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<h4><b><a href="http://www.democracynow.org/2007/12/21//">December 21,
2007</a></b></h4><font size=3>
<a href="http://www.democracynow.org/2007/12/21/new_orleans_police_taser_pepper_spray" eudora="autourl">
http://www.democracynow.org/2007/12/21/new_orleans_police_taser_pepper_spray<br>
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<img src="http://i3.democracynow.org/images/story/07/16307/NOprotest1.jpg" width=80 height=100 alt="Noprotest1">
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</font><h2><b>New Orleans Police Taser, Pepper Spray Residents Seeking to
Block Public Housing Demolition</b></h2><font size=3>The New Orleans City
Council has unanimously voted to move ahead with the demolition of 4,500
units of public housing. Under the plan, the city’s four largest public
housing developments will be razed and replaced with mixed-income
housing. Hundreds of people were turned away from the City Council
meeting. Police shot protesters with pepper spray and tasers. We go to
New Orleans to speak with two local community activists and a former SWAT
commander. [includes rush transcript]<br><br>
<br>
Guests:<br><br>
<b>Kali Akuno</b>, executive director of the People’s Hurricane Relief
Fund.<br><br>
<b>Sess4-5</b>, a New Orleans Hip Hop artist and a member of the
Coalition to Stop Demolition.<br><br>
<b>Howard Robertson</b>, retired major with New Orleans police.<br><br>
<hr>
<br>
</font><h3><b>Related Links</b></h3>
<ul>
<li><font size=3><a href="http://www.peopleshurricane.org">People’s
Hurricane Relief Fund</a>
</ul><br>
<b>AMY GOODMAN: </b>We are going first to New Orleans. The New Orleans
City Council has unanimously voted to move ahead with the demolition of
4,500 units of public housing. Under the plan, the city’s four largest
public housing developments will be razed and replaced with mixed-income
housing. <br><br>
On Thursday, hundreds of people were turned away from the City Council
meeting. Some of the protesters were shot with pepper spray and tasered.
Inside the City Council chambers, the scene turned chaotic when police
began making arrests. <br><br>
<ul>
<b>PROTESTERS: </b>Let the people in! Let the people in! Let the people
in! <br><br>
<b>PROTESTER: </b>Let those people in! Let them in! Let them in! This is
not Germany! Let those people in! Let those people in! There’s seats
right there! There’s seats right there! Let those people in! What is
wrong with y’all? <br><br>
<b>PROTESTERS: </b>Let the people in! Let the people in! <br><br>
<b>PROTESTER: </b>Ain’t no order until the rest our people get in here.
<br><br>
<b>PROTESTERS: </b>Let the people in! Let the people in!<br><br>
</ul><b>AMY GOODMAN: </b>New Orleans police also tasered protesters
inside the New Orleans City Council chambers. <br><br>
<ul>
<b>PROTESTER: </b>They’re tasering us! They’re tasering! Stop it! Stop
it!<br><br>
</ul><b>AMY GOODMAN: </b>Police cited fire marshal regulations to bar
many protesters from attending the meeting, but many housing advocates
say there were empty seats inside the council chambers. Some protesters
began banging on the gates to City Hall to try to get in. They were met
with pepper spray and tasers. Eyewitnesses said one woman tasered in the
back collapsed in a seizure on the ground. <br><br>
<ul>
<b>PROTESTERS: </b>Let us in now! Housing now! Let us in now! Housing
now! Let us in! Let us in! Let us in! Let us in! No justice, no peace! No
justice, no peace! No justice, no peace! No justice, no peace! What do we
want? Justice! When do we want it? Now! What do we want? Justice! When do
we want it? Now! Let us in! Let us in! Let us in! <br><br>
<b>PROTESTER: </b>Stop pushing my people! <br><br>
<b>PROTESTER: </b>[screams] <br><br>
<b>PROTESTER: </b>Let us in! <br><br>
<b>POLICE OFFICER: </b>Get back! <br><br>
<b>PROTESTER: </b>Let us in!<br><br>
</ul><b>JUAN GONZALEZ: </b>Police say at least fifteen people were
arrested on Thursday. New Orleans Police Superintendent Warren Riley said
the force was needed after protesters tried to tear down the gate to City
