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BWB - The DANZIGER BRIDGE MURDERS: New Orleans Police, During Katrina, On Trial Today For Murdering Blacks, Attempting To Escape Hurricane (II) - RI10
BWB -
The DANZIGER
BRIDGE MURDERS:
New Orleans Police,
During Katrina, On
Trial Today For
Murdering Blacks,
Attempting To
Escape Hurricane
(II) - RI10
The Danziger Bridge Killings: How New Orleans Police
Gunned Down Civilians Fleeing the Flood
Friday, August 31st, 2007
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/31/1436209
On the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, we take a look back the Danziger Bridge killings. Seven police officers been indicted for opening fire on two African American families on the Danziger Bridge days after the storm, killing two people and wounding four others. At the time, the official story was that they gunned down snipers. Now the question is why they shot at two families fleeing the flood. [includes rush transcript]
The official story started floating out soon after the hurricane hit that there were snipers on the Danziger Bridge, which connects two neighborhoods flooded by the hurricane, that the police had taken them out and killed some of them. But there were other stories, too: that police had chased down and massacred innocent people fleeing the storm.
Last December seven police officers were indicted for killing two people walking across the bridge. They were from two families, the Bartholomews and the Madisons. James Brisette, a young man who was a friend of the Bartholomews, was killed by seven bullets in his back and legs. Susan Bartholomew's arm was partially blown off, her daughter and husband had three gunshot wounds each. Their trial is ongoing.
Ronald Madison, a forty year-old mentally disabled man, was one of the two people killed. He was walking across the bridge with his older brother Lance when, according to police, he was shot in the back and died. Lance was initially arrested and jailed for attempting to murder the police officers. He was later released after a grand jury cleared his name.
Dr. Rommel Madison is the brother of Lance and Ronald Madison. He is a dentist and testified Thursday at the International Tribunal on Hurricane Katrina. He joins us in the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans. We're also joined by Rosana Cruz, the co-director of Safe Streets, Strong Communities, a grassroots organization focused on transforming the criminal justice system in New Orleans.
* Dr. Romell Madison, dentist from New Orleans. His brother Ronald Madison was shot and killed by police on Danziger Bridge five days after the hurricane.
* Rosana Cruz, long time New Orleans community activist around issues of criminal justice, labor, and immigrant rights. She was the Gulf coast field coordinator for the National Immigration Law Center and also worked with New Orleans Worker Justice Coalition. Cruz is the co-director of Safe Streets, Strong Communities, an organization campaigning for a new criminal justice system in New Orleans.
RUSH TRANSCRIPT
This transcript is available free of charge. However, donations help us provide closed captioning for the deaf and hard of hearing on our TV broadcast. Thank you for your generous contribution.
Donate - $25, $50, $100, more...
AMY GOODMAN: The official story started floating out soon after the hurricane hit that there were snipers on the Danziger Bridge, which connects two neighborhoods flooded by the hurricane, that the police had taken them out and killed some of them. But there were other stories, too, that police had chased down and massacred innocent people fleeing the storm.
Last December, seven police officers were indicted for killing two people walking across the bridge. They were from two families, the Bartholomews and the Madisons. James Brisette, a young man who was a friend of the Bartholomews, was killed by seven bullets in his back and legs. Susan Bartholomew's arm was partially blown off. Her daughter and husband had three gunshot wounds each. Their trial is ongoing.
Ronald Madison, a forty-year-old mentally disabled man, was one of the two people killed. He was walking across the bridge with his older brother Lance, when, according to police, he was shot in the back and died. Lance was initially arrested and jailed for attempting to murder the police officers. He was later released after a grand jury cleared his name.
Dr. Rommel Madison is the brother of Lance and Ronald Madison. He is a dentist, and he testified this week at the International Tribunal on Hurricane Katrina that was put together by the People’s Hurricane Fund. He joins us now here in the Lower Ninth Ward. We're also joined by Rosana Cruz, the co-director of Safe Streets, Strong Communities, a grassroots organization focused on transforming the criminal justice system in New Orleans. We welcome you both to Democracy Now!
Romell Madison, you’re former president of the National Dental Association.
DR. ROMELL MADISON: Yes.
