August 30, 2005

Looters

There are a few things that really get me mad and I feel deserve severe punishment. One of those things is looting. Whether it be during a riot or a disaster, looters should be shot on sight.

From Breitbart.com:

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."

More: A couple of pictures here and here.

Even More - 4:15pm: From the WWL video feed...In the Gretna area a police officer was shot by a looter in the back of the head as the officer was confronting another looter.

More III: For some reason, I'm reminded of this post from last year after Hurricane Charley.

Comments:

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One thing that occured to me about looting is that if you look at the situation New Orleans is in -- there's probably a distinct lack of resources available. One wonders what they are supposed to do if the store is closed because the owner and employees have evacuated?

If I was standing in 4 feet of toxic soup without drinking water or food and the only thing standing in my way of getting it was putting a brick through a plate-glass window I can't say I would have much of a moral quandary about it.

Now as far looting for valuables -- TVs, jewelry and whatever else -- well, that's pretty retarded. Not only because it's shameless and exploitive, but it's pretty damn stupid, too, considering that these people's priorities should be elsewhere. (Bottled water is probably going to be a lot more valuable than any amount of electronics in the near future).

Posted by: Chris Wage at August 30, 2005 02:15 PM

Yeah...the latter (valuables) is what I was focusing on.

Posted by: B at August 30, 2005 02:25 PM

I was gonna say what Chris said.

Posted by: brittney at August 30, 2005 02:26 PM

Let's remember that New Orleans was under a MANDATORY evacuation order. Even if taking food or water, they are breaking the law by being there. I guess they're just "undocumented" not illegal!

Contrast this with Gen. Washington's treatment of rowdy soldiers in NY as described in "1776". (Note "riotous behavior" refers to being drunk and partaking of the pleasures of the local redlight district.)

"Washington condemned all such 'riotous behaviour'. Were it to happen again the perpretrators would be subject to the severest punishment. If they resisted arrest, they would be 'treated as a common enemy' meaning they would be shot dead on the spot." (p. 125)

Posted by: George Rand at August 30, 2005 02:29 PM

Some people could not afford to leave. Some people were too poor to evacuate. The elderly, the sick, the homeless...none of those people had the means to get out.

I hope if I say it over and over again I won't have to hear "they shoulda got out" anymore.

Posted by: brittney at August 30, 2005 03:43 PM

George, that's a pretty perplexingly odd juxtaposition of stories there. Are you implying we should treat the remaining people as common enemies and shot dead?

Posted by: Chris Wage at August 30, 2005 03:51 PM

No but we shouldn't apologize for them either. They should be arrested. Did you notice the policeman shot when trying to arrest one by another looter. What do you say to the policeman's family?

brittney--How many of the looters do you think couldn't have gotten out? How many who couldn't afford to asked for transportation?

Posted by: George Rand at August 30, 2005 04:23 PM

No excuse for looting period. I would hope that as more footage becomes available and you see they are looting alcohol, suits, and electronics folks will be reasonable and stop making excuses for this behavior. It only adds to the loss and damage that we as federal taxpayers will have to foot the bill for.

Posted by: Drake at August 31, 2005 08:30 AM

MSNBC has a camera crew on right now of looting at a Wal-Mart. Apparently women's high heels are the target today.

Posted by: Frank Wu at August 31, 2005 10:14 AM

There were some that could not have gotten out, and there are some that DID not leave.

The problem is that we cannot seperate the good from the bad, the poor from the stupid.

So either you treat them all like they are good poor people or treat them like the are all bad dumb people.

I am for the second one. Shoot the wicked bastards before they reproduce.

Posted by: cube at August 31, 2005 11:33 AM

Here's a thought. When law enforcement (or the government) is unable to provide Order, people take matters into their own hands. The result of widespread looting can also result in widespread vigilantism.

Killing someone over property is wrong under certain circumstances - not ALL circumstances. If I have a jug of water and someone tries to steal the water - I will die without it. Is it not then justifiable to shoot someone because their actions threaten my existence?

The absence of Order brings these questions to the conversation.

And to think, none of this would have even happened if Bush would have just spent enough money to learn how to control Category 5 hurricanes and focused that knowledge in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico. It's not like there's thousands of miles of coastline to protect if we're going to go by egalia's standards.

Some of you people are real pieces of work.

Posted by: smantix at August 31, 2005 01:18 PM