More Than Levees Need Mending in the Gulf Coast

Two years after Hurricane Katrina smashed through the Gulf Coast, devastating the lives and homes of millions of people, the region’s infrastructure isn’t the only thing that still needs fixing.  The people’s confidence in our nation’s promise of equal rights for all also suffered serious damage and to this day needs mending. 

The ACLU’s new report, “Broken Promises: Two Years After Katrina,” shows how families, business owners, evacuees and prisoners have been subjected to ongoing police abuse, racial profiling, housing discrimination and other civil liberties violations.  A flood of complaints and reports of racial injustice and human rights violations continue to reach the ACLU.

For example, African-American kids from New Orleans, who had to move to other schools in the region, have been greeted with hostility and overly harsh school penalties in their new surroundings.  When Erica Jolly and her children arrived at Provine High School in Jackson, Mississippi, the school’s office manager told them, “We’re not taking any more of you people.”  In the hostile environment, it’s not surprising that Jolly’s kids got into a fight within two weeks.  The ACLU of Mississippi represented the young men at their school disciplinary hearing—to no avail.  Instead of recommending a 10-day suspension, the usual penalty for fighting at school, the school expelled the kids and sent them to the Youth Detention Center Alternative School.

Residents have also faced housing discrimination.  St. Bernard Parish passed an ordinance permitting only blood relatives of current residents to buy or rent homes, which meant that only whites would be able to do so since 93 percent of the parish’s homeowners are white.  Several parishes also passed bans or restrictions related to trailer parks to keep evacuees out.  And a recent report found that 60 percent of landlords in the Greater New Orleans Area discriminated against African-American testers sent out to investigate rental practices.

Concerns residents had in the immediate aftermath of Katrina about police officers using excessive force and overly-aggressive policing tactics continue today.  For example, Renaissance Village, one of the largest FEMA trailer parks in Louisiana, was run more like a prison than a residential facility, as police demanded IDs just for entry.  And, last year, Baton Rouge police officers conducted a series of 6 a.m. “knock and talk” searches of evacuees’ trailers.

Racial profiling is also a problem, with African Americans and Latinos as the main targets of police stops and checkpoints.  In St. Tammany Parish near New Orleans, the sheriff warned at a televised press conference: “If you’re going to walk the streets of St. Tammany Parish with dreadlocks and chee wee hairstyles, then you can expect to be getting a visit from a Sheriff’s deputy.”  The ACLU subsequently received complaints from Nazarene Christians, for whom dreadlocks are a religious requirement.

To add insult to all the injuries suffered by the poor and the powerless in the region, voting rights, a primary recourse for changing the status quo, have been seriously undermined.  When post-Katrina elections were held in New Orleans, government officials issued burdensome, confusing voting procedures, containing incorrect and misleading instructions—risking disenfranchisement of displaced persons and disproportionately impacting African Americans.  The ACLU of Louisiana has distributed voting rights materials and joined with other local and national civil rights organizations to form the Louisiana Voting Rights Network, but disenfranchisement concerns persist.

Two years ago this week, on September 15, 2005, President Bush pledged on national TV to “do what it takes…[and] stay as long as it takes to help citizens rebuild their communities and their lives.”  The very next day, at a National Day of Prayer, he proclaimed from the Washington National Cathedral pulpit, “let us also clear away the legacy of inequality” and “renew our promise as a land of equality and decency.” 

Two years later, the people of the Gulf Coast are still waiting.

For a copy of the ACLU report, “Broken Promises: Two Years After Katrina,” visit http://www.aclu.org/pdfs/prison/brokenpromises_20070820.pdf.