AMY GOODMAN: Describe what happened after the hurricane. What happened to your brothers?
DR. ROMELL MADISON: OK. My brothers were seeking help to get to safety on the east side of the Danziger Bridge by officers on the west side, and it hadn’t flooded, so they had refuge there. But they didn't have food or water, so they would go to the east side, where everyone was being picked up to be brought to safety to the dome and to the Convention Center.
On the day of September 4th, there was a family at the foot of the bridge, a husband, wife, daughter, three small kids and a teenager. During that time they were on the bridge, they noticed a rental truck, a moving van-type-sized truck, about a mid-sized van. It pulled up where the family was. They exited the truck. About seven men exited the truck, and they opened fire on the family at the foot of the bridge. One individual was killed. Everyone was wounded, but one of the children. The children's ages were from fourteen to nineteen.
After seeing that, they started retreating back to the westbound side of the Danziger Bridge back toward my office again. And at that point the police officers opened fire on them. They wounded my brother Ronald in the back twice. My brother Lance was able to get him to the other side of the bridge and put him on the grass, and then he ran for help. When he did return, he was relieved to find the National Guard and the state police, and he was telling them what happened.
At that point, the police officers walked up, and then they finally disclosed that they were police, because when they originally got out of the van, they were dressed in shorts, T-shirts, just plain shirts. They never identified themselves as being police. And to see them open fire on a small group of individuals, African American individuals, at the foot of the bridge, they just figured they were out to, you know, go hunting and shooting and killing people.
AMY GOODMAN: Where were you at this time?
DR. ROMELL MADISON: OK, I was in Baton Rouge. A lot of the information that I have has been published, and it was broadcasted on TV on the news, on CNN, in the newspaper, where I have pictures that I gave to members at the tribunal so that they could show the shooting incident. A lot of this was caught on the news cameras.
AMY GOODMAN: Explain what happened to your brother Ronald, how Lance described what happened on the bridge.
DR. ROMELL MADISON: OK. At that point, when they were close to the top of the bridge, they were -- he was shot in the back twice. And then he was able to carry him over to the bottom of the other side of the bridge.
AMY GOODMAN: They just opened fire on them?
DR. ROMELL MADISON: They just opened fire on them. They didn't have any guns. At the end of the incident of shooting, there were no guns found on the scene from any other individual. Only ones that had guns were the people that came out of the van. But when my brother did get back to the scene and they arrested him, my other brother Ronald had been shot a second time. This time he was shot in the back five more times. The bullets entered the back and exited the front of his body.
AMY GOODMAN: So he's laying on the bridge.
DR. ROMELL MADISON: He's laying on the ground in front of the hotel next to my office. And there's a truck parked right there. In the picture that I showed, there's a truck, pickup truck, parked right there. He was stood up in front of that pickup truck and shot in the back five more times. It was shown on CNN. The guy testified, because he witnessed it. He said that they stood him up in front of his truck, and they lined up behind him like a firing squad and shot him again. The bullet holes are in his pickup truck, and all that was shown on CNN. So during this entire period, they’ve never denied shooting him. They were trying to get out of saying that they shot him or that the shooting was first-degree murder. Now, my --
AMY GOODMAN: What was Lance saying at the time?
DR. ROMELL MADISON: Lance was telling them that his brother was injured and needed medical attention. And they totally disregarded any request that he had. They threatened him, cursed him, and told him he’d better shut up. They didn’t -- you know, they knew at that point they already had killed my brother Ronald.
AMY GOODMAN: When he approached the guard, what did the police say when they came up behind him?
DR. ROMELL MADISON: The police? Well, the police came from the bridge, from the bridge. My brother met them before my office site, which they kind of like came together. And that's when the police told the state troopers and the National Guards that “Hold him. He's under arrest for attempted murder for shooting at the police.” And that's when they arrested him.
AMY GOODMAN: When they arrested Lance.
DR. ROMELL MADISON: That’s when they arrested Lance, yes.
AMY GOODMAN: The stories we heard as we were in New Orleans were there were snipers on the bridge, and the police had taken them out.
DR. ROMELL MADISON: No. There were no snipers. There were other witnesses that discredited that statement. There were a lot of statements that were discredited. Just all you have to do is follow the news with CNN, and you’ll see, find out what happened.