Hall. <br><br>
During the hearing, members of the City Council defended their decision
to approve the demolition of public housing. Councilmember Shelley Midura
described some of the protesters as “demagogues and terrorists.” Midura
said, “The choice is to either support redevelopment by approving
demolition or to reject redevelopment by denying these permits. I am
choosing to support what I believe is the reasonable middle ground, a
plan to replace and reform public housing.” <br><br>
<b>AMY GOODMAN: </b>We’re joined by three guests right now in New
Orleans. Kali Akuno is the executive director of People’s Hurricane
Relief. We are also joined by Sess4-5, a community activist. And we’re
joined on the telephone as well by Howard Robertson; he is a retired
major with the New Orleans Police. <br><br>
We turn first to Kali of Hurricane Relief. Describe what happened
yesterday and why you were outside and inside the New Orleans City
Council. <br><br>
<b>KALI AKUNO: </b>Yeah, well, Amy, I was outside, because I was barred
entry to the inside. They made an arbitrary decision yesterday to cut off
the inside, when there were clearly seats that were still available. I
was getting minute-by-minute reports as the events were starting, as the
proceedings were starting, that there were still seats available, and
they just made an arbitrary decision to keep those of usthere were
probably about a hundred of us still outside at that particular point in
timeto close the gates and to keep us outside. And from there, events
just really escalated, as they particularlyas the folks who were on the
inside, from what I can seeand Sess can give you a more detailed
accountas the folks on the inside started advocating for us to be able
to actually enter into the building. <br><br>
So, you know, they made a situation of trying to control it and basically
stifle and cut off any vocal dissent or opposition to their decision. We
knew when we walked in, based on their comments the past several days and
based on how they had been treating this issue the past two years, that
we were going to lose the vote on the basis primarily of Clarkson’s new
addition to the City Council and that at the very least it was going to
be a four-to-three vote along racial lines. So we knew what we were
walking into. And we just clearly wanted to make sure that our point was
heard, that we disagree with the plan towards demolition and that we were
going to stand fast and fight this through the courts and through other
means as we moved forward. So they made a decision to basically shut
everything down and shut everybody else down. <br><br>
<b>AMY GOODMAN: </b>And, Sess, what was happening inside? Obviously, it
was a seven-zero vote, but could you talk a little bit about what was
happening inside? <br><br>
<b>SESS4-5: </b>Well, I’ll definitely start with just the process of
entering the City Council chambers. They changed the whole process for
this particular vote. And, you know, upon entering the building, you
know, they just made it hard for all the Africans who was coming in the
gate, who was clearly identified as, you know, not supportive of
demolition. And so, they took other measures of, you know, just searching
people and putting you through metal detectors and just winding different
people. And so, we just had problems just entering the building. You
know, they closed the buildingthey locked the gates at 10:30, so that
the proceedings started at 10:00. <br><br>
<b>AMY GOODMAN: </b>Sess4-5, were you tasered inside? <br><br>
<b>SESS4-5: </b>Yes, I was tasered. But just get inside the building
before the proceedings started, you know, we just noticed they had a lot
of seats available, and the number of Africans in there just were very
few. And they just closed it off right after we entered the building. So
we was asking, before they started the proceedings, to let more people
in, because they had a number of seats that was identified inside of the
council chambers, and clearly there are moreif you can see from the
video, you know, it wasthey had run all inside, all on the walls.
