Why are they called 'looters'? These people are just trying to survive!

[LynneSin]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100115/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/cb_haiti_earthquake
Struggle to get aid to Haitians as looters roam
By JONATHAN M. KATZ and TAMARA LUSH, Associated Press Writers Jonathan M. Katz And Tamara Lush, Associated Press Writers – 1 hr 23 mins ago
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Hundreds of U.S. troops touched down in shattered Port-au-Prince overnight as U.N. and other aid organizations struggled Friday to get food and water to stricken millions. Fears spread of unrest among the Haitian people in their fourth day of desperation.

Looters roamed downtown streets, young men and boys with machetes. "They are scavenging everything. What can you do?" said Michel Legros, 53, as he waited for help to search for seven relatives buried in his collapsed house.

Hard-pressed government workers, meanwhile, were burying thousands of bodies in mass graves. The Red Cross estimates 45,000 to 50,000 people were killed in Tuesday's cataclysmic earthquake.


<<<snip>>>

"People who have not been eating or drinking for almost 50 hours and are already in a very poor situation," U.N. humanitarian spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs said in Geneva. "If they see a truck with something, or if they see a supermarket which has collapsed, they just rush to get something to eat."

_____________________________________________

I have never involuntarily gone for more than a day without food. Even when I have gone without food or water for a stretch of time I always knew it was there or how to get it if I needed it. These people have gone days without food and water; most have no idea when it will be available again. I would hardly call them looter - these people just want to live and are doing what it takes to survive.

[laughingliberal]

1. Yeah, people trying to eat are not looters. That so pisses me off in the media nt

[Captain Hilts]

4. Correct. You aren't looting if it's necessities. nt

[LynneSin]

5. There was two pictures from Katrina that showed how badly Media made it out to be

A black man was carrying some food and he was labelled a 'looter'. But when it was a white couple with food, they were using it to survive.

[laughingliberal]

7. I remember that. It was criminal racism and this is, too. nt

[newtothegame]

17. Looters

We had absolutely NO looting here in Iowa a couple summers ago though, and the floods were horrific and people were without food and water. Different mentality then NO though I guess.

[timeforpeace]

38. Don't like "looters"? How about undocumented shoppers?

[Vincardog]

2. It plays into the rascists fantasies to think of all the poor black people looting and pilaging

Actually the racist pricks are just projecting.

[Dappleganger]

They are called looters because of the color of their skin.

Plain and simple.

[gateley]

13. + 1

[anonymous171]

28. Got any examples of white Hatians "finding food" instead of looting?

Or are you just making inflammatory assertions for no reason?

[Dappleganger]

32. Are you serious?

If you don't see the blatant racism in the MSM's terminology during Katrina and this earthquake, you're completely blind.

[BEZERKO]

37. Not yet, but let's examine their past work:

[Captain Hilts]

3. I agree. 5 Days w/o power after Isabel made me quite the wheeler-dealer! nt

[phantom power]

6. Poor brown people are always "looters." Just like in NO.

[Turbineguy]

8. Maybe we just need to invent

another word for looting.

[immoderate]

29. Bread and water are not "loot."

Jewelry, appliances, electronics, etc. are loot.

--imm

[YOY]

9. I suppose if they are taking from others who barely have enough for themselves by force.

They can be called "Looters".

I guess...but the use of the word "looter" is pretty open like it was someone taking an X-Box from an abandoned store...or even taking food/water from an abandoned store.

Just sayin'...not attacking or defending.

[winyanstaz]

11. I read a report from someone who is there that the people there

are not "looting" or being violent...they are simply trying to take care of each other best they can.

[winyanstaz]

10. I agree....in a national disaster like that...what the hell are they supposed to do?

Just lay down and die?
This just makes headlines for the media and makes the racists feel superior when they do stuff like this.
If we were there..no food and water..people in need of care...we would be looking for what we could find as well.

[butterfly77]

12. Exactly..

[NWHarkness]

14. Remember Katrina?

White people "gather", black people "loot".

