The Select Bipartisan Committee to Investigate the Preparation for and Response to Hurricane Katrina held a hearing titled "Hurricane Katrina: Voices from Inside the Storm." Gulf coast evacuees testified about their experiences during and after the hurricane, as well as responses by state, local, and federal officials.
Statistics: Posted by AmyRose — Wed Apr 14, 2010 4:27 am
Posted by: Newtopia on Sep 28, 2005
I was recently imprisoned for a victimless crime, simple possession of a small amount of marijuana and MDMA (read about it in today's Alternet). I was still in prison finishing out my sentence when Katrina hit, and due to lack of access to television, I was only able to keep up with events in small segments, generally early in the morning.
It was a couple days after the hurricane passed that fellow inmates began wondering what happened to the prisoners down in New Orleans. Being in an institution predominantly populated by Black men, the racial dynamic of the disaster was no surprise to anyone. Knowing this, knowning that most of the poorest residents had been left to die, the inmates began saying "if they left us niggers to die, they sure as hell aint tryin' to save no prisoners. Those mufuckas dead!"
Within the first week it had become their paramount concern. Rumours circulated that CNN had shown footage of prisoners in orange jumpsuits being evacuated, but no one actually saw the footage, and people believed the Correctional Officers had started the rumours to appease the inmates (rumouors are rampant in prison). Very quickly the general consensus was that the prisoners had been abandoned in the jails to die, but no confirmation came in the press, and no one expected one, because, after all, prisoners, like poor Blacks, are amongst the invisible population in this country. Later reports began to circulate that all the Correctional records in New Orleans had been destroyed, and as a result, no one was being released. It was a prisoner's greatest nightmare. Then, there was nothing, until this report (and the initial one a few weeks ago), which confirmed our other, previously unconsidered greatest nightmare, being abandoned in the face of a natural (or terrorist??) disaster.
Although I have taken issue with Amy Goodman at times, I want to commend her and her staff for at least reporting on this. I suspect this is the last we will hear of it, for in the final analysis, who cares about prisoners in a society that has demonized them beyond redemption, even though, as Goodman et.al. point out, most held in the Parish jail were there on petty (drug) offenses?
Statistics: Posted by AmyRose — Wed Apr 14, 2010 3:02 am
Statistics: Posted by chiggerbit — Sat Apr 10, 2010 2:44 pm
Mary Howell, an attorney suing New Orleans police on behalf of the dead man's family, says there were several potential witnesses living at the Friendly Inn at the time of the shooting. She has accused police of violating procedures by failing to even write down their names.
Statistics: Posted by AlicetheKurious — Thu Apr 08, 2010 4:12 pm
Statistics: Posted by chiggerbit — Thu Apr 08, 2010 3:04 pm