*Chemical Spray and Stun Guns* Used Against New Orleans Citizens Protesting Razing Public Housing!

[KoKo]

Battered N.O. OKs razing public housing

By CAIN BURDEAU, Associated Press Writer Thu Dec 20, 6:29 PM ET

NEW ORLEANS - Despite occasionally violent protests outside, the City Council voted Thursday in favor of demolishing some 4,500 public housing units, a milestone in the city's effort to balance its heritage and its hurricane rebuilding efforts.


The unanimous vote to permit the federal government to tear down four public housing developments — a critical moment in a protracted fight between the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and residents, activists and preservationists — followed hours of debate and periodic clashes in the street.

Police used chemical spray and stun guns as dozens of protesters tried to force their way into the packed City Council chamber. One woman was sprayed and dragged from the gates. Emergency workers took her away on a stretcher.

Another woman said she was stunned by officers, and still had what appeared to be a Taser wire hanging from her shirt.

"I was just standing, trying to get into my City Council meeting," said the dazed woman, Kim Ellis, who was taken away in an ambulance.

"Is this what democracy looks like?" Bill Quigley, a Loyola University law professor who opposes demolition, said as he held a strand of Taser wire he said had been shot into another of the protesters.

Quigley said he believed the crackdown violated public meetings laws.

Protesters said they pushed against the iron gates that kept them out of the building because the Housing Authority of New Orleans had disproportionately allowed supporters of the demolition to pack the chambers.

After roughly 30 minutes of on-again-off-again struggle to get into the meeting, protesters fell back, continuously chanting with bullhorns. An afternoon storm thinned the demonstrators, some of whom had been waiting since 7 a.m. to enter, and the crowd disappeared altogether shortly after the afternoon vote.

At the peak of the confusion, some 70 protesters were facing about a dozen mounted police and 40 more law enforcement officers on foot.

-snip-
Some public housing residents repeated during the daylong debate that they welcome the plan to replace the decades-old structures with mixed-income housing.

Other residents and their advocates said they fear the plan will result in loss of badly needing housing for the city's low-income black residents.

The vote crossed racial lines, with the three black council members joining four whites.

HUD says about 3,000 families who once lived in New Orleans public housing remain scattered across the country, and social workers say the number of homeless people in the area has doubled to about 12,000.

There is no consensus on what's best for New Orleans' poor, even among public housing residents. Redevelopment would diminish the public housing stock and drive many into less stable voucher programs. Repair of brick and barracks-style projects badly damaged by Hurricane Katrina would keep intact poor but close-knit neighborhoods.



http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071220/ap_on_re_us/katrina_public_housing

[EFerrari]

1. I'm SO PROUD of Ray Nagin. What a man, what a humanitarian.

:sarcasm:

[NOLALady]

19. Nagin asked a protestor, What should he tell his daughter

about her protesting at his home? She responded with something like, What should she tell her granddaughter about not having a home?
Nagin should be so proud. NOT

[EFerrari]

20. Somebody should kick his privileged @ss.

And, I've never lifted a hand against another human being in my life.

[Wickerman]

2. Good old fashioned democracy

at the end of a barrel. :eyes:

[Rex]

3. It's horrible how we are non-entities, what have we become?

A nation of hate and fear.

If you are poor, you are nothing to our gummit. Just someone to be shot or arrested.

[Orwellian_Ghost]

10. When

was it different?

[EFerrari]

13. No one sent Blackwater into Berkeley after the Loma Prieta earthquake.

And FEMA returned my calls.

[L0oniX]

40. Here's what we have allowed our country to become...

[EFerrari]

4. Why is this okay with anyone? Why doesn't this OP have 25 recs already?

Those people could be any one of us.

The mayor is a Democrat -- or, he claims he is.

Why is it all right to turn weapons on a township demanding to be let back into their HOMES?

HUD is full of it with their fake numbers. And the people being kept out of their own damn homes are mostly retired, widowed grandmas.

THIS STINKS TO HEAVEN.

[seemslikeadream]

8. Gentrification requires much face smashing and much bulldozing.

[EFerrari]

11. What has struck me after watching the good reporting is

how close this community was. How people don't leave to go look for better but, stay and take care of home.

This isn't like the place where I grew up and the whole town was about ten minutes old. There was a there there.

[NOLALady]

32. Yeah.

That's part of why I guess I love this place. The Closeness. When New Orleanians (Strangers) meet for the first time, about 5 miutes into a conversation it's "And who are your people?" (Or, which Parish/Ward are you from?) Within the next five minutes a connection is made. Now you are no longer a stranger, emails are exchanged and you'll be invited to the next crawfish boil.

