The calm after the storm???

There was a huge melee today in New Orleans between police and protesters at City Hall,necessitating the use of stun guns and pepper spray.Apparently New Orleans and HUD are in agreement that some 4500 public housing units damaged by Hurricane Katrina should be demolished.The city wants to rebuild with mixed-income housing units and the protesters insist the existing structures are "handsome and will outlast anything HUD builds in its place"They have denounced the whole thing as a racist conspiracy and the council meeting as a "rubber-stamp sham".
Before anyone thinks the protesters were treated unfairly,they started a riot when the city hall chambers reached its capacity of 300 and stopped admitting more people.They marched in with the full intention of causing a disturbance to disrupt the meeting and when police tried to maintain order,violence broke out,which led to multiple arrests.
I usually steer clear of political issues,as you know,but this stuck in my craw,big time.I have seen pictures of the N.O. housing projects,they are most certainly not "handsome" by any stretch.They are a monument to the failed public housing system that threw poor minorities into segregated crime-ridden developments.If anything,they demonstrators should be pissed off because they weren't demolished sooner.Furthermore,if they don't like the decisions being made,why not direct some of that energy they wasted causing a ruckus into getting off the "HUD tit" and procuring their own housing????What is so racist about the city wanting to tear down those tenements and put something nicer and more diverse in its place?It almost sounds like the protesters want segregation in New Orleans future..
Also wanted to mention,that while people have died and countless others stranded without power in the Midwest after winter storms,none of them lost their damn minds and looted and rioted in the streets.Katrinas devastating effects were felt by people of all races and I am tired of people suggesting otherwise.