THE SYSTEMS TRYING TO GENTRIFY NEW ORLEANS

[EARNERTON]

check this out people...

New Orleans Residents
All Over The Country
Should Be Put On Red Alert:
The Neo Cons Are Trying To
Illegally Bulldoze Your Homes
And Steal Your Property

By Greg Szymanski
1-6-6
 
Brandon Darby of Austin, Texas, had only one thing in mind when Hurricane Katrina hit.
 
He had to rescue his best buddy, Robert King Wilkerson, as he was trapped and dying in the attic of his New Orleans home.
 
The race to save Wilkerson's life started in Texas with a frenetic, high-speed life and death drive, ending with Darby up to his neck in scummy New Orleans water and resisting arrest from uncooperative federal authorities.
 
And after authorities arrogantly refused to go after Wilkerson or let Darby go it alone, he jumped out of the Army Ranger jet boat, defying the law and forcing them into action.
 
Let there be no doubt or the slightest question Darby saved his friend's life with his heroic, in your face stand-off with cops and FBI agents. And it was Darby who refused to take no for an answer, which finally led to officials getting off their "fat behinds" to pull Wilkerson out of his home.   
 
Wilkerson, an aging Black man who had already spent 29 years in maximum security prison for a crime he didn't commit, lasted 11 long hard days without much food and water before Darby's efforts finally got him pulled out of the high waters that flooded his home.
 
"I knew I had to save King's life and I wasn't going to let federal authorities or the New Orleans Police force stop me," said Darby, who has now left his Austin, Texas, business behind to stay permanently in the Crescent City to help others in need.
 
"I couldn't leave when I saw the misery and I saw how many people really needed help. We formed a group called "Common Ground Relief" of all political ideologies to help people save their property from government programs designed to take it away illegally."
 
And so after saving Wilkerson, the articulate activist immediately went to work helping others, filling a need left by FEMA and its programs filled with red tape and basically designed to keep the poor from returning home while helping the rich get on with New Orleans high society life.
 
"You have to say these programs are designed to racially cleanse the city," said Darby who appeared this week on Greg Szymanski's radio show, The Investigative Journal on the Republic Broadcasting Network at www.rbnlive.com. "I see it firsthand every day and the media is just ignoring what is really happening here.
 
"Simply, the city, state and federal government are using their illegal imminent domain powers to take away personal property. There are 14,000 homes in the 9 th Ward ready to be bulldozed and most of the people have been systematically kept away from the city and don't even know what's going on.
 
Darby said after assessing many of the thousands of homes in the 9th Ward and other poorer neighborhoods, it is his opinion and the opinion of many others that most of the homes are in good enough shape to be repaired, not demolished.
 
"The media is not telling this side of the story as they all are working together, including New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and others all the   way up to the White House, who are intent on paving the way with billions of dollars of redevelopment money to first level the homes and then replace them with casinos, hotels and other expensive type housing," said Darby.
 
Darby added that Mayor Nagin has been "his worst nightmare" since he has not only catering to rich developers but also allowing federal agencies on the front lines to keep utilities purposely turned off in the poorer neighborhoods, discouraging people from going home.
 
"Think about it. Whole neighborhoods in the 9th Ward and elsewhere completely empty even though the houses can be repaired with a little hard work and effort," added Darby, who has been busy in the last four months gutting homes with other private relief workers in order to get people back in their homes.
 
"We have to get the word out to everyone across the country about exactly what is going on here. The government is lying and telling people to stay away in order to take their property out from under them. It's criminal, unconstitutional and we have filed a lawsuit trying to block the bulldozing which is starting as we speak."
 
And the sinister nature of this complete government rip-off is not being played out the evening news, but is being fought behind the veil of secrecy, as Darby and his band freedom fighters today stood between cranes and a man's house in the 9th Ward set for demolition.
 
"Our attorney who filed the lawsuit to block the demolitions, received a 24 hour temporary restraining order to stop bulldozing the homes," said Darby. "Guess what happens then? We get a phone call this morning from a man who said the city was now using cranes instead of bulldozers. What nonsense. So we rushed over to his 9 th Ward house, stood between the crane and the house and stopped the demolition.
 
