community crusader.” She has been a Soros Justice Fellow, a Women’s Policy Institute Fellow, and a former Community Fellow under the Violence Prevention Initiative of The California Wellness Foundation.

Pastor Kenny Glasgow, The Ordinary People Society, Dothan, AL: Since his release from prison, Pastor Glasgow has remained committed to ensuring that redemption is in the lives of those who have served their debts to society. He is Executive Director/Founder of TOPS, an organization providing numerous rehabilitation and prevention programs for youth and adults involved, or at risk of involvement, in the criminal justice system. A longtime leader of state and region-wide voter registration and restoration efforts, Pastor Glasgow led the successful campaign resulting in restoration of voting rights for people currently incarcerated in Alabama state prisons-- a first. In 2008, he was awarded the Lyndon B. Johnson Political Freedom Award.

Arthur League, All of Us or None/Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, San Francisco: Arthur has a 40-year history as a community activist involved in social and criminal justice work. In the 70’s & 80’s, during a time of political unrest, Arthur was an active member of the Black Panther Party, and served a seven- year prison term for his political beliefs and actions. Arthur is a former Director of the Concord Re-Ed Project, a non-profit organization working with adolescents in a group home setting, and serves on the board of Legal Services for Prisoners with Children. A Journeyman Plumber, he assists many young people coming out of prison to join the building trades unions and apprenticeships.

Aaliyah Muhammad, All of Us or None/LSPC, San Francisco: Aaliyah is a former prisoner and organizer who has worked with diverse groups of people inside prison and in the community. Her organizing abilities have increased the presence of formerly incarcerated people in the State Capitol, allowing her to supervise contingents of students and advocates in legislative arenas. Her efforts have resulted in creating avenues for former prisoners to take part in policy work in a variety of ways, from organizing community summits in Sacramento regarding legal expungement remedies to grassroots fundraising efforts to support the children of incarcerated people. She speaks widely on the conditions and struggles for women inside of prison.

Dorsey Nunn, All of Us or None/ LSPC, San Francisco: Dorsey is a co-founder of All of Us or None, a civil and human rights organization comprised of formerly incarcerated people, prisoners and their allies. He is also formerly incarcerated, and Executive Director for LSPC, a 30 year old San Francisco based organization dedicated to advocating for the human and civil rights of incarcerated parents, children, family members and people at risk for incarceration. Awarded nationally for his work, he was a 1996-1998 California Wellness Fellow and was recently awarded the prestigious Fannie Lou Hamer award from the African American Studies Department at the University of California, Berkeley.

Bruce Reilly, Direct Action for Rights & Equality, Providence, RI: After a decade as a Jailhouse Lawyer, Bruce hit the ground running in 2005. He served as the Volunteer Coordinator for the RI Right to Vote Campaign and drafted the final language of a state constitutional amendment that re-enfranchised felons on probation and parole. He wrote a probation reform bill that became law after four years of organizing. He is a former board member and organizer with DARE, and entered Tulane Law School in Fall of 2011. A successful writer, Bruce has produced a play of prisoners’ writings and his blog on criminal justice has over 200,000 hits in 2010.

Tina Reynolds, Women On the Rise Telling HerStory, New York City: Tina is Co-Founder and Chair of Women on the Rise Telling HerStory (WORTH), an association of formerly and currently incarcerated women. Tina Reynolds has received a Master in Social Work from Hunter College and is currently an adjunct professor at York, CUNY in the Psychology Department teaching the “Impact of Incarceration on Families, Communities and Children”. She has published pieces on the abolition of prisons, the impact of incarceration on women and children, formerly incarcerated women and policy change and is an editor of an anthology “Interrupted Life: Experiences of Incarcerated Women in the United States.”

Letter of Solidarity to OccupyWallStreet from Tahrir

2011-10-25T16:31:00.004-05:00

As the Occupy Movement has taken root in New Orleans and other cities, messages of solidarity - and advice - have arrived from around the world. Below, we republish a message from activists in Egypt, whose revolution inspired many of those who initiated OccupyWallStreet.

To all those in the United States currently occupying parks, squares and other spaces, your comrades in Cairo are watching you in solidarity. Having received so much advice from you about transitioning to democracy, we thought it’s our turn to pass on some advice.

Indeed, we are now in many ways involved in the same struggle. What most pundits call “The Arab Spring” has its roots in the demonstrations, riots, strikes and occupations taking place all around the world, its foundations lie in years-long struggles by people and popular movements. The moment that we find ourselves in is nothing new, as we in Egypt and others have been fighting against systems of repression, disenfranchisement and the unchecked ravages of global capitalism (yes, we said it, capitalism): a System that has made a world that is dangerous and cruel to its inhabitants. As the interests of government increasingly cater to the interests and comforts of private, transnational capital, our cities and homes have become progressively more abstract and violent places, subject to the casual ravages of the next economic development or urban renewal scheme.

An entire generation across the globe has grown up realizing, rationally and emotionally, that we have no future in the current order of things. Living under structural adjustment policies and the supposed expertise of international organizations like the World Bank and IMF, we watched as our resources, industries and public services were sold off and dismantled as the “free market” pushed an addiction to foreign goods, to foreign food even. The profits and benefits of those freed markets went elsewhere, while Egypt and other countries in the South found their immiseration reinforced by a massive increase in police repression and torture.

The current crisis in America and Western Europe has begun to bring this reality home to you as well: that as things stand we will all work ourselves raw, our backs broken by personal debt and public austerity. Not content with carving out the remnants of the public sphere and the welfare state, capitalism and the austerity-state now even attack the private realm and people’s right to decent dwelling as thousands of foreclosed-upon homeowners find themselves both homeless and indebted to the banks who have forced them on to the streets.

So we stand with you not just in your attempts to bring down the old but to experiment with the new. We are not protesting. Who is there to protest to? What could we ask them for that they could grant? We are occupying. We are reclaiming those same spaces of public practice that have been commodified, privatized and locked into the hands of faceless bureaucracy , real estate portfolios, and police ‘protection’. Hold on to these spaces, nurture them, and let the boundaries of your occupations grow. After all, who built these parks, these plazas, these buildings? Whose labor made them real and livable? Why should it seem so natural that they should be withheld from us, policed and disciplined? Reclaiming these spaces and managing them justly and collectively is proof enough of our legitimacy.

In our own occupations of Tahrir, we encountered people entering the Square every day in tears because it was the first time they had walked through those streets and spaces without being harassed by police; it is not just the ideas that are important, these spaces are fundamental to the possibility of a new world. These are public spaces. Spaces for gathering, leisure, meeting, and interacting – these spaces should be the reason we live in cities. Where the state and the interests of owners have made them inaccessible, exclusive or dangerous, it is up to us to make sure that they are safe, inclusive and just. We have and must continue to open them to anyone that wants to build a better world, particularly for the marginalized, excluded and for those groups who have suffered the worst.

What you do in these spaces is neither as grandiose and abstract nor as quotidian as “real democracy”; the nascent forms of praxis and social engagement being made in the occupations avoid the empty ideals and stale parliamentarianism that the term democracy has come to represent. And so the occupations must continue, because there is no one left to ask for reform. They must continue because we are creating what we can no longer wait for.

But the ideologies of property and propriety will manifest themselves again. Whether through the overt opposition of property owners or municipalities to your encampments or the more subtle attempts to control space through traffic regulations, anticamping laws or health and safety rules. There is a direct conflict between what we seek to make of our cities and our spaces and what the law and the systems of policing standing behind it would have us do.

We faced such direct and indirect violence, and continue to face it. Those who said that the Egyptian revolution was peaceful did not see the horrors that police visited upon us, nor did they see the resistance and even force that revolutionaries used against the police to defend their tentative occupations and spaces: by the government’s own admission; 99 police stations were put to the torch, thousands of police cars were destroyed, and all of the ruling party’s offices around Egypt were burned down. Barricades were erected, officers were beaten back and pelted with rocks even as they fired tear gas and live ammunition on us. But at the end of the day on the 28th of January they retreated, and we had won our cities.

It is not our desire to participate in violence, but it is even less our desire to lose. If we do not resist, actively, when they come to take what we have won back, then we will surely lose. Do not confuse the tactics that we used when we shouted “peaceful” with fetishizing nonviolence; if the state had given up immediately we would have been overjoyed, but as they sought to abuse us, beat us, kill us, we knew that there was no other option than to fight back. Had we laid down and allowed ourselves to be arrested, tortured, and martyred to “make a point”, we would be no less bloodied, beaten and dead. Be prepared to defend these things you have occupied, that you are building, because, after everything else has been taken from us, these reclaimed spaces are so very precious.

By way of concluding then, our only real advice to you is to continue, keep going and do not stop. Occupy more, find each other, build larger and larger networks and keep discovering new ways to experiment with social life, consensus, and democracy. Discover new ways to use these spaces, discover new ways to hold on to them and never give them up again. Resist fiercely when you are under attack, but other wise take pleasure in what you are doing, let it be easy, fun even. We are all watching one another now, and from Cairo we want to say that we are in solidarity with you, and we love you all for what you are doing.

Comrades from Cairo
24th of October, 2011

No One Listens to Poor People, By Derwyn Bunton

2011-10-21T12:54:00.004-05:00

No one listens to poor people. They listen to attorneys. As a child, I believed those two statements because I watched how people treated my family and others in our situation. It is why I became a public defender. The place of the public defender is to protect justice and fairness for those who cannot afford to purchase that protection. The mission of the Orleans Public Defenders is to provide high quality defense to people who qualify and it is my honor to be responsible for upholding that mission.

My office represents poor people. The definition of poor is not a mystery, and the process of a public defender being assigned to a case is likewise easy to describe because Louisiana took the time to define it in the law. Judges assign us after they determine a person is too poor to afford an attorney on their own. We do not shop for these cases.

