Camp Greyhound (Zeitoun)
Camp Greyhound: What You Aren’t Supposed To Know Aug 29th 2005, that day will forever go down in infamy in the history books of New Orleans. It was on this day that Hurricane Katrina touched down in New Orleans and absolutely destroyed the city in the catastrophe that left at least 1,800 dead. I heard all about the hurricane, on the news, the internet, the radio, school, everywhere. I thought I knew all about Hurricane Katrina, I thought I was well aware of all the horrible things that happened during this time. The thing is however, I wasn’t. Not until I learned of camp greyhound.
Camp greyhound was a makeshift FEMA prison camp that was located at the New Orleans Greyhound bus station. People who were sent to this camp were placed in, “chain-link holding cells topped by razor wire” (Johnson). These chain link cells where located in what used to be the station's parking areas. Inside these cells “prisoners” had nothing to sit or sleep on. If they wanted to go to the bathroom they had to go to portables outside the closures, if they were allowed to go by the guards in the first place. Camp Greyhound was home to many prisoners, as over the course of the 6 weeks of its existence, “1,200 detainees were bussed into the depot where they were processed and held for many days without trial before being shipped off to other facilities throughout the state.”(Camp Greyhound) People that where being sent to camp greyhounds were mostly accused of being looters, while there were also some accused of rape, and murder. The people running the camp didn’t need any proof what so ever to bring someone into the camp, so it essentially it didn’t matter what you were accused of doing, if you were thought to be a criminal by one of the F.E.M.A officers you were sent off to camp greyhound. Given the details of the camp, the question that I raise is: Was camp greyhound a good or a bad thing for New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina, and why does it matter that we know?
To begin, as
Camp greyhound was a makeshift FEMA prison camp that was located at the New Orleans Greyhound bus station. People who were sent to this camp were placed in, “chain-link holding cells topped by razor wire” (Johnson). These chain link cells where located in what used to be the station's parking areas. Inside these cells “prisoners” had nothing to sit or sleep on. If they wanted to go to the bathroom they had to go to portables outside the closures, if they were allowed to go by the guards in the first place. Camp Greyhound was home to many prisoners, as over the course of the 6 weeks of its existence, “1,200 detainees were bussed into the depot where they were processed and held for many days without trial before being shipped off to other facilities throughout the state.”(Camp Greyhound) People that where being sent to camp greyhounds were mostly accused of being looters, while there were also some accused of rape, and murder. The people running the camp didn’t need any proof what so ever to bring someone into the camp, so it essentially it didn’t matter what you were accused of doing, if you were thought to be a criminal by one of the F.E.M.A officers you were sent off to camp greyhound. Given the details of the camp, the question that I raise is: Was camp greyhound a good or a bad thing for New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina, and why does it matter that we know?
To begin, as