Sept. 25: Malcolm Suber and members of Stand with Dignity speak outside City Hall .
On September 25, Stand with Dignity and community organizers showed up to City Hall to demand that the City of New Orleans stop its shakedown of working-class, majority Black residents. They called for immediate relief from the fines and fees that have targeted poor, working residents while the rich get off with tax exemptions galore. Since 2002, more than 56,000 warrants have been issued for municipal and traffic offenses. These fines, fees, and warrants are traps for cash-poor residents. Community organizers demanded that the City stop sentencing its residents to debt slavery. Stand with Dignity puts it plainly: “Being poor or jobless is not a crime.” STOP THE SHAKEDOWN!
On Sunday, July 21, musicians, hospitality workers, and community members rallied together in outrage after local musician Eugene Grant, who plays with the Slow Rollas Brass Band, was pinned to the ground and arrested. The arrest came after the owner of Frenchmen Art and Books called the cops because the band was playing outside their store. Grant and his family are calling for musicians to have the freedom to play music in the streets without being forced to pay permits to the city. Musicians should be able to play in the street without fear of police violence. The city should be paying local musicians to play in the street because they help bring in billions of dollars to the city. The Hospitality Workers Alliance stands in solidarity with musicians in their fight. Without musicians and hospitality workers, there would be no tourism in New Orleans. We must come together and organize for our long overdue rights! The time is now!
The NOPD is pushing the city council for a new headquarters that would cost taxpayers $37 million. With the budget already choked, Mayor Cantrell names her top four priorities as: “Public Safety as a Matter of Public Health, Infrastructure, Economic Development, and Quality of Life Initiatives”. Claiming public health and safety as a top priority is pure hypocrisy, given the fact that Cantrell still has not drawn up an actionable plan to provide the residents of Gordon Plaza with a fully funded relocation. The police building located at 715 S Broad Avenue is old, but at least it’s not lethal.
In the Upper Ninth Ward, residents of Gordon Plaza live amidst toxic carcinogens as they fight for a fully funded relocation that is long overdue. For nearly three decades, residents have continued to file lawsuits and demand that elected officials be held accountable for selling them property on a toxic waste landfill. And to think that the NOPD, which regularly terrorizes black and brown people in the streets, is demanding that the city fund new headquarters! “We know we need a new building, and we need it fast,” said NOPD Deputy Superintendent Christopher Goodly in a budget meeting with city planning officials. “It’s basically time to consider looking at a new headquarters instead of spending the resources to repair a dilapidated building.”
The new building would have to be built on an alternate site so that the current headquarters can continue to operate during construction. Construction will likely cost an average of $350 per square foot. The money for the new headquarters is stolen money. This money belongs to the workers, who generate the revenue for the city budget. Currently, 63% of the budget goes towards cops, jails and reactive programs, while only 3% is invested in children and families and 1% in job development. We cannot stand by and watch those in power continue to repress workers and people of color. No more fully funded luxury office buildings while hospitality workers fight for a living wage!
No more high-tech police facilities while working parents drown in debt over childcare and transportation! The city of New Orleans belongs to us, the workers. We need affordable healthcare, childcare, and reliable public transport. Not a new police building!
In less than two months’ time, the NOPD’s actions have resulted in the deaths of at least 4 people and another 11 injuries. They’ve endangered the lives of hundreds of bystanders, and they have brutally assaulted an innocent woman. So far there has been no accountability.
On February 17, the police were in an open gun fight in one of the busiest sections of town, Canal and Elk. The cops killed one man; five others were wounded. As it relates to gun fights in well-populated, public areas, the Mayor stated that “our city sleeps under the protection of an interconnected web of law enforcement agencies whose effectiveness is on display every day.” In the same breath, she assured “the public” that the city was ready for Carnival.
Looking past NOPD’s decision to engage in a public gun war, she apparently prioritizes Carnival over the safety of everyday citizens.
On March 20, around 8:30 pm, the police, in violation of their own Vehicle Pursuit policy, chased a car into a Beauty Supply Store and Salon. The building was set ablaze during the crash, killing a woman, two teenage boys and injuring six other bystanders.
On April 13, an NOPD commander brutally assaulted a 21-year-old nursing student in the Quarter, as can be plainly seen in a video taken by a bystander. When her family complained, they were arrested.
Reports, surveillance footage and police statements all show that the police will lie about violating laws and rights, even when caught on video. Their reports are filled with contradictions, lies and subjective descriptions that clearly point to their low opinion of the public’s ability to think. Now multiple people have died, and countless people have been traumatized: many lives will never be the same.
These are horrendous crimes by the police without any city action. Now is not the time for the court to cancel the Federal Consent Decree, which was a partial victory against a totally violent NOPD won by community activists.
All these deaths, injuries, and abuses must be investigated. Action should be taken against all involved police officers and any brass involved in cover-ups.