"At least we stopped it for the time being as I think we will have to do the same thing tomorrow if they return. We are down here to help the thousands of people who need it and who have been deceived by the government intent on taking their property, making way for the rich developers to make millions. For example, I know this for a fact, they are offering people in far away places like Minnesota or Alaska $5,000 for their house, saying it's worthless when, in fact, it's in good condition. Worth much more and can be repaired."
 
And the real tragedy behind what happened before, during and after Katrina is that the tragic scene as it is playing out now catches the feds, state and local authorities red-handed at a systematic racial cleaning and land grab program of enormous proportions.
 
Before Katrina, Mayor Nagin was given more than $17 million after Hurricane Ivan hit, to put together an evacuation plan to get the poor out of the city quickly if another hurricane hit.
 
But instead of using the money wisely, no evacuation plan was ever created, according to Darby's research, as thousands of poor unable to get out were left to die during Katrina in the same manner that occurred a year earlier when Ivan struck.
 
"What did he do with the money? I have problems with that as I was here during Ivan and nothing changed when Katrina hit," said Darby. "After being left to die in their homes, they were left to die at the Superdome and the Convention Center, left with no water and food like animals.
 
"Then after that thousands of families were separated and sent to hundreds of different faraway places. Ask yourself why? Isn't it easier to bulldoze away houses when no one is around. That's why.
 
"But we must put up a fight and that's why I am appealing to everybody listening not to let this happen as If we let them take our fellow brothers' property here in New Orleans, the government will do it all over the country. It's a land grab, pure and simple, an illegal land grab designed to steal property and change the complexion of this wonderful city."
 
Darby said the problems surfacing in New Orleans go very deep, but that he has decided he's "in it for the long haul" no matter what happens, making a last stand against the government land grab.
 
"I have leased a home in one the areas scheduled to be demolished and they are not forcing me to leave," said Darby, adding he's hoping his story gets out to the people since the mainstream media is on the side of the rich developers.
 
"If you read these words, send this story all across America as we need all the help we can get. Political and ideological differences shouldn't stand in the way of helping all these people.
 
"Think about it. If it can happen to the good folks of New Orleans, it can happen to you next!"
 
 Editor's Note: If you want to lend a helping hand to Darby and his cause, contact the Arctic Beacon at www.arcticbeacon.com.
 
For more informative articles, go to www.arcticbeacon.com

[EARNERTON]

here's a little sumthin, sumthin, showing this one judge backing the residents of New Orleans the systems trying to flush out...

Judge Stops New
Orleans Bulldozing
Federal Judge Threatens To Throw New Orleans City Attorney
In Jail "If One More Home is Bulldozed Down" In The 9th Ward

By Greg Szymanski
1-7-6

A federal judge Friday threatened to throw the New Orleans City Attorney in jail if  "one home was bulldozed down" in violation of temporary restraining order obtained by activists and lower income homeowners, trying to save their property from what is playing out to be an illegal government land grab.
 
While the legal wrangling continues, sinister government programs to racially cleanse and steal property from lower income homeowners in New Orleans is playing out on the streets of the poorer neighborhoods with bulldozers and wrecking balls inching closer and closer to 14,000 homes in the 9th
ward.
 
And the only thing stopping the illegal government land grab, orchestrated by the feds, the state of Louisiana and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin's office, is a group of feisty activists from Common Ground Relief, headed by Brandon Darby of Austin, Texas, who are literally putting their bodies between the wrecking ball and homes to stop the destruction.
 
Besides the strong activist stand taken this week, Darby said the group has filed a lawsuit on behalf of a number of lower income residents and Wednesday received a temporary 24 hour restraining order to stop the bulldozing after the case was removed from state to federal court.
 
And a federal court judge at the last minute stopped the bulldozing at least temporarily until the next hearing on January 16, threatening to throw the New Orleans City Attorney in jail if the restraining order was again violated.
 
"It was nice to hear that," said Darby in a conversation Friday night from his car parked in the 9th
Ward, as he was keeping a watchful for any government shenanigans. "At least for the time being we have stopped this illegal land grab, but we will have to wait and see, as anytime there is a lot of money at stake, I do not trust these guys.
 