When law and fairness demand it, we do fight – not to keep cases, but to insure justice. We fought for our client whose mother pawned her wedding ring so our client could get out and keep working. We fought for a man thrown in jail for not being able to afford a private attorney. We keep these cases and fight for our clients not because we make money for such a fight, but because it is the just and fair thing to do and the law tells us to do it. The amount of justice one receives should not depend on the amount of money in their pocket.

Our criminal justice system has made tremendous progress since hurricane Katrina brought justice to a standstill in New Orleans and highlighted deep systemic problems that existed for decades. The Orleans Public Defenders continues to play a central role in making sure fairness and balance are a part of justice in New Orleans.

We ask for resources so we can win the freedom of innocent men like Eugene Thomas, who spent eight years incarcerated before he had his day in court. We ask for resources to we can get children who are being assaulted out of jail and back into school and on the right track for making changes in their lives. We ask for resources so the mentally ill are not punished for their disabilities, but sent to receive the services they need. This is the daily work of a public defender in New Orleans and we do not have to look for opportunities to continue this good work; they are presented daily by an overburdened system.

When my family was being evicted and our belongings were destroyed – cut into pieces – as they were thrown onto the street, I wanted someone to fight for us the way my staff fights for poor people today. I want every person in New Orleans, regardless of income, to know there is an office taking its responsibility to serve them seriously.

The enormous size of the justice system in New Orleans has created a funding crisis for my office. Even so, I promise the people of New Orleans we will not shirk our responsibility because unscrupulous individuals want us to break the law. We operate openly according to the law and we will not be intimidated into sacrificing our mission so people can try to make more money off of poor people. The Orleans Public Defenders will continue to meet that mission and protect justice and fairness in New Orleans to the best of our ability.

Derwyn Bunton is the Chief District Defender for Orleans Parish. He can be reached at dbunton@opdla.org.

Reflections on Organizing Towards Collective Liberation at Occupy NOLA, by Lydia Pelot-Hobbs

2011-10-21T08:47:00.001-05:00

Over the past few weeks, I have been invigorated and moved by the energy surrounding Occupy Wall Street and its offshoots across the nation. Yet, at the same time I've been faced with the tensions being articulated by so many folks on the Left: how can this energy be connected to and further long-standing organizing work for social and economic justice?

Here at Occupy NOLA, 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 those in attendance's permission. 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 1/3 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 makes 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 over night; 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 pervious 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. Many of us had been moved by the writing coming out of OWS by activists of color on their struggles to build an anti-racist and anti-oppressive politic in New York. Several of us were also encouraged by the conversations happening within the national US for All of US network of white anti-racists about the potential for catalyzing this moment. Others of us were calling on our knowledge gained from our participation, both as local New Orleanians and outside volunteers, in anti-racist organizing at Common Relief following the storm. Looking around the space of Occupy NOLA, instead of feeling lost and overwhelmed as I have so many times before in these spaces, I felt hopeful and inspired.

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 US South and the Global South; deepening our analysis of how US 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 other 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 Occupy NOLA can 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 dealing 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 US, 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 member of and trainer at AORTA (Anti-Oppression Resource and Training Alliance). Thanks to Evan Casper-Futterman and DrewChristopher Joy for their feedback and guidance on this piece.

New Organization Trains Community Members to Advocate for Local Youth

2011-10-19T09:47:00.002-05:00

From Our Friends at Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana:
SUFEO! Trains Legal Advocates: New Orleans Recovery School District Out of School Suspension Rates Surpass National Averages

On Friday, September 16, 2011, Stand Up for Each Other! (SUFEO!) trained 40 students from Tulane University Law School, Loyola University New Orleans College of Law, members of Young Adults Striving for Success (YASS), community members, and former teachers to become youth advocates. Under the legal supervision of the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana (JJPL), these advocates are prepared to directly represent public and charter school students in suspension appeals and expulsion hearings. Additionally, advocates will outreach to the community, work collaboratively with school administrators and teachers and educate students and parents about their rights.

SUFEO!, founded in September 2010, is a collaboration of JJPL, law students from Loyola University New Orleans and Tulane University and YASS that has stepped up to help kids stay in school. SUFEO! addresses the disproportionate impact of suspensions and expulsions on students by teaching youth ways to exercise their statutory right to administrative hearings. Through SUFEO!, law students, young adults, and parents learn how the juvenile administrative hearing process and student representation work within the school system. This collaboration presents a great opportunity for law and pre-law students interested in trial, advocacy and public interest work to serve the community.

Currently, rates of suspension and expulsion in Louisiana schools are several times the national average. According to "Pushed Out: Harsh Discipline in Louisiana Schools Denies the Right to Education", Louisiana's expulsion rate is five times the national rate, more than 18,000 middle and high school students drop out each year, and public schools in the state dole out over 300,000 out-of-school suspensions every year. In at least ten schools in New Orleans, the out of schools suspension rate during the 2009-2010 school year exceeded 30%. Moreover, the overuse of harsh discipline disproportionately affects some Louisiana school children over others. African American students make up 44% of the statewide public school population, but 68% of suspensions and 72.5% of expulsions.

Schools with the highest rates of suspension and expulsion are overwhelmingly under-resourced, overcrowded and attended by low-income students of color. Many of these students are not receiving the services they are entitled to under the law. When students are suspended or expelled they are not allowed to make up the work they miss or receive grades for the work that they miss, which may lead to students being held back and eventually, dropping out of school. Youth who are suspended, expelled or pushed out of school are more likely to end up in the juvenile justice system, a journey which is aptly called the School to Prison Pipeline. SUFEO! is our contribution in combating the pipeline.

To reach a member of SUFEO!, contact our hotline at 504-410-KIDS. We return calls within 24 hours to youth, parents, as well as respond to other inquiries.

Photo above from Young Adults Striving for Success.

Poverty Skyrockets in New Orleans: 65% of Black Children Under Age of Five Living in Poverty, By Lance Hill

2011-10-18T12:47:00.004-05:00

On September 22 the Census Bureau released information from their 2010 annual American Community Survey based on a poll of 2,500 people in New Orleans. Not surprisingly, the report was ignored by the local mainstream media since it speaks volumes about the inequality of the Katrina recovery. Despite the billions in post-Katrina federal dollars for building schools, streets and bridges, and homes, the New Orleans poverty rate has actually increased back to the highest level since 1999. The survey revealed that 27% of New Orleans adults now live in poverty and 42% of children.

This recent development reverses the temporary decline in poverty rates reported in 2007 and 2008 surveys when the poverty rate was nearly cut in half compared to pre-Katrina numbers. Those early declines in poverty were probably the result of large numbers of low-income African Americans who could not afford to return or lacked housing and employment. The new spike in poverty, despite the increase in overall education levels in the city, may signal that blacks are not sharing equally in the employment benefits of recovery dollars. Indeed, the city may be creating a new generation of chronically unemployed poor who were previously part of the low-wage working poor.

When President George Bush waived the prevailing wage provisions of the Davis-Bacon Act following Katrina, he provided employers with a financial incentive to hire low-wage outside temporary workers. State contracts to rebuild storm-damaged schools have provided little employment for black storm victims. The new rise in poverty can be attributed in part to the exclusion of local blacks from recovery jobs, including rebuilding school facilities and school operations. It is self-defeating to attempt to solve the long-term public education problems while children and their parents are pushed deeper into poverty by education agency employment and contracting policies.

Separating out the numbers by race shows a profound and growing racial inequality. While the overall adult poverty rate is 27%, black poverty is nearly double the white poverty rate: 34% compared to 14%. The child poverty rate of black children under five years old is an appalling 65% compared to less than 1% for whites. The Census Bureau data indicate that there are 9,649 black children under the age of five living in poverty in New Orleans in contrast to only 203 white children.

But what is truly stunningly is that the survey indicates that that while there are several thousand African American males ages 12 to 15 years old living in poverty, the survey could not find a single white male in the same age bracket in poverty.

With all the triumphal rhetoric of New Orleans as a city rising from the dead, the Census Bureau data offers the harsh truth that that some have risen while others have fallen. We act at our own peril if we ignore these troubling developments; the problems of education and youth crime and violence cannot be solved as long as local blacks are unfairly deprived the economic benefits of the recovery and the recovery jobs for rebuilding the city.

Sources: Racial breakout data from U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2010 1-year Estimates (Fact Finder files); for general non-racial 1999 and 2007 data, Greater New Orleans Community Data Center which used Census Bureau reports, Numbers Talk Newsletter September 26, 2011. For spread-sheets of poverty by race in 2010, see this link for Black percentages and this link for white percentages. For GNODC report see this link.

Dr. Lance Hill is the Executive Director of the Southern Institute for Education and Research, a tolerance education and race relations research center based at Tulane University in New Orleans. He is the author of The Deacons for Defense: Armed Resistance and The Civil Rights Movement (University of North Carolina Press, 2004).

Port-Au-Prince, Haiti: Students Praise Education and Voice It for All

2011-10-17T22:18:00.005-05:00

By Wadner Pierre
Part I
Jean-Juste died two years ago from Leukemia because he was jailed for his political views and was not allowed by the 2004-2006 U.S deposed Gerard Latortue to travel to US to receive early treatment. Jean-Juste's legacy endures amongst the young and old in Haiti. He was [is] like an adoptive father for some people and a mentor to others.

Over eleven years ago, Rev. Gerard Jean-Juste and Margaret Trost, founder of the What If? Foundation, partnered in an effort to bring food and education to children in the Petite Place Cazeau neighborhood of Port-au-Prince. Through funds provided by the What If? Foundation, thousands of young people have been supported over the years through the community-based food and education programs that Fr. Jean-Juste created.