[lsewpershad]

15. Why is it

the poor, hungry and desparate are referred as looters and not the f-ing corporations and filthy rich who suck the life blood of the poor and deparate? Mans inhumanity to man.

[timeforpeace]

16. Couldn't they survive without taking stuff without paying for it?

[Lydia Leftcoast]

18. Not necessarily

What if the storekeeper has abandoned the store or is dead or injured?

What if the "looter" is a day laborer who gets paid at the end of each day and hasn't been paid since the quake?

What if the "looter" is a person whose family breadwinner has been killed or is missing?

What if all the family's money (or food) is buried under the rubble?

And if the food and beverages are going to spoil anyway in the tropical heat, why shouldn't someone benefit from them while they're still consumable?

We're not talking about suburban America here. We're talking about the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere where most people live in circumstances worse than the poorest people in America.

[LynneSin]

19. Thank you!

:D

[Lydia Leftcoast]

21. You're welcome!

Perhaps not enough people have seen the New York Times article about the people in the poorest parts of Haiti who bake dirt cakes (literal dirt cakes) to fill their stomachs when there is no food.

[slackmaster]

20. Unfortunately there are a few bona fide looters among the genuinely needy

They're the ones armed with machetes.

[timeforpeace]

24. Correct, and we are seeing them in action. People don't automatically turn into looters.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

25. Well, isn't that special

I'm not going to judge people living in such horrific circumstances.

After Katrina, I saw footage of a young mother, waiting outside the Superdome, giving her baby a drink of bottled orange juice.

Now if she "looted" the orange juice, I'm totally fine with that, since the alternative was to watch her baby die horribly of dehydration.

[slackmaster]

27. Did she take that orange juice by force from someone who was unwilling to share it?

Did another needy person suffer because she took it from them?

From your wording, it appears that you don't know how she acquired it.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

34. We don't know what percentage of people are doing that

I'm not going to condemn everyone for what may be the actions of only a small percentage.

[slackmaster]

36. Nobody on this forum is condemning everyone

I just wished to point out that there actually IS looting going on in Haiti, as always happens in widespread disaster situations.

[ellenfl]

22. because they're black. eom

[stray cat]

23. What if they are stealing from others trying to survive?

or killing others to survive - tough question is it ok to steal from your neighbor who has less than you if you think you need it more or are stronger.

[LynneSin]

26. When you are without food & water for an extended period of time

most sane ways of obtaining food are tossed out the window.

Yes, stealing or killing to obtain food is wrong. But right now there is a true sense of anarchy where only the strong will find a way to survive. Until we can find a way to get this food/water into Port-au-Prince, it may get worse before it gets better.

[Dappleganger]

33. I dunno, you go through having PTSD, starving with no food

or water for 5 days in tropical heat then get back to us about how easy it is to make moral decisions on the fly.

[FloridaJudy]

30. I agree

Last night on the news there was a picture of some poor soul carrying a box of food out of the ruins of a supermarket in Haiti. It was labelled as a "looter". My immediate reaction was WTF? I didn't see any cashiers around to take his money, nor did I see some owner asking for cash - just a desperately poor man grabbing what he needed to survive.

It wasn't furs, jewelry, or an iPod - it was food. Granted, that's probably worth a lot more to the starving than pricey electronics, but would I have done the same in his place? Hell, yes! You're probably not going to be able to "buy" food in Port-Aux-Prince for a long time: there's no way for farmers to get their produce to market, no way for imported stuff to get in to restock the canned stuff, and forget about frozen food in a tropical climate with no electricity. You'll be lucky to get some of the relief supplies trickling in, and I doubt any respectable NGO is going to ask for payment. No, it'll be barter, black market and whatever you can steal.

I expect it'll get a lot worse before it gets better, if it ever does.

[LeftishBrit]

31. Yes, these are people who are *starving* FFS

[lumberjack_jeff]

35. The concepts aren't mutually exclusive.

Many people are motivated by survival to commit crimes.