This piece represents all the people of the Lower 9th Ward whose screams for help went unanswered.

THE ARREST

As related by Jeffrey Holmes: At approximately 4am Tuesday Sept. 28th, I was awoken by a noise outside. Upon investigation I saw a National Guardsman dismantling the Field of Silent Screams and throwing the heads on the ground. I yelled at him and told him to stop as it was my memorial and my artwork. He proclaimed that some of his troops found it offensive and it could be misconstrued as racist. At this point I became very upset and told him that he did not know me, my friends, my neighbors or they dynamics of our neighborhood, and then explained that I do still have a 1st amendment right to freely express myself. He yelled back at me "You have the right to express yourself so long as you do it in your own home." A few more words were exchanged and then they took off.

Ten minutes later, they were back with New Orleans police officers who asked me to step outside and talk with them. I complied. As soon as I hit the street, I was handcuffed and arrested. I was told the reason was for illegal dumping on the Neutral Ground - all of the trash (and art exhibit) was illegally placed in the neutral ground (median) - even though the city is asking residents to place all storm debris out in the neutral ground to be picked up.

When we arrived at the makeshift outdoor jail at the bus station, also known as Angola South, I was booked for disturbing the peace and intoxication. I was released later in the morning.

This was latent intimidation by the Oklahoma National Guard and NOPD, suppressing the very rights they are supposed to be defending.

All other National Guard and law enforcement officers from agencies across the nation are sympathetic and profess that it never should have happened, but none are interested in correcting this injustice.

What is wrong here?!

OCTOBER 2005 UPDATE:

As related by Andrea Garland: A couple of weeks after the National Guard destroyed most of the Field of Silent Screams and had Jeffrey arrested, I was working in my office around 11:30pm. I heard loud voices coming from the street and went out onto the balcony to see what was going on. There were two NOPD cars pulled up in the middle of St. Claude Ave. near the remains of the exhibit, and one more NOPD car parked just on the corner of St. Claude and France Streets. The officers from all the cars were standing in the middle of the street outside their cars talking and laughing together - obviously some kind of 'social visit.' Shortly, another NOPD car pulled up next to the two in the middle of St. Claude and the officers from the car got out and joined the other officers in talking and joking around. At this point, these three cars were now completely blocking St. Claude Avenue - when a civilian vehicle came down the street the driver was instructed to drive across the neutral ground to go around the officers' cars. I could not clearly hear everything the officers were talking about, but after awhile I started hearing various laughing references to artists and arrests and got the feeling they were joking about Jeffrey's arrest.

After standing in the street and gabbing for 20 minutes or so, the officers proceeded to walk into the remains of the Field of Silent Screams, knocked the remaining heads off their posts and kicked them into the street, laughing the whole time. They then got into their cars and all drove over the heads in the street, completely crushing them.

Unfortunately I was not able to get any info on these particular officers as it was too dark to get license plate numbers or any other info, but I found their attitude and actions highly offensive and disturbing. It worries me that if this is the way certain officers treat a representation of New Orleans' residents, how does that speak to the manner in which they are treating the actual residents? I would like to state for the record though, that these particular officers' actions, same as the actions of the two National Guardsman who originally destroyed the exhibit, in no way reflect on the character of other members of the National Guard and NOPD.

JANUARY 2006 UPDATE:

Jeffrey went to court on January 4th for the arrest. After 4 hours of sitting in court waiting to be called, he was finally informed that the arresting officers had never even turned in the paperwork for the arrest so there was no reason for him to have gone to court - and, of course, no further action to take place.

Also, Jeffrey recreated the exhibit for the Marigny-Bywater Open Studio Tour Dec. 3-4, 2005. Within several days the exhibit had once again been completely destroyed. At some point we will recreate the exhibit once again.