Police crack down on funeral processions in New Orleans

[kskiska]

Band on the run in New Orleans

Police have cracked down on funeral processions, a time-honored cultural tradition in the historic black neighborhood of Treme. But musicians vow to play on.

By Larry Blumenfeld

Oct. 29, 2007 | NEW ORLEANS -- On the evening of Oct. 1, some two dozen of New Orleans' top brass-band players and roughly a hundred followers began a series of nightly processions for Kerwin James, a tuba player with the New Birth Brass Band who had passed away on Sept. 26. They were "bringing him down," as it's called, until his Saturday burial. But the bittersweet tradition that Monday night ended more bitterly than anything else -- with snare drummer Derrick Tabb and his brother, trombonist Glen David Andrews, led away in handcuffs after some 20 police cars had arrived near the corner of North Robertson and St. Philip streets in New Orleans' historic Tremé neighborhood. In the end, it looked more like the scene of a murder than misdemeanors.

"The police told us, 'If we hear one more note, we'll arrest the whole band,'" said Tabb a few days later, at a fundraiser to help defray the costs of James' burial. "Well, we did stop playing," said Andrews. "We were singing, lifting our voices to God. You gonna tell me that's wrong too?" Drummer Ellis Joseph of the Free Agents Brass band, who was also in the procession, said, "They came in a swarm, like we had AK-47s. But we only had instruments."

The musicians were no longer playing but instead singing "I'll Fly Away" when the cops converged and the cuffs came out. A New Orleans police spokesman claimed the department was simply acting on a neighborhood resident's phoned-in complaint. And the department maintains that such processions require permits.

But when they busted up the memorial procession for a beloved tuba player, arresting the two musicians for parading without a permit and disturbing the peace, they didn't just cut short a familiar hymn -- they stomped on something sacred and turned up the volume in the fight over the city's culture, which continues amid the long struggle to rebuild New Orleans.

more…
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/10/29/treme/

[Luminous Animal]

1. Wow.

Restricting our right to travel, bugging our communications, infringing on our right to assemble, and restricting on our freedom to mourn.

Drip, drip, drip.

[roguevalley]

18. this is one of the greatest things about NO, this practice. How in the name

of hell can it be treated like this? People deserve the funeral they want and this send off is pure Americana, plain and simple.

[AnneD]

26. My God.....

they have gutted the soul out of NOLA....Finally, mission accomplished :cry:

[tom_paine]

53. Yes, we are deep in middle phase of transition to tyranny

We are now witnessing scenes that are cartoonishly evil, out of a Dickens novel or worse.

We are now witnessing scenes like those we witnessed in history, even our own, of what bad people do when they get in charge.

1937 Germany. We are living in 1937 Germany, but a kinder and gentler version as befits the Totalitarianism of the Internet Age, when reality is reshaped and rewritten so easily and America leads the world in the construction of this evil edifice.

I cannot believe our nation has been turned 180 degrees like this and in so short a time.

Cartoon villains is what an increasing number of us are becoming. Enablers and perfoprmers of daily and mundane evils, maybe nowhere near as bad (yet) as Hitler's Minions but undoubtedly related on the psychological and sociological planes.

[crickets]

2. 20 police cars

to deal with a 'noise' complaint? Talk about overkill.

"If somebody is blowing a horn in Tremé and somebody else is calling the police," wrote columnist Jarvis DeBerry, "only one of those people is disturbing the peace, and it isn't the one playing the music."

If people are moving in who don't want to hear the second-lines, maybe they've moved to the wrong place. It's a shame to see long time residents and traditions getting pushed aside. I hope the ACLU gives the city government hell.

[awoke_in_2003]

29. "maybe they've moved to the wrong place"

we have similar problems here in Texas. We have had a great influx from the north, and these people are trying hard (and succeeding) in taking away Texas and replacing it with generic northern suburbia. Long standing Texas eateries replaced by generic Chilis and Olive Garden. Use to be if you were driving down the road, and someone faster came up behind you, you let them pass (on a multi-line freeway, get in slower lane; on single lane highway, pull on the shoulder). A couple years ago DFW airport wanted to put in a new runway, and the residents of Grapevine tried to protest due to the airplane noise they would have to live with. Well, duh, Grapevine shares a border with DFW Airport, what do you expect? Sorry for the rant (and it is not aimed at you, but the asshole who called the cops about noise), but if you move somewhere, expect to tolerate the traditions.

