Police Pepperspray NOLA Protesters Opposing Demolition of Housing Projects
If the government's non-handling of Hurricane Katrina's immediate aftermath is the most despicable event in modern American history, the storm's epilogue - the displacement, the diaspora, the high-end development - continues to bring shame. Most recently, cops tased and sprayed chemicals on protestors seeking to stop the demolition of low-income housing projects in the New Orleans area. The protestors had gathered in the chambers of the mostly-white city council, where the council was expected to vote to tear down the projects.
Demolition of projects the city calls damaged is a hot button issue, especially with a displaced, largely African American population that still hasn't been able to return home. On Wednesday, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and Senator Barack Obama beseeched George W Bush to stop the demolition; the presidential candidate wrote a letter to the President, noting, "There is no question that most displaced residents want to come back to their homes and apartments, but that is hardly possible if they return to a city with fewer affordable housing options available than it had before... No public housing should be demolished until HUD can point to an equivalent number of replacement units in the near vicinity."
Kali Akuno, an organizer with the group Coalition to Stop the Demolition, told the AP the housing projects demolition "is beyond callous, and can only be seen as malicious discrimination. It is an unabashed attempt to eliminate the black population of New Orleans." -Julianne Shepherd
Tags: Barack Obama, Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans
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