AMY GOODMAN: And ultimately, the officers were indicted.
DR. ROMELL MADISON: Yeah. Ultimately they were found -- they found out the truth through the grand jury investigation, and four of them were indicted for first-degree murder, three of them were indicted for attempted first-degree murder and second-degree murder. The murder charges stem from the killing of both my brother Ronald and James Brisette.
AMY GOODMAN: And James Brisette was the friend of the Bartholomews.
DR. ROMELL MADISON: Yes.
AMY GOODMAN: And describe what you understand at this point happened with them.
DR. ROMELL MADISON: In the description of the medical reports, the mother's arm was shot off. The daughter -- and she testified on TV on CNN that they were going to shoot her mother again, and she tried to cover her body with her body, and they shot her in the back three times. They shot the father. They shot --
AMY GOODMAN: Father in the head.
DR. ROMELL MADISON: Yes. And they shot two of the kids. Now, the ages of the kids range from fourteen to the age of nineteen, which was James Brisette. They were young kids. One of them got away and didn't get shot.
The ambulance brought the family to the hospital. They were treated. Bullets were removed. And they were released. And ’til today, they've never been charged with anything, which -- and the judge, at the hearing for my brother’s bail, asked the police about “Why haven't you charged these people, if you shot them? Otherwise, you just shot them for nothing.” And there was no response to that. They claim they didn't know where the family was. I knew where the family was. But, you know, they were -- I think they were afraid to come back and voice what happened to them at the time, but they have filed suit against the police department.
AMY GOODMAN: Rosana Cruz, you run an organization here in New Orleans, Safe Streets. How does this story fit into what you've been seeing since Hurricane Katrina?
ROSANA CRUZ: Safe Streets, Strong Communities is a membership-based organization. Among our membership are families, the Madisons and other families. The way that this fits in is that this is unfortunately just one story that represents many stories of police misconduct. And that's really putting it lightly.
What we've seen since the storm is basically a gross criminalization of people of color that certainly existed before the storm, but was laid bare and really exacerbated during this time of crisis when people turned to the police and law enforcement agencies and officials for help. And this was kind of the experience that many people have had. And so, in the months after the storm, Safe Streets went and collected testimony from different families, their experiences, like Mr. Dean, in terms of being incarcerated, and also the experiences of people who had lost loved ones or themselves experienced police brutality.
AMY GOODMAN: You also deal a great deal with immigrants. When you heard Roderick Dean's story, the story of being in the Orleans Parish Prison, the water rising above, the stories of immigrants at this time?
ROSANA CRUZ: The immigrant community historically in New Orleans has been a marginalized community, one that was geographically pushed to the edges of the city. And some of the bigger issues that they dealt with was just this complete language barrier and lack of access to information. The city didn't have any kind of set plan for folks with limited English.
Also, immediately after the storm, what we saw was large numbers of immigrants being brought into the city. In the work that Safe Streets has done in collaboration with other organizations, we've seen that both African American communities and Latino communities have experienced this level of criminalization really around work. It's really interesting that when Orleans Parish Prison was reopened, immediately employers were calling the prison and saying, “We need your guys. We need workers.” And so, the impetus there was to refill that prison as quickly as possible to provide this labor force, which has afforded historically the sheriff a great deal of patronage power. And so, you see African Americans being arrested, funneled into a prison system, being put to work through the sheriff's program. And then, at the same time, Latino workers being brought in, invited, basically, to come work, recruited to come work here. And meanwhile, law enforcement, particularly Immigration Customs Enforcement, inflated by, I want to say, over 700 new agents in the Gulf Coast. So, immediately behind them, an enforcement agency to criminalize and arrest them.
AMY GOODMAN: What do you think needs to be done now? In the case of your family, the police officers are going on trial, Dr. Madison. Your family has also sued?
DR. ROMELL MADISON: My mother and brother have. But presently, we're still faced with the uphill fight with the judicial system. OK, when the indictments were handed out to the police on December 28th of ’05, they were allowed to turn themselves in January 2nd of ’06, so that they could have this time to spend with their families.
