Posted on 08/30/2005 12:59:42 PM PDT by LM_Guy
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 today took place in full view of police and National Guard troops.
At a Walgreen's drug store in the French Quarter, 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 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.
A man walked down Canal Street with a pallet of food on his head. His wife, who refused to give her name, insisted they weren't stealing from the nearby Winn-Dixie supermarket. "It's about survival....
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
That's right! I couldn't agree more.
They were looting from the mom & pop stores as well.
Personally I'll give a pass to anyone taking perishable foodstuffs which would rot before their rightful owners, the shopkeeper or grocery store shareholders, could sell them: they're an insurance loss either way.
Other than that, these looters are scum.
Of course if the police don't enforce order, then civil society has temporarily ceased to exist in N.O., and it's Hobbes's "war of all against all", and the looters gain the right to whatever they can seize, while property owners gain the right to shoot them.
Yet you think that it could and perhaps should be looted? If it could be contaminated, odds are it probably is, and you just gave your kids cholera, or typhus, or any of a number of other deadly diseases, which would not stop with your family, but spread.
Things are rarely as simple as we on the sidelines make them out to be, and the law of unintended consquences still holds sway...
the infowarrior
I think the key words here are "may have been". It's required mainly as a CYA thing so they don't get sued to death. If the stuff isn't sitting in the water right now (and it isn't something perishable like diary) it is probably okay. Without electricity a lot of perishables aren't worth anything now either.
Just remember that most of the looters are Democrats (if they even bother to vote).
KFI, Los Angeles had a reporter on just a few minutes ago, and said a police officer had been shot in NO in a looting related incident.
Like I said, I have no problem with them going for the foodstuffs. I'm emphatically NOT a Democrat, but if I had to have food and water under those circumstances and there's no one there to sell it to me, I'd just go ahead and take it. 'Course, I'd go settle up with the store owner when possible.
Now, if the other stupid thieves are Democrats (which is a given), let's hope they DON'T bother to vote.
Hey, God is watching!
Looters in waste deep sewage. Can't tell one POS from the next!
And people wonder why these events happen..
"If you do not disperse I will shoot you". That would get their lazy asses off of the property.
The Big Easy is full of pu$$y's. They do not want trouble. Liberal BS!
I am not a racist and I do not profile. Shoot both of them!!!!!!
That's a hard working brother. Good one.
Won't they be surprised when they find all
the roads out of town impassable.
I hope they drive into a DEEP, DEEP HOLE.
(payback.)
Meanwhile LA. residents want to know why they can't have Hurricanes.
"Stressful" perhaps but lawlessness is unacceptable in a civilized society. Period. It will not "prevail", it may occur but it can certainly be surpressed, we've done it. Like I said in my post, I've seen it work, I've been part of making it work in hurricane damaged areas. Patrolling on foot for looters was muchly appreciated by the vast majority of citizens who encouraged swift, decisive, aggresive action against looters. It's not easy but as the Sheriff said, "Follow my orders or I'll find some who will".
In Jackson, MS (I just talked to some friends there), there were some attempts at looting and Jackson PD quickly put it down. There were sections of the city heavily damaged, leaving businesses vulnerable to looting. BTW, Jackson basically has an all black city government, there are no excuses for lawlessness.
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