Today, over two hundred children receive school scholarships, with some going to vocational school, and one thousand meals are served every Monday through Friday. Children are the priority. In the past three years the What If? Foundation has also funded an after school program to help students with their homework and provide an opportunity to learn income-producing skills. It has also sponsored a Summer Camp for the past nine years in the area. Five hundred students have attended. “All this is only possible because of our wonderful Haitian partners who run the programs with such dedication, courage, and faith,” says Trost.

Many people sent donations to What If? to support these programs after the January 2010 earthquake. 91 percent of these contributions went directly to Haiti, 5 percent were used for administration and 4 percent for Donor Relations. The organization’s budget for 2011 is $600,000. Although donors are contributing less than they did in 2010, What If? is hoping to raise enough money to not only fund the programs, but to build a school and cafeteria in Petite Place Cazeau, on land they purchased after the earthquake.

Every year I make a summer reporting trip back home. Last summer I spent a couple of days following the work of the young people at the What If? office in Haiti.

During my summer trip this year, I met with eleven students of the What If? Foundation Education Program. They told their stories in a more wonderful and perfect way than anyone else could have done. Keep in mind that a new page in the history of Haiti is being written after the earthquake of January 12, 2010.

It was 6:05 p.m. when I started with my first interviewee, Thierry Sterphenson St. Louis, a 12 year-old high school student. St. Louis is a strong and determined student and he speaks with confidence. He has two brothers. His mother is a merchant in the Petite Place Cazeau area, and his father works at the National Archive in downtown Port-au-Prince. St. Louis joined the education program in 2009 and wants to become an accountant. St Louis said, “The program helps me a lot. If I can take time to explain to you, I could take the entire day because he helps me a lot and my parents to pay my school.”

I asked Thierry about the effect of the education program in his life after the earthquake. "After January 12, my mom did not have money to pay for school. It is with the aid of this program that I go to school. If it was not for this program I would not go to school,” he told me. St. Louis added that many students wish to see a school built at the propriety of What If Foundation. “I would like they build a school in the land, I can come to school here.”

Nathalie Jeonnat, 23 who goes to medical school at the prestigious university Quisqueya told me, "I always dreamed to study medicine. I think it is a good profession, I can help people.” She explained that “Education is the best way to help Haiti. My parents cannot afford to pay for medical school, and my country did not offer me this opportunity… but thanks to What If I can go. After the earthquake it would be almost impossible… I would say it would be impossible.” She thanks those who contribute to her studies through What If Foundation, “I thank all who help me and What If from the bottom of my heart. I ask them to continue helping, they will not regret. They can count on me." Jeonnat is going into her third year.

Kenson Charles is a third year high school student who survived the January 12 earthquake said he would not be in school if the program did not exist. Charles is the older child of his single mother's two sons. He said, “Without this program, I would not able to go school.” Charles suffers from headaches because stones fell on his head during the earthquake. As many young Haitians of his generation, Charles has a dream. He wants to become a civil or computer engineer.

Wilnide Etienne is a 9 year-old middle school student. She joined the education program in 2007. She is going into fourth grade this year. Although, Etienne believes she could go to school if the program was not there, she acknowledges that the program means a lot for her. She remembers Father Jean-Juste. One can see in Etienne’s eyes that she really misses her pastor.

Jean Michelda is a timid but brilliant 16 year-old student who would like to become a doctor when she finishes high school. Michelda is the unique child of her family. Her mother ran a little business before the earthquake and her father works as a carpenter. Jean said, "it would be very difficult for me to go to school it was not for the program. After the earthquake, my mother is not working and my papa could barely find a job.”

Two weeks ago the Haitian both chambers voted Dr. Garry Conille as the new Prime Minister of the country. On Friday 14, 16 Senators voted Conille political declaration, four voted against it and five abstained. On Saturday 15, 81 Deputies voted for Conille’s political declaration, 7 abstained. Dr. Conille was a former UN employee and senior aid of former U.S. President Bill Clinton at the UN Special Envoy office in Haiti.

One of the obligations that Dr. Conille will have is to follow through on the main campaign promise of President Michel J. Martelly - to educate all Haitian children for free. Education is supposed to be a right according to the Haitian Constitution.

Wadner Pierre is a Haitian photojournalist who currently resides in New Orleans, Louisiana. Wadner is also a 2010 Justice Revius Ortique, Jr. Louisiana Justice Institute Internship Award recipient. Originally from the city of Gonaives in Haiti, he regularly writes for the Inter Press Service (IPS) and Haiti Liberte. Wadner is a co-founder and frequent contributor to HaitiAnalysis.com, a media collective of young journalists. In 2007, he was a Project Censored Award recipient for his investigative journalism work on the impact of media and corruption in military policies.

Photo: Left: Dorgilles Wichmie, Melissa Jeonnat. Right: Nathalie Jonnat and Jean Michelda.

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) Organizations “Come Out” Against ICE’s “Secure Communities” Deportation Program

2011-10-11T08:17:00.001-05:00

From our friends at Streetwise & Safe:
LGBT Immigrants At Risk of Deportation, Violence as a Result of Police/ICE Collaboration

Dozens of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) organizations across the country are adding their voices to the growing national movement to end ICE‘s controversial fingerprint-sharing ―Secure Communities (S-Comm) program. By forcing local law enforcement to share fingerprint data for every person arrested – no matter how valid or minor the charge - with federal immigration authorities, S-Comm has contributed to skyrocketing numbers of detentions and deportations.

Prompted by ICE‘s unilateral move to make the highly debated program mandatory, national, regional, and local LGBTQ organizations—including the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF), the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), and the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP) — felt compelled to mark National Coming Out Day by adding their voices to the national upsurge of opposition to S-Comm today.

"NCAVP is concerned by the impact of police/ICE collaboration on LGBTQ survivors of violence. It is not uncommon for LGBTQ survivors of violence to be arrested when they call police for help. NCAVP member programs know that many LGBTQ survivors do not access police for safety when they experience violence, and the Secure Communities program may increase fear, barriers to safety, and risk of detention and deportation for LGBTQ immigrant communities," said Chai Jindasurat, National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP) Coordinator at the New York City Anti-Violence Project. "In honor of this year‘s National Coming Out Day, NCAVP calls for an end to a program that has severe consequences for LGBTQ people."

In a statement released on National Coming Out Day, over sixty LGBTQ groups call on President Obama to take immediate action to eliminate this destructive program. California Assemblymember and longtime LGBTQ rights activist Tom Ammiano echoed this call: "Every day LGBTQ Californians are being unfairly deported leading to tragic consequences for communities both here and across the country. I am urging the Obama Administration to end the deception around S-Comm and suspend this damaging program."

"The LGBTQ movement has often been an example of how to hold your head high with pride in the face of discrimination. As migrants, we're inspired by National Coming Out Day and strengthened by this show of solidarity," said Sarahi Uribe, Organizer of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network.

"We hear regular reports of LGBTQ people who find themselves in deportation proceedings after being profiled by their race, class, sexuality, and gender as they go about their daily lives or even as they navigate domestic violence," said Morgan Bassichis of the San Francisco-based Community United Against Violence (CUAV), the country’s oldest LGBTQ anti-violence organization. "Rather than making anyone more 'secure,' S-Comm endangers all communities by tearing at the fabric of family and support networks and creating a culture of fear."

The statement marks a historic confluence of movements for LGBTQ rights and migrant rights, and increased attention to migrant issues within LGBTQ communities. "On this National Coming Out Day, we recognize that LGBT immigrants need more than acceptance from family, schools, and neighbors to be 'out:' they need to be free from profiling, detention, and deportation," said Mónica Enriquez-Enriquez of Streetwise and Safe, an organization working with LGBTQ youth of color in New York City and signatory to the statement.

For background information on the Secure Communities program, read the report at “Restoring Community."

Streetwise and Safe (SAS) is a New York City-based organization create opportunities for LGBTQQ youth of color who experience homelessness, policing, and criminalization to claim a seat at policy discussion tables as full participants, speak out on their own behalf, act collectively to protect and advance their rights, and demand choices that allow them to maximize their safety, self-sufficiency, and self-determination.

Report from Haiti: Where’s the Money? By Bill Quigley

2011-10-07T09:45:00.003-05:00

Broken and collapsed buildings remain in every neighborhood. Men pull oxcarts by hand through the street. Women carry 5 gallon plastic jugs of water on their heads, dipped from manhole covers in the street. Hundreds of thousands remain in gray sheet and tarp covered shelters in big public parks, in between houses and in any small pocket of land. Most of the people are unemployed or selling mangoes or food on the side of every main street. This was Port au Prince during my visit with a human rights delegation of School of Americas Watch – more than a year and a half after the earthquake that killed hundreds of thousands and made two million homeless.

What I did not see this week were bulldozers scooping up the mountains of concrete remaining from last January’s earthquake. No cranes lifting metal beams up to create new buildings. No public works projects. No housing developments. No public food or public water distribution centers.

Everywhere I went, the people of Haiti asked, “Where is the money the world promised Haitians?”

The world has moved on. Witness the rows of padlocked public port o lets stand on the sidewalk outside Camp St. Anne. The displacement camp covers a public park hard by the still hollow skeleton of the still devastated St. Anne church. The place is crowded with babies, small children, women, men, and the elderly. It smells of charcoal smoke, dust and humans. Sixty hundred fifty families live there without electricity, running water or security.