The second thing that the judge did that I feel was incorrect was that he provided bail for first-degree murder. Nowhere in the United States is anyone provided bail for first-degree murder. These individuals were provided bail. One of the officers quit and was allowed to move to Houston, Texas, to leave the state. And that's unheard of also. They were supposed to be on house arrest, and they shouldn't have left -- he shouldn’t have gone anywhere.
Third, they were allowed to go back to work as police in the police department, which is really a tragedy to the public. They’ve fired police for second-degree battery, let alone for being charged for first-degree murder, and allowed them to come back to work as police officers.
The last thing is that the violation of the grand jury testimony, too, by giving it to the defense attorneys for the police, to allow them to find out what’s [inaudible] in it and whether it would have a means to try to have the charges dropped against their clients. Now, that is another violation of civil rights injustice, because no one's allowed to view the grand jury testimony. If that was the case, they could have let the defense attorney decide whether or not they should be charged or not.
Everything has really been the complete opposite of what should be. And finally the judge -- there was a motion for the judge to recuse himself. I don't think just because of this, but because of his air of impropriety that was given in his disclosure. So at this point, that's what we're all working on: his recusal from the case and trying to obtain a judge that will deal with everything strictly by the book and fairly.
ROSANA CRUZ: And just to clarify, the judge on this case is a close friend of the police department, has three staff members who have direct family relationships or business relationships with the defense attorneys.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, we will leave it there, but we won't leave this story alone. We will continue to follow it, even as we leave New Orleans. I want to thank you both for being with us.
DR. ROMELL MADISON: Thank you. I appreciate it.
AMY GOODMAN: Rosana Cruz with Safe Streets, Romell Madison, former president of the National Dental Association, lost his brother Ronald on the Danziger Bridge just after the hurricane hit. Two police officers -- seven police officers are now charged with murder in his and another case.
Jailed in New Orleans Two Weeks Before Katrina, Fmr.
Corrections Officer Held for Four Months Without Charge
Friday, August 31st, 2007
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/31/1435259
Roderick Dean, a former corrections officer, recounts his harrowing ordeal two years ago when he was arrested and jailed without charge on August 11, 2005 - two weeks before Hurricane Katrina. When the storm hit, Dean was in New Orleans Parish Prison where he narrowly escaped drowning after the jail flooded. He was never charged and released four months later. [includes rush transcript]
We are broadcasting live from the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans on the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Right behind us is where the barge came through the levee wall wiping out blocks of houses. Driving here through the French Quarter you would think New Orleans has been renewed re-New Orleans. But right here in the ninth ward the endless wait for help. According to our guest yesterday Malik Rahim of the 12,000 people who once lived here he estimates that there are maybe 400 today. We saw wrecked schools, churches, houses. Many of the houses demolished. Very few rebuilt. Louisiana has the highest incarceration rate in the country. Activists and lawyers testifying at the Katrina tribunal in New Orleans this week say that the hurricane only deepened the existing cracks in the criminal justice system.
Roderick Dean is a former corrections officer in New Orleans. He was arrested without charge on August 11, 2005. That's two weeks before Katrina. When the hurricane hit Dean was in New Orleans Parish Prison where he narrowly escaped drowning. He was never charged and released four months later.
Roderick Dean now joins us in the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans.
* Roderick Dean, former correctional officer and mayoral candidate who ran against Mayor Ray Nagin last year. Dean was arrested two weeks before Hurricane Katrina and held without charge for four months. He was at Orleans Parish Prison when during Hurricane Katrina.
RUSH TRANSCRIPT
This transcript is available free of charge. However, donations help us provide closed captioning for the deaf and hard of hearing on our TV broadcast. Thank you for your generous contribution.
Donate - $25, $50, $100, more...
AMY GOODMAN: We are broadcasting live from the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans on this, the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Right behind us is where the barge came through the levee wall, wiping out blocks of houses. Driving here through the French Quarter, you would think New Orleans has been renewed, or Renew Orleans.
But right here in the Ninth Ward, the endless wait for help. According to our guest yesterday, Malik Rahim, who founded Common Ground Relief, of the more than 12,000 people who once lived here in the Lower Ninth Ward, he estimates there are maybe 400 today. As we traveled through the Ninth Ward, we saw wrecked schools, churches, houses, many of the houses demolished, very few rebuilt. Many places, we just saw foundations that are overgrown with marsh weed.
