http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rskatrina/

This is a community space for sexual assault survivors of Hurricane Katrina. Please feel free to tell your story, ask for advice or just vent your feelings.

by John Burnett

” Law-enforcement authorities dismissed early reports of widespread rapes in New Orleans during the lawless days following Hurricane Katrina. But a growing body of evidence suggests there were more storm-related sexual assaults than previously known…..

A Victim’s Story

One of the victims is Ms. Lewis, a 46-year-old home health-care worker from New Orleans East, who asked that her first name not be used. She sits on the edge of a bed in a dingy, dimly lit room in a motel in Baton Rouge.

Lewis says she was raped on Monday, Aug. 29, the day of the storm. The account of her rape was verified by a trained forensic nurse at Earl K. Long Hospital in Baton Rouge, where Lewis sought treatment.

Lewis and others had taken refuge in the Redemption Elderly Apartments, in the Irish Channel section of New Orleans. On that first night after the storm, the city had lost power, and she was sleeping in a dark hallway, trying to catch a breeze. It was there, she says, that an unknown man with a handgun sexually assaulted her. She insists other women were raped in the same apartment building over the next four nights, but her claim could not be checked out.

“Some bad things happened, you know. There was nobody there to protect you,” Lewis says.

Recalling her attack, she sobs, “They just left us to die. Nobody cared.”…

Days of Lawlessness

Anastasia is a petite, 25-year-old hairdresser who asked that her last name be omitted. She contacted the New Orleans police in October and filed a report that she was beaten with a bat and raped on Sept. 6th in broad daylight next to a flooded McDonald’s at Gentilly Boulevard and Elysian Fields, near her father’s house.

Anastasia says thugs were still wandering the streets of her neighborhood more than a week after the flood. “I didn’t see any police officers — I could have gotten away with murder,” she says. “It was that terrible. So I can assume what the criminals were thinking, and that’s exactly what happened.”

…

Urging Victims to Come Forward

In an effort to get victims to come forward, the Louisiana Foundation Against Sexual Assault asked Charmaine Neville, a popular New Orleans jazz singer, to tape a public service announcement for national airplay. The spot urges victims to report their assault by calling 1-800-656-HOPE.

Neville says she was sexually assaulted early the morning of Aug. 31st, while she was sleeping on the roof of Drew Elementary School in the Bywater Neighborhood, where she and others had taken refuge. She made a report to a local sheriff’s office; it has not yet passed the report on to the New Orleans police.

Meanwhile, Lewis, the 46-year-old home health-care worker, has still not reported her assault to the police, and she has no plans to. Believing the authorities abandoned her after the storm, she wonders why they would care about her now.”

http://www.wdsu.com/news/5627087/detail.html

NEW ORLEANS — Despite widespread efforts to downplay reports of an outbreak of heinous crimes in the chaos after the storm, there’s new information about what really happened.

WDSU Newschannel 6 Reporter Alec Gifford has uncovered 40 reported cases of rape.

One high-profile victim has gone public to urge others to come forward

“Hi. My name is Charmaine Neville. I was in New Orleans at a school after Hurricane Katrina and I was raped. I know many more women were raped and are afraid to talk about it,” Neville said in a public service announcement.

There are some articles on gender based bias/hate crimes in the NJCRS database. http://www.ncjrs.gov/abstractdb/search.asp

“In addition to the other categories of hate crime, gender is increasingly being included as a status category in State and Federal hate crime laws. The current study explored how prosecutors view gender as a status category in hate crime law, specifically in terms of their knowledge of gender-bias violence and their willingness to charge violence against women as a hate crime… The authors recommend adopting an advocacy approach that supports the notion of violence against women as an issue of power and control while at the same time educates and encourages prosecutors and the public to adopt a hate crime perspective on violence against women. ” (McPhail & DiNitto 2005) Violence Against Women: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal

Engendering Hate Crime Policy: Gender, the “Dilemma of Difference,” and the Creation of Legal Subjects by Valerie Jenness “discusses what feminist legal scholars refer to as “the dilemma of difference” that is inherent in hate-crime policy in the United States…

The author addresses how the dilemma of difference has been managed in the formulation of hate-crime policy in the United States, as it simultaneously addresses the ways in which gender is both distinct from and similar to other status provisions recognized in hate-crime law, i.e., race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc.” (Jenness 2003) Journal of Hate Studies

I’m interested in definitions of bias and or hate crimes- especially against people with disabilities.

take care, survivor

Rape is not a crime of sex or really gender but of power and control.

