Thursday Innocence Update
The New Orleans District Attorney’s office operates out of the former Amoco headquarters, in a warren of rooms guarded by an old man playing solitaire near the elevators. They have just one working photocopy machine. Voicemail is a luxury which can only be provided for a select few. Evidence documentation has never moved passed the microfiche stage. These resources are components of the most professional work environment we’ve encountered during our searches through the city’s criminal justice system. These people aren’t backward. They’re not ignorant, or unappreciative of assistance. They are simply faced with a situation in which the daily normality of the workplace exists in a world where what constitutes “normal” would be, in any other major city in America, a near-terminal emergency situation.
To be in this city feels like how people describe Sao Paolo. There is beauty, extreme poverty, devastation, and a civil society that floats overhead, working out of decayed offices, mired in the corruption and political infighting of a political class that seems completely removed from the reality of the situation it is tasked with overseeing.
A destroyed building in downtown New Orleans
Since January 1, there have been more murders in New Orleans then there are days in this new year. Leaving the D.A.’s office, we waded into a crowded protest outside of city hall. Anderson Cooper was standing next to us. The crowd was as diverse as the banners they held aloft. An old white lady in pearls stood alongside a young mother whose t-shirt proclaimed her residency in the lower 9th ward. A sign demanding the National Guard leave Iraq and enter New Orleans fought for airspace with another advocating the payment of loans to small businesses. People are fearful of the violence the police are doing little to control, and angry at the mayor, state, and feds for basically ignoring their plight.
Pictures of New Orleans Protest - January 11, 2007
Pictures of New Orleans Protest - January 11, 2007
Pictures of New Orleans Protest - January 11, 2007
Pictures of New Orleans Protest - January 11, 2007
Pictures of New Orleans Protest - It's Anderson Cooper! - January 11, 2007
Locals give different estimates for how long it will take to rebuild the city, anywhere from one to several decades. But uniformly, however expert or amateur the prognosis, it always ends with the resigned sigh, “if ever.”
We see this in our search for DNA evidence. One day, the evidence that sits unaccounted for will be itemized. One day the various fiefs and agencies will coordinate their tasks and centralize their databases. One day they all might even have databases. But when, and to what degree such rehabilitation and modernization of this decrepit system will ever take place, can today only be answered with “if ever.”
Brian and Laura on the steps of Orleans Parish Criminal Courthouse
Oh, the food and music down here are fantastic, and the people are so friendly. To see how they live breaks my goddamn heart.
Comments
so, what is it about how we live that is so heartbreaking?
Posted by: daddy o | January 18, 2007 11:32 PM
Daddy O:
What breaks my heart is that a city which has gone through the greatest natural disaster in U.S. history is deprived of the resources it needs to repair the damage - the destruction and failure to repair the city's social resources safety net alone is a negligence that all americans should feel shamed by. To meet so many people who project such a joy in life, and to see the physical conditions many live in (and the insufficiencly of aid from this great nation of ours), is what breaks my goddamn heart.
Posted by: the innocence project poster | January 22, 2007 12:41 PM