July 18, 2007 @ 10:13 am
Katrina Survivors Take Government to Court
Tribunal to raise issues of inhumane treatment relating to storms.
It's been two years since Hurricane Katrina and Rita ripped through the belly of the South, and survivors, along with various scholars and activists, are seeking to hold the US government responsible in a tribunal court hearing scheduled for this August.
On Tuesday (July 17), New York City Councilman Charles Barron and former Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney met at Manhattan's Center for Constitutional Rights for a press conference to discuss the upcoming trial. The tribunal will target President Bush, the US government, State of Louisiana, State of Mississippi, and various other agencies who were involved in the Katrina and Rita relief efforts.
The Tribunal will include a team of human and civil rights prosecutors, including Joan Gibbs from the Center of Law & Social Justice and Kali Akuno, from the Peoples Hurricane Relief Fund.
Overall, the Tribunal's main goal is holding the US government accountable for their reaction to the 2005 storms.
"Some people are being held accountable," said Former Congresswoman McKinney. "But what about [US Secretary of Homeland Security] Michael Chertoff? I'm wondering why he still has a job!"
Councilman Barron believes potential Democratic leaders have not raised the issue enough. "We can't let Barack Obama and Hillary, and all these so-called Democrats, whisper about what happened with Katrina," he said. "America needs a revolution."
"I'm a survivor," said Viola Washington, in a thick New Orleans drawl. "I was there. We had racism, and a whole lot of -isms before the storm, but it don't excuse what happened during the storm. We had helicopters flying over the city and nobody came to help us. We were begging for help."
Like Washington, other survivors will give their testimonies during the hearing, detailing abusive and humiliating treatment during delayed relief efforts.
"They put me in a wilderness, in a place I never heard of in my life," another, graying survivor added.
When Katrina hit, that woman was raising her three grandchildren, after her daughter was murdered. "They [National Guard] were putting guns on you just to ask a question. This is America! It took us from Tuesday to Friday to get out of there," she said.
At the time, the woman owned her home. Her biggest concerned after the storm was returning to it. "But FEMA told me I was supposed to get back to my home or I'll lose my assistance," she said. "What am I supposed to do with three children?"
In addition to survivor testimonies, foreign nations have lent their support to the International Tribunal effort, including Cuba, Mexico, France, and Brazil.
The Mexican government released the following statement: "The Katrina disaster was a disaster organized by a political and economic system rooted in racism, exploitation and oppression. The massive deaths and human suffering could have been avoided were it not for the racism of the U.S. government at all levels."
The hearing will be held August 29 in New Orleans, marking the two-year anniversary of the hurricane tragedy.
Article tags: Cynthia Mckinney, FEMA, Government, Hurricane Katrina, Katrina Survivors, Obama, Trial, Tribunal
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http://www.vibe.com/news/news_headlines/2007/07/katrina_government/
Comments
1.
halil says:
hello
September 2, 2007 at 10:57 am
2.
joseph young says:
An Open Letter To The Jena Six
By Joseph Young
Dear Mychal,
I keep thinking about you. I also think about the other young men who have fallen prey to racial hatred. Its existence, more than a century after Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, makes me fearful for your life, your safety. The freedom that it promised was tenuous.
It was not entirely without strength. In the proclamation, issued three years into the Civil War, Lincoln declared, at the urging of Frederick Douglass, that the former slaves would be accepted into the Union Army and navy, making the liberated the liberator. By the war’s end, almost 200,000 black servicemen had fought for freedom and saved the Union.
Your generation, like mine, is being denied this freedom our ancestors risked life and limb, so that we may live as free men and women. You can call them heroes, but they were not thinking of themselves when they displayed courage and self-sacrifice on the battlefields of America.
Today, then, to guard against the impending doom of American civilization, is not only opposition to racism, but also the determination to secure the civil rights for which many Americans have paid a heavy toll. Of all the civil rights, the right to learn is the surest prevention from ignorance. If at any time, children are instructed with anti-black bias; and they are made to learn what is not true and what the dominate forces in their lives want them to think is true; there’re guilty of impeding the march toward American civilization.