I talked with several young women inside the camp of shelters, most about eight feet by eight feet made from old gray tarps, branches, leftover wood, and pieces of rusty tin. When it rains, they stand up inside their leaky shelters and wait for it to stop. In a path in front of one home, crisscrossed with clotheslines full of tiny children’s clothes, a group of women from the grassroots women’s group KOFAVIV told us Oxfam used to help administer the camp but quit in May. When Oxfam left, the company that had been emptying the port-o-lets stopped getting paid and abandoned the toilets. Some people padlocked them and now charge a couple of cents to use the toilets, money most residents don’t have. There is no work to earn the money for pay for toilets. The Red Cross has just visited the camp that morning telling them they would be evicted October 17. Where will they go, we ask? We have no idea they told us. Jesus will provide, they told us.

Where has the money raised for Haiti gone? What about the Red Cross? What about the US government? What about the money raised in France, Canada and across the world? What about the pledges to the UN? Where is the money? The people of Haiti continue to be plagued by the earthquake of more than 20 months ago. They are our sisters and brothers. They deserve answers. They deserve help.

Bill is a law professor and human rights lawyer at Loyola University New Orleans and with the Center for Constitutional Rights. He volunteers with the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti and the Bureaux des Advocats in Port au Prince. You can reach him at quigley77@gmail.com.

Apparently, It's Legal to Shoot at Black Civilians to Keep Them From Evacuating

2011-10-03T12:13:00.003-05:00

The Times-Picayune announced on Friday that the US Department of Justice will not be pursuing charges against the Gretna police officers who fired at New Orleans civilians as they attempted to evacuate in the aftermath in Hurricane Katrina. From the article:

The US Department of Justice announced Friday that those law enforcement officers who barred pedestrians from crossing the Crescent City Connection in the hectic days after Hurricane Katrina will not face federal prosecution. After a review of Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti's investigation into the incident, the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division found the bridge had been blocked for public safety reasons and that there was no sufficient evidence to prove that the officers intentionally broke the law...

Gretna Police Chief Arthur Lawson...said Friday that he felt vindicated by the Civil Rights Division's decision to end the investigation. "I'm certainly pleased that the Justice Department as well said that we didn't do anything wrong, because we've felt from the beginning that we didn't," Lawson said.

Photo above: Civil Rights marchers attacked at the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

The Broad Foundation's Influence on New Orleans Schools

2011-10-03T11:36:00.001-05:00

An interesting feature on the ColorLines website maps out the national influence on the Broad Superintendents Academy, an organization that is not well-known to the general public, but has had a large influence on US education, policy, including here in New Orleans (Current RSD Superintendent John White is among their trainees). Below is an excerpt from the article. Go to this link to see more:

Who’s running your school district? If you live in a big city or urban area, chances are decisions have been influenced by someone who’s been groomed with a specific ideology of education policy. In 2002 the Broad Foundation, one of the largest and most influential philanthropies dedicated to school reform, established the Broad Superintendents Academy, a ten-month program to provide corporate-level management and skills development to folks they hoped would go on to decision makers in school districts across the country.

The Broad philosophy has become mainstream in the school reform landscape. The foundation advocates shutting down schools whose test scores have designated them as “failing;” instituting accountability mechanisms for teachers that tie their job evaluations to their students’ test scores; and advocates for more school choices outside the traditional public school through charter schools and vouchers. Former graduates from the Broad Academy have gone on to do just that in the cities they’ve arrived in, and not without a storm of controversy often following in their wake.

Activist Profile: Vernon Bolds of VOTE-NOLA

2011-10-02T11:06:00.001-05:00

This profile is republished from our friends at VOTE-NOLA:
Like many others, Vernon Bolds was introduced to VOTE by an existing member. “Post Katrina I was trying to work on my case, and someone gave me Norris’ address,” Bolds said. “Norris told me about VOTE and I was immediately interested.”

Bolds appreciates both VOTE’s practical contribution to alleviating the hardships of Formerly Incarcerated Persons (FIPS) as well as its overall framework of positivity and civic engagement. Due to the negative societal perception of FIPS when they are released from prison and must rejoin the workforce, Vernon thinks that VOTE’s CEED campaign (Campaign to End Employment Discrimination) should be the organization’s focal point. “The FIPS that do get jobs, their employers fall in love with them because they appreciate the job,” Bolds said.

Though access to gainful employment is a key issue that draws Vernon to participate in VOTE, the overall mission of the organization is what inspires him the most. “Their aim is to wake up a sleeping giant so we can make a positive difference in society,” Bolds said, referring to the power of the formerly incarcerated vote. The civic education that VOTE provides gives Bolds motivation to engage in other social issues outside of the organization. He is especially interested in youth empowerment. “I’d like to be a big brother,” Bolds said, “It’s everyone’s responsibility to save at least one youngster.”

The civic lessons and resources that Bold has accessed through VOTE have opened his eyes to the structural problems of the criminal justice system. “VOTE takes you behind the scenes. You see the subterranean criminal justice system.” Bolds believes that the resources that VOTE provides to FIPs should be widely distributed in the community, through the VOTE website, in order to inform members and non-members alike about their legal options and their civic responsibilities. “I’d like to set up a FAQ on the website as it pertains to the law,” Bolds explained.

Mary Howell and the Fight to Save Charity Hospital and Lower Midcity

2011-10-01T00:29:00.007-05:00

Inside the Footprint, a local blog, has been documenting the struggle to save Charity Hospital and prevent the demolition of Lower Midcity for the past two years. As a closing note to the years of struggle, the blog has posted a series of profiles of some of the activists involved. Among those profiled (along with stunning photos) are Brad Ott, Jacques Morial, and several others. Below is an excerpt of one of the profiles, civil rights attorney Mary Howell.
Mary Howell, whose law office stands just a block outside the VA Footprint, was the chief figure who led to my involvement in the LSU/VA issue, drawing me into the broader effort several months after I began this blog.

Mary, who came to know the residents of the VA Footprint especially well after the storm, gave up a great deal of her time, effort, and more to stand up against the "bullying" that was so deeply interwoven into the push to destroy the VA Footprint neighborhood. She was also the prime mover on the effort to save the VA houses from demolition. Regardless of how the effort turned out due to other actors, it cannot be denied that 79 structures were ultimately relocated, avoiding total demolition and marking a sudden, major change in events in the hospitals saga. Mary was also a major presence at many of the VA neighborhood meetings, a relentless advocate for the residents being negatively affected by the project.

BV: What, originally, got you involved in the Charity Hospital/LSU/VA fight?

MH: I went to a neighborhood meeting, and I walked into that meeting. It was held in this sort of gutted out building in the neighborhood. And I looked around the room. And it was filled with predominantly African American, working people, but it was a really diverse group of people. Homeowners, people who struggled to come back, people who struggled to rebuild their homes, people who had formed a really deep community and fellowship - actually unlike anything that existed before the storm. The storm really brought this neighborhood together in a powerful, transformative way.

As I was listening to what was being said about what was getting ready to happen here...I realized they were all going to be annihilated. And that people just really didn't understand what was about to happen. The bulldozers were literally coming through. All these promises were being made about "what a nice process this is going to be" and "how fairly everyone was going to be treated" and I looked around. Many of the people in the room were older - there was a mix of people, including several newcomers - but I looked around at the longtimers who had been here and really struggled hard to come back. A number of them were tired, they were elderly. And I thought, "Oh my god." This is like the kiss of death. They're not just losing their homes, their losing their neighborhood, their community, their safety net, their network - everything.

I've often said, if I could have just sneaked out of there - and pretended that I hadn't seen this, hadn't realized what was happening here - it would have been a relief. Because I went down a major rabbit hole for about three years. I was rebuilding and trying to come back at the same time.

It was awful, what happened here. It was as ugly...a bullying kind of power maneuver...as I've ever seen. And it remains that way.

BV: What do you think of the current state of affairs of the LSU/VA project?

MH: Oh, it's ridiculous. It's terrible. I can count on my hands, my fingers, the number of deaths that I believe are a direct result of the closing of Charity Hospital. And the financial waste of all of this is extraordinary. It's mind-boggling, especially given this economy. But the callous disregard of people's need for quality healthcare and particularly in the mental health area...shutting down that third floor of Charity Hospital. We've had terrible misfortune, a number of deaths as a direct result of that.

The terrible thing about it is that many of the people advocating for this have been doing it under the guise of bringing better healthcare to this city. It's the idea that we'll burn down the village to save the village. They've completely destroyed a community, they've destroyed lives.

You know, the Hippocratic Oath...that first line: First, do no harm? Massive harm has been done here in the name of promoting good healthcare. And it's a lie. This has never been about healthcare and the needs of the community, about what's right or just. It's always been about greed, about money, about power.

Talking To My Son About Troy Davis, By Gina B. Womack

2011-09-23T14:37:00.001-05:00

From Bridge the Gulf:
Friday, September 23, 2011

Tonight on my way home, I told my 13 year-old son that Troy Davis was put to death by the State of Georgia. He immediately broke into tears. I was taken aback by his reaction. We were just coming from his school football game where he had an awesome tackle and we should have been focusing and having a joyous discussion about that. But he asked me how my day went and when he was studying the constitution in school we had discussed Troy Davis and the right to a fair trial, so I thought I would let him know.

This is really a sad day for Troy Davis’s family, for all who are caught up in the INJUST justice system and for all children who are being taught about our constitution, especially children of color who need to learn that the constitution may work for some but not for everyone. As an African American male, he needs to know that not only is he 6 times more likely to be incarcerated than his white friends but also 3 times more likely to be executed.

This has left my son questioning how the United States would execute anyone, particularly someone who might be innocent like Troy Davis – From the mouth of babes. One might wonder how this could ever happen once, but it is a sad and awful truth that this occurs too many times. This isn’t something he will learn in his history class.

