Civil Rights
Friday, May 4, 2012
Last group of inmates leaves House of Detention
Posted by Charles Maldonado on Fri, May 4, 2012 at 11:53 AM
"The House of Detention is now a closed chapter in the history of the sheriff's office and the city of New Orleans," Gusman said at a press conference, minutes before the few remaining HOD residents boarded a bus taking them to other Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office facilities.
More than 600 OPP inmates — all of them Orleans Parish, rather than state, detainees — have been moved out of the facility since Gusman's April 10 announcement, Gusman said. To make room for them, 400 post-conviction state inmates, recently housed in other OPP buildings, have been handed over to the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections to be placed in other facilities throughout the state.
(More after the jump)
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
SPLC on jail building closure: "Tragically, this incremental reform occurred only after the abusive conditions at OPP destroyed countless lives"
Posted by Charles Maldonado on Wed, Apr 11, 2012 at 9:55 AM
The Southern Poverty Law Center, which filed a federal class-action lawsuit against the Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office last week, today issued the following statement in response to Sheriff Marlin Gusman's decision to close the Orleans Parish Prison's House of Detention:
New Orleans, La. – The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) commends Sheriff Marlon Gusman’s decision to close the Orleans Parish Prison (OPP) House of Detention today but calls for the Sheriff’s Department to make additional reforms to better protect the community and save taxpayer dollars.
The SPLC brought a federal class action civil rights lawsuit against the Orleans Parish Sheriff earlier this month. The lawsuit charged that Sheriff Gusman’s indifference created brutal and inhumane conditions at the Orleans Parish Prison where prisoners endured rampant violence, multiple sexual assaults and neglect.
“The closure of the House of Detention represents an important first step on the way to real reform in the Orleans Parish Prison,” said Katie Schwartzmann, managing attorney of SPLC’s Louisiana office. “Sheriff Gusman took this action in the wake of federal marshals removing their prisoners from his custody about three weeks ago, the Department of Justice investigative tour of OPP that occurred last week, SPLC’s class action lawsuit also filed last week, and the scathing report on OPP issued yesterday by the federal Review Panel on Prison Rape.”
“The Sheriff should be commended for finally recognizing the intolerable and inhumane conditions at OPP,” said Schwartzmann. “Tragically, this incremental reform occurred only after the abusive conditions at OPP destroyed countless lives. Resolving the crisis at OPP will require more than moving people from one jail to another. It’s time to recognize that New Orleans and the Sheriff’s Department invests far too many resources in imprisonment—at the expense of alternatives that could better protect our communities and save taxpayer dollars.”
The federal complaint filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana describes a facility where violence and wide-spread contraband are the norm, and details the abusive treatment endured by prisoners with mental illness, including denial of mental health services that leave the prisoners extremely vulnerable to physical attacks. It also noted the facility is understaffed and that deputies are poorly trained and supervised – often complicit in the abuses suffered by the prisoners.
Saturday, April 7, 2012
Modern-day segregationists
Posted by Clancy DuBos on Sat, Apr 7, 2012 at 1:39 PM
Starting Monday, April 9, state senators will have the opportunity to show where they stand on Louisiana’s latest incarnation of 1950s-style segregation laws. I’m not making this up, and I’m not exaggerating.
On its face, Senate Bill 217 by Sen. A.G. Crowe, R-Pearl River, may strike some as benign — as did many of the “states rights” bills in the 1950s and ’60s. It reiterates the six factors currently identified as “protected” under state law. Sexual orientation and several other key factors are not among them. The real intent of the bill and its supporters came out on March 29, when the bill was heard by the Senate Labor and Industrial Relations Committee, which Crowe chairs.
That aim: to prohibit the state and all local governments from protecting persons against discrimination based on sexual orientation, proficiency in English, special needs and other factors not already enumerated in state law.
If passed, the bill would allow charter schools, for example, to discriminate against kids who are gay, who aren’t proficient in English, who have special needs, who aren't very athletic, or who simply aren’t the best students. All this, despite federal laws that require public schools to be open to all kids.
