Violent protests erupted inside and outside the New Orleans City Council meeting on housing demolition. Police used pepper spray and taser guns on the people who were locked out of the city council meeting. The City Hall boasts steel bars to keep 'we the people' out. After the people were locked out, the city council voted to demolish the housing. This is democracy? Below are two scary videos of the New Orleans Housing Demolition Protest / City Council Lockout.
LA Times: Fury in New Orleans -- Protesters, police clash outside a City Council meeting where a plan to raze public housing is unanimously approved -- City Council members -- some sipping water, others leafing through file folders -- looked on impassively as a man was tasered, handcuffed and dragged from the council chambers.
Outside, dozens of locked-out people tried to force their way through iron gates and clashed with police, who used pepper spray and stun guns on them. One woman was taken away on a stretcher after being sprayed.
Inside, once it began, the meeting was orderly -- with a SWAT team standing between the City Council and the residents, lawyers, developers, preachers, rappers and sociologists who had come to voice their opinions on the city's public housing. . . Activists and preservationists have sharply criticized the government's proposal to raze the city's biggest public housing complexes when low-income housing is in short supply. . . Many talk of a conspiracy to purge the city of its poorest residents, pointing out the government will not replace all of the 4,500 public housing units it plans to demolish.
Facing South: Police gas demonstrators NOLA housing protest
TennViews: NOLA: police gassing, tasering protesters
WaPo: Battered N.O. OKs Razing Public Housing
New Orleans Housing Demolition News Politics Protest Post Katrina City Council
