Are the people in the photo REALLY looting. . .

[wndycty]

I'm not on the ground in New Orleans, but I have a problem with the photo and the caption. Notice the sign in the window says "Now Open" and the people are carrying shopping bags. Maybe they broke in the store, posted the "Now Open" signs, got shopping bags and maybe even printed out their own receipts. Now maybe they are looting. Maybe the sign was in the window from before the hurricane. Maybe they grabbed the bags because they needed something to carry their looted items in. Regardless this pic and its caption are suspect at best and possibly racist.



Looters hit a drug store in the French Quarter district of New Orleans in New Orleans, Louisiana, following Hurricane Katrina. Fresh floods, fires and looting rode in the destructive wake of Hurricane Katrina, deepening a humanitarian crisis that left hundreds feared dead and sections of New Orleans submerged to the rooftops.(AFP/James Nielsen)

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/050831/photos_wl_afp/050831100019_zhpvj5dd_photo3

[craigolemiss]

1. please explain the racist part

[wndycty]

2. Simple, they are black therefore they must be looting. . .

. . .and that would cause the caption writer to ignore the "Now Open" sign. Is that so hard comprehend?

[fishwax]

23. seems pretty clear to me wndycty

:shrug:

[eek]

3. "looting" or "surviving"?

no food, no water, no electricity, no money, entire city flooded
+ store with food , water,medicine

= surviving, not looting IMO

[wndycty]

4. You are missing the point. . .

. . .there is a "Now Open" sign. . .whether you call it looting or surviving there is a very real chance they could have be PAYING customers.

[nyhuskyfan]

5. Especially with three small plastic bags...

It looks like their items were purchased and packed into bags by a clerk.

[wndycty]

7. Exactly, maybe they printed their own receipts as well

:kick:

[craigolemiss]

6. maybe thats why there is a caption to the photo

that says they are looters. ---now open sign looks like it was there before, and is not "new"

I am not sure that umbrellas would be today's survival item of choice.

[wndycty]

9. Do you see any broken windows in that shot?

:kick:

[Atman]

24. No umbrellas? What about a ROOF?

Umbrella's wouldn't be a survival item of choice? Please clarify...are you saying the umbrellas indicate they are or are not looters? Because, either way, I'd be looking for an umbrella. The previous MSNBC shot pointed skyward to show a large storm cloud overhead, saying it might rain today. Perhaps, when your house in under twelve feet of water, and you're living in a Winn Dixie parking lot, maybe, just maybe, you actually do worry about getting out of the rain. Just speculation. But, the umbrella comment is a non-sequitur, as anyone could easily make the case that it demonstrates a deliberate cash transaction just as easily as one could say it must be stolen.

[acmavm]

10. Don't nitpick. There's this big urge even here to paint people in the

worst possible colors. Hell yes, they're looting. Don't look at that sign. Hell, if you see a cashier, ignore him/her.

These people are looting I tells ya. Thieves. Should be shot.

The above was just my take on the attitudes of more than just a few people here lately. All people living in a nice, dry house. With groceries. And transportation. You know, armchair survivors. Sitting at home watching the news, which automatically makes them experts.

[William769]

25. They keep reporting on CNN

Stuff being looted is tennis shoes, Pants clothing. I think that says it all.

[NervousRex]

15. Now Open...

7AM to Midnight
Everyday
read the sign. It's from well before the hurricane. No power, no cash register, no nothing.
Sure the store is being looted. I would be in there too if I was stuck in that hellhole. I would not waste my time on non-essential goods, though. You can't eat, drink or wear a DVD player or an iPod.

[Atman]

8. B..b..but they're n....n...n....NEGROES!

They MUST be looting!

I'm with you; I've been watching MSNBC doing a helicopter flyover. They were showing the parking lot of a Winn Dixie. No looting activity visible, but lots of water in the parking lot, with people *gasp* huddling in the dry spots. A guy (a young black man) clearly handed a hankerchief to a very obese black women -- she immediately used it to sop her brow. The reporter said "You can see people are exchanging money..." as he talked about the Winn Dixie, and how he didn't know if he was actually witnessing looting or just people with nowhere to be. But he sure managed to tie in that hand-off of a hankie to possible looting.

