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Articles : Civil LibertiesDispatch from New Orleans
Over the past few weeks, artist Jeffrey Holmes (40) has become something of a fixture in the Bywater area of New Orleans’ 9th Ward. Holmes has the distinction of being the first artist to mount an exhibition in post-Katrina New Orleans. When he and his wife Andrea Garland (34) returned to their house on St. Claude Avenue, the first floor had been flooded by the probably toxic water form the nearby Industrial Canal. They decided to park all its contents, some of their artwork and debris as well, on the median of St. Claude Avenue, and calling the whole thing “ Toxic Art – this exhibition can kill you!”
St. Claude Ave. is a main thoroughfare, leading from the French Quarter to the twice-flooded Lower Ninth Ward. So Holmes’ open air art show had a steady stream of visitors: cops, contractors, relief workers, journalists. “Many people would wave, and some would stop. Nobody seemed to mind,” Holmes said. “The idea was that it would remain there until the garbage collectors got back to this part of the city, and everything would be taken away,” Holmes said last week.
What he didn’t expect was that he would have to go to jail for his art. On Monday night at 4 a.m., Holmes said, National Guard soldiers pulled up at the house. “I went out to talk to them, and one of them said that some people had taken offense at some of the art work, specifically a number of spikes with black heads on them.” After Holmes spent some time arguing with the soldiers about the First Amendment, the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) was called in, and Holmes was arrested for disturbing the peace and intoxication, although he said he hadn’t been drinking.
Holmes ended up in “New Angola South,” the makeshift jail at New Orleans’ Amtrak station, where more than four hundred people have been jailed since Katrina. He was released after five or six hours, and given a January court date, which he feels sure will be thrown out of court. But he is upset at the arbitrary character of his arrest. “It is all part of the corporate takeover of New Orleans, and this should be a warning to people everywhere in America. They can just come in and take the city over. They don’t want people to come back here. They want to have their hands free to raze the Lower Ninth Ward, and bring in the condos.”
During an earlier visit to “New Angola South,” where Holmes was jailed, more than a dozen people were sitting inside the Guantanamo-like fences that have been erected on one of the station’s platforms to make a makeshift jail. The facility gets its name from the Angola State Penitentiary, a former slave plantation northwest of Baton Rouge that houses some 5,000 inmates. After Katrina, it was Angola’s chief warden, Burl Cain, who got the job of evacuating some 6,000 inmates from the flooded prisons of New Orleans.
“Actually, we’re not supposed to call it ‘New Angola South’ anymore,” said Maj. Troy Poret, a warden from Angola State Penitentiary. “There have been some complaints. Officially, we are now Camp Amtrak.” Poret was part of the initial operation, which involved guarding the inmates on an Interstate overpass during the first days after Katrina hit. Now he is in charge of jailing people who are arrested by any of the dozens of law enforcement agencies, including the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team and the DEA, that have been roaming the streets of New Orleans for the past three weeks.
Among the arrestees were seven black teenagers from New Orleans East, who had been arrested the day before on looting charges. The all claimed to be innocent. “We had come back to get clothes from our houses and some of our friend’s houses,” said Allen ‘Taylor’ Tezon, 20. “We were changing a flat tire at a gas station when the NOPD showed up.” The gas station had previously been looted, and Taylor’s girlfriend, who was sharing the women’s pen with a friend, admitted that they had at one point gone inside to look for a soft drink. For the NOPD, it was enough reason to book all seven of them for looting, a felony charge.
“Yeah, I have 5,001 prisoners in Angola who all claim to be innocent,” Maj. Projet said dismissively, before spitting out his tobacco on the tracks. But he seemed sympathetic to the teenagers’ plight, and appeared to be making a call on their behalf.
The law enforcement community appears to be bracing itself for the return of the city’s citizens in the coming days and weeks. “Business is going to pick up pretty soon,” said one guard at the jail. And on Bourbon Street, where more and more bars have been opening up over the past few days, catering mostly to police and contractors, James McGee, a police psychologist and FBI negotiator from Maryland, warned us to be very careful. “This has always been a very dangerous city. And the cockroaches, they have never really left. They are about to come out again.”
GNN special correspondent Gert Van Langendonck is a freelance journalist based in New York City. The former foreign editor at the Brussels daily De Morgen, he covered wars in the former Yugoslavia, Congo, Rwanda, Burundi and Somalia. Most recently, he spent more than a year covering the insurgency in Iraq. His special report on PTSD and the murder of a U.S. soldier, War the Comes Home, ran on GNN in June.
