Martha Nowacki

11/11/15
Argumentative Paper

~Imagine it being September 23, 2005. To most people, this date has no significance, but to

some this date marks the one month anniversary of complete destruction, complete torture, and

complete catastrophe. This date signifies the one month anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the largest

hurricane to ever touch the United States, but more specifically New Orleans. Next, imagine being a

former citizen of New Orleans. This city is where you grew up, where you went to school, where you

made connections, but most importantly where your heart lies. In this city, you experienced countless

festivals, parties, and musical activities. This city taught you the idea of diversity, community, and

membership. This city is your home and home to everyone in your family and extended family. You

loved this city with all of your heart, but now looking at recent photos, you no longer recognize

anything. You look at these photos and can hardly believe what has happened. The city has lost its color

and has turned into grey. You think back to August 23, 2005, when the hurricane touched land. You and

your family were stranded, because you didn’t have the money to leave. You remember how brutal the

police force was, watching people die right before your eyes, and watching your fellow African American

brothers and sisters be discriminated against. Remembering all of this brings about pain and feelings of

anxiety from the trauma that you still deal with every day, because of these horrific events. Fast forward

to the year of 2015. You and your family are still located in Texas and have not moved back to New

Orleans yet. Why? Because the city will never be the same after what you witnessed. The pain is

unbearable, because you had to watch the people you loved and the city you loved, be washed away by

the storm. ~

Even though this scenario above is not a real account from a survivor of Hurricane Katrina, it

depicts what it was like for hundreds of thousands of people that were left to die when the hurricane

touched land. The citizens of New Orleans really did go through countless days of trauma and panic.

These people saw things that most of us will never see in our lives. And yet, some individuals believe

pg. 1
Martha Nowacki
11/11/15
Argumentative Paper
that these citizens can just go back to their city like the snap of a finger. Some think that moving back to

the city should be no problem for these former citizens and that they should make the move back to

New Orleans, a reality. But, individuals who are making these claims don’t understand what kind of

trauma and visually horrific scenes that many New Orleanians witnessed. Even if citizens had a desire to

go back, it would be extremely hard, because of the trauma caused by police brutality, lack of

government and authority-figure assistance, and racial tensions.

According to Flaherty, “During Katrina, the actions of the local and regional police departments

were among the biggest dangers to public safety” (Flaherty pg. 170, 2010). These “actions” were

extremely dangerous to the citizens, because they included shootings, beatings, harassment, and other

violent acts. The incidence of shooting at citizens and in some cases even killing them, was one of the

more frequent forms of violence aimed at residents. In one account, the Gretna police officers were

ordered to block off the bridge connecting Jefferson Parish to New Orleans. This bridge was the main

escape route for the thousands of citizens still left in the Superdome, Convention Center, and

throughout the city of New Orleans in general. The officers blocking the bridge even would fire “warning

shots” above the heads of citizens trying to escape their city. According to Flaherty, “this incident ranks

among the cruelest examples of state violence in our time, yet no one was ever punished for it”

(Flaherty pg. 170, 2010). In another account of shooting, Mardi Gras Indian chief, Kevin Goodman,

witnessed police shoot a man that had approached their squad car. This man was simply trying to get

their attention, but instead the police killed the man and left his body. Goodman commented on the

matter saying, “The police cars say, ‘Protect and Serve’. Wasn’t no protecting and serving going on”

(Flaherty pg.172, 2010). In a third account, six days after Katrina, several officers killed two unarmed

citizens, one being a mentally challenged man, Ronald Madison. Madison was shot in the back by one

officer and another officer stomped on and kicked him until he was dead. (Flaherty, 2010). In a fourth

account, about a week after the storm, a man named Henry Glover was shot in the chest while

pg. 2
Martha Nowacki
11/11/15
Argumentative Paper
reportedly picking up stolen goods at a strip mall parking lot. Glover’s brother “luckily” found someone

to drive the both of them to the local hospital, but instead the driver took them to a police station. The

