Blank Panther, Green Party veteran reports from New Orleans : NOLA Indymedia

He's in the Algiers neighborhood of New Orleans, which isn't flooded. He welcomes help & gives way of contacting him at end of article...

Friday, Sept. 2: "Everything is needed, but we're still too disorganized. I'm asking people to go ahead and gather donations and relief supplies but to hold on to them for a few days until we have a way to put them to good use. I'm challenging my party, the Green Party, to come down here and help us just as soon as things are a little more organized. The Republicans and Democrats didn't do anything to prevent this or plan for it and don't seem to care if everyone dies."

Black Panther, Green Party veteran reports from New Orleans

You'll find this Bay View web exclusive at
http://www.sfbayview.com/083105/thisiscriminal083105.shtml. There you can read more about Malik in a flier from his recent run for New Orleans City Council. Please distribute widely. You need to listen to his voice also: radio interview with Malik: http://radio.indymedia.org/uploads/lotus-malik-katrina.mp3

'This is criminal': Malik Rahim reports from New Orleans

by Malik Rahim

Malik Rahim, a veteran of the Black Panther Party in New Orleans, for decades an organizer of public housing tenants both there and in San Francisco and a recent Green Party candidate for New Orleans City Council, lives in the Algiers neighborhood, the only part of New Orleans that is not flooded. They have no power, but the water is still
good and the phones work. Their neighborhood could be sheltering and feeding at least 40,000 refugees, he says, but they are allowed to help no one. What he describes is nothing less than deliberate genocide against Black and poor people. - Ed.

New Orleans, Sept. 1, 2005 - It's criminal. From what you're hearing, the people trapped in New Orleans are nothing but looters. We're told we should be more "neighborly." But nobody talked about being neighborly until after the people who could afford to leave … left.

If you ain't got no money in America, you're on your own. People were told to go to the Superdome, but they have no food, no water there. And before they could get in, people had to stand in line for 4-5 hours in the rain because everybody was being searched one by one at the
entrance.

I can understand the chaos that happened after the tsunami, because they had no warning, but here there was plenty of warning. In the three days before the hurricane hit, we knew it was coming and everyone could have been evacuated.

We have Amtrak here that could have carried everybody out of town. There were enough school buses that could have evacuated 20,000 people easily, but they just let them be flooded. My son watched 40 buses go underwater - they just wouldn't move them, afraid they'd be stolen.

People who could afford to leave were so afraid someone would steal what they own that they just let it all be flooded. They could have let a family without a vehicle borrow their extra car, but instead they left it behind to be destroyed.

There are gangs of white vigilantes near here riding around in pickup trucks, all of them armed, and any young Black they see who they figure doesn't belong in their community, they shoot him. I tell them, "Stop! You're going to start a riot."

When you see all the poor people with no place to go, feeling alone and helpless and angry, I say this is a consequence of HOPE VI. New Orleans took all the HUD money it could get to tear down public housing, and
families and neighbors who'd relied on each other for generations were uprooted and torn apart.

Most of the people who are going through this now had already lost touch with the only community they'd ever known. Their community was torn down and they were scattered. They'd already lost their real homes, the only place where they knew everybody, and now the places
they've been staying are destroyed.

But nobody cares. They're just lawless looters ... dangerous.

The hurricane hit at the end of the month, the time when poor people are most vulnerable. Food stamps don't buy enough but for about three weeks of the month, and by the end of the month everyone runs out. Now they have no way to get their food stamps or any money, so they just have to take what they can to survive.

Many people are getting sick and very weak. From the toxic water that people are walking through, little scratches and sores are turning into major wounds.

People whose homes and families were not destroyed went into the city right away with boats to bring the survivors out, but law enforcement told them they weren't needed. They are willing and able to rescue thousands, but they're not allowed to.

Every day countless volunteers are trying to help, but they're turned back. Almost all the rescue that's been done has been done by volunteers anyway.

My son and his family - his wife and kids, ages 1, 5 and 8 - were flooded out of their home when the levee broke. They had to swim out until they found an abandoned building with two rooms above water level.

There were 21 people in those two rooms for a day and a half. A guy in a boat who just said "I'm going to help regardless" rescued them and took them to Highway I-10 and dropped them there.

