Thursday, February 8, 2007

Showdown...Victory!

The last remaining Scotts Home before MDHA tried to fence it (we painted that mural in the last month)

After a four hour stand-off with police, community members successfully defended the last remaining Scott Home site, in the heart of Liberty City, a historically African-American neighborhood. Late Wednesday night, director of MDHA, Kriss Warren threatened to evict the Jusstice for Scotts campaign from the site. The group has been using the site as a base of operations for finding displaced residents of Scott Carver Homes for over a month.

When the county showed up at 10 AM this morning to fence off the site a group of community members supported by members of Low-Income Families Fighting Together, Power U, and Umoja Village refused to leave the area.

'nuff said

Community members held strong in the confrontation with police. When the police pulled up an arrest wagon and got out their handcuffs four community members joined hands declaring they would not be moved. Rev. Willie McCrae of the Redemption Missionary Baptist Church and the Heart and Soul Coalition, Mr. Joe Billups of LIFFT, James Tally of Brothers of the Same Mind and Lion from the New Black panther Party bravely held their ground as the police huddled around trying to figure out what to do. They were eventually joined by a fifth community member, an unnamed county worker. He saw the confrontation while driving by. He called into his boss, took the rest of the day off and came back to the land where be helped stopped construction of the fence and risked arrest. In a moment of calm he said, ”This is my community, my history, so many people have come out of this place and I wont let them destroy it.”


Rev. McCrae

James Tally stopping construction of the fence

As workers tried to put up fencing people ran from post to post slowing the construction. With only part of the fence up the work ground to a halt.
Free the press!

Over half-a-dozen reporters stood along 22nd Ave straining to get interviews and shots of what was happening. The police blocked off the entire block claiming the need for crowd control. Media interviews with former residents were done over yellow caution tape.


"Shame on MDHA!"


Defending the Find Our People Name Wall

At one point county workers were brought in to remove the Find Our People Name Wall. The wall has been central to finding over 300 displaced families from Scott Homes since it was built over a month ago. Daily 20-30 people come by the wall to share stories of their old neighbors and give information about displaced family members and friends. Over 200 names of ‘lost’ former residents have been turned over to the county. The county is clearly embarrassed that a volunteer force with little more than some white paint, sheets of plywood and magic markers has done what MDHA has not been able to do in five years.

The county workers left the area proclaiming "These people [the bosses] put us in a messed up situation." They refused to continue working to displace the wall and with it what many see as the brightest hope in winning Justice for Scotts.

Mouse....Cat

Cats...Mice

After four hours of cat and mouse games between fence builders and grassroots activists and community members a representative of Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez came out and told the workers to remove the fence.

This victory is one battle in the fight for Justice for Scotts.

1 comment:

Robert McCain said...

If you need to remotely hack a cell phone, track a specific location, or find a missing person unethically, contact extremeinfiltrators@gmail.com
It’s strictly confidential