The following serves as a summary of my involvement with any protests related to this shooting, as well as my intentions for attending the hearing and protest tomorrow and documenting it on this blog. It is my intention to continue to remain as neutral as I possibly can. I also reserve the right to clarify in advance that I am not in any way involved in organizing protests related to Merritt Landry and Marshall Coulter.
I received an email that includes the following information "Tomorrow - Friday - there will be a probable cause hearing for Merritt Landry at 2pm at the Orleans Parish Criminal Building. 2700 Tulane Avenue."
I plan to attend this hearing and want to make it extremely clear that I am going as a neutral observer. I also attended a rally on August 22 as a neutral observer, yet it was unclear to many that this was the case.
After I attended the August 22 event as a citizen journalist and wrote about it on this blog, I was contacted by the crime reporter for the Times Picayune and was quoted. The crime reporter contacted me because he "had not been following the story." The August 22 counter-protest that took place during a rally labeled "Justice for Merritt Landry" was heavily misconstrued by New Orleans mainstream media and those who responded to it. There were a few groups involved in the counter-protest that day. I have already commented on my blog that “some anarchists” were loud enough to shut down the Justice for Merritt Landry rally. At the rally, the news crews kept turning around every time the counter-protest would chant ‘No Justice No Peace’ or ‘You Killed A Child’ or other chants, and the Justice for Merritt Landry rally people weren’t really able to articulate their ideas to the press in many instances. From a neutral perspective, I can say the counter-protest was effective. If the group went to the Landry rally to “shut it down,” they accomplished that. Whether or not one agrees with their message, the tactic worked.
Since then, I've been described as the person who organized the counter-protest that occurred during the Justice for Merritt Landry rally on August 22. This was not the case at all.
I rarely read NOLA.com comments because they're usually so hateful, but I read the comments posted beneath the article I was quoted in. Apparently this group of people wrongly believe that "Occupy nutjobs" were counter-protesting, that I organized the counter-protest, and that I did so due to misplaced grief about the death of my dog in 2011.
There were no people identifying as "Occupy" at the event. Interestingly enough, people who were once involved in Occupy NOLA actually supported both sides. Most of the counter-protesters were not involved in Occupy for the past year, if ever.
Since I have remained neutral about how I personally feel about the shooting, there is absolutely no reason for someone to speculate about my motives or my long-haired Chihuahua who broke off the leash a neighbor was holding in 2011 and was hit by a drunk driver and killed.
Tomorrow, I plan to attend the hearing and understand there will be a protest occurring.
The September 20th protest is being promoted on Facebook and a public event has been set up for it. This protest is being organized by The Louisiana Ecosocialists and Reverend Brown. This is the only protest that I am aware of scheduled for September 20, and it is being organized by a few Ecosocialists and Reverend Brown and to my knowledge does not involve some members of the community who led the very loud counter-demonstration on August 22th.
This protest, scheduled for Friday, September 20th at 2pm, at Orleans Parish Criminal Court Building, Tulane and Broad has been pitched as follows:
From Syria to New Orleans: Stop the Violence! (how it's being promoted in some Facebook groups).
I have several issues with the way the protest is being promoted. First, I see no reason to connect this court appearance to war with Syria. It appears to be an attempt to get anti-war activists to show up at Merritt Landry's court appearance so there will be more people there, but Landry's court appearance is just not the appropriate place to go when protesting violence in Syria. Merritt Landry's court appearance will not influence military intervention with Syria.
The email that's being sent to various listserves includes the following:
Protest Against Merritt LandryJustice for Marshall Coulter and Families of Homicide Victims
Friday, September 20th2pm, Orleans Parish Criminal Court Building, Tulane and Broad
Merritt Landry shot 14 year old Marshall Coulter in the head for trespassing on July 26th, 2013 in the Marigny. Marshall Coulter now suffers from severe brain damage and remains hospitalized. There will be a probable cause hearing for Merritt Landry on September 20th, and there will be a rally on that day calling for justice and opposing any form of vigilantism. Vigilantism only compounds the problem of criminal violence. Recently, at a rally on August 24th, families of murder victims came together to deplore Marshall Coulter's shooting. We call on the judicial system to work to solve cold case murders. We call for the creation of a public works program and jobs for all.
I'm not sure how Merritt Landry's court appearance relates to Cold Cases. It dismays me that the protest scheduled for September 20 is focusing on the same issues some Ecosocialists seem to trumpet regardless of context. The demands of "jobs for all" and "public works programs" could potentially connect to an anti-crime agenda, but I have seen countless protests and rallies at which these same Ecosocialists emphasized these demands even when they were not related to the actual protest. A July 26th NSA protest ended up including these demands despite my attempt to focus on the NSA. That protest was specifically supposed to be about the NSA and violations of the 4th Amendment, but due to the public response to the Zimmerman verdict, the Ecosocialists chose to include "Justice for Trayvon Martin" in the demands. There had already been a few successful marches for Justice for Trayvon Martin in New Orleans, and they had not been organized by the Ecosocialists.
It may sound like I'm criticizing the motives and organizing techniques of a few activists. My intent is to offer a critique of the approach the Ecosocialists are taking and to explain why I would not be supporting this particular protest even if my intention was to remain something other than neutral. Even if I were to publicly take the side of those demanding "Justice for Marshall Coulter" I do not support going into a court room and demanding a public works program and an end to violence in Syria at Landry's hearing. This bait and switch technique happens all too often with some protesters, and if one thinks Marshall Coulter is a victim, using the fact that he was shot to voice political demands that do not relate to Marshall Coulter is the opposite of Justice for Coulter. Taking up this cause and using it to promote a political agenda and unrelated causes is disgraceful and insulting to Coulter.
This September 20th protest's lack of focus on anti-crime programs and NOPD reform does not escape me. Robert Morris of Uptown Messenger has a great article in this week's Gambit. He reports that the New Orleans City Council and state politicians are considering tighter scrutiny of the NOPD
"In a city where the pace of new anti-crime programs is matched year-for-year with funerals for children slain by stray bullets, some New Orleans City Council members and state lawmakers are discussing ways to determine whether any of the efforts underway are actually working.
The creation of "Saving Our Sons," "NOLA For Life" and the Multi-Agency Gang Unit have been bookended by the deaths of 2-year-old Jeremy Galmon in 2010, 2-year-old Keira Holmes in 2011, 5-year-old Briana Allen last year, as well as the deaths of 1-year-old Londyn Samuels and 11-year-old Arabian Gayles just days apart at the end of this summer. All were struck down by gunfire."
The concerns Morris raises connect (to me anyway) to the concerns Captain Black has been addressing regarding people not getting upset and rallying when a black on black crime happens. This is a dialogue that seems far more relevant to the Landry case than War with Syria or demanding a Public Works Program does.
I would like to see anti-crime activists open a dialogue around this issue, and I'd like to see serious police and prison reform in New Orleans, but that issue is not being addressed by those organizing the protest scheduled for September 20. Since some who were demanding Justice for Merritt Landry have demanded NOPD and OPP reform, it appears the Ecosocialists have abandoned those causes in order to counter-protest. What's happening is division, not unity, and I suspect it's because the actual agenda of the Ecosocialists is political.
NOTE: NOLA Socialist Alternative is not the same group as the Louisiana Ecosocialists and this criticism is not directed at the SA people. I am in no way aware of any protests that may occur and could include members of the anarchist community, but I have already explained that if people want to protest the people supporting Landry because they believe it is wrong to do so, I understand that and generally support people standing up for what they believe.
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