They sat on the freeway for about three hours, because someone said they'd be rescued and taken to the Superdome. Finally they just started walking, had to walk six and a half miles.

When they got to the Superdome, my son wasn't allowed in - I don't know why - so his wife and kids wouldn't go in. They kept walking, and they happened to run across a guy with a tow truck that they knew, and he gave them his own personal truck.

When they got here, they had no gas, so I had to punch a hole in my gas tank to give them some gas, and now I'm trapped. I'm getting around by bicycle.

People from Placquemine Parish were rescued on a ferry and dropped off on a dock near here. All day they were sitting on the dock in the hot sun with no food, no water. Many were in a daze; they've lost everything.

They were all sitting there surrounded by armed guards. We asked the guards could we bring them water and food. My mother and all the other church ladies were cooking for them, and we have plenty of good water.

But the guards said, "No. If you don't have enough water and food for everybody, you can't give anything." Finally the people were hauled off on school buses from other parishes.

You know Robert King Wilkerson (the only one of the Angola 3 political prisoners who's been released). He's been back in New Orleans working hard, organizing, helping people. Now nobody knows where he is. His house was destroyed. Knowing him, I think he's out trying to save lives, but I'm worried.

The people who could help are being shipped out. People who want to stay, who have the skills to save lives and rebuild are being forced to go to Houston.

It's not like New Orleans was caught off guard. This could have been prevented.

There's military right here in New Orleans, but for three days they weren't even mobilized. You'd think this was a Third World country.

I'm in the Algiers neighborhood of New Orleans, the only part that isn't flooded. The water is good. Our parks and schools could easily hold 40,000 people, and they're not using any of it.

This is criminal. These people are dying for no other reason than the lack of organization.

Everything is needed, but we're still too disorganized. I'm asking people to go ahead and gather donations and relief supplies but to hold on to them for a few days until we have a way to put them to good use.

I'm challenging my party, the Green Party, to come down here and help us just as soon as things are a little more organized. The Republicans and Democrats didn't do anything to prevent this or plan for it and don't seem to care if everyone dies.

Malik's phone is working. He welcomes calls from old friends and anyone with questions or ideas for saving lives. To reach him, call the Bay View at (415) 671-0789.

yo Malik,

Just to say your article has been translated for the "Dutchies", you know, them strange cloggies who live behind the Dykes, or "levees" as you call them in U$A. The Dutch government has offered a whole team of "Dyke"-experts/civil engineers, but it seems George "Dubya" Bu$h would rather prefer them drill for Oil, in some remote marsh-land near Tikrit, Saddam-City, Iraq. Just like this disaster, George Dubya Bu$h = an accident, waiting to happen. Eerie!
Spooky! And positively shocking! Solidarity from Amsterdam, the Neverlandz behind the Dykes...
"When the levee breaks..." (LedZep ;-)

If we lived in a world with any truth then it would be dumb to blame Bush - Clinton or Capitalism are much better tartgets - Though the apathy and ignorance - and refusal to organize of the poor people would certainly be high on the list...

Of course we live in a world with so little truth that few remember such a thing -

So yeah its all Bush's falt

I copied the white vigilants bit a bit.
thought it happened in san fransisco, but apparently its known the bay of mexico warms.
So the only real problem is the oil economy, cars.

How about this though, another 'political' consideration may be and may have been:
how about the next?

Personally i wouldnt consider rebuild if u anyhow decide to dive.

This is NOT the time for cynicism, sarcasm, or any other negativity. Now is the time for people to act, to help those in such desperate need.

Give to the reputable charities. If you are a medical or health care professional and can find any way to help, volunteer via the American Red Cross.

Otherwise, loving energies and active support in every possible way is needed now for our fellow Americans and guests all along the Gulf Coast in the devastated regions.

i think in expressing my hopes politics may open up business and people will take action before next time is compassion,
I still cant help thinking that things happening half a globe away are the worse and,
especially harder to pay by the people involved unfortunately, if compassion is on the financial level.
In all the rest i sincerely hope nothing of this all will ever happen again.