Posted by anthony
Anthony Lappé is GNN's Executive Editor. He's written for The New York Times, Details, New York, Paper, The Fader and Vice, among many others. He has worked as a producer for MTV and Fuse. He is the co-author of GNN's True Lies and the producer of their Iraq doc,...
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Jesus, that is as funny as it is frightening.
““Yeah, I have 5,001 prisoners in Angola who all claim to be innocent,””
That attitude really bugs me. It’s just not professional.
seeing again there is no fundation on the rights of a human ..
“This has always been a very dangerous city. And the cockroaches, they have never really left. They are about to come out again.”
The thing I hate about black people is that when you call them cockroaches you feel racist. That’s not fair.
Corpy, you are such an idiot….and a whitebread privileged idiot at that….you attempt to veil it as insightful…but it isn’t…
So..you went to SoMerica and met Augustina…and she is the only constant presence on the so called chat deoxy…
whatup, bro?
Bambi
btw, ant…great article.
Bambi
(“...some people had taken offense at some of the art work, specifically a number of spikes with black heads on them.”)
With the kind of tension that’s present down there you’re putting black heads on spikes? As if everyone is supposed to just know and understand that you’re an artist expressing yourself?
(“Many people would wave, and some would stop. Nobody seemed to mind,”)
Until that ONE guy who doesn’t get it goes by, flips out, comes back and levels off on you with a shotgun…which the mess, of course, is going to have to be dealt with by the NG because that’s their sector and that will mean months and months of headaches for a bunch of people who are already overworked.
Freedom of Expression is essential, but you have to remember what planet you live on sometimes.
It’s just going to be one jacked up thing like this after another down there for months, that’s the nature of disruptive events.
Please CorporationsRule, don’t be hateful. Remember how we’re sort of trying to fight AGAINST that? Remember dude?
I wish we could kick racists out of GNN forums. Too bad about this unearned freedom of expression bullshit that lets everyone think their own ignorant uninformed opinion is just as valid as people who devote their lives towards understanding an idea. And mostly, hate is accepted simply because, “folks can say whatever they want. It’s maah raahts! Der!” Man fuck that. What we need is some accountablity in society, so that people understand that there are some things we will not suffer and those things include bigotry and hatred against any human, period. There’s just no excuse. Grow up.
Joe – and it shows you he does not believe in the idea of ‘Innocent until proven guilty in a court of law,’ because by then it would mean some people definately were innocent, the artist Jeffrey Holmes of this article as one.
I wish we could kick racists out of GNN forums.
Then you’d have to kick everyone out.
And mostly, hate is accepted simply because, “folks can say whatever they want. It’s maah raahts! Der!” Man fuck that.
Just because someone says something that you disagree with, or that offends you, you think that people don’t/shouldn’t have the right to say what they want? Man fuck that.
so that people understand that there are some things we will not suffer and those things include bigotry and hatred against any human, period.
There is a big difference between saying something that is racist or percieved to be racist, and actually treating someone badly, or as an inferior because of their race.
I figure actions speak louder than words, so it’s better to look at how someone treats people, not what they say about people before crying “racist” because something that was said offended me.
Also, Jewgroes.
you think that people don’t/shouldn’t have the right to say what they want?
Yes, that is exactly the point I’m making. Just because you’ve been taught that everyone saying what they want is good and american and people not being allowed to is, you know, commie or something, don’t make it so. What I mean is that obviously, no government should tell us what we can or cannot say. But that doesn’t mean the society you live in doesn’t have the right to tell you not to say it. It’s not that I’m “offended,” it’s that this is a point on which society as a whole has spoken: we don’t like racists, and we don’t want you around if you are one. Go make your own society, because this one has spoken.
some random user – “I wish we could kick racists out of GNN forums.”
EGisJews – “Then you’d have to kick everyone out.”
Some people just don’t get it EG.
Then he reiterates this nonsense in an attempt to prove a point:
“this is a point on which society as a whole has spoken: we don’t like racists, and we don’t want you around if you are one. Go make your own society, because this one has spoken.”
I wish I could make my own fucking society, then we would be rid of the terminally stupid.
And random user, stop using fucking “we” like it means anything.
I had a fun little experience last nite in a predominantly black neighborhood – I was walking to a friend’s house and these 10-12 y/o boys started yelling “white power” at me and giving the Nazi salute. Weird shit, wish I had a video of it.
*I wish we could kick racists out of GNN forums.*
Let’s Tar and Feather. Lock and Pillory. Burn the fuckers at the stake.