Astonishing as it is that those students would hang three nooses from the tree at Jena High School as a racial taunt, including calling the black students ‘ni***rs’; you would think that America would never again want to see a black person hang from a tree, or behind bars. The nooses show that we, Americans, have not come that far from the cruelties and barbarity of slavery as we think. (Between 1882 and 1968, an estimated 5,000 people, mostly blacks, met their deaths at the hands of lynch mobs.) And this also is an unfortunate comment upon the belief that our schools are the great path to progress, the great equalizer. If our schools are the great path to progress, they must be the freest of our institutions, opposed bitterly to the attempt to indoctrinate our children with racial hatred.
Well, Mychal, as you and the others wait behind bars because of a racially biased and an over zealous prosecutor, it is for us on the outside to continue the unfinished work of our fathers, to set you free. All of you were willing to fight racial hatred, and you know people of goodwill are beside you. If the Confederacy couldn’t stop us, the opposition we now face will fail. When history is written your detractors will get little note, but you will be remembered for standing up for what’s best of the American creed. You are part of a legacy in which our slave forebears fought to birth a new nation. You, Mychal, are a child of America’s destiny.
It was Martin Luther King who said if a man doesn’t have something worth dying for he is not fit to live. Freedom is worth dying for. Justice is worth dying for. Equality is worth dying for. A child is worth dying for, because our job as parents is to protect children.
Mychal, when you feel complete frustration and your narrow jail cell is closing in on your spirit and mind; remember the message of the old slave preacher to his flock whose resistance to oppression might have been completely in vain:
“You are created in God’s image. You are not slaves, you are not ‘ni***rs’; you are God’s children.”
Godspeed Mychal,
Your brother in the struggle, Joseph
August 12, 2007 at 8:19 am
3.
mj shan says:
hank you for printing this. Racism lives, but not in the old school way you might think. New Orleans has a black mayor, black police chief, black school superintendent, black ministers, etc. We have a democrat woman as our governor of the state. All of these people we have elected to represent us. THEY HAVE ALL FAILED US. Why? These people should be tuned in, prepared, and sympathetic to our situation. Instead they choose to point fingers and no one wants to take the blame. The chain of command totally failed! How can no one be held accountable?! We should starts with the mayor and work our way up. But, this will never happen, we have already forgotten. We are too little, too late again.
In this case, it was someone else's fault. The Army Corps of Engineers failed to protect us. Our government failed to keep them in line. Our government failed us. We will have to do it ourselves. What happened to doing it your self?
August 3, 2007 at 10:37 am
4.
Maxine Webester says:
As a small business owner/almost homeowner after 4 yrs living in residence and a closing date set for Aug.29,2005. I am overwhelmed with the situation in the state of La. Now homeless/struggling to start business again seems like an impossible task. There are very few resources that actually assist. As a single parent raised 5 well ajusted children I can't imagine anything being as cold as wehat is happening now.I worked for a well known person who refuses to pay for services rendered before Katrina. Attorneys that seem to be on the take holding records for 16 months only stating" I don't have the manpower to pursue your case". What is really going on?
July 30, 2007 at 11:15 pm
5.
lACRESHA says:
It becomes more obvious everyday that why the Katrina victims have been treated (or not) like they have been by the U.S. Government. it is much more important for them to broadcast irresponsible ,Caucasian ,young, rich Hollywood drug addicts and the newest Michael Vick scandal to worry about the Katrina victims and what's important. The faces on the tragic footage isn't the faces most of the Caucasian Senators etc can identify with, therefore, it has been put on the back burner and will remain there unless we get together like former Senator McKinney and others are doiong now.
July 25, 2007 at 10:03 pm
6.
Diana says:
Dear friend,
I just learned about a case of segregation-era oppression happening today in Jena, Louisiana. I signed onto ColorOfChange.org's campaign for justice in Jena, and wanted to invite you to do the same.
http://www.colorofchange.org/jena/?id=1645-201122
Last fall in Jena, the day after two Black high school students sat beneath the "white tree" on their campus, nooses were hung from the tree. When the superintendent dismissed the nooses as a "prank," more Black students sat under the tree in protest. The District Attorney then came to the school accompanied by the town's police and demanded that the students end their protest, telling them, "I can be your best friend or your worst enemy... I can take away your lives with a stroke of my pen."
