(no subject)
my brain cannot focus. silly brain. think. think.
For those interested in disgusting local racism, here's a quick summary of the issue. Please read before you try to engage me in some kind of half/informed 'things aren't so bad for people here and now' conversation...
McKinney Statement on the Blocking of the Gretna
Bridge
B10323 / Wed, 2 Nov 2005 14:00:18 /
Human Rights
Statement of Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney
On The Upcoming March to Gretna
Capitol Hill Press Conference with the Hip Hop Caucus
Wednesday, November 2, 2005
The Greatest Civil Rights Tragedy Ushering in the 21st
Century:
American racism exposed on a Louisiana bridge
First of all I'd like to acknowledge the life and
death of Rosa
Parks, a pioneer with courage, who will be laid to
rest today.
CNN.com reports that as the heart of a
hurricane-ravaged New Orleans
filled with sewage-tainted floodwaters and corpses,
Mayor Ray Nagin
urged people to cross a bridge leading to the dry
lands of the city's
suburban west bank.
And there begins the story of what might become the
worst American
civil rights episode ushering in the 21st Century.
The lead actors in this two-bit replay of the Bloody
Sunday attempted
crossing of the Edmund Pettus Bridge 40 years ago by
blacks demanding the right to vote, are a police chief
and a sheriff who are now as famous as Bull Connor.
But sadly, share some of his attributes, too.
It is reported that during the 1980s, Jefferson Parish
Sheriff Harry
Lee ordered special scrutiny for any black people
traveling in white
sections of the parish. He is quoted by the New
Orleans Gambit as
having said, "It's obvious that two young blacks
driving a rinky-dink
car in a predominantly white neighborhood . . .
They'll be stopped."
In 1994, the Gambit reports Sheriff Lee withdrew his
officers from a
predominantly black neighborhood after protests
erupted when two
black men died while in his care. He is reported to
have said, "To
hell with them, I haven't heard one word of support
from one black
person."
In April of this year, blacks complained that
Jefferson Parish
officers were using a caricature of a black man for
target practice.
Sheriff Lee laughed when presented the charges and is
reported to
have commented, "I've looked at it, I don't find it
offensive, and I
have no interest in correcting it."
In May of this year, a 16-year old joy rider in a
stolen car was
murdered when 110 shots were fired into the stolen
truck, striking
the 16-year old and injuring two other teenaged
passengers. In
response to criticism from black ministers over the
incident, Sheriff
Lee is reported to have responded, "They can kiss my
ass."
City of Gretna police chief Arthur Lawson is equally
impressive. His
justification for trapping Katrina survivors in New
Orleans is, he is
reported to have said, "If we had opened the bridge,
our city would
have looked like New Orleans does now: looted, burned
and pillaged."
Eyewitnesses report that before they were close enough
to speak,
officers began firing their weapons over the heads of
the New Orleans
survivors. Other officers are reported to have said
that they wanted
"no Superdomes in their city."
The world got a chance to see what too many of us here
in this
country already know: that racism is alive and well in
America.
Could it be that the police chief and the sheriff are
guilty of a
hate crime? How can federally funded roads be blocked
by local
officials at a time of emergency? Where was the
Federal Government
that should have been ensuring the lives of all
Katrina survivors?
Didn't the New Orleans survivors have the right to
life? And civil
rights?
And where's the outrage?
I've personally learned that many people black and
white are outraged
about what happened. But you wouldn't know that by the
response up
here on Capitol Hill, where one of my colleagues is
reported to have
said to a group of lobbyists: We finally cleaned up
public housing
in New Orleans. We couldn't do it, but God did."
No one has asked for his resignation, no one has even
suggested that
he could have chosen less offensive language-no one
has suggested
that they were offended at all by what he said. And so
we are left
with what too many New Orleans residents quietly
suffered for years:
the soft underbelly of American racism.
The Justice Department should investigate this very
sad incident.
Today I will introduce legislation to strip all
federal funds from
the Gretna City Police Department, the Jefferson
Parish Police, and
the Crescent City Connection security force, all
reportedly involved
in the tragic blocking of the Gretna City bridge.
This is not 1965. Sadly, Gretna City Police Chief
Lawson and
Jefferson Parish Sheriff Lee sunk to the low ground by
denying high
ground to people fleeing Katrina's floodwaters. And
thanks to their
and their officers' actions, the Gretna City Bridge
incident will
live on in civil rights history just as does Bloody
Sunday at the
Edmund Pettus Bridge.
