Government Silences Katrina Trailer-Park Residents
FEMA tells Katrina victims: Accept government help, give up your First Amendment rights.
From the AP:
MORGAN CITY, La. — Residents of trailer parks set up by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to house hurricane victims in Louisiana aren’t allowed to talk to the press without an official escort, The (Baton Rouge) Advocate reported. …“If a resident invites the media to the trailer, they have to be escorted by a FEMA representative who sits in on the interview,” [FEMA spokeswoman Rachel] Rodi told the newspaper for its July 15 report. “That’s just a policy.”
Gregg Leslie, legal defense director for the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said FEMA’s refusal to allow trailer-park residents to invite news media into their homes unescorted was unconstitutional.
Morgan City Mayor Timothy Matte told The Advocate that he was surprised residents were being barred from talking to reporters.
“I would think anyone who lives there would be allowed to have any visitor they wanted,” he said.
FEMA leases the land for the trailer park from the city, Matte said. “It’s public property. There’s no question about that. You would think the people would have the same freedom there as everyone else has,” he told the newspaper.
Hundreds of trailers at FEMA parks sit empty and unused in Louisiana, according to The Advocate.
Officials in Morgan City estimate that FEMA has spent about $7.5 million to build the trailer park but that only about 15 of the 198 trailers are being used.
“We all wonder why no one lives there,” Matte said.
FEMA officials refuse to say how much was spent to build the park or why 183 of the trailers are vacant.
Lots of trailer parks have rules against airing laundry in public. Usually though, those rules are about clotheslines. But then again, those trailer parks aren't run by the Feds either.