A series of white-on-black incidents of violence followed, and the DA did nothing. But when a white student was beaten up in a schoolyard fight, the DA responded by charging six black students with attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
It's a story that reads like one from the Jim Crow era, when judges, lawyers and all-white juries used the justice system to keep blacks in "their place." But it's happening today. The families of these young men are fighting back, but the story has gotten minimal press. Together, we can make sure their story is told and that the Governor of Louisiana intervenes and provides justice for the Jena 6. It starts now. Please join me:
http://www.colorofchange.org/jena/?id=1645-201122
The noose-hanging incident and the DA's visit to the school set the stage for everything that followed. Racial tension escalated over the next couple of months, and on November 30, the main academic building of Jena High School was burned down in an unsolved fire. Later the same weekend, a black student was beaten up by white students at a party. The next day, black students at a convenience store were threatened by a young white man with a shotgun. They wrestled the gun from him and ran away. While no charges were filed against the white man, the students were later arrested for the theft of the gun.
That Monday at school, a white student, who had been a vocal supporter of the students who hung the nooses, taunted the black student who was beaten up at the off-campus party and allegedly called several black students "ni***r." After lunch, he was knocked down, punched and kicked by black students. He was taken to the hospital, but was released and was well enough to go to a social event that evening.
Six Black Jena High students, Robert Bailey (17), Theo Shaw (17), Carwin Jones (18), Bryant Purvis (17), Mychal Bell (16) and an unidentified minor, were expelled from school, arrested and charged with second-degree attempted murder. The first trial ended last month, and Mychal Bell, who has been in prison since December, was convicted of aggravated battery and conspiracy to commit aggravated battery (both felonies) by an all-white jury in a trial where his public defender called no witnesses. During his trial, Mychal's parents were ordered not to speak to the media and the court prohibited protests from taking place near the courtroom or where the judge could see them.
Mychal is scheduled to be sentenced on July 31st, and could go to jail for 22 years. Theo Shaw's trial is next. He will finally make bail this week.
The Jena Six are lucky to have parents and loved ones who are fighting tooth and nail to free them. They have been threatened but they are standing strong. We know that if the families have to go it alone, their sons will be a long time coming home. But if we act now, we can make a difference.
Join me in demanding that Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco get involved to make sure that justice is served for Mychal Bell, and that DA Reed Walters drop the charges against the 5 boys who have not yet gone to trial.
http://www.colorofchange.org/jena/?id=1645-201122
Thanks.
July 23, 2007 at 2:25 am
7.
TRU says:
WANT TO KNOW MORE
July 22, 2007 at 11:45 pm
8.
Beyonce says:
pepeal/pepeale = should be people
lol
July 22, 2007 at 9:37 am
9.
keivan says:
I LOVE OUR PEPEALE
July 22, 2007 at 3:26 am
10.
keivan says:
i love you our pepeal
July 22, 2007 at 3:24 am
11.
Mr. Cracker says:
QueenBee101,
Peace to you ma'am. But I got no love for those that hate me. Also, I don't hate all white people just overt racist. We are a world family but unfortunately most so-called humans don't see it that way. I've never celebrated tragedy regardless of the person's skin color but as you can see almighty whitey still can't reprogram his hateful mind.
July 20, 2007 at 6:54 pm
12.
Mr. Cracker says:
Mr. Cracker
It's interesting you acknowledge the dependency the Black community had/have on the government.
Generations of welfare drones...
Beyonce
I acknowledge that you’re an inbred racist who justifies his/her devilish hate for a whole race because its part of your genetic make up. FUNK you and your white skin privilege brethren!!! Whites makeup majority of this country’s population, but you believe that Blacks benefit the most from government handouts when you all have more access to every resource available in the U.S. LOL LOL LOL LOL. I forgot you’re from a race that worship mythology over reality. I’m still mad at ya’ll for leading me to believe that Santa Claus was real and that Jesus Christ was white when I was a kid. LOL
@Warning: they will wage war on us once we become self-sufficient;
Most of us will be dead by this time..
self-sufficient LOL LOL LOL
Beyonce
True, we might both be dead and gone but you know your races supremacy will come to end (e.g.,Greece,Rome,Egypt,Mongolia) some day. You lack intelligence fool, there’s Blacks in every state and we all don’t sit around begging for handouts mutant. So yes self-sufficiency does exist around the U.S.
A white supremacist talking garbage on a media site (VIBE.com) that caters to Hip-Hop and R&B fans—how ironic.
AFFIRMATIVE ACTION=WHITE SKIN PRIVILEGE
July 20, 2007 at 6:47 pm
13.