"Also, today I was contacted by federal agents, leaving a message and saying they wanted to talk with me and I have noticed being followed by Homeland security ever since we had the stand-off in the 9 th
Ward.
 
The stand-off Darby is talking about occurred Thursday morning when he and other activists from Common Ground Relief, a private organization formed by Darby, put their bodies in between the wrecking ball and a man's home scheduled for demolition.
 
"We rushed to help one 9th
Ward resident who called and said the wrecking ball was at his house Thursday morning in clear violation of the restraining order," said Darby about this highly important story that should be on the six o'clock news but has been suspiciously kept from the American public by a complicit mainstream press.
 
"So we rushed to help the man in the 9th
Ward's home, calmly convincing the operator of the wrecking ball to stop the demolition job. We were successful but the government's argument for defying the court order was crazy, as officials said the order only prohibited use of a bulldozer not a wrecking ball."
 
Darby also wanted to emphasize that a majority of the homes scheduled for demolition are structurally sound, saying many of the owners have been purposely kept out of state by FEMA and hoodwinked into believing their property is worthless setting the stage for the one of the biggest government land grabs in the history of the United States.
 
"What has our country come to when eminent domain laws and fascist government intimidation is used to steal property away from thousands of Americans," said Darby.
"In the background and behind the political scenes, everybody has to know that from Mayor Nagin right on up to the White House, they are all supporting the rich developers.
 
"They are also planning a multi-billion dollar redevelopment plan to build expensive hotels, casinos and high rise housing and the bulldozers now being seen in the 9 th
ward are the first step to achieving their rotten goals."
 
Besides the 14,000 homes in the 9th
Ward scheduled for demolition, 88,000 are expected be next in line for bulldozing in the city's poorer east side, hard hit when the levies exploded, possibly on purpose.
 
Although no one in the mainstream media or in city hall has the guts to even propose such a possibility as the levies being blown up by government operatives, the same thing happened after 9/11 when everyone was frightened to openly say anything that the terrorist attack may have been a government inside job.
 
However, four years later many people in high places and even former Reagan and Bush Cabinet members are pointing a finger at government involvement in 9/11, saying it was the lynchpin needed to further the neo con war machine now killing hundreds of thousands of innocents in the Middle East.
 
Even though proof of the levies being blown on purpose has not yet surfaced, proof positive of FEMA's plans to keep New Orleans evacuees out of state is well-documented.
 
To prove this point, former New Orleans residents, Clothilde Mack, 85, who recently returned to her Orleans Parrish home on her own accord, said FEMA basically tried to bribe her to stay out-of-state by telling her case would be dropped unless she signed a paper stating she'd remain away from the Crescent City for one year.
 
Other residents are also reporting similar horror stories, saying they have been offered small amounts of money for their New Orleans property without having any opportunity to inspect the extent of damage.
 
"One man called me from out-of-state saying he was offered $5,000 for his home," said Darby. "He was told it was demolished when in fact it was still structurally sound and worth much more. And that is the problem. Government programs should be encouraging people to come back and take care of their land instead of being paid to stay away."
 
 
For more informative articles, please go to www.arcticbeacon.com.
 

 

[EARNERTON]

if anyones from the N.O on here, I know about FEMA given people from the hood $5000 to not come back an all that type of bizness, I know people are in fucked up situations an that, you know, desperate situations, but your property back in the hood is worth a lot more than that, you see wjhat I'm saying, thats why the system wants you out, so they can build casino's an exclusive high rise blocks, you see what I'm saying, people can get wit 'Brandon Darby' of the 'Common Ground Relief' at artic beacon at http://www.articbeacon.com anybody from where ever is free to get in contact wit them to help the cause you know, here's some more stuff you won't hear about in the mainstream media, lets go...

Levees Blown
Say Eyewitnesses -
Media Ignores Them

Eye Witnesses Living Near 17th St. Levee
Say Loud Explosion Heard Just Prior
To Raging Waters Flooding The 9th Ward
 
By Greg Szymanski
1-9-6
 
Eye witnesses are starting to come forward, some only a block away from the 17th St Canal levee break, saying they heard a loud, powerful explosion right before water starting gushing in, as they ended up in a matter of minutes floating downstream on their rooftops.
 