Since late August, six trans women of color have been murdered in the United States, including a woman murdered by a serial killer working for the US Border Patrol. In 2018 so far, over 20 trans people have been murdered in the United States. In New Orleans in 2017, two Black trans women were murdered over Mardi Gras weekend; the status of their cases is unclear. The media has consistently misidentified them, misgendering and demonizing them. Police response to these murders has been inadequate at best and insulting at worst. Trans people, especially Black trans women, face disproportionate violence in the United States. Instead of receiving protection from police, they are often profiled as sex workers and criminalized for simply being themselves. In New Orleans, NOPD continues to harass trans women of color, and local resources are sparse.
Workers Voice spoke with Bayleigh Martin, a Black trans woman who works as an organizer for Breakout, a local organization that serves LGBTQ youth of color, about what trans youth of color face in New Orleans and the conditions that they live in.
Workers Voice: Hi, Bayleigh. Can we start with your telling me a little bit about what trans youth face in New Orleans on a daily basis?
Bayleigh Martin: People are just on them, making them feel like they’re less than, like they’re not worth anything. There’s not many schools that actually take the time to do a mental health check of the child. Some trans kids are not comfortable being who they are; some kids can’t not live how they want to. Some parents kick them out. How can they go to school if they have no place to call home?
Workers Voice: You mentioned children being kicked out by their parents. What are their options for finding shelter when that happens?
Bayleigh Martin: Trying to find shelter is very hard. Covenant House is always full. Trying to navigate in the world without that support from your family is very disheartening and very hard. Even as a heterosexual person, it’s hard. When you’re confronting yourself and your own sexuality, when people aren’t accepting it, it becomes … a mental health issue. It’s very hard to try to cope, because… You’re saying, ‘You’re my mom and you’re treating me like this. Am I not worthy? Am I not good enough to live?’ It can make you wanna kill yourself.
Workers Voice: What do trans youth face in local schools?
Bayleigh Martin: There’s not really support. It’s either or. Most of them do have something, but it’s like, ‘Do I wanna go through all of this just to go to the bathroom?’ I’m damned if I do and I’m damned if I don’t. I’m damned if I go into the boys, because I might get raped or beat up. If I go in the girls, they think I’m looking at them, but I’m not. They’re not on my radar.
Workers Voice: You’ve talked before about challenges trans people face when it comes to their IDs. Can you tell us more about that?
Bayleigh Martin: Your ID is important because [for instance] if I’m trying to be called, say, Melody and everybody calls me Melvin, so like the name my mother gave me, that’s not my name. Or I say, ‘Please call me this, or use she and her pronouns,’ but you’re still trying to correct me on who I am based on my ID, it’s hurtful. I’m telling you who I am. I don’t care what my ID says. It creates an issue. And for me, working in fast food, it was very hard because your real name is put out there [on your name tag].
Workers Voice: What do trans youth of color face when it comes to the local police?
Bayleigh Martin: Well, they can arrest you for carrying condoms in your purse, because they think you’re doing [sex work]. They can stop you and you could be subject to a search. There’s so much. They harass you. You could be put in the wrong jail. It’s dangerous just being out there as yourself.
Workers Voice: There were two murders of black trans women here last year.
Bayleigh Martin: The girls who are living their life, just living their best life, it’s dangerous for them. A friend of mine said, ‘How can we expect respect when the police don’t respect us?’ It’s a lot.
Workers Voice: What sort of obstacles do trans youth face when it comes to medically transitioning in New Orleans?
Bayleigh Martin: Some [trans youth] end up going to different people, asking what’s the best way to transition or come out. They want to hurry up. They’re not able to go to professionals. You’re not gonna have the right [treatment]. I know one girl had some stuff that was killing her from the inside out. There are risks if it’s not a professional. But everybody’s transition is their own. You are not going to be the same size, the same color, as another woman, because as you see, everybody’s different. While you find a role model, they’re not gonna help you on your own. You’re not becoming your own way.
Workers Voice: What changes would you like to see in New Orleans to make it safer or better for trans youth?
Bayleigh Martin: More queer spaces for queers to be safe in. More help as far as jobs and housing. More help with mental health issues. I want the police to step up and not downtrod on us. I want them to not keep us under the board, under the counter, tucked away, then wanna come when it looks good for the press.
Recent reporting in the Times Picayune by Chelsea Brasted has dug up some disgusting, but not surprising, statistics about the NOPD’s treatment of Black bicycle riders.
Based on information from the “Regional Planning Commission’s 2015 New Orleans Pedestrian and Bicycle Count Report” and the New Orleans Municipal and Traffic Court: Black people make up only 26% of overall cyclists while whites make up 69%. Yet Black cyclists get hit with 63% of the fines for biking violations while whites only get 32%.
In other words, cops are over 5 times more likely to give citations to Black cyclists than white ones.
Most of these violations are totally harmless, and the ones that can cause problems don’t merit a huge fine of hundreds or thousands of dollars (a penalty that can suck working class people into debt traps and deepen poverty).
These fines are just another example of the laws being on the books for the purpose of the police using them to attack black working class communities. In this respect, it’s no different than how the police in Louisiana are three times more likely to arrest black people for marijuana than white people (Southern Poverty Law Center), or how black teenage boys nationally are 21 times more likely to get killed by police than white ones (ProPublica).