[dickbearton]

33. Awoke, are you that stupid? Texas eateries replaced by...

corporate eateries. Try traveling, and you will find this is
happening all over the country. You stupid Texans keep voting
for the Criminal Bush and the Corrupt GOP and their
corporations. What do you expect, you are your own worst
enemy. Smarten up!

[awoke_in_2003]

39. Actually, this stupid Texan has never voted for any Bush

or any of his kind. In fact, the state of Texas had a long tradition of voting for democrats. Every "Texan" I know that voted for Bush are transplants from elsewhere that came here due to the decent job market. Remember, this is the state that gave us LBJ, and while he had faults, he is the one who drove the Voting Rights act and the Civil Rights Act.

[crickets]

47. Yeah, sometimes people pick a spot they think would be a wonderful place to live,

but as soon as they get there they want to change it "just a little." And that adds up.

[orleans]

45. my first thoght is: do i really believe someone complained about the "noise" n/t

[crickets]

46. Sadly, I kinda wondered about that too -nt

[nosmokes]

3. What a load. The cops don't come out en mass for a permit violation. This

goes way deeper than some noise complaint.As if poor and black NOLA residents don't have enough to deal with already. Let's take their asses to jail when they try and bury their dead.

[dickbearton]

34. Exactly.

[Elidor]

36. Yes, that stuck out to me, too

NOLA cops are just rotten to the core.

[grasswire]

4. chaos= opportunity for profit

It's unclear who called the police that night. But it's easy to sense the difference, longtime residents say, between North Robertson Street before and after the storm. With its proximity to the French Quarter and historic architecture, Tremé, which was not flooded, is newly attractive to home buyers within the city's shrunken post-Hurricane Katrina housing stock. Meanwhile, as in most of New Orleans, rents have sharply increased. Derrick Jettridge, who was born and raised in the Tremé, now lives in the Mid City section. "I'd never find something in Tremé for the $500 I was paying before," he says. On her New Orleans Renovation blog, Laureen Lentz wrote recently, "Since Katrina, the Historic Faubourg Tremé Association has gathered a lot of steam. Our neighborhood is changing as people have begun to realize that this area is prime, non-flooded real estate ... So much is happening in Tremé, it's hard to convince people that aren't here. You have to see it to believe it."

Home prices in Tremé rose nearly 20 percent immediately following the flood, settling at approximately 12 percent above pre-Katrina rates, according to Al Palumbo, branch manager for the historic districts office of Latter & Blum Realty. "Tremé, especially the area around North Robertson and St. Peter, would certainly be among my first choices for return on investment in New Orleans," he says.

[Uncle Joe]

19. Thanks for your post grasswire and thanks to kskiska for the thread.

Kicked and recommended.

[kskiska]

52. I knew this would strike a nerve. I lived in NOLA

and attended these funerals, and occasionally drove a Preservation Hall musician to his gigs. This is so incredible. NOLA will never be the same. They'll probably end up with a Disneyfied fake cemetery adjacent to the Quarter with fake musicians acting out funerals for the tourists.

[Froward69]

5. I visited once before Katrina

This is a Travisty.

[Greyskye]

14. not only that

but it's a travesty as well!




:hide:


:kick: & R

[kimmylavin]

6. Christ.

Could it be ANY MORE OBVIOUS that they're trying to whitewash this city?

[ixion]

11. Nope, it couldn't be more obvious...

just like it's obvious that they let the levee breach in order to get the gentrification of NOLA underway. :grr:

[formercia]

22. You got it.

A gentrified city with a built-in tourist market that's close to the oil patch.

When they run all the help out of town and have to import young people from the former East Bloc to wait tables, it will be nothing but kitsch and faux atmosphere.

[Flora]

44. Have you ever heard of Lakeview?

It wasn't only the black community that lost everything in the flood.

[NOLALady]

49. Aren't there blacks in Lakeview?

I know there were some there before the storm.

