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The Katrina
Incident: Media Manipulation Masks Government Malfeasance.
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread316091/pg1
Introduction
New Orleans, Louisiana is the location of one of the greatest
disasters to occur in modern times. On August 29, 2005 a
hurricane hit land and began its destructive movement north. The
hurricane's official designation became 'Katrina,' and will be
remembered as the most expensive natural disaster to occur in
United States history at roughly 86 billion dollars. Whole
island chains were obliterated, as evinced by satellite
photography, and nearly 80% of New Orleans ultimately ended up
flooded. [1] The meteorological nature of hurricane Katrina is
but a small piece of what actually happened, however; the real
disaster began after landfall. The political action, or
inaction, by the government is viewed by a wide array of people
as a chief failure of current executive power. Therefore,
various failures in government reaction have been the main focus
in the public consensus. However, the proactive quality of
engaging in illegal activities by the government should be
viewed with far greater scrutiny. Indeed, could it be that the
media coverage was manipulated in such a way as to mask the true
nature of government infringement on rights? These and other
issues are of prime importance to this essay and will be
supported by evidence from the public forum held at Chester
University, October 23, 2007.
The Chester University Public Forum
In the opening sequences of the forum, a few issues seemed to
dominate the discussion; chiefly, the notion of evidence through
media coverage as factual or fictional. Although one of the
speakers claimed that media sources are almost always right,
scrutiny needs to be given to this subject. The media exists to
provide people, some of which may have little or no direct
contact with the covered event, with objective data reporting.
However, media does tend to have an agenda.
Richard M. Cohen, former Senior Producer for CBS political news,
illustrates this concept quite well when he reportedly stated
that, "We are going to impose our agenda on the [media] coverage
by dealing with issues and subjects that we choose to deal
with." A universally unbiased media outlet seems to be something
of a nonentity. Why were the Katrina survivors and "refugees"
not considered as such, as a whole, but more so as separate
groups; blacks, whites, looters, gang bangers, criminals, and
survivalists.
Thereupon, an assortment of media providers were covering the
event for the entire country, and world. There stories,
implications, and captions were powerful indeed. Unless one had
physically experienced the events in New Orleans following
hurricane Katrina, media was likely the exclusive source of
information.
Racially Inflammatory Rumors Delivered as Fact
Forum member Larry Kesterson, staff photographer of the
Philadelphia Inquirer, referenced the supposed rape of a six
year old female in the Superdome as being entirely fabricated.
The Superdome acted as a post disaster relocation and detainment
center for New Orleans refugees; it is the apparent epicenter of
several rumors of murder, robbery, assault, and rape, many of
such claims remain unsubstantiated. These rumors became news as
this information was recorded, synthesized, and then broadcast
to millions of listeners worldwide. Therein, the margin for a
substantial disparity existing between the factual occurrences
of a besieged New Orleans and the reported news is rather large.
What might the motives behind the rumor propagation and
falsification of stories be? One unidentified student attending
the forum asked the following question of the forums leaders,
"Why do you feel the abuses of civil rights were so
underreported; rights such as protection from illegal search and
seizure, and the right to keep and bear arms?" Indeed, this
raises questions. Why was their so much emphasis on highlighting
the dangers of looting and the obvious roles of the various
classes and races of the refugees? According to musician Kanye
West, "You see a black family, it says, 'They're looting.' You
see a white family, it says, 'They're looking for food." This
quote illustrates the quality of the situation, wherein various
roles and designations where given to certain groups of
"refugees" by the media.
Few people seem to have noticed, immediately anyway, the broad
scope of what the government accomplished in this time. While
the media seems to have been focused on the relief effort in
general and various criminal activities, the government was
carrying out broad sweeping violations of the Bill of Rights.
Abuse of Power by Government Representatives
There are numerous reports of blatant disregard for the 2nd
amendment through illegal gun confiscation. Deputy Chief Warren
Riley publicly announced that "No one will be able to be armed.
We are going to take all the weapons." In one dramatic incident
Patty Konie, an elderly but well stocked and prepared civilian
homeowner, was attacked by heavily armed police for possessing a
pistol. Furthermore, Patty Konie was not in the immediate
disaster zone and her life was not in danger. A substantiation
for confiscation of her weapon remains unseen.
