Looting after Katrina

[Guest jbit]

This is by far the most cowardly and dispicable act that I've seen yet. There are so many people trying to do good by helping those that are stranded and hungry and these fucking scumbags are raiding everything they can. Those items could go to those who REALLY need it.

I would love to see one of the store owners sit atop his store with a gun (like they did in the LA riots) and just start picking people off as they come out.

Given the circumstances, It would be justified.

[Guest slamminshaun]

I wish I saved the picture, but when I upgraded computers this year I lost it.....

After Frances and Jeanne went through last year, I had this piece of plywood out in front of my house against my garage door that said "You Loot, We Shoot". I don't even own a gun....LOL

[Guest trancepriest]

Those items could go to those who REALLY need it.

They are helping themselves directly:

The New Orleans region includes Orleans and St. Bernard parishes. Orleans has a 34 percent poverty rate. Why do you think they never evacuated?

[Guest jbit]

I don't even own a gun

I do, and I live on the fringe of a sketchy neighborhood. After Francis I had so sleep with the doors open to get air in cause the windows were boarded. I would have had little reservation about snuffing someone out who thinks there going to take what I've worked so hard for.

[Guest JMT]

you loot, and i will shoot. literally.

[Guest trancepriest]

you loot, and i will shoot. literally.

Do you even own a gun?

[Guest JMT]

you loot, and i will shoot. literally.

Do you even own a gun?

well, a super-soaker doesnt quite have the same effect.

[Guest saintjohn]

At least some of the looting seems to be officially sanctioned:

After Katrina, Looters Ravage New Orleans

From Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS -- With much of the city flooded by Hurricane Katrina, looters floated garbage cans filled with clothing and jewelry down the street in a dash to grab what they could.

In some cases, looting today took place in full view of police and National Guard troops.

At a Walgreen's drug store in the French Quarter, people were running out with grocery baskets and coolers full of soft drinks, chips and diapers.

When police finally showed up, a young boy stood in the door screaming, "86! 86!" -- the radio code for police -- and the crowd scattered.

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."

Looters filled industrial-sized garbage cans with clothing and jewelry and floated them down the street on bits of plywood and insulation as National Guard lumbered by.

Mike Franklin stood on the trolley tracks and watched the spectacle unfold.

"To be honest with you, people who are oppressed all their lives, man, it's an opportunity to get back at society," he said.

A man walked down Canal Street with a pallet of food on his head. His wife, who refused to give her name, insisted they weren't stealing from the nearby Winn-Dixie supermarket. "It's about survival right now," she said as she held a plastic bag full of purloined items. "We got to feed our children. I've got eight grandchildren to feed."

At a drug store on Canal Street just outside the French Quarter, two police officers with pump shotguns stood guard as workers from the Ritz-Carlton Hotel across the street loaded large laundry bins full of medications, snack foods and bottled water.

"This is for the sick," Officer Jeff Jacob said. "We can commandeer whatever we see fit, whatever is necessary to maintain law."

Another office, D.J. Butler, told the crowd standing around that they would be out of the way as soon as they got the necessities.

"I'm not saying you're welcome to it," the officer said. "This is the situation we're in. We have to make the best of it."

The looting was taking place in full view of passing National Guard trucks and police cruisers.

One man with an armload of clothes even asked a policeman, "can I borrow your car?"

Some in the crowd splashed into the waist-deep water like giddy children at the beach.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-083005looters_wr,0,562628.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[Bling]

wow havent heard news yet today but this is sickening...... :'(

[all4tribal1414779019]

when i went to new orleans almost 2 years ago, i never seen so much poverty here in the US...i mean i have but i guess i wasnt expecting that over there since i was a "tourist"...areas of baton rouge, and anything 10-30miles northeast/west is much poverty...and all their homes are gonne, they got no money, food, nada...i agree that looting is bad n im not saying they r doing the right thing, but i guess when a catastrophe like this happens it makes some people do crazy things

they are also saying how the water level is going to stay up for the next cpl days if not weeks @ some parts of the city, i dont think those people are gonna live on top of their roofs too long...temps up there can get over 120 F on a hot sunny day esp

[Guest mursa]

the food is going to rot soon anyways ........let em loot !

[Guest swirlundergrounder]

the food is going to rot soon anyways ........let em loot !

Exactly..Hell if I was starving for food and I had to feed my family or get my bay diapers I'd loot the hell out of Publix...No make that Whole Foods while we're at it........

[Guest JMT]

some are looting more than just food.

[Guest swirlundergrounder]

some are looting more than just food.

Oh...Like TV's and shit? Where are you gonna plug it into to?