Reflecting on our criminal justice system as a whole, it’s really difficult to know how to move forward especially after Justice Scalia’s statement: "there is nothing unconstitutional about executing the innocent” and in comparing two very similar situations where a black man is executed and a white man is given clemency, as in the recent post I’ve seen about Troy Davis and Samuel Crowe. We have our work cut out for us. This is not a time to revert back to our everyday life, but a time to stand up and shout that this is wrong and we are not going to stand idly by and continue to watch this happen.

In our work in the juvenile justice system in Louisiana we see far too often the hands of evil working against our children and families. Far too often there is no accountability, from the Office of Juvenile Justice right up to the Governor’s office. When shown the evidence that children continue to be hurt and neglected by the hands that are supposed to care for them and help keep them from entering the adult system; or even worse, when shown the fate that has befallen Troy Davis, too many times those in power turn a blind eye.

What is being said here is that it is ok when our system makes mistakes, ignores the law, ignores the constitution, and takes longer than necessary to reform. Apparently, we can just lock children up for making mistakes, we can beat them, we can fail them, we can incarcerate them, we can push them into the adult system, and even kill them.   Yes, we must keep up the movement, but it’s time that our movement includes action to get rid of those in power who continue to harm our communities! Our children are counting on us to keep them safe, and they are counting on America to include Justice for ALL!

Gina B. Womack is the executive director and co-founder of Families and Friends of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children (FFLIC), a statewide membership-based organization dedicated to creating a better life for all of Louisiana’s youth, especially those who are involved, or at risk of becoming involved in the juvenile justice system. Gina is the proud mother of three children, a member of Pleasant Zion Missionary Baptist Church and Sanctuary Choir as well the Joyful Gospel Choir. She is honored to be a 2006 Petra Foundation Fellow, 2009 Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana Advocate of the Year and 2009 Ms. Foundation Women of Vision award. Gina is also a 2011 Alston Bannerman National Fellow.

Bike Trip to Angola Prison Will Raise Funds for Visits by Prisoner Families

2011-09-22T23:12:00.005-05:00

From our friends at NOLA to Angola:
Cyclists and prisoner advocates are organizing a bike ride to aid the large incarcerated population of Louisiana. Called “NOLA to Angola,” the bike ride will raise funds for the Cornerstone Builders Bus Project, a Catholic Charities-supported project. The first annual NOLA to Angola ride will take place October 14-16, 2011.

Every month the Cornerstone Builders Bus Project charters a 55-passenger coach-style bus for families of the incarcerated in the New Orleans area to visit five prison facilities around Louisiana, including Angola. Due to the long distance of each trip, the Cornerstone Builders ensure the families will have onboard bathroom facilities and comfortable seats. Each trip costs the church approximately $1,000. Currently, the bus project has no regular source of income, though some trips are underwritten by local sponsors, including church groups and the Jefferson and Orleans Parishes Sherriffs’ Offices. Organizers of the NOLA to Angola Bike Ride hope that their fundraiser will be able to pay for half a year of bus trips.

Leo Jackson, assistant director of Cornerstone Builders, said, “The more we can keep the family intact, the more we can effect positive change. We want to keep lines of communication open between prisoners and their families.”

While the primary purpose of the ride is to raise funds for the monthly bus trips, another goal of the ride is to expose riders to the history and geography of South Louisiana while they travel to the distant prison. Matt Toups, one of four ride organizers, said, “For three days in October, 25 people will ride bicycles over 160 miles across Louisiana -- to raise money, but also to make connections. We're connecting New Orleans to the levee of the Mississippi River, the cypress of Maurepas Swamp, the refineries of Cancer Alley, and the Tunica Hills. We will see, firsthand, many of the places that make Louisiana and its history unique -- and we'll also find out how far prisoners' families have to travel to maintain precious family connections.”

The bicycle ride will end at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, also known as Angola. When the ride ends organizers will deliver a letter to the Angolite, an award-winning prisoner-run publication at Angola. Ride organizer Steve Merlan said, ”by working with the Angolite - an extremely unique magazine whose history of journalistic excellence is well established - we hope to engage in a broader dialogue with the Angola inmate community and other readers interested in criminal justice.”

As of September 20th, all 25 rider spots have been filled. However, members of the public who would like to get involved can still sponsor riders or send donations to the project. Donation checks should be made out to: Second Zion Baptist Church Bus Project. Please do not write checks to NOLA to Angola.

Checks can be sent to the below address:
NOLA to Angola
1631 Elysian Fields #117
New Orleans, LA 70117

ABOUT CORNERSTONE BUILDERS: The Cornerstone Builders Bus Project, run out of the Second Zion Baptist Church in Marrero, Louisiana, provides monthly free transportation for families of the incarcerated to visit their loved ones at five Louisiana detention centers: Louisiana State Penitentiary, Dixon Correctional Institute, Tallulah Transitional Center for Women, Avoyelles Correctional Center, and Rayburn Correctional Center. The Bus Project is part of the larger Cornerstone Builders Program that also includes mentoring for children, working to place ex-offenders in AmeriCorps Vista vocational training, reentry counseling for formerly incarcerated persons, networking between businesses run by or willing to employee the formerly incarcerated, and an annual symposium.

ABOUT INCARCERATION IN LOUISIANA: According to a 2009 study conducted by the Pew Center on the States, 1 in 55 Louisianans is incarcerated in a prison or jail, and 1 in 26 Louisianans is under correctional supervision (incarceration, probation, or parole).2 According to the same study, Louisiana has the highest rate of incarceration of any state (Washington D.C. is ranked higher) in the United States3.

ABOUT NOLA TO ANGOLA: Scott Eustis, Elizabeth Lew, Steve Merlan and Matt Toups are New Orleans residents concerned about Louisiana’s high incarceration rate and about Louisiana’s environment. By organizing this bicycle ride, they hope to address both of these concerns, raising money for a crucial service for prisoners’ families while riding pollution-free bicycles across the beautiful South Louisiana landscape.

For more information on NOLA to Angola, please visit: nolatoangola.org, or email: info@nolatoangola.org.

Photo from Angola by Calhoun Photography studio.

The Renaissance Project Announces 4th Annual Gardening Convening at the Lower Ninth Ward Village – October 27-30, 2011

2011-09-21T13:39:00.001-05:00

The Renaissance Project and Lower Ninth Ward Village present Regrowing Community 2011. This year’s programming includes volunteer assistance with community gardening projects, site-based workshops, racial healing presentations, dialogues and performances.

We welcome john powell of the Kirwan Institute, Ohio State and Peggy McIntosh of Wellesley Centers for Women, Wellesley College who, respectively, will present on Unconscious Bias and White Privilege during the Convening. Kimberley Richards of New Orleans-based People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond will present the Power Analysis, from the Institute’s Undoing Racism Workshop. This year we acknowledge the 200th anniversary of Louisiana’s 1811 Slave Revolt.

ArtSpot Productions remounts the play Rumours of War based on incidents leading to and during the revolt at the African American Museum in Treme. Optional tours include a French Quarter walking tour of strategic locations during the Revolt and a bus tour along the route of the Revolt led by Louisiana native Leon Waters.

Ashe Cultural Center, People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond and the Renaissance Project are Racial Healing grantees of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

Local partners include: Students at the Center, People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond, Ashe Cultural Arts Center, ArtSpot Productions, Backyard Gardeners Network, Women and Agriculture, Our School at Blair Grocery, Holy Angels Convent, Tekrema Center for Art and Culture. Whole Foods, Mobile Loaves and Fishes, United Teachers of New Orleans, Open Society Foundations, and the W.K Kellogg Foundation are sponsors of the event.

Space is limited. Register at this link.

Victim Impact Statement of Daughters and Family of Raymond Robair

2011-09-15T19:54:00.004-05:00

Two former New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) officers were sentenced today in relation to the beating death of Raymond Robair and subsequent cover-up. US District Judge Eldon Fallon sentenced former NOPD Officer Melvin Williams, known to many New Orleanians by his street nickname "Flattop," to 262 months in prison for violating the civil rights of Robair by beating him to death, and for obstructing justice in the wake of that beating. Williams was also ordered to pay $11,576 in restitution.

Former NOPD Officer Matthew Dean Moore, who was working as Williams’ partner on the day of the beating, was sentenced to 70 months in prison for obstructing justice and for making false statements to the FBI during a federal investigation into Robair’s death.

Below is the victim impact statement as read by Judonna Mitchell, the daughter of Raymond Robair at today's sentencing.

My name is Judonna Mitchell. I am the daughter of Raymond Robair. I am making this statement on behalf of myself, my sister, Lashonda Saulsberry, our grandmother, Marie Robair, and Raymond’s brothers and sisters, grandchildren, nieces, and nephews.

We understand that we’re here today for the court to sentence former New Orleans police officers Melvin Williams and Matthew Dean Moore for their responsibility in the death and cover-up of the death of our father.

We appreciate the opportunity to tell the Court about the impact of our father’s death on our family and our community. We are only sorry that our father could not be here himself. Had either of these men told the truth to the doctors at Charity hospital about our father’s injuries, he would be alive today. Instead, their actions and their lies cost our father his life.

We are extremely grateful for the successful efforts of the Department of Justice and the local US Attorneys Office in prosecuting this case. We also give thanks to Ms. Merline Kimble and the brave people of Treme who came forward, despite their fear, to testify. Otherwise the truth would never have been known. And although it has been painful to know what happened to our father, we are thankful, finally, that these men will be held accountable for their actions.

We have learned from witnesses that Mr. Williams beat, kicked, and stomped our father, while Mr. Moore stood by, doing nothing to protect him or to intervene. This brutal, unjustified attack took place in broad daylight, on a Saturday morning in Treme, on a street filled with ordinary people going about their daily lives. The witnesses, some of whom later testified at trial, described a "piercing scream" as Mr. Williams beat our father, without mercy, while Mr. Moore stood by and did nothing to protect him.