For those interested in disgusting local racism, here's a quick summary of the issue. Please read before you try to engage me in some kind of half/informed 'things aren't so bad for people here and now' conversation...
McKinney Statement on the Blocking of the Gretna
Bridge
B10323 / Wed, 2 Nov 2005 14:00:18 /
Human Rights
Statement of Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney
On The Upcoming March to Gretna
Capitol Hill Press Conference with the Hip Hop Caucus
Wednesday, November 2, 2005
The Greatest Civil Rights Tragedy Ushering in the 21st
Century:
American racism exposed on a Louisiana bridge
First of all I'd like to acknowledge the life and
death of Rosa
Parks, a pioneer with courage, who will be laid to
rest today.
CNN.com reports that as the heart of a
hurricane-ravaged New Orleans
filled with sewage-tainted floodwaters and corpses,
Mayor Ray Nagin
urged people to cross a bridge leading to the dry
lands of the city's
suburban west bank.
And there begins the story of what might become the
worst American
civil rights episode ushering in the 21st Century.
The lead actors in this two-bit replay of the Bloody
Sunday attempted
crossing of the Edmund Pettus Bridge 40 years ago by
blacks demanding the right to vote, are a police chief
and a sheriff who are now as famous as Bull Connor.
But sadly, share some of his attributes, too.
It is reported that during the 1980s, Jefferson Parish
Sheriff Harry
Lee ordered special scrutiny for any black people
traveling in white
sections of the parish. He is quoted by the New
Orleans Gambit as
having said, "It's obvious that two young blacks
driving a rinky-dink
car in a predominantly white neighborhood . . .
They'll be stopped."
In 1994, the Gambit reports Sheriff Lee withdrew his
officers from a
predominantly black neighborhood after protests
erupted when two
black men died while in his care. He is reported to
have said, "To
hell with them, I haven't heard one word of support
from one black
person."
In April of this year, blacks complained that
Jefferson Parish
officers were using a caricature of a black man for
target practice.
Sheriff Lee laughed when presented the charges and is
reported to
have commented, "I've looked at it, I don't find it
offensive, and I
have no interest in correcting it."
In May of this year, a 16-year old joy rider in a
stolen car was
murdered when 110 shots were fired into the stolen
truck, striking
the 16-year old and injuring two other teenaged
passengers. In
response to criticism from black ministers over the
incident, Sheriff
Lee is reported to have responded, "They can kiss my
ass."
City of Gretna police chief Arthur Lawson is equally
impressive. His
justification for trapping Katrina survivors in New
Orleans is, he is
reported to have said, "If we had opened the bridge,
our city would
have looked like New Orleans does now: looted, burned
and pillaged."
Eyewitnesses report that before they were close enough
to speak,
officers began firing their weapons over the heads of
the New Orleans
survivors. Other officers are reported to have said
that they wanted
"no Superdomes in their city."
The world got a chance to see what too many of us here
in this
country already know: that racism is alive and well in
America.
Could it be that the police chief and the sheriff are
guilty of a
hate crime? How can federally funded roads be blocked
by local
officials at a time of emergency? Where was the
Federal Government
that should have been ensuring the lives of all
Katrina survivors?
Didn't the New Orleans survivors have the right to
life? And civil
rights?
And where's the outrage?
I've personally learned that many people black and
white are outraged
about what happened. But you wouldn't know that by the
response up
here on Capitol Hill, where one of my colleagues is
reported to have
said to a group of lobbyists: We finally cleaned up
public housing
in New Orleans. We couldn't do it, but God did."
No one has asked for his resignation, no one has even
suggested that
he could have chosen less offensive language-no one
has suggested
that they were offended at all by what he said. And so
we are left
with what too many New Orleans residents quietly
suffered for years:
the soft underbelly of American racism.
The Justice Department should investigate this very
sad incident.
Today I will introduce legislation to strip all
federal funds from
the Gretna City Police Department, the Jefferson
Parish Police, and
the Crescent City Connection security force, all
reportedly involved
in the tragic blocking of the Gretna City bridge.
This is not 1965. Sadly, Gretna City Police Chief
Lawson and
Jefferson Parish Sheriff Lee sunk to the low ground by
denying high
ground to people fleeing Katrina's floodwaters. And
thanks to their
and their officers' actions, the Gretna City Bridge
incident will
live on in civil rights history just as does Bloody
Sunday at the
Edmund Pettus Bridge.