Louisiana has the highest incarceration rate in the country. Activists and lawyers testified yesterday at the Katrina tribunal in New Orleans that was put together by the People’s Hurricane Relief Fund. They said the hurricane only deepened the existing cracks in the criminal justice system.
Roderick Dean joins us today. He’s a former corrections officer. He was arrested without charge on August 11, 2005. That's two weeks before Katrina. When the hurricane hit, Roderick Dean was in the Orleans Parish Prison, where he narrowly escaped drowning. But he's here. So we'll let him tell the story. Welcome to Democracy Now!, Roderick Dean.
RODERICK DEAN: Thank you.
AMY GOODMAN: Tell us what happened. August 11, you're on the street of New Orleans. Why were you arrested?
RODERICK DEAN: Basically, I was -- I feel racially profiled walking in an affluent majority-white neighborhood of uptown New Orleans. Along South Claiborne Avenue at the intersection of Calhoun around 8:00 a.m. on the morning of August 11, 2005, as my friend and I were walking to breakfast at McDonald's, I was carrying my prescription meds with me, when a white New Orleans police officer approached the two of us and proceeded to frisk us and patted us down. My friend was carrying a weapon, which I was unaware of at the time.
At that point, the scene escalated into an unwarranted arrest, followed by the two of us being handcuffed together. The white officer then proceeded to take my friend's weapon and beat him upside his head with it. During that altercation, I was -- being handcuffed with him, I was jostled around and banged myself up against the police car, while that altercation was underway.
Afterward, we were later taken to Orleans Parish jail, where I was charged with trespassing and possession of prescription medicine, Hydrocodone. The medicine charge came from the fact that I had my own medicine, clearly marked in my own medicine bottles, on me at the time of my being arrested and frisked.
Once inside Orleans Parish jail, I was awaiting arraignment for those charges to be released. And basically the charges rose and fell on the prescriptions that I had from the Veterans Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky.
AMY GOODMAN: So you had to wait for the prescription to come through to get out?
RODERICK DEAN: I had to wait for --
AMY GOODMAN: The evidence.
RODERICK DEAN: Yeah, the prescription profile to arrive by way of fax from the VA hospital, in order to go to court and show that those meds belonged to me. And unfortunately, the hurricane came in that period of time, during that period of time, preventing me from actually going to court and proving my innocence and also locking me up into a harrowing situation.
AMY GOODMAN: So what happened when the hurricane hit? What floor were you on?
RODERICK DEAN: I was on the first floor of the jail's medical unit, tier -- Templeman I, cell one, I think, A-1, B-1. I don't know the numbers. But anyway, I was on front and center.
And on that particular day, the morning, Sunday, I think it was August the 28th, 2005, we woke up early that day. And I was lying in the bed on the third -- the lowest bed of three-stacked-high bed bunks. And the two guys above me woke up that morning on Sunday and felt the concrete wall beside the bunk and noticed that the wall was wet with sweat, sweating like. And, you know, they proceeded to tell us in the cell, “Hey, my walls are sweating,” at which point I felt the wall beside my bunk, which was still completely dry. However, at that point, I reached down to the foot of my bed and grabbed my blanket. Well, my blanket was completely soaked with water.
Shortly thereafter, sometime early on in the day, Sunday, the electricity went out. Power failed. The TVs went off. And no circulation, no air-conditioning in the room, the air became stagnant. The toilets in the bathroom, about six stalls, were full of excrement, and they were not working. They backed up and stopped working. The cell quickly became hot, steamy.
And shortly thereafter, water entered the cell. It first entered the cell from a corner in the room, and it just quickly raced across the floor. And it was a manurish brown-colored water. It quickly rose. And after it reached the depth of the toilets, the toilets actually floated out into the cell. The water continued to rise at that time.
Because I take a variety -- I had been given an intravenous injection of pig interferon on Friday before the hurricane, which causes flu-like symptoms, which basically leaves me bedridden or wheelchair-bound for three or four days after that injection, so that was the condition, physical condition, that I was in at the time of the hurricane. I was seated in my wheelchair that day.
