woah! maybe Looters aren't so bad

[sniffa]

these Looters Look white. oh wait, they may be hispanic. never mind; Looters are horribLe.

[bicentennial_baby]

1. *snort*

:thumbsup:

[ScreamingMeemie]

2. sniffa....have I told you lately.....

:yourock:

I am truly sickened by the attitudes of some who would look at these people chest high in unsanitary conditions and condemn them.

[sniffa]

7. you may have

but i enjoy hearing it anyway. :bounce:

[screembloodymurder]

36. How do you know they're looters?

Look more like victims to me.

[sniffa]

38. i thought they were victims at first too

but upon cLoser inspection, they may not be white.

[iconoclastNYC]

70. LOL

Sad how many people actually think that way for real.

[sniffa]

74. ;)

:hi:

[malaise]

3. All these people with high morals on this issue

need to experience at least a Cat 3. Survival instincts take over. The real crime is shooting hungry, wet people.

[ScreamingMeemie]

5. Yes.....but they can't possibly be hungry after only "10 hours"....

:sarcasm:

[Violet_Crumble]

30. Being Americans, I'm shocked they can even last for two hours...

:sarcasm:

[tjdee]

4. That must be their stuff.

They're not looting at all!

[Solly Mack]

6. I'm still waiting on the pictures of big screen TV's being carried through

the flood waters. Maybe a microwave or two. I'm sure there are pictures of survivors carting off stereos through the chest deep water.

There has to be , right?

I mean, gee, from all the looting talk - there just has to be proof of this somewhere. Since some folks are making it sound like a commonplace happening. There just has to be proof!

Right?

[ScreamingMeemie]

8. Me too. All I see are pics on AP of people with groceries.

Shame on them...for surely they are going to HELL. After all, it is for us to judge. :hi:

[Solly Mack]

9. I saw a guy with a big pack of toilet paper. I applauded his

sensibilities.

[justabob]

12. I think I saw that guy

He almost looked like he was using it as a flotation device.

[oasis]

29. They should wait until the proper authorities see to their needs. Roll the

dice and wait for the Chimpy funded FEMA.

[blondeatlast]

34. ...

:scared:

That is a scary thought indeed.

[TahitiNut]

39. There sure is a lot of "eye of the beholder" going on.

I have to wonder what impels some cameraman to focus on people wading chest-deep in water. I have to wonder at the assumptions regarding the goals these people have. I scratch my head. Let's see ... I'm in my home or apartment without water or power and for some strange reason it occurs to me to go shopping for a 24-pack of toilet paper? To say the least, it sounds improbable. On the other hand, what was I doing during the days leading up to hurricane landfall? Well, I was probably making sure I had some basic needs covered. I'd probably make a trip to CostCo and make sure I had bottled water, toilet paper, canned goods, first aid supplies, bread with preservatives (not that bakery stuff), and whatever else I might need to last a week. Then the floodwaters rise and I discover my supplies won't be high and dry. Then what? Well, I'd probably be forced to find shelter elsewhere -- and I might take the supplies I had. Lord only knows what I'd try to salvage. I might even try to help out the people taking shelter in a school or church. Imagine my surprise when the Minutemen come riding by in a rented helicopter and shoot me through the skull. I guess it wasn't wise of me to lay in those supplies. (Gee... and nobody asked to see my receipt, either.)

[sniffa]

40. be gratefuL you couLd afford to stock up

it's the end of the month - the poorest are hanging on untiL thursday.

not for you - just pointing out for those who have said, these Looters shouLd have stocked up and/or gotten out of town.

[TahitiNut]

42. Reminds me. I wonder how many Social Security recipients ...

... won't get their checks on Friday. The most in need are often not direct-deposit folks.

[malaise]

11. The people who steal luxury items won't be

the poor and hungry - they are people with access and large vehicles, i.e. any given city's so called protectors. They also steal batteries and other essentials and make a killing by selling to people in real need.

I don't understand the issue re taking food and clothing - hungry, wet people will help themselves to food and clothing. It's just fucking reality - and diversion from the chaos people now face.
After Gilbert people raided supermarkets and warehouses; in Grenada last year every supermarket was emptied and why not - everything was going to spoil anyway.

Of course the media love this rubbish - their business is to protect special interests and attack the poor suffering people. Maybe just maybe one of them will focus on the thieves among the police and other so called protectors.

[Solly Mack]

21. if they can link the poor and the theft, they can justify their

contempt for the poor. Truly pathetic.

[The_Mule]

63. You hit the nail on the head, Solly

Excellent psychoanalysis of the truly psycho.

[malaise]

69. Just got this from a friend

http://www.nola.com/newslogs/breakingtp/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_Times-Picayune/archives/2005_08.html#075195
Even a cop joins in the looting
Mike Perlstein and Brian Thevenot
Staff writers

Law enforcement efforts to contain the emergency left by Katrina slipped into chaos in parts of New Orleans Tuesday with some police officers and firefighters joining looters in picking stores clean.

At the Wal-Mart on Tchoupitoulas Street, an initial effort to hand out provisions to stranded citizens quickly disintegrated into mass looting. Authorities at the scene said bedlam erupted after the giveaway was announced over the radio.

