[News] 'This Is Criminal': Malik Rahim from New Orleans

[Anti-Imperialist News]

'This is criminal': Malik Rahim reports from New Orleans

by Malik Rahim

[Note: Malik Rahim, a veteran of the Black Panther Party in New Orleans, 
for decades an organizer of public housing tenants both there and in San 
Francisco and a recent Green Party candidate for New Orleans City Council, 
lives in the Algiers neighborhood, the only part of New Orleans that is not 
flooded. They have no power, but the water is still good and the phones 
work. Their neighborhood could be sheltering and feeding at least 40,000 
refugees, he says, but they are allowed to help no one. What he describes 
is nothing less than deliberate genocide against Black and poor people.]
---

New Orleans, Sept. 1, 2005 -- It's criminal. From what you're hearing, the 
people trapped in New Orleans are nothing but looters. We're told we should 
be more "neighborly." But nobody talked about being neighborly until after 
the people who could afford to leave -- left.

If you ain't got no money in America, you're on your own. People were told 
to go to the Superdome, but they have no food, no water there. And before 
they could get in, people had to stand in line for 4-5 hours in the rain 
because everybody was being searched one by one at the entrance.

I can understand the chaos that happened after the tsunami, because they 
had no warning, but here there was plenty of warning. In the three days 
before the hurricane hit, we knew it was coming and everyone could have 
been evacuated.

We have Amtrak here that could have carried everybody out of town. There 
were enough school buses that could have evacuated 20,000 people easily, 
but they just let them be flooded. My son watched 40 buses go underwater - 
they just wouldn't move them, afraid they'd be stolen.

People who could afford to leave were so afraid someone would steal what 
they own that they just let it all be flooded. They could have let a family 
without a vehicle borrow their extra car, but instead they left it behind 
to be destroyed.

There are gangs of white vigilantes near here riding around in pickup 
trucks, all of them armed, and any young Black they see who they figure 
doesn't belong in their community, they shoot him. I tell them, "Stop! 
You're going to start a riot."

When you see all the poor people with no place to go, feeling alone and 
helpless and angry, I say this is a consequence of HOPE VI. New Orleans 
took all the HUD money it could get to tear down public housing, and 
families and neighbors who'd relied on each other for generations were 
uprooted and torn apart.

Most of the people who are going through this now had already lost touch 
with the only community they'd ever known. Their community was torn down 
and they were scattered. They'd already lost their real homes, the only 
place where they knew everybody, and now the places they've been staying 
are destroyed.

But nobody cares. They're just lawless looters ... dangerous.

The hurricane hit at the end of the month, the time when poor people are 
most vulnerable. Food stamps don't buy enough but for about three weeks of 
the month, and by the end of the month everyone runs out. Now they have no 
way to get their food stamps or any money, so they just have to take what 
they can to survive.

Many people are getting sick and very weak. From the toxic water that 
people are walking through, little scratches and sores are turning into 
major wounds.

People whose homes and families were not destroyed went into the city right 
away with boats to bring the survivors out, but law enforcement told them 
they weren't needed. They are willing and able to rescue thousands, but 
they're not allowed to.

Every day countless volunteers are trying to help, but they're turned back. 
Almost all the rescue that's been done has been done by volunteers anyway.

My son and his family - his wife and kids, ages 1, 5 and 8 - were flooded 
out of their home when the levee broke. They had to swim out until they 
found an abandoned building with two rooms above water level.

There were 21 people in those two rooms for a day and a half. A guy in a 
boat who just said "I'm going to help regardless" rescued them and took 
them to Highway I-10 and dropped them there.

They sat on the freeway for about three hours, because someone said they'd 
be rescued and taken to the Superdome. Finally they just started walking, 
had to walk six and a half miles.

When they got to the Superdome, my son wasn't allowed in - I don't know why 
- so his wife and kids wouldn't go in. They kept walking, and they happened 
to run across a guy with a tow truck that they knew, and he gave them his 
own personal truck.

When they got here, they had no gas, so I had to punch a hole in my gas 
tank to give them some gas, and now I'm trapped. I'm getting around by bicycle.

People from Placquemine Parish were rescued on a ferry and dropped off on a 
dock near here. All day they were sitting on the dock in the hot sun with 
no food, no water. Many were in a daze; they've lost everything.

They were all sitting there surrounded by armed guards. We asked the guards 
could we bring them water and food. My mother and all the other church 
ladies were cooking for them, and we have plenty of good water.

But the guards said, "No. If you don't have enough water and food for 
everybody, you can't give anything." Finally the people were hauled off on 
school buses from other parishes.

You know Robert King Wilkerson (the only one of the Angola 3 political 
prisoners who's been released). He's been back in New Orleans working hard, 
organizing, helping people. Now nobody knows where he is. His house was 
destroyed. Knowing him, I think he's out trying to save lives, but I'm worried.

The people who could help are being shipped out. People who want to stay, 
who have the skills to save lives and rebuild are being forced to go to 
Houston.

It's not like New Orleans was caught off guard. This could have been prevented.

There's military right here in New Orleans, but for three days they weren't 
even mobilized. You'd think this was a Third World country.

I'm in the Algiers neighborhood of New Orleans, the only part that isn't 
flooded. The water is good. Our parks and schools could easily hold 40,000 
people, and they're not using any of it.

This is criminal. These people are dying for no other reason than the lack 
of organization.

Everything is needed, but we're still too disorganized. I'm asking people 
to go ahead and gather donations and relief supplies but to hold on to them 
for a few days until we have a way to put them to good use.

I'm challenging my party, the Green Party, to come down here and help us 
just as soon as things are a little more organized. The Republicans and 
Democrats didn't do anything to prevent this or plan for it and don't seem 
to care if everyone dies.

-----

Malik's phone is working. He welcomes calls from old friends and anyone 
with questions or ideas for saving lives. To reach him, call the Bay View 
at (415) 671-0789.



The Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 863-9977
www.freedomarchives.org 
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