Informant Page #2

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If you had to shoot somebody

you had to shoot somebody.

Don't go into a white woman's home and

tell her you're gonna take it over.

Woman:
No. You don't do that.

- No.

We don't allow

that around these parts.

No way is this happening.

Not in front of me, you know?

Not in front of me,

I'm not letting this happen.

Even if it kills me,

it's wrong.

It's just wrong,

I'd rather die saying hell no to this.

And that's what we...

that's the decision we made.

Brandon and I,

when we brought guns,

we brought a lot of

semiautomatic weapons,

we brought a lot

of high-powered rifles.

And we f***ing...

and us and people from this community

sat on the porch

and said, "no more."

Get the f*** out of here.

This is not a place to f*** with.

Like this is...

it's over.

You know I was ready

for guerrilla warfare

and Scott was the one

who was actually

and he was like well we need

to be prepared for that,

if indeed something else happens and they

start trying to kill black people again.

But we also...

here's a chance to organize.

This is gonna be a chance for us

as anarchists to do something

that is not just fighting in the streets

or resisting corporate power, state power.

Scott and Malik really used their activist

connections in a really positive way.

They'd started a clinic,

I mean they did amazing stuff.

Man:
They were giving out food,

water.

If you had medical problems,

they were there with everything.

It was amazing.

We put it on the Internet

and we ask people that are activists

or organizers in those cities

to print as many of those out

and bring them to the churches,

bring them to the shelters,

and bring them to the hotels,

and bring them,

that will get the word out.

We want to get as many people

back home as we can,

as soon as possible.

'Cause they trying to put

a time limit on us.

We don't have a church

for people to organize it from.

This pastor right here, he says that

he's willing to open his home up,

it's called Eagle Wings,

open his church up for people to use.

So we already had had a lot

of support in the community,

but law enforcement

was not happy with us.

I'm Scott Crow,

I'm one of the co-organizers, co-founder.

You got any paperwork saying

officially who you are?

What kind of group

you are?

- I have my ID.

- Let me see that.

You know here are

a bunch of radicals hanging out

and associating with former

Black Panther Party members.

Frankly, I really felt... and the

literature that I read on Common Ground...

That... a mission to overthrow

the United States government.

Chief Bryson, the head

of the Fifth District showed up,

and he had two

U.S. Marshals with him.

He just said "Okay,

what the hell are you doing in my city?

What are you doing here?"

And I told him, I said,

"I'm trying to foment radical social

change, that's what we're trying to do."

We're gonna shine a light on the neglect

that has happened in this community.

Lisa:
Common Ground was

this convergence.

There's the anarchist influence,

obviously the Black Panther influence.

We're showing the city of New Orleans

that the days of old is gone.

That a new progressive city

will be built.

Malik:
Brandon Darby,

one of the true heroes of Katrina,

is staying in the Lower Ninth Ward,

in an act of civil disobedience.

Woman:
I first met Brandon Darby

two months after the storm,

and my first impression of him

was that he was an ego-maniac

who was pretty full of himself.

Very, very strong.

Very direct.

Very alpha male,

kind of top dog.

I do hope that you all figure

out a way to communicate

with the people of the Lower Ninth Ward

and make sure their needs are addressed,

make sure they're not

kicked out of hotels,

Scott:
Brandon had never

organized anything in his life.

Because of what

he and I had done,

dealing with the vigilantes

and coming to find King,

Malik elevated him to a status

that was beyond anybody else.

My name is Lisa

and I work with Common Ground,

and some folks

from Common Ground,

Brandon Darby who's been

coordinating this project...

I think Malik trusted me,

and he just said,

well I want you to do

the Ninth Ward project.

We're willing to do

whatever we need to do,

to be in solidarity with anybody in

this area, in the Lower Ninth Ward.

I appreciate

the people that are here,

because I'm gonna tell you,

without you... shhhh...

Brandon:
The Lower Ninth Ward was

the most affected area from Katrina,

and it was on the other side

of the industrial canal.

And that's where people saw

the image of the barge,

and every day there were news helicopters

seeing this barge sitting on the land,

where there had been homes,

you know?

And no one was allowed no matter what

to be in their houses after dark.

So you couldn't, you couldn't even

move back and stay in your house.

So we had to figure out a way

to challenge that,

and get residents

back to their homes.

I'm gonna be in this house every night.

I'm gonna try to challenge that law...

the curfews

they're doing to people.

So for residents

that wanna stand in the homes,

and they wanna stand in the homes

even if a bulldozer's gonna come,

Caroline:
I wouldn't say that I've

changed my mind about his ego.

But I've seen him use that ego to

achieve some pretty incredible things.

I mean look around, you know?

These are people,

these people have nowhere else to go.

I think if we could get

one house on each block rebuilt,

I think that that'll

do a lot to inspire people.

That was the glory days of Common Ground.

And also of Brandon.

If your stuff got damaged,

and you wanna help your neighbors,

you wanna help...

the tools are gonna be here.

Caroline:

For several years after the storm,

Brandon was considered

this hero, this god.

We're gonna have everything

people need in this area.

Caroline:
He was the symbol of

what radical activism could do.

Brandon:
I can't really get into when

I became politicized, so to speak,

without acknowledging

some of my past,

some of my history.

And I was raised in an area

where there wasn't a lot

of political awareness.

I'm from Pasadena, Texas.

It was a refinery town.

I had a situation in my life

where I have a mother and several

relatives that are very sick,

because of a Brio Chemical site.

The people bury stuff

and then they built

a subdivision on it,

and they know

they did it.

I watched no one

get in trouble for it.

And I remember at a very early age

thinking, uh-uh, that's not cool.

And so I have, intense experiences

to draw from that push me,

with my activism.

At a fairly early age,

when my parents divorced,

I began to run away a lot.

When I was a kid,

I used to come down here and,

so miserable about stuff

with my family and my life,

And there's a lot that comes with that,

there's a lot that happens

as a runaway 13

and 14-year-old.

Like the concept of people taking

advantage of 13-year-olds,

you know runaways,

kind of pisses me off, you know?

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