WWI Female Internment Camps

Those Who Forget the Lessons of History are doomed to repeat it.  The Angry Black Woman writes:

were you aware of who the government chose to round up during the first Great War?  I wasn’t until author friend Greg Frost posted this on his blog:

In 1918 the US Government instituted a program to round up and put into detention camps women who were believed to be prostitutes working on or near US military bases.  Government agents set traps for and rounded up real prostitutes.  There are reports of Feds hiding in bushes in parks, waiting to spring out and jump any woman who walked by on the arm of a soldier.  These WWI Homely Security boys also arrested what were called “Charity girls.” Charity girls were young women who picked up soldiers and sailors for a fun night out–you know, just a smoky, boozy night of carousing, and if there was sex in the bargain, what the hell, sometimes that’s what we want.  In some cases, like those walks in the park, the women were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.  They were arrested anyway.

That’s a damn wide net.

You can bet that they didn’t “just” detain these women.  It’s a given that wide-spread, government-sanctioned rape occurred all while these women were denied the right to communicate with anyone on the outside, representation by a lawyer, due process, and even an answer as to when they might be released.

As Americans there is a vile undercurrent to much of our history.  I hadn’t heard of this all.  Its disturbing to think of.  Funny though, how conservative sexual prudishness creates an environment so conducive to the abuse of women.  An “immoral” behavior was targeted, and only the women were made to suffer.

We need to look at this in the context of what’s going on today:

It’s also important to be aware that, if a government sets its mind to it, they will come for you for any reason under the sun as long as the populace allows it.  No one can afford to think that “It can’t happen to me” or even “This is America, they would never” because, oh look, they did.  And then they did it again and again.

And with the recent destruction of evidence that could have proved crimes took place, we must be especially vocal in our opposition.