I really love that lousy culture.

:)

[EFerrari]

33. Spike Lee's piece and then Greg Palast's piece

brought that out over and over.

It made me homesick for somewhere I've never lived. :)

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

5. K & R. I'm becoming convinced that NOLA is going to be one place where

we win back our country or lose it forever. MKJ

[EFerrari]

6. I think that's right.

When we watched as the Gulf Coast and especially, NOLA, drowned, we saw the future.

And this, this travesty, is STILL unfolding right in our faces.

The water didn't touch that public housing. WTF is the excuse to turn vulnerable people out of their homes? To render them homeless, to split up families, to TURN WEAPONS ON THEM when they try to protest this horrendous injustice?

Katrina is still happening.

[Orwellian_Ghost]

9. That's right

and what is happening in NOLA is the magnified-accelerated version of Everywhere USA.

K&R

If people aren't paying attention to this they are truly sleepwalking.

[EFerrari]

7. KIck

[Sugar Smack]

12. Those pictures on Kadie's thread were stunning.

And brutal. You see so much humanity in the faces of our precious people. I wish I had the power to protect everyone in that crowd.

[seemslikeadream]

15. Could you give me a link I miss it

:hi: Thanks

[Sugar Smack]

17. Here it is, darlin'.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=2505402&mesg_id=2505402


This thread socked me in the stomach.:hi: Give a little extra time to study the pictures. This blew my mind, these people.

[seemslikeadream]

23. sir, can you help me?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2691935

She calls out to the man on the street

sir, can you help me?

Its cold and Ive nowhere to sleep,

Is there somewhere you can tell me?

He walks on, doesnt look back
He pretends he cant hear her

Starts to whistle as he crosses the street
Seems embarrassed to be there

Oh think twice, its another day for

You and me in paradise

Oh think twice, its just another day for you,

You and me in paradise

She calls out to the man on the street

He can see shes been crying
Shes got blisters on the soles of her feet

Cant walk but shes trying

Oh think twice...

Oh lord, is there nothing more anybody can do

Oh lord, there must be something you can say

You can tell from the lines on her face

You can see that shes been there

Probably been moved on from every place

cos she didnt fit in there

Oh think twice...



Thanks again to Phil Collins for the words
My heart to the people of New Orleans

[Sugar Smack]

25. To me, this was one of the most powerful pics.

This woman was hit by cops with pepper spray. Tha two gals holding her are caring & worried, and very tender.

[EFerrari]

29. Cowardly bastards. How easy it is to beat up on women.

They should die of shame and that would be too good for them.

[K Gardner]

14. Land of the Free or Police State.. you decide...

(Sorry to post this pic again, but it's my favorite. pic. ever!)

[Breeze54]

16. I just saw this on the news and they passed it anyway! Grr!!

:banghead:

Those bastards!!

:grr:

:kick: & Recommended

[EFerrari]

22. What was passed? The city council passed the order to kill the housing?

Is that what happened?

I'm sorry, I've been watching something else. :(

[Breeze54]

24. Yes!

The city council passed it. They're going to demolish the housing.

[EFerrari]

27. Of course, after the diaspora, there is a whole NEW council now.

Motherfuckers.

[Breeze54]

28. New Orleans council OKs razing of public housing, despite protests

New Orleans council OKs razing of public housing, despite protests

The Associated Press
Published: December 21, 2007

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/12/21/america/NA-GEN-US-Katrina-Public-Housing.php

NEW ORLEANS:

Despite sometimes violent protests, the New Orleans City Council voted unanimously in favor of demolishing some 4,500 public housing units — a move that has taken on racial overtones in a city still struggling to recover from Hurricane Katrina.

The vote Thursday to permit the U.S. government to tear down four public housing developments in favor of new, mixed-income housing led critics to say the city's low-income black residents will lose badly needed housing.

Still, the vote crossed racial lines, with the three black council members joining four whites.

The vote followed hours of debate and clashes in the street outside. Police used chemical spray and stun guns as dozens of protesters tried to force their way into the packed City Council chamber. One woman was sprayed and dragged from the gates. Emergency workers took her away on a stretcher.

Another woman said she was stunned by officers, and still had what appeared to be a stun gun wire hanging from her shirt.

"I was just standing, trying to get into my City Council meeting," said the woman, Kim Ellis, who was taken away in an ambulance.

Details on arrests were not immediately available.

"Is this what democracy looks like?" Bill Quigley, a Loyola University law professor who opposes demolition, said as he held a strand of stun gun wire he said had been shot into another of the protesters. Quigley said he believed the crackdown violated public meetings laws.

Protesters said the Housing Authority of New Orleans had disproportionately allowed supporters of the demolition to pack the council chambers.