Some officers joined in taking whatever they could, including one New Orleans cop who loaded a shopping cart with a compact computer and a 27-inch flat screen television.

Officers claimed there was nothing they could do to contain the anarchy, saying their radio communications have broken down and they had no direction from commanders.

“We don’t have enough cops to stop it,” an officer said. “A mass riot would break out if you tried.”



“The police got all the best stuff. They’re crookeder than us,” one man said.

Most officers, though, simply stood by powerless against the tide of law breakers.

One veteran officer said, “It’s like this everywhere in the city. This tiny number of cops can’t do anything about this. It’s wide open.”

At least one officer tried futilely to control a looter through shame.

“When they say take what you need, that doesn’t mean an f-ing TV,” the officer shouted to a looter. “This is a hurricane, not a free-for-all.”

Sandra Smith of Baton Rouge walked through the parking lot with a 12-pack of Bud Light under each arm. “I came down here to get my daughters,” she said, “but I can’t find them.”

The scene turned so chaotic at times that entrances were blocked by the press of people and shopping carts and traffic jams sprouted on surrounding streets.

Some groups organized themselves into assembly lines to more efficiently cart off goods.

Toni Williams, 25, packed her trunk with essential supplies, such as food and water, but said mass looting disgusted and frightened her.

“I didn’t feel safe. Some people are going overboard,” she said.

Inside the store, one woman was stocking up on make-up. She said she took comfort in watching police load up their own carts.

“It must be legal,” she said. “The police are here taking stuff, too.”

(Staff writers Doug MacCash and Keith Spera assisted in this story.)

[Captain Hilts]

16. Yes, we saw such footage of looting in downtown NO. (nt)

[Solly Mack]

18. Got the link?

I haven't seen pictures of people stealing TV's and similar items but I would appreciate the link.

[sniffa]

19. he saw it

isn't that enough?

[Solly Mack]

20. Shame on me!

[Captain Hilts]

27. I saw it while surfing among the Weather Channel and news networks. (nt)

[Solly Mack]

28. okey dokey

[TahitiNut]

41. It's just not possible that anyone saw a young person ...

... who was salvaging their most valuable personal possession from their first (off-campus?) apartment, huh?

When I was a recent graduate living off-campus during the Detroit riots of 1967, I knew some WSU students went and retrieved personal items from their "inner city" digs and stayed with family in the 'burbs. Invariably, the personal property they retrieved was the highest cost/density ... usually a TV or stereo. I suppose they should've been shot. :eyes:

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Ganja Ninja]

13. Makes it easier to stiff them on disaster aid later. n/t

[wli]

14. yep, just like they stiffed them with disaster preparedness n/t

[knitter4democracy]

15. Won't the stores count it as an insurance write-off anyway?

It's not like it's stuff they can turn around and sell if it's been in or near that toxic soup. They'll write it off on the insurance as destroyed, so someone might as well get some use out of it.

If my yarn shop were up and running and something like that happened, I would have to write it all off as destroyed. No one would buy the yarn after it's been in that "water" (and whatever all's in that stuff). If someone wanted it, I'd already be getting money for it from the insurance I've paid through the nose for, so they'd be welcome to it. Heck, I'd even offer them a job for coming back and cleaning out when the waters recede.

[Ganja Ninja]

17. Exactly!

It's all going in a dumpster eventually anyway.

[rbjensen]

22. First, you aren't going to get a tv through that water

so that level of looting is out. Second, if you have no food I don't think it should even be considered looting to empty the grocery store because it will rot and be thrown out anyway, even the cans will be dumped. At times like these, it's every man for themselves.

Now, to me, going into a jewelry store and taking out stuff ... well, that's just plain stealing.

[intheflow]

23. That's right.

Food is one thing. Luxury items are something else.

[knitter4democracy]

66. And I haven't heard of any luxury items getting stolen yet.

All I am seeing and hearing seem to be essentials like diapers, food, toilet paper, stuff like that.

[blondeatlast]

35. Commie pinko scum! Why do you hate "Merka and capitalism?

:sarcasm: of course.

What an incredibly rational and compassionate way to consider the situation. :toast:

[knitter4democracy]

67. Yeah, I'm so red . . .

It's my favorite color. ;)

I just don't get why so many are up in arms about this. It's not like the stores won't write it all off anyway. Now, whether they'll get full funding for it or a depreciated accounting of the inventory is another thing entirely. *sigh* That's the problem of the insurance companies, though, and not the so-called looters.

[sniffa]

24. ok, now the Looters have gone too far!!

[bicentennial_baby]

31. take only what you can carry safely

apparently, this man has made his choice. :P

[southlandshari]

44. Sniffa!

:spank:

Seriously. Point very well taken, darlin'. Good on you. I am sickened by the pretty obvious racism of the narrative over footage of hurricane survivors at this point. Black people carrying supplies or pushing grocery carts at a distance through knee high water are clearly looters. White people doing the same are victims. Sigh.

You are right on the mark here.