What I want to see is who the ‘holier than thou’ motherfuckers are who hoist themselves into the lofty position so they may freely place the scartlet letter R onto the foreheads of those they deem fitting.
Arrogant fucking hypocrites. Oops, left out dum sunz o’ bichez
Wow I had no idea so many ignorant motherfuckers visited this site. I thought it was sort of progressive. Now sufficiently horrified, I’ll just confine myself to reading the articles rather than try to communicate with any of the users.
Good, fucking Free Speech Nazi.
“Wow I had no idea so many ignorant motherfuckers visited this site”
Your perspective on this issue is ignorant. You are a racist too.
“I thought it was sort of progressive.”
what the fuck does that mean?
“Now sufficiently horrified”
pussy
“I’ll just confine myself to reading the articles rather than try to communicate with any of the users.”
good
Try looking up the definition of racist. It doesn’t have anything to do with being an ignorant motherfucker. Ignorance, ofter confused with stupidity, is actually just lack of knowledge. Stupidity could be hereditary, in which case it’s not their fault. I’m not sure which one you are, but if you’re just stupid and hateful, maybe your parents passed that along. If you developed your racism on your own, then I would say noce job, buddy. We need more hatred on the world. Hopefully one day we will all understand how to hold negative opinions of a person based on their skin color. Until then, please have patience with us.
WoW
You must be a speed reader.
Read all those blogs already?
I don’t think you’re stupid, just really, really confused (Igorant).
Igorant, eh?
“I’m not sure which one you are, but if you’re just stupid and hateful”
I am not stupid you fucktard.
“Hopefully one day we will all understand how to hold negative opinions of a person based on their skin color. “
What the fuck does that have to do with your desire to ban people? – which is really what this argument is all about.
noce, eh?
Yes, that is exactly the point I’m making. Just because you’ve been taught that everyone saying what they want is good and american and people not being allowed to is, you know, commie or something, don’t make it so. What I mean is that obviously, no government should tell us what we can or cannot say. But that doesn’t mean the society you live in doesn’t have the right to tell you not to say it.
Actually, the society one lives in doesn’t have the right to tell people what they can or can not say. Freedom of speech is a right every person has, no government gives people that right. People have that right even if there is no government (if they choose to exercise that right is a different matter) and the society that one lives in has no right or reason to tell people what they can or can not say.
Supporting intolerance and claiming that “society” has a “right” to tell people what they can not say (and impose a punishment?) because people say stupid shit, or shit that offends is the start down a very slippery slope.
Tolerating that people say shit you might not like, and keeping it so everyone can say whatever the fuck pops into their head, or trying to silence people who say things society doesn’t agree with/like and the problems, ingnorance, and intolerance that go with that, I’ll take the first option.
Remember it was “society” that forced Socrates to drink hemlock, and that persecuted Galileo because they said things that society didn’t want to hear, and/or didn’t like.
The problem is that it’s become “my opinion is equally valid as yours, my truth is just as true as yours,” well truth doesn’t mean anything if everyone gets to have their own. I guess I’m just saying that I don’t think everything is subjective. Some ideas are better than others. Some ways of living actually work better than other ways. It’s not a matter of someone offending me because it’s my view that so-and-so, and yours conflicts with mine, it’s about there being right and wrong no matter what Jerry Springer tells us about everyone having the right to think what they want. Why do you think this country is so fucked up? A big reason is that we’re no longer weighing ideas against one another publicly; now each opinion is equally valid. So, if I’m an asshole to people and spew negativity and hate around, I’m just “expressing myself.” Now you’ve got everyone going around saying they’ve got their own religious beliefs, but they don’t seem to understand that one of the main goals of religion is to reinforce community. Americans say they’ve got freedom of religion but what they really have is a bunch of assholes who are too stubborn to agree about anything besides how much America kicks ass. Entitlement reigns. “I’m entitled to my opinion.” “Oh, really, well your opinion doesn’t have anything to do with reality.” It’s like no one wants to say, “well, let’s see which one is closer to what we can observe.” The “none of your business” principle has broken down our sense of accountabliity towards each other, which was inplace to make us better human beings. Now we have lost our feeling of community, and have traded it for competition. I don’t want totalitarianism, I don’t want oppression, I want a group of people who can make each other better by constantly challenging each other to be better.
“one of the main goals of religion is to reinforce community.”
you are joking right?
Igorant, eh?
Duuuuuude. If you think pointing out a typo supports your confused position, Igorant is a fucking compliment.
Send me your address, I’ll send you a really tall ladder so you can reach the pie-in-the-sky.
Why does every discussion on “race” have to turn into stupid-putty?