[ixion]

56. gentrification is not specifically about race...

it's about money. It's about taking a so-called "blighted" area and, in essence, sterilizing it and rebuilding it the image of those pursuing the gentrification. Key West is a great example of this. Once a sleepy artist colony, it has been co-opted over the years and now more closely resemble Key West "world" in Orlando.

When gentrification occurs, it's not just a racial thing, it's a money thing that affects poor and working class families, who are forced to move elsewhere.

[Flora]

43. Whitewash?

Not sure what you mean. If you are speaking in racial terms, I hope you know that most of New Orleans city official (mayor, DA, etc) are African Americans. Have been for some time. Are you saying that the African Americans who are running New Orleans are trying to "whitewash" the city?

[NOLALady]

50. No. That is not what they are saying.

They are probably referring to those who could have helped and chose not to, TPTB.
And yes, Stevie Wonder can see that they are trying to whitewash the city. It's quite obvious.

[Flora]

55. Well, of course Stevie can see it.

He's seeing what someone else is telling him to see, same as many here.

New Orleans is a cess pool of political corruption, as is much of La. The problem is political greed rather than a racial agenda.

[kimmylavin]

61. Thanks for answering your own criticism.

Yes, I think the African American leaders in NOLA are trying to whitewash the city, as a result of the "cesspool of political corruption" they are a part of.

Of course its political greed.
But its got a racial agenda.

The fact of the matter is that most of the African Americans who have been displaced by Katrina were poor. And those folks trying to move in, those people who call to complain that the centuries old tradition of a jazz funeral is just too noisy, are much better off (financially), and mostly white.

Just because a leader is a member of one racial group doesn't mean in any way that their whole political purpose is to help that group - look at Clarence Thomas.

[ixion]

57. I think Disneyfy is a better word... even though it's not an official word

:)

Making the world safe for tourism, and unbearable for anyone else.

[Joanne98]

59. That's a great word. It perfectly describes it!

[cutlassmama]

7. It is a time-honored tradition in New Orleans to go that way.

I can't believe first of all who the ass was that called in and secondly that 20 cops would show up for such a thing.

My dad was into jazz and always wanted a funeral just like that. We didn't have anything close to that in our city, but the mayor showed up and a the largest room in the funeral home was used for him.

It has certainly turned into a "police state" when such things as funeral procession participants end up in jail.

This is a toatal disgrace.

[krkaufman]

21. Soon, the start to "Live and Let Die" will be merely historic.

Very sad. (And more than a little aggravating.)

[liberation]

35. I may change my funeral wishes just to piss off those faux New Orleanites...

I always wanted to have a Viking Funeral... but now I am thinking to change it to a Jazz funeral, just so I get to piss off some fucking suburbanite asshole.


There are few ways of celebrating the beauty of someone's life that are as beautiful and meaningful than a Jazz funeral. And these suburbanite assholes voided of any sort of soul want to take that too away from these poor people?

If you want suburbia stay back in your gated hell holes, leave the rest of us who are not afraid of our fellow human beings and social interaction enjoy our last bastions of humanity before you guys turn it into another parking lot of another mega mall...

[dickbearton]

37. Exactly, Police State.

[Usrename]

8. WTF?

Jesus wept.

[OneBlueSky]

9. fascism knows no limits . . . it's all about exercising control, whenever and wherever . . . n/t

.

[0007]

10. Hucksters & Capitalism and CHARLATANS rule the times After all New Orleans is up for sale

to the higher bidder.

[Canuckistanian]

12. A SINGLE PHONE CALL brought out the SWAT Team?

Something else is going on here. I doubt they'd use that show of force for a robbery.

I think the mayor and police chief owe some explanations.

[eppur_se_muova]

13. Police crack down on ... WHUH ??

WTF is wrong with these people? Next they'll outlaw sidewalk vendors in NYC.

[Exultant Democracy]

15. That will teach black people not to congregate in public. Don't they know they only get 3/5th

of the first amendment (and the rest of the bill of right for that matter.)

[Kurovski]

16. Sad news on the further "homogenization" of NO.

Assholes. K&R

[ClayZ]

17. .