QueenBee101 says:
I just started to read some of the comments after I had already posted my previous comment! What is with all the racism? Don't people know that we are a WORLD FAMILY and that we all come from the same place, Mother Earth? What is up with all this hatred and saying that people should have died in Katrina? I am so sorry for anyone who feels this way, you obviously have no soul or no sense of self-worth, if you did, you would realize that ALL the peoples of the world are brothers and sisters, and that we need to help each other, not condemn each other! Please people, let us move on to uplifting each other and share victory in the success of our fellow man, only then can we know what HUMANITY stands for! Drop the selfish attitudes, you will be better off for it! Peace out!
July 20, 2007 at 1:39 pm
14.
QueenBee101 says:
Get busy and fix New Orleans and the surrounding Gulf Coast areas for all the people and quit horsing around! Peoples lives are in limbo! They need help NOW! Thank you!
July 20, 2007 at 1:30 pm
15.
NICOLE says:
I CAN EVEN BEGIN TO DESCRIBE HOW STRONGLY I FEEL ABOUT THE HORRIBLE GOVERNMENT WE HAVE..THEY KNEW WHAT THEY WERE DOING. THEY JUST LET THE HURRICANE SURVIVORS SIT & SUFFER, KATRINA BASICALLY DID THEIR JOB FOR THEM..OUTTA SIGHT OUTTA MIND...WHO CAN AMERICANS TRUST OR LOOK UP TO NOW A DAYS? NO ONE COMES TO MIND BUT GOD. EVERYONE ELSE IS PRETTY MUCH CROOKED MOST WITH EXTRA MONEY AND AND IMPORTANT TITLE BUT THEY AIN'T NO DIFFERENT THAN THE DEVIL HIMSELF, PROLLY EVEN WORSE. U CAN'T JUST SWEEP DIRT UNDER THE RUG AND EXPECT IT TO DISAPPEAR, IT WILL JUST BUILD UP, SO GOOD LUCK TO ALL THAT SURVIVED AND GOOD LUCK TO ALL THAT ARE FIGHTING THE GOVT IN COURT...I HOPE U WIN!
July 20, 2007 at 1:04 pm
16.
Beyonce says:
@Mr. Cracker
It's interesting you acknowledge the dependency the Black community had/have on the government.
Generations of welfare drones...
@Warning: they will wage war on us once we become self-sufficient;
Most of us will be dead by this time..
self-sufficient LOL LOL LOL
July 20, 2007 at 8:03 am
17.
B~Starr says:
Good Lord, Blk folk depending on Hispanics to help us now (Cuba, Mexico, France, and Brazil)? This aint about our sturggle in NO thisis about them folk cant stand Bush's tail so they actn like they got our back. You better look in your history books about who suggested the white man come to Africa and snatch us up to be slaves before u start thinking folk really tryn to reunite w/ us...
"I'ma a Starr babe"
July 20, 2007 at 6:13 am
18.
Alan says:
I’m a Katrina evacuee (not victim) from Biloxi, Mississippi, who now lives in Fort Worth. When I went to FEMA, both in Biloxi and here, they subtly but plainly let me know that white people can’t be Katrina “victims” so I was on my own. For awhile, I was in charge of one of the workforce offices that worked with NOLA evacuees, but never received assistance myself. If “Bush hates black people” he sure has a funny way of showing it. We were giving away: Target & Wal-Mart gift cards, laptop computers with Wi-Fi, food stamps, unemployment assistance, housing, TANF (welfare money), clothing, gasoline debit cards, bus passes, career counseling, etc.. We offered to bus them to huge job fairs, but there were few takers.
July 20, 2007 at 3:44 am
19.
Mr. Cracker says:
Blacks wake the funk up and stop thinking everything is okay in Amerikkka. Encourage your kids to pursue science and mathematics so our future will not have to depend on these crackers for another 400 hundred years. Warning: they will wage war on us once we become self-sufficient; I guarantee it. Whitey is never satisfied; so just be aware because they will give us more wake-up calls in the future. THE WHITE RACE IS THE ONLY RACE WHO’S WAGED WAR WITH EVERY OTHER RACE OF COLOR ON THE PLANET; THEY’RE EVEN HATED BY WHITES IN EASTERN EUROPE. HOW LONG UNTIL THIS “MANIFEST DESTINY” BULLSHIT SENDS THEM INTO EXTINCTION? I don’t care if I’m senior citizen—I hope I’m around when it goes down.
July 19, 2007 at 6:43 pm
20.