Terry Adams, who lives one block away from the 17th St. break, remembers hearing what sounded "like a bomb going off" from where the levee gave-way before rushing water forced him to his rooftop.
 
"Everything was calm, it was late at night and the storm had passed. I thought we had dodged a bullet and there was no water in my house and I was only a block away from the 17 th St. break," said Adams, a lower 9th Ward resident, in an extended conversation this week from New Orleans.
 
"Then I heard what sounded like a bomb go off from the direction of where the levee gave-way and within a matter of minutes I was forced up on my roof where I floated for about a mile into town before somehow getting to safety."
 
Asked if he was sure he heard an explosion, he added: "Water breaking a levee isn't going to make the noise I heard and besides, the levee should have broke before or during the storm, not afterward.
 
"I heard an explosion and so did a lot of other people. It came right from where the levee broke. What else could it have been but somebody blowing up the levee?"
 
The question of how the levee burst in one gigantic place at the 17th St. and London Ave. drainage canals, estimated by some to be a gaping hole three football fields long, as well as a number of other locations, has been on the minds of other local residents from the lower 9 th Ward besides Adams, many hearing the same explosions but being ignored by the mainstream media, putting their accounts in the realm of conspiracy theorists.
 
For example, whenever the subject of the levees being intentionally detonated comes up, most mainstream commentators like ABC's Michel Martin, dismiss even the slightest possibility of foul play, appeasing Black listeners with comments such as this:
 
"Anybody with any knowledge of history can understand why a lot of people can feel this way, but any real possibility that the levies were intentionally exploded must be dismissed."
 
However, according to Ryan Washington, a long time New Orleans bus driver and former resident of the lower 9th Ward who grew up playing football on top the levee, said the possibility of government dirty work and foul play isn't so far fetched.
 
Now living in nearby Slidell, also hard hit by the hurricane, he has talked to numerous eye witnesses who say the exact same thing as Adams, insisting the levee was blown up and didn't give-way by natural means.
 
Washington also said the media should not concentrate on testimony from experts, new commentators and government officials, who have biased opinions, buy emphasis should be placed on interviewed the hundreds if not thousands of people who heard or saw something the night the levees blew.
 
"Why don't they talk to the people who were there? Why are they relying on government experts who have a reason to hide the truth? I personally am gathering a list of people, a long list, who saw and heard what really happened that night," said Washington, in a telephone conversation this week from New Orleans.
 
He added that government officials have been wanted to get hold of the valuable lower 9th Ward property ever since 1965 when Hurricane Betsy flooded the area and the same suspicions of foul play circulated through his neighborhood.
 
"I even have talked to many reporters on the scene and tell them to get the story from the horse's mouth and talk to the people," said Washington, adding it's easier to hear and learn the real truth on a city bus than behind the veil of city hall and the corrupted television cameras.
 
"The stories about people hearing and seeing explosions, as well as stories about bomb residue being found at the scene, never see the light of day or get in the papers or on television.
 
"And if they do, these stories are always dismissed as being crazy or discredited by experts or government officials, who I personally don't believe one bit."
 
According to Washington, several important factors convince him beyond a reasonable doubt that the levees were blown intentionally to racially cleanse the city, as well as the first step in a redevelopment plan to put up high rise casinos and hotels in the lower 9 th Ward.
 
"First, they always say that explosion was a power generator. But the power was off when the levees blew and the power station they were talking about was not in the vicinity of where the explosions were heard," said Washington. "Next, they say the barge in the canal broke the levees. I never once saw a barge in the canal in all the years I lived there.
 
"Also, if it did plow through the levee, it never would have made such a noise or cause an immediate break three football fields long. Further, why were immediately on the scene to fence of the levees so no one could see what happened when it too them more than 10 days in some cases to rescue people. What are they hiding?
 
"Please someone from the media come down here and get the real story as I have talked to so many people who feel the same way I do. The government has been trying to get our land since 1965 and they are still trying today."
 
Besides numerous residents suspecting foul play, New York filmmaker Spike Lee in October Lee said on Friday night's Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO, that he believes Louis Farakhan's allegation that a levee was blown up to flood the nearly all-Black 9th Ward.
 