It’s also a way of raising revenue for the city without stepping on the toes of the rich. Instead of taxing hotels, casinos, and restaurants that profit from the workers of New Orleans, the city government taxes ordinary working people through these fines.
These fines, just like traffic cameras do not make us safer, just more desperate. The city can provide free education to all riders and car drivers, rather than further impoverishing them with another oppressive fine.
In the New Orleans Workers Group, we believe in the political power of workers united together in struggle. We proudly support all the workers of New Orleans, recently deemed the #1 tourist destination in the world by the NY times. We salute BARE NOLA and all the workers organized against the recent raids on Bourbon St. clubs.
We recognize these raids as an attempt by the ruling class to separate women into legitimate and illegitimate classes. They think that they can get away with it because these clubs aren’t grocery stores, factories, or warehouses. These claims are flimsy excuses that rely solely on stigma and disorganization to work. They expect to be able to walk in and delegitimize these workers in the eyes of the city.
They expect to be able to attack without meeting organized resistance. The only ones they have delegitimized are themselves. Yesterday they were bold enough to parade their so-called “victory” on Bourbon and hold ceremony in front of the city.
Because of the resistance of the workers, Landrieu hid like a coward and the tourism board was made to look foolish.
The ruling class relies on a narrative that this city is full of vulnerable people broken by a storm, uneducated and needing to be watched for their own good; that the most vulnerable of these people are the marginalized women on Bourbon, forced into work against their will. Those organizing against these raids are not vulnerable women, but a group of women united, understanding their collective power.
For the New Orleans Workers Group, the recent ATC raids on the workers of Bourbon St. amount to nothing more than a cruel and illegitimate act of repression. Under the guise of a moral campaign against sex trafficking, these raids are a cynical effort by the ruling class to remake Bourbon St. according to their interests, without the slightest consideration for the workers who have earned them billions in profits.
We reject the so-called “moral authority” of Covenant House, an institution that advocates for laws that criminalize the youth they pretend to serve. We reject the conclusions reached in the APLV study of 2016, which was fabricated in order to bolster the case of real estate developers and their unceasing drive to make New Orleans a playground for the rich. Most importantly we recognize this campaign as an attack on the rights of women workers, LGBTQ workers, and non-white workers.
The city and the tiny class of owners whose interests it represents invoke a sexist “morality” in one breath as they pretend to defend the interests of women in the other. The Workers Group rejects any attempt to divide the city’s workers, and we denounce as criminal the firing of hundreds of our fellow workers. As fellow members of the working class, we stand in solidarity with the dancers and other workers fighting back against these raids. #letusdancenola
In capitalist society, where we are surrounded by violence every day, many of us become desensitized. After years of never-ending police brutality and murder, some people have started to look at it like a permanent feature of reality that cannot be stopped.
This is not the case for Rodneka Shelbia, a brave New Orleans native who is now in a legal battle with NOPD and the criminal justice system. The New Orleans Workers Group along with a diverse array of community activists and organizations have been working with Rodneka for months to fight for justice in her case.
We interviewed Rodneka for Workers Voice to shed some light on this important local case in her own words. The following is based off of that interview:
Rodneka is from the Ninth and 13th Wards, and went to F.A. Douglas High. She graduated from Southern University and has worked at the Post Office for 6 years. She is also a singer and songwriter, “I write songs about my life, and what I witness,” she said.
In April, she noticed a scene of police brutality. Unfortunately since the case is ongoing in court, Rodneka cannot be quoted on the events of that night. From our investigation, it has been gathered that she saw an officer abusing a women who was holding a baby. She took the baby and screamed for the cop to stop and be human. When other officers came on the scene, the first cop pointed at her and told them to arrest her for battery. At the whim of one cop, Rodneka went from a courageous bystander who stepped in to protect a child to a victim of police violence herself.
Since that day, the legal system has put her through the works, as is the norm for the thousands of New Orleanians who pass through it every day. “Since then, I don’t feel safe in this system. I don’t trust the enforcers, the protectors, or any other beneficiaries of this justice system any more. Justice is at my expense and for the one who has been exposed,” she said.
Rodneka has refused to stand down, and many in the community have responded. “I’ve received love, time, money, hope, commitment, education, solidarity. In my case the community is diverse. There are others who are just numb. They don’t even know why I’m trippin’. They know I can’t win against the powers that be. I know I’m already winning. My community assures me that.”
She believes that her experience represents much more than an isolated incident “It represents why people revolt, buckle, and don’t fight back all in one. It represents slavery… I would like people to believe and know that they are worth a fight. Their humanity is worth a fight. And suppressing their humanity is not normal if they say its not.”
Rodneka has started the hash-tag #IWillNotBeDesensitized to spread awareness about her case, and to highlight how we cannot allow ourselves to accept inhumane mistreatment of ourselves or each other at the hands of police, regardless of how they try to normalize it. Check out the Justice for Rodneka Facebook page for more updates.