Mr. Williams and Mr. Moore then took our father to Charity hospital, where they lied about our father’s condition, leading the doctors and medical staff to pursue the wrong course of treatment. The lies these two men told at Charity hospital about our father’s medical condition caused his death as surely as if they had shot him to dead on the spot. They then returned to our father’s neighborhood that same day, threatening and intimidating witnesses. They wrote a false police report to cover up their actions, and have maintained their lies for years. They also tried to degrade our father and his entire neighborhood as if the people who live and work on St. Phillip St. in Treme deserved this kind of mistreatment.

Thanks to this trial, the cover-up of Raymond Robair’s death is over. That in itself is a relief to us. But it cannot bring our father back.

The death of our father has been devastating for our family. Our father was our protector, our provider, our strongest advocate, and a true friend. When we were children, he would hold us at night when we were afraid, and even when he could not be physically close to us, he always made sure we knew that he loved us and was thinking of us.

Raymond was funny. He could always make you laugh. Just seeing Raymond would always bring a smile to our faces. He was a great dancer. Our family gatherings were fun when Raymond was alive because he always made sure that everyone was enjoying themselves and having a good time. To this day we miss him when we all get together; it’s just not the same without him.

Our father was also our grandmother’s nurse and helper. Our grandmother, Marie Robair, Raymond’s mother, is 81 years old. She had 13 children, 7 of whom are alive today. Raymond is the only child of our grandmother who died as a result of violence.

Raymond would go to the store for her, cook and clean and care for her. Whenever she needed help she would call on Raymond. He was always there for her. In fact, he was the helper for our whole family. He was always busy doing home repairs, cutting the grass on our lawns, cooking and cleaning for us.

And he didn’t just take care of our children and our family. The kids in the neighborhood loved Raymond. He played with them, fixed their bikes, and looked out for them. When one of the neighborhood children heard that the police had killed Raymond, this child couldn’t understand how this could happen because, as he said, "Everyone Loves Raymond".

Raymond would help anyone, at any time, and he didn’t expect anything in return. He once ran into a burning house and rescued a woman trapped inside. He became the caretaker of an elderly woman whose family didn’t look after her. Raymond would shop, cook, and clean for her, until she died. Raymond was the kind of person that makes a neighborhood a community. Raymond would also try to help people. This is what he was doing on the morning he was killed—he was waiting on the front stoop of his neighbor’s house to fix her roof when Mr. Williams and Mr. Moore drove up in their police car and proceeded to beat him to death.

It is obvious to us that Mr. Williams and Mr. Moore were blinded by their own prejudices when they pulled up in front of our father that day. They did not see the true Raymond. They did not stop to consider that they were beating and kicking a man who nursed his sick mother, who helped to parent five grandchildren and had another on the way, and who would be celebrating his 49th birthday with his family the following week. They did not even see our father as a human being. Instead, they saw our father as something less than human, someone who they could hurt, even kill, without consequence.

Maybe they thought that no one would care about Raymond. Maybe they thought that no one loved Raymond enough to fight to hold them accountable for causing his death.

How else can we understand how Mr. Williams would think he could get away with brutally beating our father in broad daylight, in front of so many witnesses. How else can we understand how Mr. Moore could stand by and fail to protect our father? Mr. Williams and Mr. Moore must have believed that the people in the neighborhood, the witnesses, would never have the courage to tell what they saw. And if the witnesses did come forward, Mr. Williams and Mr. Moore must have been confident that no one would believe them, because, after all, they lived in a neighborhood that these officers helped to stigmatize.

In some ways, Mr. Williams and Mr. Moore were right about the fear and intimidation that paralyzed the community. As far as we know, no one called 911 that morning. They were terrified when they saw what these police officers did to our father. They knew of Mr. Williams’ reputation for violence and dirty deeds. And we can’t blame them for not calling. Who do you call when it is the police themselves committing the violence and breaking the law?

And when witnesses did come forward, the police department disregarded them or intimidated them instead of taking their accounts seriously. If not for the federal government stepping in, this situation would still be going on today and we would never have had justice for Raymond.

Given his reputation, it is shocking to us that Mr. Williams was a Field Training Officer for the NOPD, in charge of "showing the ropes" to new recruits fresh out of the Academy. It is shocking, but it helps explain why we have so many problems with our police department. He trained Mr. Moore all right; he trained him in how to abuse and mistreat citizens and how to lie and cover it up.

And unfortunately, Mr. Moore was a willing and eager student who learned his lessons well. Instead of trying to stop Mr. Williams’ attacks, or telling the truth at the hospital, Mr. Moore chose to uphold the code of silence that protects violent officers like Melvin Williams.

We understand the situation Mr. Moore was in as a rookie officer. We also understand that Mr. Moore is an adult, who supposedly knew right from wrong. He had just gone through months of training at the Academy. But you don’t have to go to school to know that what Mr. Williams did to our father was wrong and against the law. We cannot condone or excuse Mr. Moore’s actions in any way.

Mr. Moore had just recently taken an oath to protect and serve our community, yet he made a mockery of that oath. And then he continued to violate that oath during the last six years, by lying and covering up what happened, including the lies he told on the witness stand in this trial. His disrespect for our father and our community is overshadowed only by his disrespect for the truth. Mr. Moore lied and our father died. We are thankful that the jury could see through his lies

With regard to the sentences for these two former NOPD officers, we believe Mr. Williams should be sentenced to the maximum penalty. He must be held accountable for the brutal beating and the death of our father, for covering up his crime and for withholding information that could have saved our father’s life. We feel that he should face the most severe consequences possible for hiding behind his badge as he committed these terrible crimes.

We also believe that Mr. Moore should be sentenced to the maximum sentence. We do not come to this conclusion lightly. Our hearts go out to Mr. Moore’s family, and especially his children. But we have to ask, where was Mr. Moore’s heart as he watched our father being attacked? Where was his heart when he stayed silent at the hospital, instead of trying to save our father’s life? And where was Mr. Moore’s heart in the years since, when he was given so many opportunities to tell the truth and chose not to?

We urge the court to impose the maximum sentence upon Mr. Moore not only to punish him for his crime but also to deter other police officers who may be in similar situations and who think that they don’t have to intervene to protect our citizens, that they don’t have to report wrong-doing by other officers, including their supervisors, who think that they can lie and cover-up crimes by fellow police officers, with no serious consequences.

We speak today as Raymond’s family but also as parents, trying to raise our children right in a city that we love. As parents, we frequently find ourselves at a loss when our children tell us that they are afraid of the police, or that they would not call the police if they were in trouble. We tell them that there are good police officers and that the police are here to protect them. But actions like those of Mr. Williams and Mr. Moore make it difficult for our children to believe us.

To this day, more than six years after our father’s death, Mr. Williams and Mr. Moore have never accepted responsibility for what they did. We hope they will seriously reflect on what they have done to Raymond and to so many other people in our community. We hope, for their own sakes, that someday they may feel remorse for the devastation they have caused.

It hurts us every day that Raymond is gone, but we know that he did not die in vain. We felt him with us every day in this courtroom. Raymond’s death exposed the crimes of these officers, and we feel that Raymond has now brought justice for many families within our community.

We will never be able to bring Raymond back. But we are at last able to move forward, as a family and a community, toward healing and justice.

Thank you.

Casualties of Hate – Remembering Birmingham Sunday, by Jaribu Hill

2011-09-15T19:16:00.005-05:00

Sunday, September 15, 1963, was the Lord’s Day. It was a time for worship and thanksgiving—a time to rise early—put on Sunday’s best and head to the sanctuary.

When organized hate mongers bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church, Cynthia Wesley, Carol Robertson, Denise McNair and Addie Mae Collins were getting ready for Sunday school and practicing for the church play. They were giggling and teasing each other about “usual” girl-child things. They planned to be best friends through adolescence, graduation, college and beyond. The deadly act of cowards who walked free with impunity for decades after committing the heartless deed, devastated an already embattled community and sent a message to all those who dared to stand against a status quo that sanctioned the killing of innocent children. As songwriter Richard Farina wrote:

On Birmingham Sunday, a noise shook the ground
And people all over the earth turned around.
For no one recalled a more cowardly sound.
And the choirs kept singing of Freedom.

The murderers of Cynthia, Carole, Denise and Addie Mae, were protected by a vicious state’s rights system that covered up these and other racially motivated deaths at the hands of known persons.

It was a back-in-the-day crime that resonates today. It resonates today as we demand justice for twenty-first century victims of the same hatred that killed the Four Little Girls. We must remember these young martyrs by vowing never to rest until all those responsible for the death of James C. Anderson, who was killed in Jackson, Mississippi on June 26, 2011 by a vehicle driven by modern day night riders, looking for a Black life to claim, are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. We can accept nothing less! We must insist that a Black life has the same value as that of a white life. We must lift the veil of denial and become part of the solution that will once and for all put an end to such acts of racial hatred.

As we remember the Four Little Girls, we also must demand answers that will solve the mystery shrouding the death of Frederick Jermaine Carter, whose body was found hanging from a tree on December 3, 2010 in Leflore County, Mississippi. We can no longer remain in the safety zone.

We, who are the beneficiaries of the opportunities denied so many, must come out of our comfort zones and use our inquiring minds and influence to question how such events can occur today, despite the distance we have come. For the sake of our children and all the “Four Little Girls” and Boys to come, we must challenge structures and institutions that continue to exclude the majority to enrich the minority.

Remembering this day and celebrating the lives of Cynthia, Carole, Denise and Addie Mae, should propel us into action. It should make us work harder to dismantle all of the 21st Century separate-but-equal schemes that deny millions of children their constitutional right to equal access to a quality education. It should make us work harder to level the playing field for those who despite this country’s wealth, are caught in a web of grinding and unrelenting poverty.

