Rescue, Not Repression in the Gulf Coast

You can sign on to this letter which we're circulating TODAY to the news media:

ALERT: On Hurricane Gustav and the Government's Response

NEEDED: Rescue Not Repression

As Hurricane Gustav approaches the Gulf Coast, threatening great damage, we who know how the Bush regime refused to rescue people three years ago, and instead treated people as criminals and refused to allow them to return, are watching.  And so are people around the world.

Already Mayor Ray Nagin and other officials have issued threats toward anyone who does not evacuate and imposed a 24 hour curfew, thereby laying the groundwork to imprison anyone who has not had the means to evacuate.  Nagin has ominously promised that anyone caught "looting" will go directly to Angola State Prison.  Reports are emerging of families being separated during evacuation efforts and people being deposited in overcrowded shelters in extremely remote, far-flung places.  It is clear that many thousands will suffer tremendous personal losses due to the slowness of the U.S. government in repairing and rebuilding levees.

The real horror of Katrina was not "looters" but the fact that human beings were abandoned and - in some cases - forced back into the floodwaters by armed National Guardsmen and police.  Prisoners were left locked in their cells as putrid flood-waters rose.  Families on rooftops were passed over by government helicopters for days.  Troops were taken off rescue missions and sent back in with orders, issued by Governor Blanco, to "shoot to kill." Those who were finally evacuated were sent to distant and often hostile places, separated from their loved ones, and thousands have still not been provided the resources to return.  Police repression and brutality were rampant.  Civilian efforts to assist those in most desperate need were met with repression and people were prevented from offering their assistance.  PEOPLE DIED AND SUFFERED UNNECESSARILY.

We, the undersigned, are putting the U.S. government on notice:

We have not forgotten and will not tolerate a repeat of any of the criminal negligence that caused unnecessary deaths and incalculable suffering during Hurricane Katrina.

We demand that people be rescued from Hurricane Gustav, and have their basic needs met in a humane way.

We will look beneath the headlines and the soundbites and watch closely the government response and the conditions of the people.

We pledge to take meaningful political action to protest government inaction and resist government repression against those who need rescue and assistance or against those who are seeking to aid those in need.