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My name is Alison and I'm from New Orleans, and I will be challenging
New Orleans police practices
to combat police harassment, police intimidation, illegal arrests and 'stop-and-frisk'
around New Orleans
indigenous cultural traditions, namely the Social Aid and Pleasure Clubs
and the Mardi Gras Indians. And these are two very important historical
traditions that have
been oppressed for the past 300 years when they started. They've traditionally been
practiced on the streets of New Orleans
by formerly slaves and then free people of color,
and now African Americans in New Orleans,
many who are of Native American descent from South Louisiana.
And the New Orleans Police Department
tends to attach a stigma to these groups
as they practice their traditions
on the streets of New Orleans. Every Sunday in New Orleans at 1 o'clock there's a
Social Aid and Pleasure Club parade, it's called a second line, there's a brass band, there's hundreds of
people, everyone gathers in the streets as they have for hundreds of
years
to celebrate life
in New Orleans. And it's a way for people to come together
and celebrate their freedom, to grieve together, to celebrate, and just enjoy
and live life.
And
they've done this for many many years, and centuries,
and often times they're the targets
of police harassment.
For example the police will come out on horseback.
They're not adequately trained
to work with the horses: these are large wild animals so bringing them into the crowd
just behind a tuba and a trombone and a trumpet so when the band
starts up, the horse acts up and it'll kick a small child or an elderly lady
in the street.
And when residents ask the police, you know, "Can you take the horses to the back of the parade,
or to the back of the procession so that we can parade without this
distraction, and this is our procession, not
New Orleans Police Department's procession,
so we can practice our tradition peacefully
and without interference."
The police refuse to cooperate,
there's been problems with those who
speak to the police, to try to
hold them accountable for their actions or take their photographs
to report any police incidents, or police misconduct,
they...
the police will arrest them for taking their photograph and things like this.
So my project will provide
residents in New Orleans
in poor communities who practice these traditions
with the legal tools that they need to assert their rights.