In ABC World News coverage, Konie goes on to explain how the
police, "punched [her] in the face" and she ultimately believed
that, "...they were going to kill me." [2] In addition to the
2nd amendment, the 4th amendment was simultaneously violated by
the seizure of her property (pistol) and the search of her home.
In the same report, Robert Zas, a civilian firearm owner, claims
that the police seized his legal firearms and promptly destroyed
them on the spot following an illegal search of his vehicle. The
abuse of power by the government is incongruent with the with
any legal method for seizing one's property or revoking the
right to keep and bear arms, these were law abiding and
peaceable citizens, not criminals.
An Opportunity for Treachery
The obvious and gross abuses of inalienable Constitutional
rights of citizens may represent phase 1 of the governments
denial of civil liberty. Race issues were well documented by
media as well, and may represent another facet of the
government's treachery. The assertion has been made repeatedly
that the failure of the government to respond to refugees was
due to race related issues. Institutional racism, as mentioned
by Annette John-Hall who works as the metro columnist for the
Philadelphia Inquirer, is defined as a step beyond individual
racism where racism exists as policy or de facto norm. However,
it does not appear as though racism can directly be associated
with the improper action of FEMA and the government in general.
The issues at hand with the incident of Katrina deal with
everyone, people of all races, and they represent a gross
violation of civil rights as delegated by the US Constitution.
Racism does exist in the United States, perhaps even on an
institutional level through biased and politically motivated
reports as noted earlier by Kanye West. Yet Katrina represents a
far more universal attack on rights, people of all races have
been affected.
Government Hired Private "Security" Forces As A Means Around
Posse Comitatus
Of a more frightening nature, however, is the use of force by
private entities. Why are there reports of private property
owners being allowed to defend their stake with weapons?
Journalist Jeremy Scahill rights:
"As business leaders and government officials talk openly of
changing the demographics of what was one of the most culturally
vibrant of America's cities, mercenaries from companies like
DynCorp, Intercon, American Security Group, Blackhawk, Wackenhut
and an Israeli company called Instinctive Shooting International
(ISI) are fanning out to guard private businesses and homes, as
well as government projects and institutions. Within two weeks
of the hurricane, the number of private security companies
registered in Louisiana jumped from 185 to 235. Some, like
Blackwater, are under federal contract. Others have been hired
by the wealthy elite, like F. Patrick Quinn III, who brought in
private security to guard his $3 million private estate and his
luxury hotels, which are under consideration for a lucrative
federal contract to house FEMA workers." [3]
Thus, individual citizens were disarmed leaving them subject to
the whim of criminals, who by definition do not subscribe to the
rule of law, and mercenaries, some of whom had recently been
deployed to Iraq for combat. The Posse Comitatus act forbids the
use of US troops to police citizens or to be used as law
enforcement. Using mercenaries may be a way around this
regulation without having to declare martial law.
The Media Distortions Masked Wide-Spread Rights Violations
This has all happened within the United States. Civilians have
been killed by mercenaries, police have murdered civilians, and
one must let the unreported or undocumented incidences speak for
themselves. [4] Lawlessness and a breakdown in society has
occurred before in the 1992 Los Angeles riots, it occurred in
New Orleans in 2005, and the threat of it happening anywhere in
the United States again is very real. It seems clear that in
times of emergency the prevailing ideology is to look to
government for safety and sustenance, this mindset must be
challenged. Violations of humans rights go virtually
unchallenged unless a stable system of government exists to
prosecute those infractions of the law; however, this is taking
into consideration that a stable government will at some point
restore the rule of law and order. If such a disaster were to be
extrapolated to account for a multi-city disaster situation, the
blatant violations seen in Katrina would return with ruthless
similarity. The chances of further meteorological disasters in
cities on the eastern seaboard does not seem obvious as yet;
however, the events of the hurricane Katrina disaster produced a
critical lesson for those meaning to survive in the 21st
century.
-survival is self proclaimed and not assured-
Works Cited:
[1]
www.nola.com...
[2]
youtube.com...
[3]
www.alternet.org...
[4]
www.democracynow.org.../08/31/1436209
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