Posted on 08/31/2005 5:40:37 AM PDT by Proud_USA_Republican
NEW ORLEANS — With much of the city flooded by Hurricane Katrina, looters floated garbage cans filled with clothing and jewelry down the street in a dash to grab what they could. In some cases, looting on Tuesday took place in full view of police and National Guard troops. At a Walgreen's drug store in the French Quarter (search), people were running out with grocery baskets and coolers full of soft drinks, chips and diapers. When police finally showed up, a young boy stood in the door screaming, "86! 86!" — the radio code for police — and the crowd scattered. Denise Bollinger, a tourist from Philadelphia, stood outside and snapped pictures in amazement. "It's downtown Baghdad," the housewife said. "It's insane. I've wanted to come here for 10 years. I thought this was a sophisticated city. I guess not." Around the corner on Canal Street, the main thoroughfare in the central business district, people sloshed headlong through hip-deep water as looters ripped open the steel gates on the front of several clothing and jewelry stores. One man, who had about 10 pairs of jeans draped over his left arm, was asked if he was salvaging things from his store. "No," the man shouted, "that's EVERYBODY'S store." Looters filled industrial-sized garbage cans with clothing and jewelry and floated them down the street on bits of plywood and insulation as National Guard (search) lumbered by. Mike Franklin stood on the trolley tracks and watched the spectacle unfold. "To be honest with you, people who are oppressed all their lives, man, it's an opportunity to get back at society," he said. The rest of the story is at the link.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Why didn't we hear these eloquent defenses of looting in the days after Baghdad fell?
Jewelry and DVD players can be bartered for food, water and medicine plus they are much easier to carry.
Bullets.
They can be traded one at a time for anything one needs.
At least I didn't vote for Carter....never voted for a Dem president in my 40 years of voting. I just don't like to see hungry people, and figure that it's somebody else's call to separate the wheat from the chaff, not mine.
People like Mike Franklin are spouting the nonsense of lame asshats.
Cops need to start shooting looters - no questions asked.
And here you have people who won't have power for two months taking TVs. Brilliant.
I have a right to defend my stuff. I also have a right to use deadly force if the looter demostrates a willingness to use deadly force to take it.
better judged by 12 than carried by 6.
BTW - what is an illegal firearm? The last I read, the 2A enumreates a persons right to keep and bear arms.
In the jungle, the strong steal food, water and medicine from the weak. Furthermore, having valuable possessions only make you a target for other irrational looters who are stronger than you.
The barter system seldom works when lawlessness reigns.
" I'd take the stuff, too"
Fine. But why wouldn't you pay for it? What? You can't leave money in or near the register? What's the matter? Afraid those other "poor hungry souls" might steal it?
You could always mail it to the store later too.
Stealing is stealing.
Once again, please just come out and say what you mean. You don't see any problem with looting because, as you said, "these people have never had a chance to make a choice in life."
"I believe that's why some stayed so they could have an opportunity to get some "stuff"."
It wouldn't surprise me.
"Jewelry and DVD players can be bartered for food, water and medicine plus they are much easier to carry."
Yeah, right. Who are they going to procure the bartered for items from?
People who take things that are a necessity for survival would indeed be morally obligated to make restitution at a later time. Leaving a note or cash in an emergency situation doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
Looting for luxuries is reprehensible. Lootings for survival is understandable, even necessary. Unfortunately, we see too much of the former and very little of the latter.
SD
How could they with their leaders telling them day in and day out that they are victims. Welfare, handouts, litigation lottery, civil "rights" lawsuits, unrealistic dreams of a reparations payday?
As I heard yesterday on one of the liberal news outlets (real unvarnished opinion from the commentator), in times of great crisis you see the true core of a person and a community. Watching TV these past 36 hours that is exactly what you saw. What these people are made of. It is disgusting, it is sickening, and it will go a long way towards reinforcing stereotypes, which clearly are based in fact.
Rule 308
Perhaps you haven't thought this through. In this situation food and water are more valuable than a DVD player. Whom do you imagine has a large, dry storehouse of food and medicine to be had in exchange for consumer electronics?
This is what makes the looting so sadly irrational. People spend tremendous energy not in trying to help others, but in gathering stuff that they will mostly have to abandon to the flood waters anyway. It's re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic as it sinks.
SD
I agree. It wasn't me who said that they haven't had a chance to make a choice in life. It was Ike.
These people, for the most part, are NOT victims. They are stealing much more than food and water. They are laughing and having a good time. Their actions are reprehensible and should not be defended or tolerated.
Everyone makes choices in their life every day. No one can claim that they don't, or can't.
Well on a positive note perhaps they can bludgeon the crocodile with a Samsung 52" DLP once it sinks its teeth into their legs. But they won't be laughing once the waterborne diseases kick in. All the bling-bling won't help them then.
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