| Reports of raped babies were ruinous rumors Original Source Link: (May no longer be active) http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/editorial/3375918http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/editorial/3375918
Sept. 30, 2005, 12:33AM
RUINOUS RUMORS Tales of mayhem in New Orleans were exaggerated — by the city's leaders Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle
As Hurricane Katrina survivors find more permanent sanctuary, many are recounting for the first time what happened in New Orleans' shelters. Almost all describe pure terror: absent authorities, scarce food and water, helplessness. At the same time, Americans are learning that leaders speaking on the victims' behalf often wildly exaggerated the violence and criminality in the storm's aftermath. The damage from these claims reinforced stereotypes, cemented social differences and might have distorted other communities' response to natural disaster.
The chemistry of stress ensures that trauma victims don't recall experiences precisely. That is one reason why eyewitness testimony often is unreliable. Public officials must carefully weigh crime data they give the public, qualifying when appropriate with words such as "alleged," "reported" and "unconfirmed"
In post-hurricane New Orleans, dead phone service and rising water turned the shelters into remote islands. Survivors who identified themselves as witnesses to police or journalists sometimes conveyed rumors or their own impaired perceptions in the noisy darkness.
Working in a chaotic environment, reporters repeated some of the accounts as fact. The accounts were thoroughly backed, however, by New Orleans' top officials. In a televised interview, New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin told Oprah Winfrey that "hundreds of armed gang members" were raping women and committing murder in the Superdome. The occupants, he said, were in "an almost animalistic state." Police Superintendent Eddie Compass — who resigned Tuesday — went further, telling Winfrey, "We had little babies in there ... getting raped."
This week, careful studies are establishing reality. According to the New Orleans Times-Picayune, officials have found evidence of one murder. No witnesses or victims have substantiated rape claims at the Superdome or convention center. In Houston, only six evacuees have reported violent crimes occurring in New Orleans.
This doesn't mean the terror, suffering or violence survivors speak of didn't occur. "You have to appreciate that when people were getting out of the buses, many were almost catatonic," Houston Assistant Police Chief Vicki King said. "Their immediate need was food, hydration, sleep." In normal conditions, only 10 percent to 25 percent of rape survivors report their attacks, and so a true picture of criminal activity inside the shelters will develop only slowly.
But the hyperbole spouted by Nagin and Compass created a special obstacle. Both men were understandably distraught. Both tried wildly to attract attention from a federal government that for days effectively abandoned them. Even so, their reckless words breathed life into the stereotypes that helped make New Orleans a disaster. Perhaps they blindly accepted the worst rumors because they matched their own assumptions about the poor.
Whatever the reason, the two authorities conveyed the image of a population with a huge proportion of violent, pathological criminals. The reality, National Guard Sgt. 1st Class Jason Lachney told the Times-Picayune, was rather different. Lachney, who helped to provide security at the shelter, said 99 percent of the Superdome's 30,000 occupants behaved as more fortunate people could only hope to in such dire circumstances: very well.
The effects of Nagin's and Compass' false accounts, and of overheated media reports, deserve ongoing awareness. With the stories of group savagery largely debunked, Houstonians should reconsider well-stocked stadiums as potential shelters. In addition, all Americans should remember as New Orleans recovers that the worst stories of that city's poor residents were mostly frantic fairy tales.
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