Thursday, April 5, 2012
SlutWalk comes to New Orleans
Posted by Lauren LaBorde on Thu, Apr 5, 2012 at 2:16 PM
Ever since last year's Toronto march, groups in major cities around the world have followed the SlutWalk template and staged their own marches. Winter Randall and a fleet of volunteers is organizing Saturday's march, which begins in Congo Square. "It just seems like it is such an important movement, and it would be a shame if New Orleans didn't join in," she says.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
HUD announces ruling against LGBT discrimination
Posted by Alex Woodward on Tue, Jan 31, 2012 at 5:00 PM
Following this month's conference of U.S. mayors announcing support for the Freedom to Marry initiative, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) this week announced new provisions to "ensure that its core housing programs are open to all eligible persons, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity."
HUD secretary Shaun Donovan said "the Obama Administration has viewed the fight for equality on behalf of the LGBT community as a priority and I’m proud that HUD has been a leader in that fight. ... With this historic rule, the Administration is saying you cannot use taxpayer dollars to prevent Americans from choosing where they want live on the basis sexual orientation or gender identity — ensuring that HUD’s housing programs are open, not to some, not to most, but to all.”
Provisions to protect LGBT communities in public housing previously only fell into the Fair Housing Act's considerations. Donovan announced the latest Equal Access to Housing rules on Saturday, Jan. 24 at the 24th National Gay and Lesbian Task Force “Creating Change” Conference. The ACLU called the announcement a "tremendous step forward" — the final ruling (as "Equal Access to Housing in HUD Programs — Regardless of Sexual Orientation or Gender Identity") will be implemented 30 days after its publishing, next week.
HUD also is expanding its race and gender discrimination studies (performed every 10 years) with a study on LGBT discrimination in public housing.
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Judge rules #OccupyNOLA can stay
Posted by Alex Woodward on Tue, Dec 6, 2011 at 5:45 PM
Much of the following was reported by Charles Maldonado, on the scene.
Following Occupy NOLA's complaint against Mayor Mitch Landrieu outlining the city's "unconstitutional deprivation of First Amendment activities," U.S. District Judge Jay Zainey this afternoon issued a seven-day temporary restraining order.
The ruling prevents city-enforced eviction and grants protestors 24-hour access to the park, with some restrictions: no weapons, animals, open flames or electrical cords. Use of the pavilion also is restricted. Tents are allowed — though the city, it admits, trashed what was left when protestors' camps were thrown into a dump truck and crushed. Officials removed the barricades surrounding Duncan Plaza, which was blocked off and its occupiers evicted early this morning (about 4 a.m.). They're allowed to rebuild, effective now.
Landrieu announced Friday afternoon his request for Occupy NOLA to leave, and Monday morning, the city began transporting the plaza's homeless to Exodus House.
City attorney Richard Cortizas did not offer comment to Gambit following the hearing, but his full statement is below the jump.
Monday, November 21, 2011
Archdiocese says Wildes can serve on commission
Posted by Charles Maldonado on Mon, Nov 21, 2011 at 1:17 PM
The Archdiocese of New Orleans has responded to Concerned Classified City Employees group facilitator Randolph Scott's inquiry as to whether Loyola University president Rev. Kevin Wildes, a Catholic priest who chairs the New Orleans Civil Service Commission, is prohibited by Canon Law from sitting on the public body. As Gambit previously reported, the archdiocese and the local office of the Jesuit order had promised to look into the matter.
In a letter dated Nov. 10, Archbishop Gregory Aymond tells Scott that Canon Law 285 #3, which says "Clerics are forbidden to assume public offices which entail a participation in the exercise of civil power," does not apply to Wildes' position on the Commission.
(Complete letter and Scott's response after the jump)
Monday, October 31, 2011
Nashville journalist arrested at Occupy protest [Updated]
Posted by Charles Maldonado on Mon, Oct 31, 2011 at 11:10 AM
Update (4:10 p.m.) from the Scene and the Tennessean: The ACLU filed a lawsuit against the state of Tennessee and a federal judge has just issued a restraining order barring state police from making any further arrests for the curfew violation.
Meanwhile, Gov. Haslam's Facebook page, where Team Haslam staff members (presumably) post a lot of innocuous "news" items about the beauty of Tennessee's bears, is getting hate-bombed by Occupy Nashville supporters.