9/5/5
I spoke to a survivor from Metairie , La . He said he escaped
two -three days after the cyclone with some of his tenants .
He said the wind made it a rough ride there . His vehicle left
Eastbank jefferson parrish after dark and evacuated down
Airline hwy in Jefferson parrish to get to Hammond and
beyond . ALONG Airline hwy the vehicle stopped for police
and they were warned to the max degree of the danger after
dark anywhere near southshore metro area . They warned them
that , " They have gone crazy ,,,Get the hell out of here ! "
This person said these officers told them that the had just mowed
down a large mob or grouping of "crazies" ( BLACK LOOTERS)
t at that vicinity . The vehicle occupants were awed by the
bodies laid out on the shoulder of Airline Hwy . Some covered
some not : all blacks .Automatic weapons/guns were utilized tp
deal with these dead persons . The survivor witnessed to us
that the were about 25 dead there on the side of Airline at
that stop. After seeing that , they left at all haste . They were
so glad to be out of New Orleans and southshore area .
I believed this survivor's testimony ; I lived in New Orleans
and know personally what kind of arsenal the "crazies" and
druggin thuggin fools have at their disposal or found by looting.
I believe the police who "mowed down " those suspects did it
out of force and combative defense . This to let people know
just how violent things are in "the jungle " of the N.O. / Metro .
The looting and criminal element were prowling beyond the
region of New Orleans Parrish and that blacks were interdicted
in a deadly force of automatic weapons shows the perilous
situation in and around New Orleans . It is not an urban myth
or legends . Reports of an automatic weapon battle just occured
in east N,O. : 5 black suspects were killed there . The battle of
New Orleans still rages on a Sunday morning . It is apocalypticly
dangerous there as I type . The northshore is buying generators,
gas jerry-cans ,and GUNS like mad. They are getting more and
more armed because of the madness . The northshore area is
not welcoming any black evacuees . That is true and is reported
so in the National and local press . Pray that the armed forces
be they civillians or police or military or federal can shut down
the disasterous crime wave before racial tensions light riots
accross the USA . That is the hopes of the REAL TRUE NEW
ORLEANIANS BOTH BLACK AND WHATEVER .
New Orleans is town of Catholics and Christians and the
thuggin druggin gangsters were a veritable plague BEFORE
cyclone from hell paid the Cresent city a nasty visit .
All Christian and Catholic support the civilian and professional
defense efforts and battles in the WAR for New Orleans .
May the almighty and evermerciful Holy Father
and almighty God smite this TOTALLY EVIL plague of devils
and demon-crazed from Louisiana like He did at soddom-go
morrah centuries ago .Praise His Holy Name !
For you dumbed down liberal delusional types; WAKE UP!
This could be your city-urban sprawl on fire with crime and
evil demonic personalities spreading unbelievable violence.
Do not allow this to spread to other cities; DEFEND and ARM
your communities! Get protection NOW!
This not alarmist rambling, but sincere concern from a New
Orlenian born at Hotel Dieu hospital . A real New Orleaninan.
I have people and friends and some family lost there right now .
THE PHONE LINES NEED TO BE up in the N.O./Metro area .
we need cell phone and land lines up and running ASAP!!!!!
Tell the politicians to get the telcom industry to stop the traffic
and distribution problems. This of parmount importance !!!
Do not give money to Red Cross , United Way or such big name
charity clearinghouses . Come to Louisiana and Mississippi
in a month and see it for your self and face to face engage and
give aide and comfort to your gulf south brothers and sisters .
thank you for your time and concern,,, natasha

Nothing like kicking desperate people when they're down. Why don't you go back to stormfront?

Here's a firsthand account of what's really happening in NOLA:
http://neworleans.indymedia.org/news/2005/09/4423.php

What news is there of those in Louisanna's prisons?
were any of the prisons in the flooded areas, if so, were the inmates evacuated? If not what is their status? What help, advocacy do they need?

thank you
Kaleema

Holy crap! You should buy yourself a soul, your type of person needs one. I have seen your kind before; they are our elected officials, voted in by people like you...and now you are one of the forgotten...ironic

WOW...
Natasha...
people like you really make the rest of the planet hate your fucking country. you should perhaps consider suicide.... the almighty patriarch is waiting for you with his flabby white arms wide open ...

i hope you can sort your life out.

DTA

Kalima,

Just got a story with info on how to find prisoners from the Southern Center for Human Rights- it's on the newswire.