Bootheel Bastille, Hillbilly Hellhole, or Worse

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Florida got the ball rolling several weeks ago when it accepted federal funding to open a state-run migrant detention facility in a remote part of the Florida Everglades, a tent city prison dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz" by PR hacks in the government and right-wing news organizations.  The concept was to make a big, memorable show of locking brown human beings away in the cruelest circumstances possible,

Florida, like so many other Republican-run states, has plenty of money to spend on fascist propaganda stunts like detention centers, but damn little for things that would actually improve the state's long-term economy and quality of life, such as public schools and universities.   But "Alligator Alcatraz" sounds cool and it gives the governor, in his white vinyl boots, a certain air of virility.

Nothing says "manliness" louder and more forcefully than the trappings of a police state.

Florida is also in the process of opening a second of these immigrant penal colonies.   The new one near Lake City will house individuals awaiting deportation by ICE, and has been named "Deportation Depot."

Tee shirts featuring "Alligator Alcatraz" and "Deportation Depot" logos are already widely available on the internet, although it is unclear at this time whether the Trump Organziagtion is officially marketing their own versions of the shirts yet or not.

The idea of immigrant detention camps  with catchy alliterative names is spreading faster than venereal disease around a military base.  Indiana now has the "Speedway Slammer," and yesterday it was announced that Nebraska will convert an existing medium security prison in McCook into  the "Cornhusker Clink" for the immigrants they intend to terrorize and abuse.   Tee shirt sales should be off the charts!

The Missouri Republican state legislature has yet to announce where they will build their state's gulag for hotel housekeepers and day laborers, but it is almost a certainty that a state with the caliber of legislators that Missouri has would not let an opportunity to dehumanize people in such a fun manner slip away.  

It would make the most sense for Missouri to place its immigration detention camp somewhere in least populated portion of the state - the southeast. I sort of like the "Bootheel Bastille," but, of course, people in these parts hardly know the basics of the American Revolution, much less the one that happened in France.  Maybe they could put it underground and go with the "Dexter Dungeon."  My state could also poach from Indiana and call our abomination the "Show Me Slammer," "St. Louie Slammer," or borrow one of Donald Trump's favorite adjectives when talking about poor countries with large black populations and label it the "Shithole Slammer."  

Missouri or Arkansas either one could latch onto "Hillbilly Hell Hole," and Arkansas would also have the option of "Razorback Hog Pen."

 

So many possibilities, so little regard for human dignity.