Nashville Scene reporter Jonathan Meador was arrested on Friday night, along with a group of Occupy Nashville protesters, for violating a newly imposed curfew at the Occupy Nashville site.
Background: Last week, Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam (son of Pilot gas station chain founder "Big" Jim Haslam of Knoxville, Tenn.) imposed a brand new 10 p.m. curfew on Legislative Plaza, a park just outside of the Tennessee State Capitol building in Nashville and site of the Occupy Nashville campground. Haslam declared the curfew last Thursday, and despite initially telling media that protesters would be given a full day (that is, until 10 p.m. Friday) to comply, state troopers moved in on the plaza late Thursday night/early Friday morning. On Friday, a judge ordered the state to drop its charges against that first round of arrestees. And here's where things take a turn for the truly absurd, or in the language of Tennessee politics, "perfectly normal": Haslam on Friday warned that troopers would again arrest protesters for violating the highly controversial new curfew.
(More after the jump.)
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Update on St. Charles Avenue Streetcar: accessibility and precision in language
Posted by Charles Maldonado on Tue, Oct 25, 2011 at 11:07 AM
In a September cover story on the St. Charles Avenue streetcar Gambit reported that the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority, the privately managed public body responsible for every bus and streetcar in the city, had made little progress in making the historic line accessible to disabled riders.
NORTA claimed, however, that it had formed a "committee" to address the problem. Here was its statement on that:
"The St. Charles Avenue Streetcar Line and the Perley Thomas Streetcars that service that line are both listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Prior to any modifications being made to the line or the streetcars, the Regional Transit Authority must seek authorization from governing bodies. The Regional Transit Authority has formed a committee to research the feasibility of moving toward accessibility on the St. Charles Avenue streetcar line. Members of the committee have discussed critical considerations including legality, operational capacity, safety concerns, and financial implications. All of these considerations are being explored fully prior to any formal action being taken. The RTA is committed to serving all members of the community and offers ADA paratransit services to qualifying riders. Additionally, all other RTA vehicles, with the exception of the St. Charles Avenue streetcar line, are fully accessible."
When asked for some specifics about the committee — its name, its members, when it held its public meetings, whether those were ever announced — NORTA spokeswoman Patrice Mercadel replied with the following supplemental statement:
"The statement provided constitutes the present position of the RTA as we move forward with exploring the feasibility of St. Charles Avenue Line accessibility."
Today, at the end of NORTA's board of commissioners meeting, I found out the problem. NORTA CEO Justin Augustine III told me that the (repeated) use of the word "committee" was, in fact, a misnomer.
(More after the jump)
Friday, October 14, 2011
The Big Fix filmmakers, subjects introduce oil disaster documentary
Posted by Alex Woodward on Fri, Oct 14, 2011 at 5:44 PM
The Big Fix has its U.S. premiere tonight at the Prytania Theater, but filmmakers Josh and Rebecca Tickell were joined by the film's subjects at the Contemporary Arts Center this afternoon to introduce the film. It's a necessary intro, as the film drops a bomb on BP and authorities, dropped by a seemingly quiet couple who previously worked on a documentary about clean energy solutions. "We didn't make the movie to pass judgement on an industry, we didn't make the movie to say 'Oil industry should get out of Louisiana' or people shouldn't keep their jobs. We made the movie because what had been done had been covered up and continues to be covered up," said Josh Tickell, a Louisiana native. "Now it's up to you to take this story and tell it in a courageous way that doesn't step over the evidence that shows this man-made disaster isn't over. In may ways it's just begun."
Tickell was joined by attorney Stuart Smith, as well as Hugh Kaufman, an EPA policy analyst who blew the whistle on the effects of Corexit as an oil dispersant in the Gulf as well as 9/11 cleanup workers being exposed to toxins. Dean Blanchard, owner of Blanchard Seafood and is profiled in the film, lamented the past worst shrimp season ever. "Our beach on Grand Isle was one of the most fertile fishing grounds," he said. "Now it's producing less than 1 percent of the shrimp it produced before BP." Blanchard also is concerned about the health of the shrimp and fish in his catch — they got the government's OK, but Blanchard lost his liability insurance, "so every night, when I ship out a load of seafood ... I got a big fear I might harm somebody."
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