O22 Day of Action: Stop Police Brutality in New Orleans : NOLA Indymedia

CALL-IN CAMPAIGN TO CHALLENGE NEW ORLEANS POLICE BRUTALITY AND INHUMANE PRISON CONDITIONS

The New Orleans Police and their cronies in the various federal agencies who have come down to New Orleans for 'target practice' (as one inmate reported overhearing guards at Camp Greyhound makeshift jail saying late one night) need to be held in check. Every night, the newly-formed 'anti-looting squad' of over 100 poorly-trained and unprofessional officers head out into the darkened streets of New Orleans and arrest, beat and imprison dozens of individuals.

At least 956 people (according to police documents) have been arrested in New Orleans since the police department set up a makeshift jail at the city's Greyhound station in the days after Katrina flooded the city. Accounts of the conditions there are universally dismal, with all arrestees complaining of the lack of blankets, mattresses and food, the open-air cages, and the lack of access to a lawyer or phone call. According to the New Orleans Legal Action Workers (NOLAW), a newly-formed collective that interviewed arrestees upon their release, "In several interviews, released prisoners have told me that inmates are being attacked by guards for 'talking too loud.' One man I talked to was beaten when he asked for medical help." (see article at http://neworleans.indymedia.org/news/2005/10/6001.php )

Meanwhile, various human rights groups have documented the inhumane, "jail of death" conditions of those incarcerated before the hurricane in Orleans Parish Prison. An unknown number of inmates drowned in their cells when flood waters went above the ceiling of the first floor of the facility. "First-hand accounts of the horrors within Orleans Parish Prison raise serious concerns about the treatment of people held in custody", said Eric Balaban of the American Civil Liberties' Union's National Prison Project, a group which has documented a number of abuses in O.P.P. both during and after the hurricane. An emergency motion was filed by the ACLU on October 6th to gain access to Orleans Parish Prison to inspect evidence.

But instead of an investigation of the abuses at the facility, the New Orleans city government has instead decided to reopen the Orleans Parish Prison (O.P.P.) to house arrestees. This past Tuesday (October 18th), "Camp Greyhound" (or "Angola South", as it was named by guards who were sent from Angola prison to administer the facility) closed down, and booking of arrestees was moved back to the Orleans Parish Prison.

The conditions reported at "Camp Greyhound" continue at O.P.P.-- no bedding, no access to lawyers, cruelty by guards and officers. But now, instead of makeshift cages in the bus terminal, the arrestees are being housed (and some have been there non-stop since Tuesday) in potentially toxic filth in the Old Parish Prison.

This complete disregard of arrestees needs to stop. The unlawful arrests for 'trespassing' and 'curfew', the harassment of people on the street, and the ongoing brutality by police needs to end. Please call the numbers below to demand that these abuses by the New Orleans Police Department, U.S. Marshals and other federal agencies end immediately.

numbers to call:

New Orleans Police Department:
504-821-2222

personnel office: 504-586-7243

US Marshals: 504-589-6079

Mayor's Office:
(504) 658-4000

internet form to let the city know they need to do something about this:
http://www.bringneworleansback.org/Portals/BringNewOrleansBack/portal.aspx?tabid=29

mayor's office feedback form:
http://www.cityofno.com/portal.aspx?portal=1&load=~/SystemModules/ContactUs.ascx&contacttype=message&contactid=207

*N.O. L.A.W. is a grassroots, radical legal collective formed following the hurricanes to expose and combat police violence, give CopWatch and Know Your Rights trainings, and fight evictions throughout New Orleans using education, outreach, and direct action.