brothers were handcuffed and severely beaten at the station, and Glover was driven away in the same

vehicle that the brothers were transported in. Days after the incident, Glovers’ burned remains were

found inside the car by private security consultants (Ramsey, 2015). Besides shootings, other various

violent acts occurred in the city of Baton Rouge. Police were under orders from their supervisors to

make Baton Rouge inhospitable to displaced citizens from New Orleans that had ended up there. In the

following weeks after the storm, the behavior of the Baton Rouge police officers consisted of racism,

violence, and illegal actions. Actions such as beatings, search and seizure, spraying of mace, and arrests

were random and unprovoked (Flaherty, 2010). Other actions included the use of demeaning language,

harassment of African Americans, physical abuse of citizens, and officers seeking to “make life rough for

New Orleans evacuees so they would leave town” (Thompson, ¶ #2, 2010). These accusations were

made by out of state troopers from New Mexico and Michigan who were sent to the Baton Rouge area

to help with post-hurricane policing. These officers said that the Baton Rouge police referred to African

Americans as “animals” that “needed to be beaten down” (Thompson, 2010).

Not only did police misconduct and abuse cause the citizens so much turmoil and trauma, but

lack of government and authority-figure assistance did too. According to a Soul Patrol volunteer Ricky

Matthieu (neighborhood rescuers), the so-called “first responders” did very little and were more

interested “in joyriding and trying out equipment”. Matthieu stated that, “We (the soul patrol) rescued

almost everyone in this area” (Flaherty pg. 35, 2010). This volunteer group was actually making use of

their time and rescuing residents, while the first responders were simply wasting time. Similar to Soul

Patrol, a man named Malik Rahim, seemed to be one of the only people doing something during a time

that the government and mainstream organizations had failed the city. Rahim was a leader of the

organization, Common Ground, which helped citizens with many aspects, such as bringing food and

pg. 3
Martha Nowacki
11/11/15
Argumentative Paper
supplies to people and by providing a free health clinic (Flaherty, 2010). The criminal justice system and

police force had also failed the city. There was no evacuation plan for prisoners, and the city officials

overseeing evacuation and the sheriff who was responsible for these prisoners, simply did not care

about what happened to them. Many prisoners were abandoned in their cells as the water levels

continued to raise around them. The NOPD, New Orleans Police Department had failed the city too,

because they lacked the leadership that was severely needed at a time of complete chaos. In addition to

the prisoners being abandoned, the whole city of New Orleans that still remained were completely

abandoned and suffered as a result. According to two paramedics that had been in the city for a

convention, they reported walking to a police command center for help and the police told them that

they were on their own and that they did not have water to give them (Flaherty, 2010). According

Flaherty, “My memories of that place still haunt me. Every evacuee I spoke to had a horrible story to tell,

of a home destroyed, of swimming across town, of corpses and fights, gunshots, vigilantes, and terror.

The phrase “left to die” echoed again and again. People who had just come from the superdome

described shocking experiences, the horror still fresh…I just kept thinking, I can’t believe this is the US”

(Flaherty pg. 41, 2010). Residents even had to cut through their roofs to breathe as the water levels

continued to rise and many of the weak, elderly, sick, and handicapped that remained in the city did not

survive. The death toll from this disaster had reached 1,600, the majority of deaths prominent in New

Orleans (Garrett and Tetlow, 2006). Many people were left at the Causeway Camp (evacuee camp)

without food and water in 100 degree heat (Flaherty, 2010). People were also left at the Convention

Center, lacking various resources. Kevin Goodman, Mardi Gras Indian chief, describes the horror in the

center: “I was at the convention center three, four days without food. People sick, sitting out on the

curb in their wheelchairs, using the bathroom on themselves. Babies dehydrated. No nurses, no medical

attention, no doctors” (Flaherty pg. 172, 2010). No large-scale deliveries of supplies arrived at the

