The ACLU of Louisiana on Thursday condemned the actions of the New Orleans Police Department after officers Wednesday night shot tear gas into a crowd of protesters assembled on the Crescent City Connection, turning what had been a peaceful march into a chaotic rush off the bridge.
A statement from ACLU Louisiana Executive Director Alanah Odoms Hebert called the police's tactics "violent and unlawful."
“This excessive use of force against protesters exacerbates the pain and anguish of black communities, imperils public health and infringes on people’s fundamental rights to make their voices heard,” she said.
Odoms Hebert also said that the ACLU demands an immediate, independent investigation of the incident and called for a “complete halt to chemical warfare against protesters and journalists."
"This is a moment of reckoning for our country and our community," she said, "and New Orleans officials must commit themselves now to ending the violence and brutality that has claimed countless black lives and continues to inflict devastating harm on our communities.”
Wednesday's protest march, organized by the New Orleans Workers Group, Take 'Em Down NOLA and other activists, was the latest in a series of planned rallies and demonstrations against police racism and brutality, white supremacy and injustice against the black community. Protests against police violence have been occurring in all 50 states following the death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis, Minnesota on May 25. New Orleans organizers have emphasized NOPD's history of racism and antagonism, as well as the poverty in the local black community. They have also pointed to an imbalance in the city budget's allocations for police compared to funding for what they say are much-needed social programs.
Protests have started each night in Duncan Plaza, followed by marches. Rallies and marches are planned for 6 p.m. Thursday in Duncan Plaza and 6 p.m. Friday in Jackson Square.
The scene on the Crescent City Connection Wednesday was a stark contrast to Tuesday's rally, which began in a similar fashion as organizers urged demonstrators at Duncan Plaza to show their commitment to fighting inequality by banding together peacefully. On Tuesday, NOPD officers calmly spoke with protesters who had closed-down the interstate above South Claiborne Avenue.
Wednesday’s assembly started with a call for solidarity at 6 p.m. at Duncan Plaza; then protesters made their way along Poydras Street and turned onto St. Charles Avenue, headed Uptown. At one point, hundreds paused to kneel in silence for several moments after pivoting upriver on Jackson Avenue.
The march then turned onto Camp Street and protesters ascended the on-ramp to the Crescent City Connection before police unleashed tear gas — claiming that participants had disobeyed their three warnings to stay back from their barricade in the middle of the bridge.
One protester, who did not want to give his name, suffered visible inflammation on his face and in his eyes from tear gas after Wednesday night's attack.
He told Gambit that he was in front of the demonstration on the bridge and had linked arms with several other unarmed protestors as they attempted to cross through the police barricade.
“We were making sure everybody heard, ‘One step at a time,’” he recalled. “As we pushed into them, they poked their batons out. They didn’t hurt us, but they let us through.” He said that a second line of law enforcement officers then began shooting off canisters of tear gas.
“They shot probably six, eight, 10 cans of tear gas,” he recalled shortly after escaping to the foot of the on-ramp of the bridge at Camp Street.
A female companion, visibly shaken, also showed several reporters a wound on her back from a projectile. She and others at the scene speculated that they had been shot with rubber bullets, but police denied using weapons other than the noxious gas, which caused several people to vomit and cry.
Plumes of smoke were visible across the bridge, as it spread rapidly across a crowd of fleeing protesters.
The New Orleans Police Department confirmed that it had unleashed tear gas later that evening.