City Park, known in the book as the site of a public rally on July 17, 2007, provided a civic stage for the campaign to support Anna Pou and oppose the prosecution arising from the deaths of patients at Memorial Medical Center. The gathering brought the case out of legal offices and into a shared public space, where supporters presented the prosecution as a threat not only to the accused but also to disaster medicine in Louisiana.

The Rally in the Park

The rally followed an appeal by WWL Radio talk-show host Garland Robinette for listeners to gather in support of Pou. Hundreds came to the park’s peristyle, filling the area and spreading beyond it; some opened umbrellas during intermittent rain. Campaign supporters stood to one side, while other attendees carried signs criticizing Attorney General Charles Foti and expressing support for the medical workers who had remained at the hospital during the storm.

The gathering’s weather and setting connected the present dispute to an earlier public occasion in the same place. Rain in 1926 had scuttled a May Day celebration there. In 2007, showers threatened the rally but remained light enough that it could proceed. The comparison places the event within the park’s longer civic history without making the two gatherings equivalent: the earlier fête was disrupted, while the later assembly continued as a public demonstration about a contested criminal case.

A Platform for Advocacy

Cathy Green, an intensive-care nurse, addressed the crowd in blue scrubs. Her remarks framed support for Pou as a continuing mission after the hospital rescue work had ended, and described Pou as carrying a burden on behalf of the hospital. Other speakers included a clergyman, one of Pou’s brothers, and Dr. Dan Nuss. Their presence joined medical, religious, family, and professional voices in a campaign for Pou’s exoneration.

Some speakers addressed the grand jurors directly, although the jurors had not been sequestered and could watch news coverage. The rally therefore functioned not merely as a gathering of supporters but as a public argument unfolding while the case was still under consideration. Speakers warned that indicting a physician for conduct during a disaster could drive already depleted medical professionals out of Louisiana. They also read a joint statement from the American Medical Association and the American Nurses Association urging serious consideration of the harmful consequences of continuing the prosecution.

Civic Meaning and Narrative Role

City Park’s role in the account is concentrated in this public moment: it gives the dispute a visible audience and a physical setting beyond the hospital and the courtroom. The signs, speeches, and professional statement show how the controversy had become a question of public allegiance and institutional consequence, not solely an investigation into individual actions. The park thus marks a shift in scale—from the closed, evidence-focused work of the case to an open appeal that invited the city to judge what the prosecution meant for medical practice after Katrina.