To survive the onslaught of contemporary forms of injustice, we must demand ACCOUNTABILITY from all those elected to improve the quality of our lives. No longer can we accept their silence and inaction. Now is the time to demand more. Now is the time.

On this day, when our hearts are so heavy, we must renew our resolve to fight the good fight until the job is done! Remember the martyrs and fight for the living! Shame on us, if we don’t.

Jaribu Hill, Executive Director of The Mississippi Workers’ Center for Human Rights is a civil rights attorney. The Mississippi Workers’ Center for Human Rights was founded in 1996 in Oxford, MS to provide education, advocacy and organizing support for low-wage workers and other victims of civil and human rights violations in the workplace. Ms. Hill is the former Director of the Southern Regional Office of the Center for Constitutional Rights.

Home Grown Ugly

2011-09-13T16:24:00.003-05:00

Dr. Angela Barthe died yesterday morning of complications due to breast cancer, a disease that plagues far too many women in our community. I didn’t have the opportunity to know Dr. Barthe well. We had met on several occasions. She had an incredibly warm personality. Just as important, Dr. Barthe had an excellent reputation as a caring physician, and delighted in her profession as pediatrician because of her love for children.

Dr. Angela Barthe was home grown beauty.

Dr. Barthe was the wife of City Council member Jon Johnson. As we can all understand, Jon is grieving terribly the loss of his wife while simultaneously making arrangements for her funeral and comforting their young daughter. Mayor Landrieu sent a press release expressing his condolences, as did most council members.

Most. Not all. Despite the admonitions by her fellow council members, Stacy Head has decided to convene an Emergency Council Meeting tomorrow at 2:00 p.m., to discuss tardy sewerage and water board fees. No doubt, tardy sewerage and water board charges are a financial burden to this community. But Ms. Head is not convening the meeting tomorrow because this 2:00p is urgent – the $91 million city budget deficit will not close at 2:30p because of Stacy’s meeting. No, Stacy is convening this 2:00p meeting because she knows Council member Johnson will not be able to attend and, therefore, she believes it the perfect opportunity to embarrass and chastise further Council member Cynthia Hedge Morrell who, by-the-by, is Stacy’s declared opponent for the Council-at-Large seat being vacated by Arnie Fielkow. Despicable, nasty politics.

Hearing these latest Head tomfoolery, I am reminded that it was only last year when Congresswoman Gabby Giffords was targeted and gunned by the dark forces of intolerance and hatred that is the heinous underbelly of politics in this country. It was President Barack Obama who urged us to move forward in unity and civility, believing "we can be better." Mrs. Head didn’t hear that message, and continues to place politics above humanity.

Council member Stacy Head is home grown ugly.

Two Years After the DOJ Calls Conditions at OPP Unconstitutional, Billboard on I-10 Calls for Action at Orleans Parish Prison

2011-09-12T15:17:00.010-05:00

From our friends at the Orleans Parish Prison Reform Coalition:
Exactly two years after the Department of Justice issued it’s September 11, 2009 report that found a practice of the violation of civil rights of individuals held at Orleans Parish Prison (OPP), the Orleans Parish Prison Reform Coalition (OPPRC) launched a new phase of its public education campaign for reform of the jail, with a billboard on I-10 and the announcement of a series of community forums. The billboards include a set of five rotating messages, including support for a smaller jail of no more than 1438 beds, an end to the per-diem system, and immediate action by the Department of Justice to improve conditions at the facility.
The recommendation for a smaller facility comes after national experts and a Criminal Justice Working Group convened by Mayor Landrieu determined that, through the implementation of reforms including pre-trial services, reducing racial disparities in lengths of detention, and increasing the use of citations in lieu of minor arrests, a jail of 1438 beds could be sufficient for the City of New Orleans. While the City Council approved a replacement jail of this size in February 2011 following this recommendation, there is significant work that remains for the full implementation of these reforms. According to Norris Henderson, Executive Director of VOTE, an OPPRC member organization, “The city needs to move aggressively towards implementing the types of reforms considered by the Criminal Justice Working Group, which when completed can be a beacon of pride for the city. Similar reforms have been demonstrated in other cities to improve public safety, to reduce jail populations, and to save invaluable taxpayer dollars. New Orleans can do it as well.”
OPPRC is also calling for an end to the per diem system, or the funding of the jail through payment by the City for each individual held daily in OPP. While the per diem is $22.39 per inmate, the actual cost is over $30 daily, including the additional costs of health care and staffing paid by the City to the Sheriff. This will cost the city $27.5 million this year. As stated by Mayor Landrieu at the August 9th District B Community Budget meeting, “If we pay (the Sheriff) per person, per day, the argument is he has an incentive to keep more people. What we really need to do is ensure that he keeps only the number that we need him to keep and no more.” New Orleans is the only major US city in the United States that finances its jail through a per diem system. As stated by Dana Kaplan, Director of the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana (JJPL), “Given both the perverse incentive that the per diem creates to incarcerate more people and the fact that $22.39 per person is insufficient to safely operate a jail, there should be no obstacle this budget cycle to ending the outdated per diem system and transitioning to a performance based approach to funding OPP.”
Finally, in the wake of sweeping reform of the New Orleans Police Department and two years after their initial findings that the jail consistently violates the civil rights of people held in its care, OPPRC is also calling for the Department of Justice to take action to improve conditions at Orleans Parish Prison. Since their report was issued in September 2009, conditions have only deteriorated and thirteen more people have died in the custody of the jail.
On September 20th the Orleans Parish Prison Reform Coalition will be hosting a public forum, for all community members concerned about conditions at OPP and related issues to have an opportunity to speak and offer recommendations for reform. The forum will be held from 6 – 8 pm at the Mahalia Jackson Center in Central City, located at 2405 Jackson Avenue. Representatives from the Special Litigation Section of the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice have been invited to attend.

Gulf Coast Activists Among Those Arrested in Largest Environmental Justice Direct Action of this Century

2011-09-12T08:54:00.002-05:00

Over the course of two weeks in Washington, DC, more than 1,200 people were arrested in front of the White House in protest against the Keystone XL pipeline. The controversial 1,700 mile project would carry tar sands oil from Canada to the US and activists have called it the most important environmental decision facing President Obama. The sit-ins began on Saturday, August 20, and involved movement leaders, activists and authors like Bill McKibben and Naomi Klein, actors and celebrities like Mark Ruffalo and Daryl Hannah, and hundreds of activists from across the US and Canada. A delegation of Gulf Coast activists joined the protests, including activist Cherri Foytlin of Rayne, Louisiana; and Bryan Parras of TEJAS.

Below is an excerpt from Foytlin's story of her arrest in Washington:

I won’t go too much into the Tar Sands and Keystone XL Pipeline, if you have been paying attention at all, you know how devastating this is going to be – if it is completed, to our communities from Canada to Texas. I implore you to educate yourself and get involved with protecting our country from what is basically a continuous assault on our health and environment, let alone basic sensibilities.

Honestly, I had no prior plans on getting arrested. As you know, it was not so very long ago that I was in handcuffs in NOLA, and I was worried about implications from one case to the other. Yet, I did want to stand in solidarity with those opposed to the pipeline, and especially with out Gulf Coast communities in Texas who, as I stated before, have long bore the burden of energy production in the United States. It is too high a bill to pay, I am sure you will agree, when the cost is human life and sadly, and in too many instances, our coastal communities have been paying that cost for decades.

We were told that we could come and sit, and that there would be 3 warnings by the police before arrests were made.

First warning came, and I looked across the crowd of people.. sweat pouring off of brows, nervous smiles, holding of hands, elderly with canes, a fist clenched, a hand waving, an intense contemplative gaze, chanting.

Second warning came, and I looked beside me to my friend, Bryan Parras, a Houston resident, advisor for the Gulf Coast Fund and leader with Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services (TEJAS). He was smiling, (he usually is). Bryan, and his colleague Estaban, had already shared with us that they were going to go all the way in their commitment to protect the communities of Texas. I was thinking of how much I respect him, for all the sacrifices he has made in defense of his community, and our Gulf. Working on these issues much longer than I, after all the losses and successes, here he was, making a stand by sitting for our entire nation. I was proud to be beside him in that moment.

I began to think about all those lives already lost in the Texas communities, in the Gulf Coast communities, across the nation, across the globe. And I remembered of the many times we all speak of “unity“, “inclusion” and “solidarity“. Were they hollow words? Is unity something that you say when you want someone to join your cause? Are we really one Gulf? One nation?

Third warning, the final shifting of feet, last minute checks for ID’s in back pockets, butterflies in your stomach.. decisions.

I was number 26 arrested that day, the last of the women, out of over 50 participating.

As they took our info, they loaded us tight into a barely air conditioned police van – eight woman in a row on one side, eight more on the other, with an iron wall between us. It was tight, and hot, and claustrophobia held us for a few seconds, before the women on the other side of the van, who we could not see, began singing.

Singing beautiful words, about not being stopped, about the folly of taking our bodies to lock up while our spirits ran free. It was beautiful. That is unity, I saw it, and it came to me through misty eyes.

As we arrived, and the engine was shut down, and we were left without air for a few very uncomfortable minutes, we all began to talk.

“Where are you from?”

“Across the nation.. East coast, west coast, gulf coast, farm land, mountain top, island, wheat field, lake side, city sidewalk, high top apartment, suburbia..”

Unity.

So, I hadn’t planned on being arrested that day, which is why I only had 30 of the $100 needed to get out of jail. After we were led into holding, I mentioned my dilemma to a few people. Adding that, I was not worried because I knew well that my Gulf Coast people out side were going to get me out. They had my back, but I may have to stay for a while over, I told them.