Although it’s true that the victims of rape are not exclusively male or female, I think it’s still true that rape is a “crime of gender,” in the sense that the overwhelming majority of rapists are male.

Male rape victims - an overview

http://www.ncvc.org/ncvc/main.aspx?dbName=

DocumentViewer&DocumentID=32361

Society is becoming increasingly aware of male rape. However, experts believe that current male rape statistics vastly under-represent the actual number of males age 12 and over who are raped each year. Rape crisis counselors estimate that while only one in 50 raped women report the crime to the police, the rates of under-reporting among men are even higher (Brochman, 1991).

I am a Katrina refugee myself. I have relocated to another state since then. I can tell you that I have heard numerous stories from people who were still in New Orleans as medical staff - who witnessed sexual assaults themselves. It does make me a little upset to hear people saying it never happened. It did. I’m surprised at the level of carnage but denying it doesn’t solve the problem.

here is a quote that helps explain that:
“Secondary wounding occurs because people who have never been hurt sometimes have difficulty understanding and being patient with people who have been hurt. It also occurs because people who have never confronted human tragedy are sometimes unable to comprehend the lives of those in occupations that involve dealing with human suffering or mass casualties on a daily basis.

Some people simply are not strong enough to accept the negatives in life. When such individuals confront a trauma survivor, they may reject or disparage the survivor because that individual represents the parts of life they have chosen to deny.

Trauma survivors may also be rejected or disparaged by other survivors-those who have chosen to deny or repress their own trauma(s) and have not yet dealt with their losses and anger. When trauma survivors who are not dealing with their traumatic pasts see someone who is obviously suffering emotionally or physically, they may need to block out that person in order to leave their own denial system intact.” Three Levels of Victimization- http://omi.unm.edu/Victimization.html

“Avoidance behaviors (a general tendency to avoid any thoughts, feelings, or cues which could bring up the catastrophic and most traumatizing elements of the rape)” are a part of rape trauma syndrome itself. http://www.ncvc.org/ncvc/main.aspx?dbName=DocumentViewer&DocumentID=32366

I can also tell you that noble tho crisis center staff are- New Orleans had ONE rape crisis center and it was the offshoot of a ywca that also functioned as a dozen other things. Their website (no offense- i’m sure they were doing as much as they were staffed to do) said “coming soon” for over two years. For one of the most dangerous cities in the world that is not really enough coverage. I think it’s amazing that they were doing what they could - it’s hard. People don’t WANT to hear about it. That makes people not want to tell.

I was assaulted in Louisiana outside of New Orleans. It changed my life for the worse forever. I didn’t want to tell anyone either. I don’t blame them for not reporting. Secondary victimization and secondary wounding even by police and medical staff is a huge problem.

Secondary victimization is the re-traumatization of the sexual assault, abuse or rape victim. It is an indirect result of assault which occurs through the responses of individuals and institutions to the victim. The types of secondary victimization include victim blaming, inappropriate behavior or language by medical personel and by other organizations with access to the victim post assault. (Campbell et. al., 1999)

Information about secondary victimization

Secondary Victimization from the Criminal Justice System and Society

http://www.victimology.nl/onlpub/hb/node9.html

Secondary victimization of rape victims: insights from mental health professionals who treat survivors of violence

Secondary Victimization

http://www.gmu.edu/facstaff/sexual/Helping_SV.htm

I also found an article addressing violence in crisis situations:

Gender-based violence in disaster

http://w3.whosea.org/EN/Section13/Section390_8280.htm

Here is a link to other articles on this:

Hurricane Katrina press releases from the National Center for domestic violence

http://www.ncdsv.org/publications_hurricankatrina.html

take care, survivor

Steve Sailer mentions this on his blog (I will put up a permanlink when it becomes available).

