Looting Begins in New Orleans

NOLA.com ^ | 30 August 2005 | ALLEN G. BREED

[aomagrat]

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — With much of the city emptied by Hurricane Katrina, some opportunists took advantage of the situation by looting stores.

snip...

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."

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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.

snip...

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 lumbered by.

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"To be honest with you, people who are oppressed all their lives, man, it's an opportunity to get back at society," he said.

[SuziQ]

"To be honest with you, people who are oppressed all their lives, man, it's an opportunity to get back at society," he said.

Horse hockey. You want something, you work for it like everyone else, you slime!

[Muzzle_em]

I'll be glad when the "stuff" starts running out and the homies start fighting and killing each other over it.

[Rodney King]

Our society teaches that the 'have-nots' are entitled to the property of the 'haves'. It all started with Robin Hood.

Robin Hood stole from the Tax-Man and gave to the tax payers.

[Petronski]

Be careful on saying something racist, it will make you look like a racist.

Don't be ashamed of your own words. You should care who sees them, they should make you proud. If someone further promulgates them for you, you should not consider it "tattling."

[FeliciaCat]

I have yet to meet a wall street/banker guy in NYC under 50 who wouldnt have a blast in New Orleans or Las Vegas or...well you get the picture.

[Cathy]

Really??? We have reps from all the major banks and
while they do enjoy themselves, for the most part they are pretty mild. Quite a few complained about the New Orleans meeting site and Vegas too - for various reasons but one being the "scum" factor.

[eldoradude]

Actually the attitude of people on this thread is pretty discusting.

Actually, that should say the attitude of SOME people.

For the rest, I agree...why all the nasty comments about NO? Take any city in the US and with a disaster of this magnitude you will find some looters. Philly, NY, SF, Chicago, Salt Lake City...wherever. The is no monopoly on human F%$kery in NO.

[wideawake]

Well, we've never met. But I'm a family man and I consider that stuff disrespectful to my wife and kids.

Which means that on 50% of the business trips that I go on, I spend at least one night by myself in my hotel room.

I enjoy the peace and quiet, but I suspect that it hurts my career slightly.

[Brofholdonow]

In Philadelphia the looting starts from the top down, beginning with the Mayor, his friends and family members

[Clemenza]

Actually, it was more common in the Bronx at that time for the landlords to pay local kids to burn down the building so that they could collect the insurance. There is a politically incorrect term for this that every New Yorker knows: "J----- Lightning."

[finnman69]

Problem is, most of these scumbag looters wont have a home left within to ensocnce their booty.

[BadAndy]

I have lived in 3 "college towns". Never seen looting in any of them. On the other hand I have lived in several areas that have gone through looting events such as major blackouts in big cities, unpopular jury verdicts, storm damage, etc. In all those events I have personally witnessed and many more observed on TV, it is difficult not to notice the obvious.

[FeliciaCat]

You sound like a great guy. I was not making a judgement towards you, the original poster (Cathy?) or even the Bankers/Wall Streeters'....I was agreeing with your reply and just making a comment on personal first hand knowledge. I work in Insurance...its just about the same.

[absolootezer0]

"To be honest with you, people who are oppressed lazy all their lives, man, it's an opportunity to get back at society lie, cheat and steal as usual," he said. you forgot the part about having unclaimed, unearned income so they can buy their big screen tvs and nice cars while still receiving welfare

[lastchance]

This is what I would rather read "To be honest" he said after shooting the looter, "its an opportunity to get back at all the criminal punks who have no respect for people or property."

[CFC__VRWC]

Maureen Dowd or Frank Rich haven't started started sniping yet about how unfair it is that the blue states are going to be paying all the freight for the relief efforts, or about hopw we should all consider it payback for those red states electing George Bush.

But it won't be long. After all, the only thing MoDo and her fellow NYT hacks contributed to the hurricane relief efforts in Florida last year was a bunch of sneering about how George and Jeb Bush were using the storms for political gain, as well as ferreting out the few Bush-hating, do-nothing malcontents they could find so they could give them lots of coverage and attempt to convince the public that the relief efforts were a total disaster thanks to the Bushes. Why should we expect them to treat this disaster any differently?

[reelfoot]

"I am disgusted by the racism and bigotry in the responses here."

Any post in particular that has your panties knotted up?

"Party of Lincoln my ass."

What are you talking about?

[flashbunny]

"I am disgusted by the racism and bigotry in the responses here.

Party of Lincoln my ass."

Hmmm... stealth troll account?