A lady, whose name I am ashamed to say I cannot remember, moved her zip tied hands from behind her back to her side pocket, almost loosing her balance to pull out $10 that she had over her $100 and gave it to me.

And then the young woman from D.C., who I had also seen at Power Shift, she gave $5.

And the lady whose 80th birthday it was, she pushed a twenty into my pocket.

Followed by most of the others, soon I was turning down ladies who wanted to contribute. In five minutes, I had all that I needed to walk out.

My sisters, all of whom I had just met, with hands banded behind them, and yet they were picking me up, you see?

They gave me more than a simple $100 that day.

Along with them, I would like to publicly thank with all the sincerity I have in my soul, the people of 350.org, including Rae, Linda and Bill. And especially the rest of the Gulf Coast delegation, including: (and please forgive me if I leave out anyone), fellow inmates Bryan Parras and Estaban ?, Fritzi Presley, Charles Taylor, John Gooding, Mandi Thompson, Michelle Chauncy, Andre Gaines, Chuck Brady, Karen Savage, Paul Nelson, Aaron Viles, and Drew Landry – there were more, 16 in all who bravely brought their voices and hearts to defend and protect us all.

Citizens for Second Chances Build Skills and Develop Relationships at Annual Retreat

2011-09-11T16:38:00.001-05:00

From our friends at Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana:
On August 27th families and friends of those serving life without parole since they were children gathered for the annual Citizens for Second Chances (CFSC) strategic planning retreat at St. James Episcopal Church in Alexandria, LA. At this year's retreat, CFSC members from around the state were introduced to JJPL's new Staff Attorney, Ethan Ashley. Ethan joined JJPL to help coordinate the campaign to end life without parole sentencing for youth and to represent those affected by the Graham v. Florida ruling which made life without parole sentencing unconstitutional for youth in non homicide cases, allowing several juvenile lifers in Louisiana to go back to court to be resentenced. During the retreat, CFSC members also focused on building a base of support in their communities, gaining the support of faith leaders and those that work in corrections, as well as to strategize for the 2012 legislative session and the task force convened by the legislature to study the Graham v. Florida decision and offer recommendations for reform.

CFSC was joined by retired Warden Buddy Knight from Avoyelles Parish who shared stories from his time as an assistant warden at the Louisiana State Penitentiary and head warden of Cottonport Correctional Center. Retired Warden Knight also educated CFSC about why giving people second chances makes for safer and more productive prison environments.

The retreat ended with a story telling session where families had the opportunity to share stories of their loved ones serving juvenile life without parole. This gave family members an opportunity to practice telling their stories and advocating to members of the legislature for a more fair and equitable sentencing for their loved ones. CFSC continues to hold conference calls on the first and third Tuesday's of the month to discuss strategy and learn advocacy skills. For all those interested in joining please contact Kelly Orians or Ethan Ashley at 504-522-5437.

Photo above: CFSC members gather with Retired Warden Buddy Knight after a full day of strategic planning at St. James Episcopal Church in Alexandria, LA.

Justice Department Investigation of Puerto Rico Police Almost Makes NOPD Look Good

2011-09-10T13:15:00.003-05:00

In a report released Thursday, US Justice Department investigators found the Puerto Rico Police Department may create more crime than it prevents. More than 1,709 officers have been arrested over the past five years for offenses “ranging from simple assault and theft to domestic violence, drug trafficking and murder.” According to New York Times coverage of the investigation:

In a 116-page report...the civil rights division of the Justice Department accused the Puerto Rico Police Department of systematically “using force, including deadly force, when no force or lesser force was called for,” unnecessarily injuring hundreds of people and killing “numerous others.”

The report, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times, says the 17,000-officer force routinely conducts illegal searches and seizures without warrants. It accuses the force of a pattern of attacking nonviolent protesters and journalists in a manner “designed to suppress the exercise of protected First Amendment rights.”

And it says investigators “uncovered troubling evidence” that law enforcement officers in Puerto Rico appear to routinely discriminate against people of Dominican descent and “fail to adequately police sex assault and domestic violence” cases — including spousal abuse by fellow officers.

“Unfortunately,” the report found, “far too many P.R.P.D. officers have broken their oath to uphold the rule of law, as they have been responsible for acts of crime and corruption and have routinely violated the constitutional rights of the residents of Puerto Rico.”

The report "condemns nearly every aspect of the force," according to the New York Times. "Its hiring and training practices, the way it assigns and promotes officers, and its policies governing officer behavior and accountability for misconduct. The report recommends 133 remedial measures that would amount to a sweeping intervention."

This is one of 17 investigations of local police departments launched by the DOJ. The New Orleans investigations have been among the most prominent, but as other interventions heat up, look for more shocking revelations. The actions of a newly-empowered Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department represent perhaps the greatest break with Bush Administration policies. But criminal justice activists and abolitionists have argued over the ultimate effects - will these investigations lead to positive changes in communities hard hit by police violence? Will they open opportunities to build alternatives to criminalization? Or will they serve as reforms that ultimately reinforce and justify police departments?

Much of that may depend on how activists on the ground respond to these investigations, and the ways in which they use the opportunities presented by the investigations to push for alternatives. In this respect, the process that New Orleans community members have been through, of creating a People's Consent Decree, has set an important precedent. But reforms of these departments are not enough. As the abolitionist organization Critical Resistance has pointed out, "We know that more police and prisons will not make our communities safer. Instead, we know that things like food, housing, and freedom are what creates lasting safety."

New Orleans Activists Win Groundbreaking Reforms in Treatment of LGBT Youth in the Criminal Justice System

2011-09-09T16:28:00.003-05:00

From our friends at BreakOUT:
Recently, the Louisiana Department of Human Services and the New Orleans juvenile detention center, the Youth Study Center (YSC), introduced a groundbreaking new policy that is designed to protect the safety and dignity of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth under their supervision. This policy not only oversees the protection of LGBT youth already in the custody of the system, which are estimated at 15% according to national data, but also mandates that direct care staff, supervisors, and social service providers at the detention center shall be required to undergo training to help create a safer environment for LGBT youth in their care.

The policy, which is one of the best in the country, was developed from a model policy written by clinical psychologist and national juvenile justice expert, Dr. Marty Beyer. It is impressive in its scope, providing eleven procedural guidelines that largely encompass the unique needs of LGBT youth. The policy clearly defines what qualifies as discrimination, harassment, and abuse pertaining specifically to LGBT youth, and prohibits both staff and other incarcerated youth from discriminating or threatening anyone based upon their sexual orientation or gender identity. The policy also prohibits LGBT youth from being placed in isolation as a "means of keeping them safe from discrimination," and prioritizes youths' "physical and emotional well-being." One of the more remarkable elements of this policy is its attention to issues concerning transgender youth.

Among the many "best practice" provisions the policy outlines, it requires that "transgender youth will be called by the first name and pronoun they request even if their name has not been legally changed." The policy also states that transgender youth will not be forced to shower or change clothing in front of staff or other youth - a situation that can be especially humiliating and terrifying for this demographic. Within the provisions of the policy, transgender youth must also be allowed access to counseling and medical attention in accordance with professional health standards. All of these are enormous steps forward, particularly for a demographic that is all too often overlooked in LGBT policy making, and for a facility still under a consent decree from a class-action lawsuit filed by JJPL in 2007.

Wesley Ware, Director of the LGBT youth organizing project of JJPL, BreakOUT! and former LGBT Youth Project Director, helped institute the policy. "I coordinated the investigation for JJPL's lawsuit 4 years ago. To now be a part of making reforms at the facility, in particular for LGBT youth, has been an incredible experience. The Youth Study Center still has a long ways to go, but they're becoming a leader with their policy reforms. Now the challenge becomes implementing the policy. Some youth have reported being held in their cells for being LGBT as recently as a few months ago, so the staff will need ongoing training and technical assistance to ensure all youth are treated fairly and appropriately." The facility has already trained their upper level staff and line staff on LGBT youth in the juvenile justice system.

NOPD Declares War on Sex Workers

2011-09-08T18:25:00.001-05:00

Calling prostitution "a dangerous, violent crime," NOPD Police Chief Ronal Serpas announced today that New Orleans police had arrested 67 sex workers in the months of July and August in an undercover operation that also involved State Police, the FBI and the Secret Service.

In June, the NOPD made a similar announcement, in operations that totaled at least 60 prostitution arrests. Another June operation, targeting the clients of prostitutes, brought 29 arrests, including one NOPD officer.

Perhaps the most disturbing element of the recent campaign was the announcement by District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro that "prosecutors persuaded judges to slow down," causing releases on light bail to plunge.

The high-profile press conference held to announce the arrests, combined with the multi-agency involvement, indicates that this is another attempt by the NOPD to polish their image, similar to a recent campaign that involved officers checking the locks on car doors and knocking on houses.

The announcement also came on the same day that a judge ruled that a suit challenging Louisiana's registration of sex workers could go forward.

Chief Serpas' official statements further demonized the sex workers, accusing them of nearly every crime short of terrorism. "We find time and time again that women and men who actively participate in prostitution tend to commit other crimes," claimed Serpas. "Such as some form of battery, simple robbery, armed robbery, illegal drug deals, or carrying concealed weapons. In some cases, customers of prostitutes find that their wallets have been lifted, which means bank card theft and sometimes stolen identity cases. This is why it’s an incredibly worthwhile effort to target people involved in the prostitution business."

According to the Times-Picayune, Serpas indicated at the press conference that the arrests were requested by French Quarter business owners. It remains to be seen if this targeting of women provides the public image make-over the NOPD is hoping for.

Photo of Ronal Serpas from 2010 press conference.