Posted on 08/31/2005 7:09:41 AM PDT by End Times Sentinel
NEW ORLEANS - At first it just seemed that the Wal-Mart in New Orleans' Lower Garden District was doing a very brisk post-hurricane business yesterday: The parking lot was full, people were leaving with brimming baskets, and city police and firefighters were there as if to oversee it all.
But people weren't going through the front door. They were squeezing between boards meant to protect the now-shattered glass from Hurricane Katrina's winds. One man was packing his van so full of computers, televisions and DVD players that he had trouble closing the rear doors. One woman was carrying three jugs of laundry detergent in a city with no power to run a washer.
As in so many past disasters elsewhere when crisis and chaos have replaced order and normalcy, a beleaguered New Orleans was beset by looters.
The widespread plundering started before Katrina had finished its onslaught Monday. That afternoon, looters broke into an emptied sporting-goods warehouse in Mid-City, a grocery in Treme, and the hardware center Uptown. In one instance, witnesses said, police were called but did nothing until one man shot another.
People said they had heard Wal-Mart had opened its doors to provide supplies for law-enforcement agencies sheltering the 10,000- plus people in the Louisiana Superdome. A Wal-Mart spokeswoman, Sharon Weber, said law enforcement, emergency-management teams, and relief agencies had "unwritten permission" to help themselves to whatever they need from Wal-Mart stores in times of crisis, but that standard procedure was for the police or aid officials to "leave us a list of what they take so they can pay us later."
At the Lower Garden District Wal-Mart, among the items seen being loaded into police cars were dozens of T-shirts, DVDs, and dog food.
But when law-enforcement officials went to get their goods, others - people of all ages and races - followed.
"They just came and no one could stop them," said David Brown, 38, a Port of New Orleans employee.
Brown and a coworker were filling their vehicle with dozens and dozens of canned goods - stews and chilis and Spaghetti-O's. Brown said the food would be used to feed the port's police and its employees, many of whom, like him, had worked nonstop since Saturday.
They were only taking essentials, he said, though a copy of Queen Latifah's Beauty Shop movie had apparently made that list.
Brown said the work showed no sign of easing.
"It's pretty bad," he said. "They've been calling for body bags all day."
Most streets in New Orleans were empty yesterday except for the hub around the Wal-Mart, in a section of the city that remained dry. People were everywhere: in cars and trucks, pushing goods in carts and baby carriages, dragging full trash cans and laundry baskets. The steady stream of cars caused a traffic jam on the streets near the store - the type of traffic jam last seen here when people tried to evacuate.
"Is everything free?" asked a woman who pulled up in a red car. Hearing "yes," she started to chant: "TV! TV! TV!"
Inside, a teenage boy held up a pair of blue lacy panties and snickered, "I want to see somebody in these so bad," before tossing them in his basket.
Another man used a table to break into one of the last unscathed jewelry cases.
A rumor that the National Guard had arrived sent people running toward the store's exit, shouting: "Come on! Come on!" But no one put down any merchandise, and the Guard rumor turned out to be false.
Some shoppers were oddly selective. One woman said she was taking only facial-care products. Another was pushing a cart filled with silk roses and baby's breath. In the pharmacy aisle, she leaned over the handle, pushing it slowly as she read labels the way a paying customer would.
But the overwhelming feeling was one of chaos - angry shouting, carts ramming, fast grabbing. When a teenage girl passed out face down between the baby clothes and a women's-sock display, people pushed past or stepped on her.
Joseph LoCascio of Picayune, Miss., stopped to try to help the girl. He rolled her over, and she vomited pink liquid all over her face and hair. He then rolled her back.
"People just walking around like they don't care," he said.
He and his friend Sandi Nolan, 21, of Baton Rouge, tried to revive the girl by pouring water, Gatorade and soda over her face and neck. It only left her shirt and hair soaked.
LoCascio tried to get a man in a firefighter T-shirt to treat the girl, but the man hesitated, saying: "She's breathing. If I took her, where would I take her?"
About 15 minutes later, a firefighter medic arrived and began checking the girl. Still, LoCascio and Nolan were furious at their fellow looters.
Both have infants being treated at Children's Hospital, New Orleans, and had come to get baby food and supplies.
"I've never seen people like this. I have drinks and chips, things I need," Nolan said. "They're getting chain saws and fishing poles, anything they can get for free."
As she and LoCascio left, she noticed he had at least a dozen DVDs in his basket, as well as baby formula and baby food. She laughed and pointed it out to him.
"They're for the kids, so they can watch them," he said. "Things like Finding Nemo."
Nolan laughed. "Don't worry," she said. "I got a few too."
The animals in New Orleans were most likely already on the gummint dole. But there are lots of folks in MS and AL who need our aid money.
I wonder where he's going to use the fishing rods? Who'd want fish from water contaminated on that scale?
If the looters are stea;ing food and water I for one do not find any fault with them.
Dry clothes and shoes I can understand too.
But shoot the rest.
Uh, did you miss the part now in BOLD from the origional post?
and funded the break down of the nuclear family among the urban poor black community..... Thanks to this, many lack CHARACTER... it has NOTHING to do with skin color.
Government has funded the decay of the family particularly of the poor, and even more so the URBAN POOR.... leading to multiple generations of folks with no character requirements on thier lives.. with each successive generation getting worse than the last.
More bilge from a longtime troll who should have been ZOTTED long ago.
I too raise a house full of children, I too have been in dire straights, living homeless, not one thin dime to my name. Do you feel as some on this forum that since these people do not behave they way you feel they should, that they should be killed?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA... That's the funniest thing I've read all day. Thanks!
One thing we definitely have to keep in mind is that if the media has a choice of showing looters or heros, the looters will win every time.
I'm quite sure there are tens of thousands of stories that could be told of people helping each other out in the affected area. Perhaps the Lord would appreciate us thinking of these anonymous children of his as we offer a prayer for their basic decency.
I differentiated among those who are taking foodstuffs and water, etc. for pure survival. This may be illegal, but understandable. To feed my family and kids in such a situation, I'd probably do the same if I was that desperate.
That is NOT the same thing as looting all the other crap that so many of these scum are taking. It's outright, open grand theft. They strut and grin and laugh as they do it, strolling along as if on a shopping trip (which, in fact, they are). New Orleans has invited it unto themselves by doing NOTHING, and look what it has gotten them: total anarchy, roaming gangs of armed thugs shooting at cops, National Guard, rescue helicopters.....you name it.
It's these scum that should be shot on sight.
I live about 30 miles from the ocean there is 2500 foot mountain between me and the ocean. I guess I get no mercy when those waves hit me. HaHa.
The United Way told Fox yesterday that money donated to it would first go to rebuilding its infrastructure down there, then to repaying itself for what it has paid out for this already, then to the people, if I Recall Correctly.
They weren't getting any money from me anyway, but here is another reason not to.
Nice. Thanks
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