Defend New Orleans Public Housing Activists Jamie ‘Bork’ Loughner and Joy Kohler!!

Call District Attorney Keva Landrum-Johnson, and demand that the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s office drop the felony charge against Jamie ‘Bork’ Loughner and Joy Kohler and stop the planned trial of these sheroes.

UPDATE: Go here for an updated report from AlterNet.

Call Now: 504-571-2820 or Fax: 504-571-2855

Stop Using the Phony ‘War on Terrorism’ to

Criminalize Free Speech !!

Jamie ‘Bork’ Loughner, a New Orleans housing activist, and disabled worker, who has relied on public housing for safe and affordable shelter, was arraigned on a politically inspired charge of possessing a false explosive device in (New Orleans) Orleans Parish Criminal Court on January 29th, 2008. The Orleans Parish District Attorney filed the felony charge against Loughner in response to her participation in the December 19th protest that temporarily halted demolition of public housing apartments at the B.W. Cooper Housing Development in New Orleans. The demolition work at Cooper is part of an ongoing plan by HUD, the New Orleans City Council and the New Orleans Mayor–and the real estate and other corporate interests they represent–to destroy 4,500 easily made habitable public housing apartments in storm devastated New Orleans.Bork and two other local housing activists occupied apartment buildings at the Cooper Development for expressed purposes of stopping the demolition of public housing and to send a message to the New Orleans city council, then preparing for a vote the next day on whether to approve demolition permits for the 4,500 units, that the community did not support destruction of public housing. The DA is accusing Loughner of intentionally making the device used to chain herself to a B.W. Cooper apartment building appear as an explosive device. The unspoken truth is that the DA is treating an act of peaceful civil disobedience as an act of terrorism in the hope of silencing Loughner and other opponents of HUD’s plan to demolish New Orleans public housing.

The case against Loughner rests on the assumption that the device she used to attach herself to the BW Cooper apartment building was intended to look like a bomb. Both police and Loughner agree the device in question was not a bomb. Both police and Loughner agree no explosives or other weapons were in the housing activist’s possession at the time of her arrest. Both police and Loughner agree no attempt was made by the activist to harm others or herself. What authorities refuse to acknowledge is that Loughner took a vow of non-violence when she decided to participate in the December 19th protest. What the DA refuses to acknowledge is that protesters outside the development let police know that Loughner was committed to non-violence. The DA also conveniently omits any reference to the fact that the device Loughner used to bind herself to the building in B.W. Cooper has been used in peaceful civil disobedience actions elsewhere. So, why are Orleans Parish authorities trying to convict Loughner of a criminal threat of violence that did not occur?

The Government’s Real Agenda: Silencing Dissent

By prosecuting Jamie Loughner on a bogus felony charge the masters of Louisiana and Washington send the message that they are waging a dirty war on the democratic rights of the people in New Orleans who resist public housing demolition and ethnic cleansing. Loughner faces a sentence of up to five years in prison if she is convicted of a crime that she most certainly did not commit. The Orleans DA and the corporate and government cheerleaders of ethnic cleansing in New Orleans hope, no doubt, that the railroading of Loughner will silence opposition to the demolition of public housing. They know full well that her protest on December 19th succeeded in bringing demolition at B.W. Cooper to a costly halt. The same forces fear that Loughner’s action will inspire a wave of similarly effective anti-demolition protests. Such a development would pose a huge challenge to HUD’s plan to destroy public housing in New Orleans. Such a development would also signal the emergence of mass and effective opposition to Bush, Nagin, an their fellow government and corporate allies’ attempt to transform post Katrina New Orleans into a model neoliberal city.

Effective defense of Jamie ‘Bork’ Loughner is of critical importance not only for New Orleans’ public housing struggle, but for the struggles of all exploited and oppressed people. If local and national authorities can effectively criminalize dissent against their criminal neoliberal ‘reconstruction’ plans–privatization, union-busting, racial and class cleansing–in post-Katrina New Orleans, they will be emboldened to carry out deeper attacks both at home and abroad. Help build the determined resistance needed to beat back this attack.

We encourage people to help this campaign and show solidarity in many ways, including:

Call or fax New Orleans District Attorney Keva Landrum-Griffin and demand that her office drop the felony charges and plans to prosecute Jamie Loughner.

Telephone: 504-571-2820

Fax: 504-571-2855

• Invite Bork or other representatives of the committee to speak to your school, union or community organization
• Taking a resolution and/or organize a demonstration demanding the Orleans Parish DA office drop all charges against Bork and stop the harassment, intimidation, and unfairly silencing of opposition to public housing demolition
• Sending a donation to the Jamie ‘Bork’ Loughner Defense Committee
• Sending supporters to New Orleans to help strengthen the Public Housing movement
• Let the Committee know about any action you or your group takes

Committee to Defend Jamie ‘Bork’ Loughner

Email: jamieandjoe@hotmail.com

Telephone: (202) 246-7665 or 504-520-9521

www.infoshop.org/page/Support-Bork

Endorsers: C3/Hands Of Iberville; Sam Jackson, Public Housing Activist; MayDay New Orleans

Tagged as: Katrina, New Orleans