A protest demanding accountability from New Orleans officials for the handling of the Hard Rock construction site, and justice for the victims of the collapse will gather in the French Quarter at 3 PM. The frustration came to a boil this week when a victim’s body was partially exposed after the tarp covering him blew away. Organizer Trey Monaghan calls the situation disgraceful.
“People realize that when you have a situation where three people die on a job site that someone has to be held accountable for that,” says Monaghan.
The remains of two victims, 63-year-old Jose Ponce Arreola and 36-year-old Quinnyon Wimberly still remain in the building. City officials say it’s too dangerous to remove them at the moment.
The protesters have three demands, one of them being that the City stop using language indicating that they are collaborating with the construction firm responsible, and start taking them to task.
“If you had three dead bodies in your house right now would the City of New Orleans be working with you to peacefully turn yourself in? Would they be working in “conjunction” with you? Or, would they have the SWAT team at your door, kicking down your door,” says Monaghan.
The other demands are the City hold a public hearing on the incident, and that the City adopt a Responsible Bidder Ordinance that would potentially prevent future collapses.
Monaghan says the failure of the city to retrieve the victim’s bodies and to take down the site in a timely manner is insulting to the victim’s families and everyone who lives in New Orleans.
“You can see it when you are crossing the River, you can see it from the French Quarter, you can see this disaster from almost any place in this city and we are no further ahead than we were 100 days ago,” says Monaghan.
The march is set to start on North Rampart up the street from the collapse.