Mr. Cracker says:
This comment is directed towards that inbred WASP by the name Beyonce.
f**k you racist white b**ch; you should die for being so insensitive to your fellow Americans plight. Devils like you are the reason this country is on a steady decline. Evil/Hate is part of your race genetic makeup and will also be your downfall. Another thing mutant—it takes money to rebuild after such a devastating natural disaster which majority of the residents don’t have and its not just because welfare checks or sitting on their a$$es all day, but structural racism that goes back to the infancy of this country. I doubt that the federal, state, and local government would’ve been slow to take action during the hurricane if majority of New Orleans residents was WHITE!!! They should sue them inbred racist. I’m waiting for one of you racist inbred crackers to disrespect me in public so I can send your A$$ to Lucifer. Your race isn’t shit and it shows by the other so-called whites not speaking out against your racist rant. Man I can’t wait when you honkeys get the nerve to start publicly lynching and terrorizing blacks again—I’m cutting the first genetic-recessive mutants head off in sight!!!
July 19, 2007 at 6:17 pm
21.
Beyonce says:
The Mexican government - They have a lot of nerve talking about the U.S. They allow their poor to come here. The U.S. should bomb their A$$...
F ck the Katrina victims. They should sue their local and state government. Those are the ones who failed them. Why should the fed tax system contribute?
All of the Black complaining - take not that the veitamese rebuilt with out a lot of government help. Why they didn't already have a dependences on the government...
again F uck them... more should have died...
July 19, 2007 at 4:01 pm
22.
Alisha Bradley says:
I returned to New Orleans this weekend (July 13-17), not for another funeral, but just to access the progress. Trying to understand why I cannot get a response from "Road-TO-Home" and FEMA, who continuously give me the run around.
Yes, I too am a Survivor. I am blessed enough to have overcome many obstacles since Katrina, especially several medical challenges, but what about my parents. No income, No home, No medicine. I brought my elderly step-father to visit his home in Academy Park, and he cried. Having already acknowledged that all of his precious items were now dissolved, and a slow recovery from a stroke, all he wanted was 2 suitcases and an ice-chest, still located in his gutted home. What may seem so minute, was so precious to him, as his feeble body(which required assistance from others) held tightly to his red suitcases. When asked why he wanted the suitcases, all soiled, damaged and worn, he stated "It's all I have left" and cried more intensely. Our people have suffered due to Katrina and if you moved into a state where not many individuals chose to relocate, the benefits were even smaller, All we received was a pair of eyeglasses. The church community provided food, clothing, and other essentials, but we were left to fight for our survival. Yes, we "fall down, and we get up", but we need help in getting up!!! I speak not just for my family, but for the many others (young and old), who witnessed this event and 2 years later, my New Orleans home, remains like Hurricane Katrina was yesterday!!! How can Louisiana want us back home? We have no home to return to!!!!
July 19, 2007 at 3:37 pm
23.
DERIKE HUBBARD says:
MY COMMENT IS THAT ALL THE SURVIVOR'SSHOULD BE COMPENSATED ME AS AN NEW ORLEANS BORN AND RAISE ..WITH OUR CONGRESSMAN AND WOMAN STANDING FOR US .I WAITED FOR ASSITANCE FOR ALMOST 1YEAR FROM FEMA ALL I GOT WAS A LOSY 2,OOO DOLLARS AFTER FIGHTING WITH FEMA DAY IN DAY OUT I WOULD HOPE FOR ALL NEW ORLEANS PEOPLE TO GET WHAT ID ENTITLE TO US IT ASHAME WE HAVE TO NEARLY BLEED TO DEATH TO GET ASSIANTANCCE FROM OUR COUNTRY AND GOVERNMENT.JUST ANOTE FOR FEMA INSTEAD OF DOWNING THE GOOD FOR THE BAD OUT OF THE WHOLE THING ALL I GOT WAS JUST 4,500 HUNDRED DOLLAR AND SLAP ON THE WRIST I HOPE WE CAN COME UP OUT OF THIS WINNERS
July 18, 2007 at 9:12 pm
24.
Leroy says:
I feel that the Hurrican victime should be entittled to as much assistance as possibe! The event not only hurt them phsyicaly, but also emotionally andleft a lasting scar ion them and I know that it was so devastating. I support the councileman and conresswoman in their efforts to get the assistance for the Hurricane victime and feel that the governement should have reacted faster and offer more assistance,
July 18, 2007 at 2:29 pm