At the peak of the confusion, some 70 protesters were facing about a dozen mounted police and 40 more law enforcement officers on foot.

Opponents were not immediately available for comment on the council's vote.

Some public housing residents repeated during the daylong debate that they welcome the plan by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to replace the decades-old structures with mixed-income housing. The structures were damaged in 2005's Hurricane Katrina.

HUD says about 3,000 families who once lived in New Orleans public housing remain scattered across the United States, and social workers say the number of homeless people in the area has doubled to about 12,000.

There is no consensus on what is best for New Orleans' poor, even among public housing residents.

Mayor Ray Nagin said the resolution approved by the council includes language that will assure that public housing residents have a voice in the redevelopment plans.

Thursday's vote was required before demolition work could begin, but several legal challenges to the plan have not been resolved.

Endesha Juakali, a protest leader arrested on a charge of disturbing the peace, said Thursday's confrontation with the council was not the last breath from protesters.

"For everything they do, we have to make them pay a political consequence," Juakali said. He vowed that when the bulldozers try to demolish the St. Bernard complex "it's going to be an all out effort."

For weeks, protesters have been gearing up to battle with bulldozers and have discussed a variety of tactics, including lying in front of the machinery.

Associated Press writers John Moreno Gonzales and Mike Kunzelman contributed to this story.

[EFerrari]

31. Contact page for the ethnically cleansed New Orleans City Council:

http://www.nocitycouncil.com/contact.asp

[Breeze54]

34. Open Letter to New Orleans City Council

Open Letter to New Orleans City Council

Say NO to HUD's ill-conceived plan - Sign at Link
http://www.colorofchange.org/hudhousing/?id=1580-220969

[EFerrari]

35. Thank you, Breeze.

:hug:

[Leopolds Ghost]

39. Somer public housing residents -- AKA RINGERS -- say they welcome the plan

None of these ringers EVER end up living in the rebuilt units -- which are not open to poor people. They are promised guaranteed housing elsewhere in exchange for their support.

Residents who oppose the plans are silenced with threats and their old units ransacked.

Wake up, Urban America -- don't you know how public hearings and media reports are manipulasted by kickback paid ringers?

[Leopolds Ghost]

38. Apparently passed unanimously n/t

[EFerrari]

18. Oh, and I forgot to call out Authorized fucking PROPAGANDA

for their BULLSHIT!

The housing they want to bulldoze was not TOUCHED by the water. Greg Palast reported on this mendacity and DHS ARRESTED him for his trouble.

http://www.gregpalast.com/hurricane-georgehow-the-white-house-drowned-new-orleans/

[Orwellian_Ghost]

21. Keep kicked

[EFerrari]

26. The Battle to Save New Orleans Public Housing

The Battle to Save New Orleans Public Housing



In New Orleans, protests have been taking place for weeks to block the demolition of 4,500 units of public housing. Jacquie Soohen and Rick Rowley of Big Noise Films file a report from the streets of New Orleans.

JUAN GONZALEZ: We turn now to New Orleans, where protests have been occurring for weeks to block the demolition of 4,500 units of public housing.

Jacquie Soohen and Rick Rowley of Big Noise Films are in New Orleans and filed this report. Rick was among those arrested at a march on Saturday.

JACQUIE SOOHEN: Since Hurricane Katrina emptied New Orleans of its residents, a battle has been waged over the future of the city. The struggle over what the new New Orleans will look like and who will return to live here largely depends on the future of the city’s public housing developments. And this week is a crucial showdown in that fight.

The city began demolitions last Wednesday, which, if completed, will destroy 4,500 units of public housing, making way for mixed-income neighborhoods with only 800 units of public housing, an 82% reduction in size. 41,000 affordable rental units were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, and the city is facing an acute housing shortage. Rents have almost doubled since before the storm. But HUD, the federal housing authority, is pressing ahead with the demolition.

http://www.democracynow.org/2007/12/20/the_battle_to_save_new_orleans

[smokey nj]

30. K&R!

[Kurovski]

36. K&R. (nt)

[Leopolds Ghost]

37. Nobody cares -- even Democrats -- this is the most Dem city in the South and voted UNANIMOUSLY

Ask the 3 major Dem candidates, except for maybe Edwards, they support the decision.

Hillary's husband initiated the program to get rid of state-owned public housing nationwide and replace it with... private development.

[EFerrari]

41. Kick

[Leopolds Ghost]

42. OK!

Kick (Nagin's and corrupt urban DLC Ass) :(

[Orwellian_Ghost]

43. Kick n/t

[Orwellian_Ghost]

44. bump

n/t