<br><br>
And so, when Reverend Sanders, you know, made a plea, after Arnie Fielkow
tried to start the proceedings, he made a plea to let the people in. And
that’s when everything really started, by Arnie Fielkow trying to start
the meeting without properly letting all the people supporting us, you
know, opposing, inside of the chambers. <br><br>
<b>JUAN GONZALEZ: </b>Howard Robertson, you’re a retired major with the
New Orleans Police Department. From what you’ve heard and seen of what
happened yesterday, is this unprecedented in a City Council meeting in
New Orleans? <br><br>
<b>HOWARD ROBERTSON: </b>No, it’s not. Of course, things certainly got
out of hand yesterday, but this is not the first time they’ve had trouble
over this issue in the City Council chambers. And usually when things
getstarting to get riled and unorderly, and they can’t hold a meeting in
the normal wayif you’re familiar with the City Council meeting, people
take a number, they sign a page that they want to speak in protest, and
they’re allowed to get up, and there’s a time limit for each person to
speak. But if people are disruptive and don’t allow the normal process to
go, they ask those people to leave. Everyone’s allowed to speak that
wants to. <br><br>
In this particular meeting, they set a cut-off, that they were going to
cut off at so many people into the buildingI can’t tell you what that
number wasand when they did, no one else was allowed. Now, that had
nothing to do with racial lines. If you look at the video, the girl you
were talking about that passed out and needed medical attention was a
Caucasian female. So, I mean, there were a lot of people there
protesting, which they certainly have a right to do. <br><br>
I mean, I can’t speak for the council, but I think the council did listen
to what they had to say, they studied the process, and when it came time
to make a vote, I don’t think anyone voted along racial lines, because I
don’t think it’s a racial issue. They voted 7-0. I mean, it waseverybody
thought it was the best thing to do for the city, for the people, and to
get the city of New Orleans back on track. <br><br>
<b>AMY GOODMAN: </b>Kali Akuno, it was seven-to-zero. It was a unanimous
vote. Can you talk about why you were there, why you want to stop the
demolition of these 4,500 housing units, the four housing projects of New
Orleans? <br><br>
<b>KALI AKUNO: </b>If I can, I’d like to correct one point that Mr.
Howard just made. The woman who was tasered and who went into a seizure
never made it inside. She was outside. And she was tasered in the back,
unaware. She was one of the hundreds of people who were trying to get
inside at that particular point and was omitted from coming. It had
nothing to do with seats being available or anything of that nature. They
made that decision to cut that off. <br><br>
Now, in terms of myself being there, my interest is basically trying
toyou know, for lack of a better term, Amystop this neoliberal
destruction that we see taking place in New Orleans and the complete
privatization of all of the different services within the city, housing
being, I think, the most critical of them, public housing being kind of
the cornerstone of that. But there’s an affordable housing crisis in New
Orleans, of which the public housing is just one particular element of
it. It’s the most critical element, because public housing will stabilize
rents in New Orleans. And folks should know their rents have gone up
three times since the storm, and it’s basically pricing, you know,
working people and African people, on the whole, out of the city. But
this is just one particular piece of this whole program. <br><br>
Public hospitals are also being shut down and set to be demolished and
destroyed in New Orleans. And they’ve systematically dismantled the
public education system and beginning demolition on many of the schools
in New Orleansthat’s on the agenda right nowand trying to
totallyexcuse me, totally turn that system over to a charter and a
voucher system, to privatize and just kind of really go forward with a
major experiment, which was initially laid out by the Heritage Foundation
and other neoconservative think tanks shortly after the storm. So this is
just really the fulfillment of this program. <br><br>
And I thinkyou know, I always want to call people’s attention back to
the statements that Baker made shortly after the storm, that we finally
cleaned up public housing; you know, we couldn’t do it, but God did. This
is just really the fulfillment of that program. <br><br>
<b>AMY GOODMAN: </b>He was a state legislator, a Louisiana state
legislator who said that. <br><br>
<b>KALI AKUNO: </b>He was a stateyeah. <br><br>
<b>AMY GOODMAN: </b>Let me ask Howard Robertson: why do you think this is
a good thing, the destruction of the 4,500 units of public housing?
<br><br>
<b>HOWARD ROBERTSON: </b>Yeah, let me explain this, because I think this
is really important. Prior to the storm, I think everyone in HUD was
attempting to close down the public housing and build new housing prior
to the storm. It had nothing to do with the storm. <br><br>
And I think everyone will agree thatwe had the St. Thomas housing
project, that wasthere was probably a murder there at least once a week.
There was somebody shot there almost every day. Drug dealing was rampant.
Half of the buildings were boarded up. And a lot of it has nothing to do
with the residents that live there. You know, the drug dealers come in,
use the projects for a breeding area. Now, when they tore down the St.