Well, the water quickly rose and covered my wheelchair. It also covered my lower bunk of the three stacked beds. As the day bore on and progressed, we had no electricity. And upon the approach of darkness, the cell was completely pitch black. You were unable to --
AMY GOODMAN: And the water was now…?
RODERICK DEAN: The water was above -- the water was above the first bed. My bed was completely submerged. I had climbed to an empty bunk on the third bunk.
AMY GOODMAN: Where were the guards?
RODERICK DEAN: There were no guards visible in sight. The last time I saw the guards was around -- well, they came at 6:00 a.m. on Sunday. And we got our last meal in OPP, which was grits, around 6:00.
AMY GOODMAN: Orleans Parish Prison.
RODERICK DEAN: Orleans Parish Prison. And then about an hour later, they came around with meds, with pills for that particular day, which I didn't get pills that day. I got pills that night before.
AMY GOODMAN: We only have a few minutes. What happened after that? What happened on Monday and Tuesday?
RODERICK DEAN: Well, you know, the waters rose. We were in the darkness. You know, basically we were going to drown. We stood in the water, took our wheelchairs, buckets, and tried to bang down the glass and get out. We were screaming and hollering, using cigarette lighters to illuminate the cell and gauge the depth of the water. We quickly rose to the third bunk.
And at that point, there were flashes of death. You know, I saw my body in the water bloating. I just kind of prayed at that point and asked God to really save me, to stop the water from rising. And at that point, believe it or not, the water actually stopped rising, which had covered the second bunk and was about five feet in depth, up close to my neck.
And hours after that, a few guards came back in rubber clothing and flashlights and fumbled with the keys, because the hydraulic doors were not working. They had to override that with the keys. They dropped them in the water, retrieved them hurriedly, and escorted us out of the cell. I tried to take my wheelchair. I could not take it. I was too weak to exit the cell by myself. Two other inmates helped me swim through the water.
We were evacuated upstairs to a gymnasium, which was dry, on the third floor, but it was even hotter and more steamy than the cellblock had been. We had these contaminated clothing on. We spent our last night there with about a hundred men in that gym without toilet facilities. We had to use the bathroom, and ultimately we banged on the door until they threw a trash bag in and told us to urinate and defecate in that bag. Until the next morning, we stayed there.
And they evacuated us by boats that next morning to a roadway overpass on Broad Street, at which time we were in the direct sunlight all day from around 10:00 a.m. until the sun went down, waiting for prison buses to arrive, begging -- and dehydrated, and begging for food, begging for water, begging for medications, life-saving medications, all to no avail.
The responsibility for loading the buses as they arrived was delegated to prison trustees. And instead of --
AMY GOODMAN: Other prisoners.
RODERICK DEAN: Other prisoners. And they were supposed to load the buses in priority of the medical unit, my ward, first. But that did not happen. They got their friends on first. I was overlooked, and it took several times of me screaming and hollering at the guards that, you know, I was a medical prisoner, and they were not putting medical prisoners on board. Around the time the sun went down, I was finally able to get the attention of a guard and get on board.
AMY GOODMAN: And they brought you where, these buses?
RODERICK DEAN: First I went to the Hunt Correctional Center, where I spent a total of about one hour.
AMY GOODMAN: This near Jena?
RODERICK DEAN: I don't know the structurally -- demographics of the state of Louisiana. I think it's close to Jena, yeah. We stayed there in the grassy field, several hundred inmates, for about an hour, where we got a stale baloney sandwich and a stale piece of cake and a half a Dixie cup of water. We began a riot over the lack of water. We were extremely dehydrated. The prison warden averted the riot by allowing us to have all the water we wanted. I drank over a gallon of water, at which time we went back on buses and rode overnight to Winn Correction Center in northern Louisiana, Winnfield, where I would remain in custody until December 8, 2005.
AMY GOODMAN: Four months. You had never been arraigned now?
RODERICK DEAN: I have never been arraigned, ever.
AMY GOODMAN: And so, the last day in Winn Correctional Facility, they brought you back to New Orleans?
