tasering is like fishing December 20, 2007
OK, I did not know that tasering involves a long wire with a fish-hook thingy on the end. I thought it was an invisible beam of electricity that shot out at the person, like a “phaser” on Star Trek.
I got a call from Karen Gadbois this morning, telling me that things were going crazy at the City Council meeting. I went over there to see what was going on, even though I know that there is no point in showing up, speaking or protesting. Their minds are already made up, so everyone might as well save their breath. This was my first look at the Hooverville in Duncan Plaza, and it is astonishing.
I didn’t see anything that went on inside the council meeting, but this blogger seems to have captured the beginning. By the time I got there, things inside had calmed down. I saw two groups of extra policemen marching in columns into the council meeting as I walked up to the breezeway gate between City Hall and the courthouse. There were about 200 people, a mixture of activists and locals, black and white, and many from the media.
I found Karen and Sarah-Elise. These two women, who have been to more City Council meetings over the years than the members of the City Council, were kinda ticked off that they weren’t being allowed into the meeting. Because of the melee that broke out inside, resulting in at least one person being arrested, they had stopped letting people in. A comrade of theirs had gotten in, however, and was updating them on the Blackberry. According to their person on the inside, the meeting was packed with pro-demolition people.
I wandered around talking to the local people, most of whom were astounded that they were not being allowed into the meeting and that the council didn’t adjust to the larger crowd by getting a larger venue for the public meeting. The crowd was mostly milling around and watching. There was a core group of people at the front, in front of the closed gates, with one person chanting into a bullhorn and the crowd responding. Inside the gates were a couple of dozen police officers. There were barricades set up, ambulances, a fire truck, and numerous police cars.
The gates had been closed, but there is apparently no way to lock them, so the police had put a pair of handcuffs at the top to hold them closed. The person inside sent a message to Karen that the protesters could be heard inside. Suddenly, the crowd at the front became more agitated and someone pulled the gates open enough to break the handcuffs. The gates swung out and the protestors ran back. A policeman sprayed something that I think was mace. I started choking and moved back toward Duncan Plaza.
The gate was closed again and another pair of handcuffs was placed at the top. More police appeared with more barricades. I noticed several people being attended to by others in the crowd. I saw people pouring water into their eyes, but I saw some people who looked very badly shaken up and were unable to stand. I wandered up to the crowd attending one middle-aged white woman and found out that she had been tasered.
After that, I stayed pretty far from the gate because I didn’t want to choked by mace again, much less tasered. The crowd became loud and got agitated again and the gates swung open again. This time, two policemen sprayed canisters of pepper spray and more people were tasered. The tasered people were carried onto the grass by others. One young woman had a fish-hook type thing stuck into her shirt with a wire hanging from it. That’s how I found out tasers are like spear-fishing guns, not like phasers. Another young woman was lying on the ground, writhing. She seemed to be the most seriously hurt. Someone told me she was having a seizure. A middle aged black woman in a brown suit had been tasered and pepper-sprayed. Someone was pouring water into her eyes while another woman was taking off her jacket. She seemed in terrible pain, but later I saw her looking better.
The whole time all this was going on, there was an ambulance parked in front of the building with its lights flashing. A woman ran to the ambulance to get some help for the tasered people. She came running back and said, “there is no one in there!” For the longest time, there were no EMTs, then they finally showed up and got the seizing girl into the ambulance, and the one with the hook in her shirt. They brought gallons of milk and poured it into the eyes of the people who had been pepper sprayed.
A while later, a thick chain appeared on the gate, with a padlock. More police came, and officers on horseback lined up inside the gate. More mounted officers appeared in front of all the other doors and more barricades were put up. For a while, it was very quiet outside because the most vocal protesters had been put out of commission by the tasers and pepper spray. Eventually, the chanting began again, but the crowd moved away from the gate and onto the grass behind the barricade. It rained harder and harder. Karen got a message from inside that people were still addressing the City Council with their plans for the real estate developments that will be built to replace the projects.
- Posted in : main, new orleans
- Author : dangerblond
Comments»
no comments yet - be the first?