Help! Help! They're Being Oppressed!

Of course FEMA fucked-up/is fucking up in their "work" with Gulf-Coast victims of Katrina. I like to read the Baton Rouge Advocate on-line for local coverage.

I was reading a story ("Hundreds of FEMA Trailers Stand Empty") about a women and her five children, the only residents of a 198-unit trailer park in Morgan City, LA, where there are no pay phones, no mailboxes and no bus service, even to the nearest grocery store which is several miles away.

This is, of course, unacceptable, rotten treatment by an agency that has declined (under the auspices of the DHS) to the point where it can't seem to do anything right. However, in this case, I think the reporter buried her lead. Read a few selected quotes from the story and then call somebody:

"...FEMA rules make it hard for reporters to talk freely to the few park residents about life there. During an interview in one trailer, a security guard knocked on the door, ordered the reporter out and eventually called police, saying residents aren’t allowed to talk to the media in the park.

Similar rules were enforced in Plaquemines Parish, where 242 new travel trailers in a FEMA park in Davant recently were empty. Security guards there allowed a reporter and photographer to drive through the two side-by-side parks, but ordered them not to talk to anyone or take pictures...
FEMA spokeswoman Rachel Rodi...wouldn’t say whether the actions of the security guards in Morgan City and Davant complied with FEMA policy, saying the matter was being reviewed. But she confirmed that FEMA does not allow the media to speak alone to residents in their trailers.

“If a resident invites the media to the trailer, they have to be escorted by a FEMA representative who sits in on the interview,” Rodi said. “That’s just a policy.”
[deletions]
[The woman mentioned above, Dekotha] Devall described her experience during an interview in her trailer, saying she wanted to get some help and to let others know what it’s like living there.

But during the interview, a security guard knocked on the trailer door and ordered the reporter and photographer to leave “immediately.”

“You are not allowed to be here,” the guard yelled. “Get out right now.”

As they left, the guard refused to let the reporter give Devall a business card so she could contact the newspaper later by phone.

“You will not give her a business card,” the guard said. “She’s not allowed to have that.”

When the reporter persisted, the guard ordered Devall to return to the trailer, saying the reporter was “not allowed” to talk to her.

The guard then called the police."

I think this guy deserves a letter and a phone call.
Inspector General Richard L. Skinner
Department of Homeland Security
Washington, DC 20528
202-282-8000

I wonder if Ms. Devall has heard of the LA ACLU. In any event, lacking a telephone and a mailbox might make it hard for any correspondence there. FSL: would security guards hired by FEMA be considered agents of the government?