New Orleans Public Housing Defenders Face Terror Charges

A trial is about to open in New Orleans of housing activists Jamie "Bork" Laughner and Joy Kohler, who face charges of criminal trespass and possession of a "fake explosive device" following civil disobedience arrests at public housing projects slated for demolition. Laughner was also charged under a Louisiana anti-terrorism law passed as the state's answer to the federal PATRIOT Act.

Laughner and Kohler are among three people arrested Dec. 19, 2007, as bulldozers moved in on the 1,500-unit BW Cooper housing project, one of four in the city designated for destruction in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. They were initially charged with "terrorism," carrying a 20-year sentence. City prosecutors are now pursuing less ambitious false explosive and trespass charges, carrying five years and six months, respectively.

The "false explosive device" is what Laughner calls a "lock-down device," and police commonly call a "sleeping dragon" -- metal pipes that can be chained together with a protester's arms inside. At no point did she attempt to portray it as an explosive device. Laughner says the charges are ironic given that she is "sworn to nonviolent direct action, trying to save people's homes."

Soon after that arrest, Laughner would face more serious charges, as she immediately returned to the frontlines. "If we could delay the bulldozers even for a few hours, they'd send the crews home and that would be one day of no buildings being torn down," she says. "We were trying to build momentum of people stopping the bulldozers every day."

On Good Friday, March 21, Laughner was among three New Orleans residents who entered the vacant Lafitte housing development in a bid to save it from being razed. The three activists -- Laughner, Thomas McManus, and Ezekiel Compton -- slipped below a barbed wire fence, scaled a metal grating and reached the balcony of an empty apartment, where they dropped a banner. When the three were arrested an hour later, they were charged with trespassing, resisting an officer, and "unlawful entry of a critical structure." This last charge came under an anti-terrorist "critical infrastructure" law enacted by the Louisiana legislature in the wake of the PATRIOT Act.

Laughner again points out the irony. "The housing couldn't have been very critical if they were trying to destroy it." Those charges have also since been dropped to trespassing -- and in any case, prosecutors are pursuing the December charges first. The office of New Orleans prosecutor Keza Landrum-Johnson confirmed that Laughner and Kohler face trespass and false explosive charges but would not comment on whether any other charges had been or would be filed.

The City Council voted in December to demolish New Orleans' "Big Four" public housing developments, which had been damaged by Hurricane Katrina, but which activists insist were still salvageable. Soon thereafter, Mayor Ray Nagin signed three of the four demolition permits. Bulldozers and wrecking cranes moved in at the BW Cooper, CJ Peete and St. Bernard complexes.

Nagin held off from approving Lafitte's demolition permit, pending authorization of redevelopment plans from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). He finally signed the demolition permit March 24, allowing the destruction of all but 196 units at the 1,000-unit Lafitte project, which are being preserved temporarily for returning residents.

Housing activists in groups like Laughner's May Day NOLA as well as historic preservations petitioned for Lafitte's survival, calling it an integral part of the culturally rich 6th Ward -- and noting that the new housing to be developed under the HUD plan will provide far fewer homes for low-income residents.

HUD openly threatened to cut off funds for redevelopment if New Orleans didn't vote to go along with the demolition policy. HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson wrote Mayor Nagin pledging to withhold $137 million in funds slated for "affordable housing" if the projects were not razed. The HUD plan drawn up with the Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO) -- a body under HUD's direct control, following mismanagement claims -- called for demolition of 4,500 public housing units. They are ostensibly to be replaced -- but with 5,108 "affordable and mixed-income rental homes," which activists charge will not be "affordable" to the displaced residents.