Convention Center until September 2nd, which was four days after the storm had reached landfall

pg. 4
Martha Nowacki
11/11/15
Argumentative Paper
(Henkel, Dovidio, and Gaertner, 2006). In addition, buses had driven thousands of citizens to the

superdome, but the city and state lacked a planned system that would transport and shelter these

victims outside of the city, as well as housing for evacuees (Garrett and Tetlow, 2006), (Henkel, Dovidio,

and Gaertner, 2006). The housing for evacuees was said to be held up, because of the slow bureaucratic

process. Only a few weeks after Katrina had hit, the Department of Veteran Affairs supplied 7,000

single-family homes that were owned by the government to provide for the evacuees. Although, the

houses went unused for months because of paperwork issues dealing with FEMA (Henkel, Dovidio, and

Gaertner, 2006). Overall, it seemed as if the entire city was completely abandoned by everyone,

including city officials, the government, and the country itself. According to Garrett and Tetlow, "To

those left in the city, it felt as if government at all levels had vanished, as if not only New Orleans but the

nation itself had disappeared” (Garrett and Tetlow, 2006).

Lastly, in addition to police brutality and lack of government or authority-figure assistance, racial

tensions were also evident after the storm. These tensions, too, brought about trauma for those

experiencing the discrimination and for those witnessing it happen to their fellow citizens. According to

Flaherty, a man named John Keller, who was a part of a group staying at the Can Company during the

storm, had an idea to get assistance from helicopters that had occasionally flown by, but never stopped

(this group had gone days without help). He told all of the black people within the group to leave the

roof and told the elderly, white citizens to stay on the roof. Within minutes after doing this, the first

helicopter arrived, dropping off food and water. After this, a Coast Guard helicopter started rescuing the

people. Other incidences of racism were evident all throughout the city. When buses had finally come to

the Superdome to transport people, they took the tourists first. White citizens were getting hand-picked

out of the crowd and it was as if no one cared about the black residents. Similar to this situation, at the

Causeway Camp, authority were also handpicking white citizens out of the crowd to leave first. Leah

Hodges, a black woman who had been at the Camp, explained, “every day, the crowd got darker and

pg. 5
Martha Nowacki
11/11/15
Argumentative Paper
darker and darker until finally there were only- there were 95 percent people of color in that place…they

(National Guard and police) broke up families and dispersed us…and they stood over us with guns and

enforced their authority” (Flaherty pg. 43, 2010).Flaherty also describes how he was privileged while

being at the Causeway Camp, because of his identity: “My intersecting layers of privilege as a journalist

and as a white male allowed me to escape and get a comfortable ride. While National Guard soldiers

kept watch over others in the camp, they had barely noticed as the three of us walked out” (Flaherty pg.

42, 2010). Police officers in Baton Rouge also were displaying actions of discrimination against black

citizens. Like stated before, the police referred to black citizens as “animals” that “needed to be beaten

down”, according to the out of state troopers (Thompson, 2010). Overall, the state troopers described

the Baton Rouge police forces as using patterns of discrimination within their course of action. There

was also a report from a state trooper that concluded that whenever Baton Rouge police officer, Chad

King, would come into contact with a white citizen, he would be pleasant and friendly, but when he was

come into contact with black citizens, he would be loud, rude, and demeaning (Flaherty, 2010). Not only

were there outright incidences of racism, but there were claims and perceptions of racism in accordance

with why things happened the way that they did. For example, one set of claims revolved around the

idea that the speed and quality of the responses to the hurricane correlated with racism. Minister Louis

Farrakhan said, “I firmly believe if the people on those rooftops had blond hair and blue eyes and pale

skin, something would have been done in a more timely manner” (Adams, O’Brien, and Nelson pg.3,

2006). Another set of claims focused on the fact that responses were different to people who had

helped themselves to supplies in the aftermath of Katrina. These claims indicated that authorities

treated black citizens as criminals, applying excessive force, firing warning shots, and applying harsh

treatment, to a greater level than they did to white citizens. A third set of claims argues that the

blocking of the bridge (leading to a predominately white suburb) to primarily black citizens, who were

trying to escape the city on foot, could quite possibly be a racist incidence. A fourth set of claims

pg. 6
Martha Nowacki
11/11/15
Argumentative Paper
involved racism in the media. Jesse Jackson, members of the Congressional Black Caucus, and other

Black leaders have argued that the use of the word “refugee” (indication of Katrina survivors) in the

media, holds a raciest suggestion of second-class citizenship (Adams, O’Brien, and Nelson, 2006). Yet

another portrayal of discrimination and racism in the media revolved around 2 pictures: one of a black

male wading through water, dragging grocery items, and another of 2 white citizens (one male, one

female) wading through water, dragging grocery items. The caption for the first image read, “A young

man walks through chest-deep water after looting at a grocery store in New Orleans” and the caption

for the second image read, “Two residents wade through chest-deep flood waters after finding bread

and soda from a local grocery store after Hurricane Katrina came through the area” (Harris and Carbado

pg2, 2006). These images brought about a lot of controversy and people complained that the captions

belonging to the images were racially suggestive, such that white people “find” items and black people

“loot” or steal items (Harris and Carbado, 2006).

Based on the many incidences of police brutality, lack of government or authority-figure

assistance, and racial tensions, it is evident that the former citizens of New Orleans would have gone

through a lot, psychologically. This would make it very difficult for them to move back to their city,

because they would be constantly reminded of the pain and suffering that they had to face during

hurricane Katrina. Although, couldn’t these citizens receive mental health treatment in the cities that

they ended up in? Wouldn’t receiving this treatment help the move back to New Orleans be less

traumatic? The answer to both questions is yes. Survivors of hurricane Katrina, as a result of this horrific

experience, suffered a wide range of mental disorders and problems, including Post Traumatic Stress

Disorder (PTSD), major depressive disorder, other longer-term psychological problems, and even suicide

(Zuckerman and Coughlin, 2006; Golden, 2006). In states like Texas and Georgia, where most of the

residents evacuated to, mental health problems, like these, can properly be taken care of (Zedlewski,

2006). For example, in Houston Texas, there is a hospital called Menninger Clinic that provides therapies

pg. 7
Martha Nowacki
11/11/15
Argumentative Paper
to help treat issues such as depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts. This clinic offers therapy options

like individual, group, marital, and family psychotherapy; cognitive behavioral therapy; and dialectical

behavioral therapy (http://www.menningerclinic.com). Secondly, located in Atlanta Georgia, Skyland

Trail is a mental health treatment organization that helps treat disorders such as major depressive

disorder and many different anxiety disorders, including PTSD. This organization pairs adequate

diagnostic services with evidence-based therapies to help adults recover from severe mental disorders

(https://www.skylandtrail.org). In looking at both of these facilities, it is obvious that the former citizens

of New Orleans would be in good hands and would recover. Also, these clinics only represent just one

facility that exists in these two cities. In both of the cities alone, there are many more options that

former citizens of New Orleans can take advantage of and there are a range of facilities within the entire

states of Texas and Georgia made available to citizens.

But, what about New Orleans? Would it be possible for citizens to continue their treatment back

in their home town? The answer to this question is most likely not. Receiving treatment in other states,

like Texas and Georgia would definitely be available, but going home to New Orleans to receive a

continuation of treatment would not. According to Scheeringa, a psychiatrist, “It's hard to say how

mental health has recovered, because it was a difficult system for patients to access before Katrina and

it's difficult for them to access still” (Robeznieks ¶#7, 2015). For example, mental health services are

often hard to access because many Louisiana psychiatry practices operate as a cash-only businesses and

do not accept private or public insurance. Also, in regards to reports made about New Orleans and its

mental health status after Katrina, the ratio of psychiatrists to the amount of people that were still in

New Orleans and the inpatient beds available declined drastically. According to the 2012 New Orleans

Health Department analysis, the city had 196 psychiatrists for 480,000 people before Katrina and after

Katrina, there were between 22 and 42 psychiatrists for 240,000 people that remained. Secondly, steps

are currently being taken to increase the number of inpatient mental health beds. According to the city’s

pg. 8
Martha Nowacki
11/11/15
Argumentative Paper
report of 2012, the number of beds available dropped from 487 to 190 following the storm (Robeznieks,

2015). These two aspects would dramatically effect former citizens’ return, because if there are still not

enough doctors and hospital beds, how could they be guaranteed a continuation of treatment? Also,

how could these citizens be guaranteed treatment if public or private insurance is not accepted? Paying

out of pocket for expenses can be very difficult for some individuals, especially the poor. These factors

would definitely keep citizens from receiving the treatment that they needed, if they moved back to

New Orleans.

~ Even though ten years have passed, you can still hear the gunshots, the crying, the screaming,

and the begging for help. You can still visualize the police cursing at your fellow citizens, your friends

dying of heat exhaustion, and your fellow black brothers and sisters being left behind. No matter how

many years go by, these sounds and scenes will never be fully erased from your memory, without

proper treatment. You will never be able to fully grasp what has happened to the city you once called

home. ~ These are the very reasons why a former citizen of New Orleans would not be able to make the

move back to their homes happen so easily. These people suffered greatly and it would be extremely

difficult for them to return home, because of the trauma caused by police brutality, lack of government

or authority-figure assistance, and racial tensions. Yes, some make the claim that former citizens should

simply be able to move back, using their own decisions and motivation, but it’s not that easy. People

have no idea what these citizens had to go through and what kind of pain they had to endure. Through

all of this pain, suffering, and turmoil the city of New Orleans will never be the same and neither will its

former citizens.

pg. 9
Martha Nowacki
11/11/15
Argumentative Paper

Works Cited

Adams, G., O’Brien, L. T., & Nelson, J. C. (2006). Perceptions of

Racism in Hurricane Katrina: A Liberation Psychology Analysis.

Analyses Of Social Issues & Public Policy, 6(1), 215-235.

doi:10.1111/j.1530-2415.2006.00112.x

Flaherty, J. (2010). Floodlines: Community and resistance from Katrina

to the Jena six. Chicago, Ill.: Haymarket Books.

Garrett, B. L., & Tetlow, T. (2006). Criminal Justice Collapse: The

Constitution after Hurricane Katrina. Duke Law Journal, 56(1).

Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/40040542

Harris, C., & Carbado, D. (2006). Loot or Find: Fact or Frame? (Review

of the book White Washing Race; Scapegoating Culture). California

Law Review.

Henkel, K. E., Dovidio, J. F., & Gaertner, S. L. (2006). Institutional

Discrimination, Individual Racism, and Hurricane Katrina.

Analyses Of Social Issues & Public Policy, 6(1), 99-124.

doi:10.1111/j.1530-2415.2006.00106.x

Ramsey, D. (2015, August 31). How Katrina Sparked Reform in a Troubled

Police Department. The Atlantic. Retrieved from

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/08/katrina-blew

the-lid-off-the-nopd/402814/

pg. 10
Martha Nowacki
11/11/15
Argumentative Paper
Robeznieks, A. (2015, August 29). 10 years after Katrina, New

Orleans' mental health services are still on the mend. Modern

Health Care. Retrieved from

http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20150829/MAGAZINE/3082999

62

Thompson, A. (2010, March 15). In Baton Rouge, More Allegations of

Police Misconduct After Hurricane Katrina. ProPublica. Retrieved

from https://www.propublica.org/nola/story/in-baton-rouge-more

allegations-of-police-misconduct-after-hurricane-katrin

Turner, M., & Zedlewski, S., Reischauer, R. (2006). After Katrina:

Rebuilding Opportunity and Equity Into the New New Orleans. Urban

Institute. Retrieved from

http://www.urban.org/research/publication/after-katrina

https://www.skylandtrail.org

http://www.menningerclinic.com

pg. 11