looting? i don't think so. one word: insurance

[nashville_brook]

whatever businesses have been hit with "looting" have already experienced weather-related losses that will cover people "finding" food they need to survive. there's no "loss" in people taking what is already lost.

[iamjoy]

1. That Is Justification

I stand by my assertation that looting for food and survival supplies is OK, but looting for luxuries is just plain wrong.

If insurance is your justification, why not just shoplift or burglarize some one's house? They probably have insurance.

[lildreamer316]

2. What if you are looting luxuries

to SELL for FOOD???? (or gas)
HA.

[likesmountains 52]

5. well maybe...but who's going to buyin and "luxuries" in NO right now?

[lildreamer316]

12. I didn't say they were thinking straight.

I'm just saying that is part of the motivation.Ak.

[nashville_brook]

4. it's all a wash to the businesses

doesn't matter

[DemocratSinceBirth]

6. My Dad Owned A Candy Store In A High Crime Area...

Property insurance gets so expensive that some small business owners find it prohibitive and do without it....

That's why you saw Korean merchants standing on their roofs with rifles during the Rodney King riots...

[nashville_brook]

9. the businesses are already totalled from the storm.

and, btw, what part of new orleans isn't a high crime area?

[bpilgrim]

13. moralizing over this in the midst of an on-going DISASTER is sick

imho

peace

[fishnfla]

3. So looting is just an act of human nature.

like an act of God. Interesting. What the storm dont take, the looters get to take

[nashville_brook]

7. insured. period.

the only thing being "protected" thru righteous indignation is some amorphous sense of propriety on the part of the indignant. there's no poor store-owner. there's no one suffering for the loss. they are already covered.

[Jersey Devil]

14. Maybe, then again, maybe not

Stores are covered for the natural consequences of a hurricane and looting is not one of them. IF the store owner is covered is a legal question that has been resolved both ways in other jurisdictions. The only way to be certain of coverage is to buy coverage for looting, which I would wager is expensive and rare.

But even if that were the case (coverage), guess who pays higher premiums as a result?

Without law there is no society.

[iamjoy]

19. It Is A Facet Of Human Nature

People are dying there, you are right. And it just blows my mind that while people are dying, others just a few blocks over are seeing an untended store, window smashed by the storm and helping themselves to some jewelry.

You can make the point that our (the media and us) spending so much time discussing this is a facet of human nature, and perhaps not the best.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

8. For fuck's sake, we're STILL on looting?!

Move on people, nothing to see here....

[nashville_brook]

10. yeah, i couldn't resist seeing the responses to this

people have really messed up priorities when they are high and dry.

[FlaGranny]

20. I saw an interview of a lady

who evacuated to a shelter. She and her family left the shelter after the storm, returned home to their undamaged house, and found that someone had looted their TV and computer. But it's okay I guess - they probably had insurance. Well, maybe they did. They didn't look very wealthy. In fact, they lived in an old mobile home. Maybe they couldn't afford insurance. Maybe they can't afford to replace what was lost.

After Hurricane Andrew, people had to patrol their yards with pistols and shotguns to keep what they had left. I would do the same.

[Dogmudgeon]

11. New Orleans turns into a toxic swamp, and we're bitching about looters

Tens of thousands of people are still at risk, an unknown number are dead, rescue efforts are facing logistical nightmares, a dozen or more levees are in danger of collapse, but what's the big story? A few people looting food, and a small number of them taking the odd appliance.

It just doesn't make sense.

--p!

[Jersey Devil]

15. You must decide what the fundamental building block is for society

If there is no respect for law then there is no society worth protecting. That is why it is a story that is just as important, if not more, than any other.

[Dogmudgeon]

17. I thought that fundamental building block was human life

Seriously, this obsession with looting is beginning to read like Les Miserables.

Looting doesn't even appear to be a problem except for a few, widely scattered episodes.

Fox News was pushing the story all morning, showing the same two or three film clips of black folks walking around, describing them as looters.

If there is no respect for human life then is the law worth respecting? The law exists for people, not the other way around.

--p!

[Jersey Devil]

18. So who is making a big issue of it?

It seems to me that most of the strings here on looting are by those who are saying that in some cases it is justified, not by those who do not approve of it. The other strings criticize the media for mentioning it, though they are not really emphasizing it and have been careful to state that in some cases the looting is for food and water and therefore understandable.

Some order must be restored to the chaos if NO is to recover. That must happen sooner rather than later.

[Igel]

16. After Watts, after the 'uprising' in the early '90s,

everybody said "insurance!"

Guess what the response was: Bankruptcy.

Those with insurance saw their rates rise. Many smaller businesses didn't have any. And many that could stay saw no reason to.

The TVs and jewelry that's been taken were still good when stolen; odds are, they'd still have been good.

They'll be some sort of fed/state/city program to help small businesses. But part of the aid will, no doubt, be used to help replace some looted stuff.

Stealing food and water to survive ... it's theft, but it's ok theft. Stealing jewelry, not.

But what sometimes happens is that people steal food and water they *don't* need--either they need none, or much less than they take. Then they sell it at inflated prices. Then you have two forms of moral superiority rolled up into one loathsome little soul.