The cameras on CNN did a similar helicopter tour, and continually zoomed in on black people loading cars, carrying bags, anything to spread the perception of looting, although there was none to be seen in any of the pics. One shot showed a family loading luggage and a cooler into the back of a car...hold that camera steady, might be a stolen teevee there! Another shot showed another group/family going throught stuff. Obviously looted, right? Except they appeared to be fishing through containers of crap, digging out boots and emptying the water from them.

Now, I don't doubt the looting stories, but it appears that the mainstream cable news channels are almost literally fishing for looting activity, and when they can't find it, they speculate from hundreds of feet above that what we're witnessing MIGHT be looting. Of course, that means it might not be, but they don't point out that they don't actuallly know what they're talking about.

Come to think of it...I haven't seen one single white person in any of the video. Is NO totally black?

[underpants]

20. Hmmm NBC this morning-18 wheelers LINED UP in Gulfport Miss.

I don't want to retype the whole thing but NBC this morning cut from -The Worst of Human Nature- ("looting" in NO) to Gulfport where there is no shortage of what anyone might need.

I don't know the racial make-up of Gulfport but yes NO is mostly black just like many major cities.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4523299&mesg_id=4523299

[Mutley]

11. They don't appear to be people who have just commited a crime.

In most of the other looting pictures and video people are running, ducking, and looking around for cops. In this picture they are just milling around with their bags and stuff like any legit customer. I would say that based on the picture alone these people were not looting.

[wndycty]

13. But captions do not lie

:kick:

[Atman]

30. Unless you're BushCo passing off the same photo of Iraq as Iran

nuke facilities. Remember that one? They used the exact same fake recon photo twice, once to show a supposed Iraq facility, then again to "prove" Iraq had one, too. Like totally, complete with the same lighting, trucks, landscaping, buildings, bushes, rocks, everything.

But hey...the caption wouldn't lie!

[Cleita]

12. On my local news there was a report about police breaking

into a Walgreens in the French Quarter and taking out supplies that they were going to take to another part of town where they were needed to distribute to people there.

They said that people could go in and help themselves when they were gone. So maybe it wasn't so much looting as an informal type of martial law and getting people what they needed to survive.

[wakeme2008]

14. IMHO they are NOT looting

Look at the two men/boys walking out with NOTHING in their hands. IMHO if they were looting their hands would be full.

[nyhuskyfan]

17. The ground is also bone dry, no broken windows, etc.

The two people who do have merchandise have it in small plastic bags -- which you might get at oh, say, a checkout counter.

And if you are looting, would you take the 20-ounce Diet Coke or maybe something else a little bigger?

[LoneDriver]

16. If they were looters

All the glass would be broken out, not just the door open. That's what I saw in the LA riots.

[underpants]

22. Welcome to DU LongDrive

:hi:

[leftofthedial]

18. but they are black people, so it must be looting

:sarcasm:

taking necessities for survival from stores that aren't open is justifiable.

[shanti]

19. when was this pic taken?

i thought all of the french quarter was under water...

[underpants]

21. Today- GREAT CATCH wndycty

I saw that picture earlier and took it for what it said-in the middle of several looting type pics. The second most emailed photo yesterday on Yahoo was the guy with a tub of Heineken, I wonder what comments were made about that.

[xultar]

29. Nope thank god the French Quarter isn't under water. IT is @ a high

point in the city. At most it is ankle deep and it is coming from below not from the break in the levee directly.

[Autonomy]

26. Without getting into any judgmental argument

we can be pretty sure they are not paying for what they're carrying. The sign says 7 AM to midnight, so the sign was there before the hurricane, and more importantly, the lights in the store are off. It's not just dark in there; you can see the reflection of the people outside on the glass outside.

Now that that is settled, carry on with the argument. I'm not taking sides.

[Autonomy]

27. darn double click deleted

[TorchTheWitch]

28. electronic doors appear to be working

The store has electronic doors that are partially open... looks like they are closing after the last guy walked out. They wouldn't work without electricity.

And the woman with the umbrellas... who the hell would loot umbrellas AFTER the storm???

My bet is that this photo was taken even days before the storm hit as sort of a "look at the people gearing up for the hurricane" type photo.

[wndycty]

31. Kick

:kick: