Hard NOX : NOLA Indymedia

New Orleans eXposed: Violence and Urban Underdevelopment
by Mabili Ajani, Revolutionary Social Critic

New Orleans, LA or the Big Easy, is a city caught up in a wave of violence. According to reported police statistics the murder rate is already past where it was in August of 2004. Bodies laying the street or slumped over in a car has become a common sight. A look at press reports of recent shootings reveals very little about why the violence is occurring at this juncture in the city's history.

A new, underground DVD has surfaced on the streets of New Orleans called New Orleans eXposed, or NOX. This documentary was produced by 2 Minds Productionz and tells the story of the mean 'hoods from those living there.

The document is one of the most sobering accounts of the gritty reality in New Orleans and could, in all probability, be the same story in inner cities across the U.S. The first thing that is striking about this street analysis is the fact the port city of New Orleans is awash with guns. Not just your run of the mill hand-gun but AK-47 and M16 machine guns, the guns of choice.

NOX contends the current violence got underway in 1994 saying that in that year with the "overflow of guns and easy access to them a murder wave was created across the crescent city." Video footage of young boys and men carrying all types of guns and talking about the easy availability "even though there are no (gun) factories here" can be seen on the DVD.

the heat is on and pockets are hurtin

The question still remains as to why the violence is happening. A young man in NOX explains it is happening because the police have made the neighborhoods hot causing drug profits to suffer and left drug dealer's pockets hurting for money. More importantly the recent demolition of public housing complexes have lumped bitter crack-era drug rivals together in the same neighborhoods. The result has been anarchy and, according to NOX, not organized gangs but individuals are mostly at war.

The era of the crack epidemic in the U.S. could, theoretically, be divided into 2 major phases. Phase one would be from 1985 through 1994. Phase two would be 1995 through the present. It has been often stated that the crack era has run it's course. In New Orleans this could mean individuals are battling for the last vestiges of a dwindling market.

Phase one was the introduction of this lethal concoction of cocaine and baking soda which made the expensive drug of cocaine affordable to the masses. It was during this period people became hooked and laws were passed to criminalize dealers and users alike. The new addicts began looking like zombies and nothing was too sacred it could not be traded for the next high. The birth of the first so-called crack-babies began fueling discussion about how schools would deal with such children who were expected to start school in 1990-91.

Phase two represent the time when the real net wealth from crack profits was beginning to be realized. Powerful gangs emerged to control street-level operations and the new neighborhood rulers were "teen-age Entreprenuers" who had no economic stake in the community outside of increasing the market for crack cocaine. Not all who participated in the drug game made big money but because of the flashy drug-dealer lifestyle that fact was lost on young men looking for their piece of the U.S. American pie. At the same time the prison incarceration rate in the U.S. doubled even tripled in some areas.

Young men in the documentary, however, argue that gangs are not the basis for identity as much as neighborhoods are in New Orleans. There is a long tradition of identifying with whatever Ward, or district, one lives in or public housing project. The turf wars that broke out in 1994 has now been made worse by the redevelopment schemes demolishing housing projects. Now, as rivals share neighborhoods, an argument about anything could lead to gun-play. Much of the killings are being perpetrated by individuals in a beef with another individual who previously lived in a rival neighborhood.

This does not discount any other motives put forward by police such as scores from past killings being settled. Revenge is always a leading factor in the drug game and indeed creates problems for police when victims or witnesses want testify out of fear of retaliation. However, in New Orleans the street analysis is this current violence is not organized but rather more anarchic, individual mayhem. Some looking for respect and others fighting for turf. As one man states in NOX: "money is the main thing that would get you killed here."

police corruption

New Orleans Police Department has a national reputation as being one of the most corrupt. There is a school of thought among some street activist that police play a dastardly role in creating the climate for violence between drug dealers. One activist has stated in a public meeting the police were stealing drugs and drug money from street-level dealers who would be killed by his superior when he could not produce his money from sales. The thinking is such a tactic is a form of deadly divide-and-conquer designed to help drug dealers cancel each other out.

The police have reassigned Ward commanders, increased the number of officers on the street and solved some shootings by saying the shooters have themselves been killed. Oftentimes, When police are seen on the news talking about a particular shooting they consistently seem at a loss. One wonders if this is due to lack of information or a need to give disinformation. The African American Mayor of New orleans also seem clueless saying about one shooting: "young people just choosing to kill each other these days."

One police official was quoted as saying the violence has been rising over the last 20 years seemingly trying to allay public fears. This is a mute point when one considers the violence is usually perpetrated by 20 year olds against 20 year olds born after the start of the epidemic. Now more women and children are getting caught in the crossfire much as they were at the height of the crack epidemic.

The press has begun to sound more reactionary demanding change by any means necessary because children are getting killed. The politicians are expected to follow suit with more fascist laws designed to fix the problem quickly rather than resolve the problem at its root. If police corruption is a factor it may never be addressed in a moment of political reaction.

Police are accused in NOX of planting drugs and selective enforcement of certain areas. Harassment is generally seen as a way of instilling fear and cementing control. The police are clearly not the answer since the murder rate has steadily risen for 19 of the last 20 years. Indeed when the cameras were on during street interviews for NOX the police who rolled past kept rolling. The young men in the neighborhoods said if the cameras were not on the scene there would have been some harassment by those same police officers.

opportunities for development: from Bangin to Rappin

The NOX documentary sites a deficient educational system and a lack of jobs with real wages which could compete with drug profits. As one young man put it: "ain't nothing booming down here." However, most recently a new-found Hip-Hop sound has gained national prominence from the streets of New Orleans. Many of the young men in the documentary have indicated while they were once banging on the streets they are trading that life for a new life in Rap music. Compact Disc by locally produced Rappers are considered the "New Crack".

Considering the limited shelf life of entertainers this "new hustle" in New Orleans Hip Hop is potentially a way out for many but not all. Soulja Slim, a local Rapper, was murdered in New Orleans on November 26, 2003. The specter of Rappers beefing through verbal warfare keep the community braced for actual warfare. Millionaires have been made by New Orleans Hip Hop and some have reached back and provided economic support to their old neighborhoods. The documentary cites what others are doing such as anti-drug, anti-incarceration and anti-violence mentor-ship programs by Reality Check.To the extent money can be made in local hip-Hop in a city known for creating cultural _expression will be measured in the collective progress this new New Orleans industry will provide.

As so-called urban privatization schemes take shape the poor, inner-city populations are being cast about and forced to live with the fall-out. Violence is visited upon the people from both sides of the law and newly developed neighborhoods are pricing the same people out. Clearly, new institutions must be created from the bottom up. People must be organized for self-defense which would include economic self-defense against elitist, capitalist exploitation. The new neighborhoods are going to be in decay in just a few short years if the poverty continues to deepen. Such continued underdevelopment perpetuates poverty and therefore violence.

New Orleans eXposed is a must-see for anyone who truly would like to get to the root of violence in New Orleans. It features a great soundtrack and the real voices of real people including Rapper Juvenile, Soulja Slim, local New Orleans radio Disc Jockey Wyld Wayne and a riveting narration by Video Wayne. You will hear from young children smoking blunts, young men sitting on the porch, shooting victims (one shot eleven times), ordinary people analyzing the plight of their everyday lives. Sensitive ears may have to brace for the raw language of the streets and excessive use of the N-word but the knowledge dropped is priceless.

And they promise more to come...

visit http://www.noexposed.com