What’s rediculous are conservative trolls.

…Women have reached a place in America where they have the opportunity to do anything and everything a man can do. I hardly see the need for radical feminism when you can vote, work, drive, and do anything a man can. Poor people in America have the same basic opportunites as anyone. Millions and Millions of poor people WHO DIDN’T EVEN SPEAK THE LANGUAGE have come here and prospered. Limited resources, education, and finances are a result of poor personal choices, lack of motivation, and ( in very few circumstances) bad fortune or health. It is NOT the result of me or some secret society of white guys who pull all the socio-economic strings. Frankly, I can’t even see the sense in wearing the brand of a political action group whose usefulness died about 20 years ago when you might be doing something to better the future of ALL people. What do feminists today lobby for? Longer maternity leave? What is left? Pretty sad when even former RIOTGRRLS (like my girlfriend, who happens to be waiting for me to get home to make breakfast) don’t really have anything left to say that isn’t already being taken up by the democratic party (ie. reproductive rights). If you are going to dedicate yourself so hardily to a cause in order to promote some needed sense of self, why not find a road that isn’t already so paved? Being a feminist in America today is like saying you are a revolutionary seperatist against the return of British rule.

But then your rants and raving about Nazi feminist, so closely mirrored the rantings of other White male card-carrying members of the White straight male pity party, that there’s no need to dissect even the least agendized of your comments. Which is too bad, because behind your bigotry, lay some interesting points to consider.

Is it too much to attempt to overlook gender, race, sexuality, and other physical characteristics when the well-being of other HUMANS is in question?

You can’t do this, which is clear in your comments, but you expect those of us who are “others” in your neat little equation, to do so?? Why don’t YOU try it? Racism, Classism, Sexism is based on the unwillingness of people to overlook these classifications in others and the willingness to overlook their own classifications(when it comes to addressing privilage associated with such).

” It’s nice if a nice, brave, strong man can save me from the violence of others of his kind,”

…is what seperates all of us into two classes; “Us” and “Them”. Male or female, black or white, gay or straight, etc etc ad naseum. I’m sorry if your dirty uncle touched you when you were 12 and made you a Nazi feminist, but that doesn’t excuse a lifetime of expecting every male to repent for his sins by kow-towing to your preconcieved notion that they are responsible for your well being because they happen to share the same gender as most perps. Instead of feminism, (which is SOOOO hypocritical in its more extremist variants) can we instead revert to old fashioned humanism? Is it too much to attempt to overlook gender, race, sexuality, and other physical characteristics when the well-being of other HUMANS is in question? When we do call race or gender (or whatever) into question, why can we not start with our OWN homeroom and raise questions that can be answered from an insiders view? African Americans can start by questioning thier communities and families failures:

1. economic disparity
2. lack of solid leadership
3. educational disparity
4. reliance on the state goverment for welfare and aid

Women can likewise ask themselves about:

1. inability to intervene to help victims of rape, even near-by
2. reliance on men, even abusive ones
3. expectation of equality, refusal to be responsible for said equality, and in some cases out-right denial of equality when convienient.

White men can ponder:

1. disparate percentages of minorities being convicted and punished more harshly for similar crimes.
2. Widespread stereotypes about women and minorities that more and more have less basis in reality.
3. Lack of empathy for disasters involving anyone OTHER than caucasions.

….the minute we can start questioning ourselves and coming up with answers is the minute we can begin to do away with prequalifying adjectives such as “white, black, female, male, straight, or gay”. No more finger pointing, more SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY. No more hyphen-americanism, more HUMANISM. NO MORE EXCUSES ABOUT HOW YOU ARE POOR, WEAK, OR DOWNTRODDEN. Racism sucks, feminism sucks, mysogenistic machismo sucks…lets try being human for a while and see what happens.

Sincerely,
Andrew C. Dibert