Lee added that "a choice had to be made, one neighborhood got to save another neighborhood and flood another 'hood, flood another neighborhood." He then engaged in a heated battle of words with neo con shill and MSNBC reporter, bow tied Tucker Carlson, who dismissed Lee as conspiracy theorist spreading paranoia and fear.
 
At this point the short exchange between the two shows Carlson's true colors as a government propagandist and as far from being a journalist as George W. Bush himself:
 
Lee: "Presidents have been assassinated. So why is that so far-fetched? Do you think that election in 2000 was fair? You don't think that was rigged If they can rig an election, they can do anything!"
 
Carlson: "I was in New Orleans right after the hurricane in the ninth ward. And while I didn't hear anybody say the levee was blown up by the federal government, I did interview a bunch of people who were stuck there who said they believed this was part of the conspiracy to rid New Orleans of black people. They honestly believed that. I didn't argue with them, I just listened to what they said and I felt bad for them. So as you sit here -- who is someone who is rich and has option -- and are watched by people who are poor and have no options, it seems to me it's your responsibility, your obligation to tell them the truth and you know the truth, which is the federal government did not blow up the levees so don't feed the paranoia and the crazies."
 
Lee: "First of all, how's that feeding the paranoia?"
 
Carlson: "Because you're saying it's entirely possible when you know perfectly well it's not possible."
 
Lee: "How's it not possible?"
 
Although numerous questions remain unanswered about the reason behind the levee controversy, one question never posed was how could a man like Carlson ever call himself a fair-minded journalist after comments made on Real Time?
 
"I know why," said Washington. "These journalists are as corrupt as the government folks they write about. I'm only a bus driver but I know the difference between right and wrong and the media is dead wrong by not covering this story fairly.
 
One of the biggest controversies still brewing is the preliminary results of the three main investigatory groups looking at why the levees erupted. The groups, all tied to government interests, include the National Science Foundation in conjunction with the American Society of Civil Engineers; the United States Army Corps of Engineers; and the third group being funded by the State of Louisiana, led by scientists at the Louisiana State University hurricane center.
 
Although each investigation is independent of the other, scientists claim to be sharing data, coming to some surprising preliminary conclusions, one of which could have enormous consequences.
 
In a recent article by John M. Barry analyzing the data from the three groups, he looks at some of the suspicious preliminary questions, raising even more questions of how could the 17th St. levee break with such a small storm surge emanating from Lake Pontchartrain not the Gulf of Mexico.
 
"We know that Hurricane Katrina made landfall with enormous power, devastating the Gulf Coast, and that the levee on the Industrial Canal in New Orleans was overtopped by a storm surge coming directly from the Gulf of Mexico. When a levee is overtopped, there is basically nothing that can be done. Water pouring over a levee long enough will, in effect, wash part of the levee away. That's what happened on the Industrial Canal, resulting in the flooding of part of the Ninth Ward, along with much of St. Bernard and Plaquemines Parishes.
 
"But most of New Orleans was not flooded by water coming directly from the Gulf. It was flooded from the north and rear by Lake Pontchartrain , when levees failed along the 17th Street and London Avenue drainage canals. Initially, the Corps of Engineers said that the storm was so great that it overtopped these levees also.
 
"But after inspecting the levees and reviewing storm data, all three investigating teams agree: Hurricane Katrina hit Lake Pontchartrain with far less strength than it did the Gulf Coast, and the storm surge fell well short of the tops of the levees. In fact, a design or construction flaw caused them to collapse in the face of a force they were designed to hold. In other words, if the levies had performed as they were supposed to, the deaths in New Orleans proper, the scenes in the Superdome and the city's devastation would never have taken place."
 
For more informative articles, go to www.arcticbeacon.com.
 
 

[BOX5 the best poster on this site yell]

GOOD LOOKING OUT ON THIS,cause i was way in the dark on this,i will do my part to help folks even if it's just lending a voice and putting it out there for peeps to hear yell

[dexter]

GOOD LOOKING OUT ON THIS,cause i was way in the dark on this,i will do my part to help folks even if it's just lending a voice and putting it out there for peeps to hear yell

Bush sucks