:argh:

[knitter4democracy]

20. Oh. My. God. Let's just trample a downtrodden people even further.

I can't believe the police did that!! Arrested for playing music?! Really?! Really. Wow. There are no words for how sadistic and criminal that is.

[Twist_U_Up]

23. Coming to a city near you.

Its what they do.
Its what Fascists do.
Hitler would be proud.

[MasonJar]

24. This practice is more than 150 years old. Why?

[FloridaJudy]

25. Oh Jeez.

Crack down on a uniquely moving American tradition? What's next: is apple pie high too high in carbs and saturated fat? I suspect oyster po' boys and etouffe are as well.

The first word that hit my mind was "whitewash". Never mind that people of color made NO the vibrant jewel it used to be. Now they're all too visible and inconvenient. If we can't hide them in toxic trailers, maybe we can force them to STFU.

*sigh*

And I always wanted a Jazz Funeral myself.

[McCamy Taylor]

27. OMG. Never thought I would live to see the day

:cry:

[Montauk6]

28. So, if it were the Fred Phelps Gang, it would be a free-speech issue, huh?

Nice country.

[pattmarty]

30. Get rid of the "white" funerals.

[rabies1]

31. What the hell is going on down there?!

This is beyond insane.
The leaders of this country are only here to make money and war - that's all.
Not one damn thing else.

[Joanne98]

60. The Shock Doctrine!

[TomInTib]

32. I really wish that I had not read this.

I don't know if I want to cry, start screaming, or begin throwing things around.

NOLA, meet Disney/CasinoLand.

Total bullshit.

[Coexist]

38. that was my thought - they're steralizing the city

Mardi Gras parades will soon be family fun events.

[iamahaingttta]

40. Bush is Stalin...

And New Orleans is part of the purge.

[ooglymoogly]

41. Anybody who has spent any time in NO knows the police are

crooked frothing at the mouth Nazi's just waiting for a republican mayor and governor to make the real raping of the treasury and the shaking down of the poor easy. Now it can be called the big easy but for far different reasons. The complicated and wonderful NO I knew is gone to make way for shallow oil and gas and gambling carpet baggers to make a whitewashed Disneyland margaritaville out or it. They better watch out though the cajuns just might have some voodoo dolls, silver bullets and a few wooden stakes up their sleeves.

[NOLALady]

48. In New Orleans they are called Creoles.

"the cajuns just might have some voodoo dolls, silver bullets and a few wooden stakes up their sleeves."

[bluedigger]

42. What's all this baseless blather about?

It just so happens that I was out for a stroll myself this last Saturday in the French Quarter when I happened upon this happy New Orleans tradition:





Clearly there is no attempt to subvert the local ways - in fact, although I stupidly didn't think to include them in the frame, the NOPD provided an official escort to clear the street!

All is well in NOLA, same as it ever was! :sarcasm:

[grasswire]

54. that's a white couple's wedding!

With a small hired brass band for accompaniment. I find the idea highly offensive. A goddam perversion. Besides, do they know they are celebrating a funereal tradition on their wedding day? Idiots. Gah!

[bluedigger]

62. I believe the term is

"persons of non-color" and the NOPD approves! Get with the program!
:eyes:

[nealmhughes]

64. Good Lord! Did they have the groomsmen dressed up as Wild Magnolias, perhaps?

That is sick beyond belief. They let this crowd dress like that at the Monteleone in daylight?

White people dressed as a combo whore house-second line? Good grief!
It isn't Hallowe'en until today!

[bluedigger]

65. They were just walking down St. Charles

past that hotel when I crossed their path. What I found wierd was that the women all had black dresses on. Isn't that a major wedding faux pas?

[grasswire]

66. I think you should send this to Keith Olbermann...

...along with the story about Treme and the police.

If you have video, you could put it on you-tube. Those people need to be shamed.

[NoGodsNoMasters]

51. I think we can safely say....

Unlike '04, this time Louisiana's electoral votes are in the dems pocket after treatment like this.

[Joanne98]

58. The corporatists who have captured NO are never going to get any money!

Everybody hates them for what they have done and won't go there until they return the town to it's rightful owners!

[Blue_Tires]

63. strange

this makes NO sense

[Chovexani]

67. I don't even have words

NOLA don't let them take your soul... :cry: