Rumors Running Wild: Post-Katrina Rumors

and Their Affects on the Aftermath of the Storm

Brian Malone and Moira Egler

Katrina Background Katrina hits New Orleans on

August 29, 2005 Levees on 17th st Canal, Industrial

Canal, and London Avenue Canal breech on August 30, 2009. All “back of town” neighborhoods are underwater, 80% of city floods

25,000 people had evacuated to the Superdome, the shelter of “last resort”, prior to the storm (Times-Picayune)

Power throughout the city fails, creating a mass communication breakdown

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:KatrinaNewOrleansFlooded_edit2.jpg

Rumors Running Wild… “Rampant rumors of riots and

armed gangs [are] running amuck.”-Times-Picayune, Sept. 1, 2005

"The tourists are walking around there, and as soon as these individuals see them, they're being preyed upon. They are beating them, they are raping them in the streets.”- Eddie Compass, 9/4/05

“Poor blacks and looters were murdering innocents and terrorizing whoever crossed their path in the dark, unprotected city” -The New York Times, 8/26/10

http://www.hyscience.com/archives/2005/08/hundreds_feared.php

Chaos in the Dome

http://photos.nola.com/hurricane_katrina/2005/08/superdome_shelter_photos_2.html

http://www.nola.com/hurricane/index.ssf/2010/02/warming_to_bring_stronger_hurr.html

Rumors in the Dome The mass misery in the city's two unlit and uncooled primary shelters, the convention

center and the Superdome, was compounded, officials said, by gangs that were raping women and children. - The New York Times, 9/25/05

“There are people who have been in that Superdome for 5 days watching dead bodies, watching hooligans killing people, raping people.” -Ray Nagin, from Law and Disorder

“For the most part, it wasn’t a situation that was ever described in the media with just, you know, rampant chaos. That didn’t happen.” -Alex Ernst, NOPD Officer responsible for patrolling the Superdome

“Whoever started that – and, of course, was responsible for reporting it, without checking with any of the Police Officers at the Superdome – I thought that was an injustice. And that was inexcusable.” -Alex Ernst

"Any time you put 25,000 people under one roof, with no running water, no electricity and no information, stories get told.”- Lt. David Benelli, head of NOPD sex crimes unit

Martial Law Declaration: Fact or Fiction? Nagin declares martial law- 8/30/05 Gov. Kathleen Blanco declares state of emergency, allowing

authorities to “suspend civil liberties”.States that martial law is unlawful and has not been declared. -The Times Picayune, 8/30/05

State of emergency allows “members of the [National] guard who knew policing…come in and show force” (Law and Disorder).

Messages of both Blanco and Nagin misinterpreted by authorities-- rumors of violence, and police-inflicted violence continued.

Rumors of violence, martital law significantly heighten anxiety within police force, possible contribute to shooting of innocents on Danzinger Bridge, Crescent City Connection

“Take Back the City” Rumors of heightened violence create sense of helplessness

amongst police and civilians. (Law and Disorder) The lasting image of Hurricane Katrina had become “the looter,” and

NOPD captain Warren Riley instructed the police force to “take back the city” (Law and Disorder).

Police officers did not have a solid form of communication between each other or with anyone else, so as rumors intertwined with official orders, many cops interpreted taking the streets as having the authority to shoot-to-kill any law-violating civilian.

Choas ensues, Rumors like the apparent “siege of the children’s hospital” by looters, the supposed “riot at the River Center,” and the alleged “snipers shooting at helicopters” arise.- The Times Picayune

Shoot to Kill video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIJBTCYS9qg

Theory Worden- “This [police] culture emphasizes the danger and unpredictability of the work

environment, the consequent dependence of officers on each other for assistance and protection, officers’ autonomy in handling situations, and the need to assert and maintain one’s authority.”

• Walker- “We assume that the typical crime is a violent crime, that the typical victim is

white, and that the typical offender is African American or Hispanic.”• Hobbes- “The state of nature is a state of all against all, punctuated by frequent

violence, in which the participants correctly perceive themselves to be in constant danger.”

Improvements Establishment of legitimate

emergency communication with backup

-“If we learn anything from this, the federal government, on a military police aspect of this only, the federal government has got to step up to the plate and put a radio system in place that everybody could use” - NOPD Officer Anthony Canatella

Stricter requirements for media to confirm rumors before reporting

- “The media's willingness to report thinly attributed rumors may also have contributed to a kind of cultural wreckage that will not clean up easily.” - The New York Times, 9/19/05

http://www.life.com/image/57397190

More Improvements Evacuate majority of police force before the

storm, leaving 400-500 Bring in evacuated police as back up Will eliminate number of lost cars, overall

equiptment and resource loss “I personally think that we should evacuate

the majority of our force, leaving probably 500, maybe 400, people here. But those 400 that stay have to be totally self-sufficient.”

“Have assets that would go with the crew that’s leaving city and have assets here in the city. So, that way, if the assets you had in the city would fold, or you couldn’t use them, so that it creates this advantage: the assets that are coming in from out of the city with the reinforcements.” –Robert Norton, Commander of NOPD Bomb Squad and Dive Team

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/episode/25-years-4999/Photos

Conclusions Rumors of violence largely

exaggerated after Katrina Martial law never lawfully

declared, “shoot to kill” orders still ambiguous, Superdome violence, rapes were largely false

Communication breakdown causes rumors to spread, be thought of as fact by many

Police may have been influenced by rumors to enact violence on innocents. http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/looters-close-in-on-new-orleans/

2005/09/01/1125302664655.html

Works Cited• Anthony Canatella Oral History: http://policingkatrina.wikispaces.com/Oral+Histories• Alex Ernst Oral Hisotry: http://policingkatrina.wikispaces.com/Oral+Histories• Kavka, Gregory S. 1999.“Hobbe’s War of All Against All”. The Social Contract Theorists. Ed. Christopher W. Morris. 2-22.• Walker, S. 1996. “Victims and Offenders: Myths and Realites about Crime”. Color of Justice: Race, Ethnicity and Crime in

America. P. 24-59.• Worden, R. 1959. “The Cases of Police Brutality: Theory and Evidence on Police Use of Force”. Police Violence: Understanding and

Controlling Police Abuse of Force. • Carr David. “More Horrible That Truth: News Reports.” The New York Times. Semptember 19, 2005.

Retrieved:http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/19/business/media/19carr.html?_r=1• Channing, Joseph. “Police Chief Says He Exaggerated Post-Katrina Crime.” The New York Sun. August 21, 2006. Retrieved:

http://www.nysun.com/national/police-chief-says-he-exaggerated-post-katrina/38268/• Drew, Christopher and Jim Dwyer. “Fear Exceeded Crime’s Reality in New Orleans.” The New York Times. September 29, 2005.

Retrieved: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/29/national/nationalspecial/29crime.html• Lee, Trymaine. “Tales of Post-Katrina Violence Go from Rumor to Fact.” The New York Times. August 26, 2010. Retrieved:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/27/us/27racial.html?pagewanted=2• Times-Picayune. “Gun Shots, Death, Frustration.” Retrieved: http://policingkatrina.wikispaces.com/Newspapers• Times-Picayune. “City Not Safe”. Retrieved: http://policingkatrina.wikispaces.com/Newspapers• Times-Picayune. “Crime Jitters.” Retrieved: http://policingkatrina.wikispaces.com/Newspapers• Law and Disorder. Documentary, Frontline, Pro-Publica. Retrieved: http://policingkatrina.wikispaces.com/Documentaries