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Up For Grabs: Sociologists Question How Much Looting And Mayhem Really Took Place In New Orleans
The Boston Globe ^ | 9/11/2005 | Christopher Shea

Posted on 09/12/2005 6:13:03 PM PDT by steve-b

By now the images and stories of looting and mayhem in New Orleans--the residents "shopping" for nonessentials in an abandoned Wal-Mart, alleged rapes in the Superdome, a shot fired at a rescue helicopter -- have been burned into the brain of every television watcher and newspaper reader in America. But do they give us an accurate picture of the aftermath of the flood?

In fact, if criminal violence were indeed rampant in New Orleans after Katrina hit (setting aside the taking of food, water, bandages, and other necessities of survival), that would contradict much of what sociologists have learned in a half century of research about such situations. "The evidence is overwhelming," says Enrico Quarantelli, an emeritus professor of sociology and the founding director of the Disaster Research Center at the University of Delaware, "that in the standard natural disaster or technological disaster"--like a chemical spill -- "you're not going to get looting."...

(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events; US: Louisiana
KEYWORDS: bang; katrina; looters; media; nola; sociology
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To: onyx
"Has the APA really characterized the mayhem 'partying'?

It wouldn't surprise me, but I'll await your answer, Your Honor, Sir.""

Aye-e-e -- 'Ow yoo doin', Onyx??

Youse guys in Mississippi went troo some ordeal from what we seen here in Joisey. You pull though ok? What was it like?

Oh yeah...ahem...the APA??

APA's definition of Mayhem:

"Partying or justifiable anthropological outrage in response to economic deprivation and social justice from being repressed by "The Man."

;-)

Lol, well hasn't the APA already reclassified "intimate relations" with the family pet as "normal"?

81 posted on 09/13/2005 5:58:12 AM PDT by F16Fighter
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To: wardaddy

It's always lying eyes with the media,especially after the fact. They're into fear mongering and division. Looting? Yes. To the level they're trying to make it into? Probably not. Just like they were all getting excited over how many dead bodies they'd be,etc. and that has yet to pan out. It's all a mad rush to the hammer to pound Bush anyway.


82 posted on 09/13/2005 6:18:07 AM PDT by cyborg (I'm having the best day ever.)
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To: steve-b
funny they also quote Rusmfeld pointing out how the journalists replayed the same looped tape of looters in Iraq, giving the impression of widespread destruction.

The elite media have never spent this much time around large numbers of poor people of any color....so I do believe they amped their reporting of rape, murder and mayehem based on their own fears.

83 posted on 09/13/2005 7:41:44 AM PDT by Katya (Homo Nosce Te Ipsum)
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To: cyborg

Why do you care dear if the media is overreporting looting and depravity.

Mayhem is their business and has been since Gutenberg.

What matters is how much of the depravity reported and the nature of it was true.....not the fact that it was focused on.

overestimating death tolls is standard fare after a calamity


84 posted on 09/13/2005 8:24:42 AM PDT by wardaddy (OK.....it was my fault.)
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To: wardaddy

I care when they're ignoring good news and reporting on situations that may not even be true. Yes I know the media likes to overreport things but it's to a ridiculous level with this hurricane.


85 posted on 09/13/2005 8:27:50 AM PDT by cyborg (I'm having the best day ever.)
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To: Vast Buffalo Wing Conspiracy
You can't trust the media!

YIKES

Guess we would agree on this but the rest is crazy, the left actually thinks the MSM is covering for Bush, what planet are they really FRom?

The term MOONBATScomes to mind, LMAO.

86 posted on 09/13/2005 9:28:34 AM PDT by Mister Baredog ((Minuteman at heart, couch potato in reality))
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To: Yellow Rose of Texas
I just love that video ...

"They don't quite look your colour..."

87 posted on 09/13/2005 9:35:52 AM PDT by ArrogantBustard (Western Civilisation is aborting, buggering, and contracepting itself out of existence.)
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To: F16Fighter

LOL! I'm OK, Your Honor. Just missing you and your wit.
Hope you're able to watch some of the Roberts' hearing. He's slaying the democrats.
NO NOTES. The man is brilliant, but you're still my pick for the next nominee. :)


88 posted on 09/13/2005 8:02:39 PM PDT by onyx (North is a direction. South is a way of life.)
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To: onyx
Yeah? You got through ok? Great...

Can you bee-lieve the hoops Roberts is having to jump through for this kangaroo court? And he's not even a "proven" conservative. Imagine the circus with the next SC nominee? (straightening tie and preening in a mirror ;-)

"Senator Kennedy...Your questioning is irrelevant to my qualifications. I'd like to suggest you stuff your ridiculous questioning, and take a flyin' leap off a bridge into a creek. Again." :-)...

...."Yes Senator Schumer -- would you like to ask me a question?...."

89 posted on 09/15/2005 3:58:27 PM PDT by F16Fighter
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To: F16Fighter


FOTFLOL! I'd love to have you there fielding the questions and insulting the democrat senators.

We have a new HUGE star: Senator Coburn from Oklahoma.


90 posted on 09/15/2005 4:27:14 PM PDT by onyx (North is a direction. South is a way of life.)
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To: steve-b
There's a Groucho Marx joke that ends, "Who are you going to believe: me? or your lying eyes?"
91 posted on 09/15/2005 4:28:41 PM PDT by utahagen
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