RODERICK DEAN: Yes. On the morning of December the 8th, 2005, around 4:30 in the morning, I was awakened by a guard kicking the foot of my bed. When I woke up and saw him standing there, he asked me am I Roderick Dean. I say, “Yes, I am”. He says, “Gather your belongings. The bus is waiting to take you back to Orleans Parish jail. You're being released.” I said, “Well, I haven't had any food since 4:00 p.m. yesterday at dinner. Can I go eat breakfast in thirty minutes, then, you know, get on the bus?” He told me, no, that the bus was running, and I had to leave. And I got no food or water on December the 8th. I got on the bus. We went back to OPP, got back about 1:00 p.m. --
AMY GOODMAN: Orleans Parish Prison in New Orleans.
RODERICK DEAN: -- stayed in their holding cell there for about four hours. I was cut loose around 5:00 p.m. at dusk from the jail, at which time I asked the guards, did I need to come back to court or have a court date. And they said, “No. No court date, no charges.” And they cut me loose into the city that I didn't recognize at that time with -- that was under curfew. It was under lockdown. It was under martial law. And it was totally abandoned, minus the, you know, gangs roaming the streets, that I heard reports of sniping and killing, and so forth.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, on that note, I want to thank you very much for being with us. Four months in prison without charge. You come out of prison, you ultimately run for mayor against Mayor Nagin.
RODERICK DEAN: Yes.
AMY GOODMAN: But we're going to leave it there. You've sued the city?
RODERICK DEAN: Yes. I’ve sued the city. I have the defendants listed: the warden of the prisons; Richard Stalder, Secretary of the State Department of Corrections; the Orleans Parish Sheriff Marlin Gusman; Mayor Ray Nagin; Governor Kathleen Blanco; Attorney General Charles Foti; the warden Timothy Wilkerson of Winn Correction Center; Police Chief Eddie Compass; Police Chief Warren Riley; District Attorney Eddie Jordan.
AMY GOODMAN: And we will follow your case. Roderick Dean, thanks for joining us.
RODERICK DEAN: Thank you. My pleasure.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. We're broadcasting from the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans. When we come back, another story. It's one that has been floating around the city for several years, since the hurricane hit: the shootings on the Danziger Bridge.
Tabacco: I’m still waiting! I’m still waiting! I’m still waiting for that America of Liberty. I’m still waiting for that America of Freedom, Justice & Equality for ALL. Where is it? Where did it go? The history books tell me it never existed. Why do so many so often so loudly say that it did? Why do so many so often so loudly say that it does? White men are NOT “ALL PEOPLE”.
When you deliberately perpetuate a Lie to be True, you are a HYPOCRITE and LIAR. Which of our Founding Fathers did NOT know that “3/5 of all other persons” referred exclusively to those of African descent, who had been forcibly brought to this country in chains to serve as SLAVES to White Men! Did Washington not know? Was Jefferson unaware? Could Franklin have been ignorant? Was Adams innocent of that knowledge? Remember, America, these are the names and images on our currency, on our street signs, on our statues and monuments, on our national buildings, in our history books, revered by our elders and proselytized to our children – yes, even to children of African heritage!
We are the NIGGERS of America, and we always have been. I dare anyone, Black or White, to say to me that I cannot use the word “NIGGER” after centuries of use by Whites to denigrate, marginalize, enslave, segregate, manipulate, confuse, murder, profit from these NIGGERS, turn light-skinned against dark-skinned, then rationalize, euphemize, qualify, quantify and excuse their acts with quotes from the Bible, the Constitution, Rudyard Kipling & The Supreme Court.
No, America, Tabacco presents to you the America that has always existed, not the glorified mythology of Whites and propagandized Blacks.
Tabacco: I consider myself both a funnel and a filter. I funnel information, not readily available on the Mass Media, which is ignored and/or suppressed. I filter out the irrelevancies and trivialities to save both the time and effort of my Readers and bring consternation to the enemies of Truth & Fairness! When you read Tabacco, if you don’t learn something NEW, I’ve wasted your time.
In 1981's 'Body Heat', Kathleen Turner said, "Knowledge is power".
T.A.B.A.C.C.O. (Truth About Business And Congressional Crimes Organization) – Think Tank For Other 95% Of World