I disagree. In one case one is taking something that can save their lives and will obviously otherwise be consigned to a landfill during cleanup, and in the case of non-survival looting one is simply a thief.
The *real* crime here, however, is that the city did not have any semblance of a plan in place. If they did then every grocery store would immediately have been guarded so that any food could be distributed in an orderly manner (and the store owner compensated).
Anybody looting something other than the necessities of life, however ... you can shoot those guys all day long as far as I'm concerned.
So, the police should check all bags to see if they've looted video games or milk? No, you really cannot allow any of it. I survived hurricane Betsy in 1965, and I didn't loot, and neither did my neighbors. We did, however, fear the roving gangs (not all of them even local--they came in from miles around to get in on the looting) of looters who would go into homes and take what they wanted, food, goods, or people (a neighbor was raped).