Thomas housing project, they builtand I say “they,” I mean the
government builtnew townhouses that blend in very well with the
neighborhood. The same residents moved back in. It was much, you know,
nicer housing. It’s all clean, it’s all fresh, it’s all new, where the
old public housing was boarded up, graffiti everywhere. It wasI just
think it’s a higher quality of living for everyone. And they’ve done this
with two of the projects already and have made tremendous success.
<br><br>
I know it’s going to take years to get this done, and everyone is worried
about stabilizing rents, because rents have skyrocketed since the storm.
It’s hard for anybody to find a place to rent now, without paying at
least double what they did prior to the storm. <br><br>
<b>JUAN GONZALEZ: </b>But I’d like to ask Kali Akuno: but isn’t the
number of low- income units that will result from this far lower than
what existed under currently with these public housing units? <br><br>
<b>KALI AKUNO: </b>Yes, it’s far lower. And to go back to the St. Thomas
example, it was falsely stated that the same residents moved back in.
Some of the residents moved back in, but the vast majority of them were
displaced and put on Section 8 and scattered throughout the city. That’s
the same process by which they’re proposing now with all the
developments, but particularly with the Lafitte and the St. Bernard, this
whole notion of a mixed-income, you know, neighborhood, which is
basically just going to scatter working-class people all throughout the
city on primarily probably Section 8 vouchers, even if those are allowed
to continue in a number of different ways. <br><br>
And people are having a hard time in New Orleans right now, who are on
those, finding places to rent, because they’re basically being
discriminated. Folks don’t want people who have been stigmatized as being
from public housing there. And the same thing which is going on with the
vouchers right now. So people have vouchers, but because of that, they’re
not beingyou know, they’re not finding places to be able to use them or
to exercise them, and not finding, you know, rental units. <br><br>
So this whole mixed-income notion, you know, it’s really more of a notion
which is protecting other interests, other than African and working-class
interests in the city. So it may work fine for some folks to deal with
certain aspects that they find undesirable in the community, but it’s not
going to really work for the residents who are being displaced and then,
you know, really have very few options as to where they can go,
particularly right now with the housing shortage and the housing crisis
in New Orleans. <br><br>
<b>AMY GOODMAN: </b>It’s interesting that for the first time in the last
election, the New Orleans City Council was votedis now a majority-white
City Council. But I wanted to end with Sess4-5. You grew up in public
housing in New Orleans. What are your plans now? It was a unanimous vote.
They say that the public housing units, as they stand now, will be
destroyed in New Orleans. What are you planning to do as a community
activist? <br><br>
<b>SESS4-5: </b>Myself, I’m going to continue to fight. We don’t honor or
validate the decision made by the City Council. We think it was illegal,
and we’re going to go to, you know, court and file a lawsuit against
those guys and just keep continuing to fight. And they had a number of
people asking for, you know, a sixty-day moratorium. You know, Nancy
Pelosi, a lot of people sent, you know, letters to the President. You
know, Obama and Edwards even stood out, you know, on this issue. And just
the whole proceedings was illegal by locking, you know, the people out
oflocking people out from having access to even enter the building and
speak their piece. So a lot of those things that transpired
todayyesterday were illegal. And so, we don’t honor that vote or that
decision. We don’t validate that in any shape or form. And so, we’re just
going to continue on in using our resistance measures and galvanizing the
people and mobilizing the people. And just like we got a lot of national
attention on it, we’re going to keep pressing this issue. And it’s not
over. That’s my biggest pledge, is to let the people know it’s not over.
<br><br>
<b>AMY GOODMAN: </b>Sess4-5, I want to thank you for being with us, a
community activist; Kali Akuno, the head of the People’s Hurricane Fund;
also, Howard Robertson, former SWAT commander in New Orleans. Also,
special thank you to Jacquie Soohen, Mavis Yorks, Broderick Webb and
Luisa Danta and Michael Boedigheimer of JoLu Productions for providing us
with video footage from New Orleans, Jacquie Soohen of Big Noise Films,
and to WLAE, the Public Broadcasting in New Orleans for hosting our
guests today.<br><br>
<br><br>
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