[intheflow]

25. You're right on, sniffa.

The looter hoopla is racist and classist bullshit.

[sniffa]

26. indeed

post 24 sums it up niceLy - "they" may start Looting our white women next.

[theHandpuppet]

32. The only film I've seen of so-called "looters"

Was of a lone man carrying toilet paper and what looked like a bag of chips through waist-deep water. They cut from a shot of him to one of a food store that had been blown apart and flooded by the 'cane.

I don't call taking toilet paper and food from a destroyed food store "looting".

[Violet_Crumble]

33. Someone posted a photo in another thread...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4505396#4505777

Would you call that looting?

[sundog]

37. stealing is always wrong

they should be arrested on the spot :eyes:

[I concur]

43. Apparently, you're unfamiliar...

...with the culture of the people of Louisiana. Cajuns, you see, are most likely a plethora of racial heritage (African, American Indian, European, Hispanic)...I ought to know, I am one!

[southlandshari]

45. I think that the original post

was using sarcasm to make the point that the media consistently focuses on images of darker-skinned people as "looters" and images of lighter skinned people as "victims".

I think - someone correct me if I'm wrong, by all means. But I don't think it was meant as a shot in any way at the culture, racial composition or citizens in general of Louisiana.

:hi:

[sundog]

46. hey shari

i was thinking of you, but i forgot where you are located...

glad you're here :hi:

[southlandshari]

47. hey you!

I'm in central Alabama - we had tornados all afternoon, but no major damage. Nothing compared to what my neighbors to the west faced. I am still overwhelmed at the magnitude of all this, and still so worried about friends in Mississippi and Louisiana - and further south in my own state.

Thanks for thinkin' of me, darlin'!

:hug:

[sundog]

48. any word from Maddy yet?

:hug:

[southlandshari]

49. No.

:-(

And not from lack of trying by several of us. I'm worried about her!

[sniffa]

50. maddy!!

come back

[Midlodemocrat]

51. sniffa

:loveya:

[sniffa]

53. midLo

:loveya: backatcha

another

:loveya:

[kick-ass-bob]

52. That's right! She's gonna get rich off the bag of potatoes!!

Commie bastards. She's probably Venezuelan.

[sniffa]

55. good eye

i thought it was a Loaf of wonderbread*.


* can be used as a fLotation device.

[kick-ass-bob]

56. it might be bread. I just took a quick glimpse, once I saw she was

Venezuelan, I didn't care anymore.

[Midlodemocrat]

62. .

:rofl:

You two are killing me today.

[kick-ass-bob]

65. I have adopted sniffa's method of outrage.

It works well for me.

[sniffa]

68. i'm fLattered

we shouLd start our own punditry show.

[Tyranny_R_US]

54. LMAO! sniffa (n/t)

[BattyDem]

57. ROFL!

:rofl:

[Lars39]

58. That water is nasty and getting nastier with the potential for disease

:cry: Under normal circumstances a "bath" in water that dirty would warrant preventative shots. :(

[northzax]

59. doesn't look like looting to me

looks like someone wading with a loaf of bread. Looting, by very definition, says you are taking spoils, something for personal profit.

[cascadiance]

60. I recall seeing a pic of a cop that was syphoning gas from cars...

in a flooded parking lot. He was trying to help fuel a power generator that needed to be on.

Now technically, he was looting too. Should that be OK? He's probably saying to himself that we need gasoline now to help us all survive. Insurance companies, etc. will take care of the folks that lose their cars and what's in them later. If he doesn't "loot" this gasoline, perhaps people die of exposure or the like.

It's the same for people looting food from stores, etc. They are doing so to survive. Heck, in some cases stealing a radio or a portable TV might also be something that's not stealing for money, but stealing to get information on what's going on... I recall that a portable TV set was one of the first things I bought after the big Loma Prieta earthquake hit and we were without power for a while. Not having any TV for a few days sucked when you were trying to know what was going on around you. If you have money, spend what you can, but even in that environment, trying to get money is also difficult, if you didn't have a supply of cash on hand, since often times ATM's, etc. won't be available. Even in Loma Prieta, I had to go upstairs to find some coin money rolls that I'd been accumulating to use as money to buy candles, flashlights, etc. that I needed, but didn't have to cash to buy with. I would have been without had I not had those coin rolls stashed upstairs. I had little or no cash on me. Thankfully the store owners that opened up their shop briefly to sell essentials to us in the neighborhood didn't also try to gouge us then, like what was happening in other parts of SF area during that time.

I wonder how many people are also trying to profit from this crisis too and sell essentials at way above what normal price would be. Any reports of that?

[underpants]

61. Welcome to Dick Cheney's america

[gmoney]

64. Rumsfeld says it's just the same looter, over and over again...

"Freedom's untidy, and free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things," Rumsfeld said. "They're also free to live their lives and do wonderful things. And that's what's going to happen here."

http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/04/11/sprj.irq.pentagon/

[HadItUpToHere]

71. is that a loaf of bread??

not much of a looter...

[Name removed]

72. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[The Magistrate]

73. The Matter Has Been Rconsidered, Sir