BTW I know this girl in my class and she's from New Orleans and her father lost his house under 12 feet of water. She hasn't heard from her mom how her house is yet. She also had all of her old records from back in the day stored at a friends house and those all all gone in the flood... :'(

[Guest DaGoose]

Not that it's justified, but all4tribalism is right.......These people dont have anything and see it as an opportunity to get something for nothing. It's not the right thing to do but these people at the moment are not thinking about right and wrong. They are thinking about survival. The whole situation over there is sad.

[Guest pod]

Bad to worse, there's a riot in the main prison now.

[Guest Devilicious]

I heard a woman on the news giving her account literally in tears about what she was doing. The newsman had approached her leaving a grocery store with food and water, things she and her family need to LIVE. She told the man during storms past she had looked down upon looters in judgement, and now was guilty of the same. She prayed that her soul be forgiven for what she was doing. It seems the conditions there are so dire that some people have two options: take what you can or die with the rest of them. I know what I'd do.

[all4tribal1414779019]

It's just so sad whats going on up there w/ those people man...just to think about that just 10 hours northwest of me there's over 100k + people homeless, cities inudated by toxic water, people having no where to go to after their entire homes have been demolished by the winds and 20 ft of flood water, the mosquitoes are going to start breeding very soon w/ that still water...one mosquito can lay over 20k eggs in a day, massive bacteria counts, imagine the amounts of trash, dead animals, toxicans flowing all over the place...the water keeps rising, it has no where to go, its total chaos, massive destruction. i just feel so bad for them n there isnt much i can do about it either.

:'(

[Guest slamminshaun]

I have no pity for those that are looting DVD players and TV's, and I've seen plenty of them. When I see mothers and fathers stealing clothing, water, and food, I can see where they're coming from. Unfortunately, they have to understand where the lawman is coming from too. I think they've been letting them get away with the looting for the most part, but they can't completely turn a blind eye. The law is the law. If I had too, I'd lie, cheat, and steal to stay alive.....but I also understand that if I got caught, I gotta deal with the consequences.

[Guest swirlundergrounder]

I have no pity for those that are looting DVD players and TV's' date=' and I've seen plenty of them. When I see mothers and fathers stealing clothing, water, and food, I can see where they're coming from. Unfortunately, they have to understand where the lawman is coming from too. I think they've been letting them get away with the looting for the most part, but they can't completely turn a blind eye. The law is the law. If I had too, I'd lie, cheat, and steal to stay alive.....but I also understand that if I got caught, I gotta deal with the consequences.

[/quote']I can see you looting the gas pumps even though you couldn't drive your truck anywhere...LOL.....

[Guest saintjohn]

It's getting worse:

Those trapped in the city faced an increasingly lawless environment, as law enforcement agencies found themselves overwhelmed with widespread looting. Looters swarmed the Wal-mart on Tchoupitoulas Street, often bypassing the food and drink section to steal wide-screen TVs, jewelry, bicycles and computers. Watching the sordid display and shaking his head in disgust, one firefighter said of the scene: "It’s a f---- hurricane, what are you do with a basketball goal?"

Police regained control at about 3 p.m., after clearing the store with armed patrol. One shotgun-toting Third District detective described the looting as "ferocious."

"And it’s going to get worse as the days progress," he said.

In Uptown, one the few areas that remained dry, a bearded man patrolled Oak Street near the boarded-up Maple Leaf Bar, a sawed-off shotgun slung over his shoulder. The owners of a hardware store sat in folding chairs, pistols at the ready.

Uptown resident Keith Williams started his own security patrol, driving around in his Ford pickup with his newly purchased handgun. Earlier in the day, Williams said he had seen the body of a gunshot victim near the corner of Leonidas and Hickory streets.

"What I want to know is why we don’t have paratroopers with machine guns on every street," Williams said.

Like-minded Art Depodesta sat on the edge of a picnic table outside Cooter Brown’s Bar, a chrome shotgun at his side loaded with red shells.

"They broke into the Shell station across the street," he said. "I walked over with my 12-gauge and shot a couple into the air."

The looters scattered, but soon after, another man appeared outside the bar in a pickup truck armed with a pistol and threatened Depodesta.

"I told him, ‘Listen, I was in the Army and I will blow your ass off,’" Depodesta said. "We’ve got enough trouble with the flood."

The man sped away.

"You know what sucks," Depodesta said. "The whole U.S. is looking at this city right now, and this is what they see."

In the Bywater, a supply store sported spray-painted signs reading "You Loot, I Shoot" and "You Bein Watched." A man seated nearby with a rifle in his lap suggested it was no idle threat. At the Bywater studio of Dr. Bob, the artist known for handpainted "Be Nice or Leave" signs, a less fanciful sentiment was painted on the wall: "Looters Will Be Shot. Dr. Bob."

http://www.nola.com/newslogs/breakingtp/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_Times-Picayune/archives/2005_08.html

[Guest swirlundergrounder]

WTF? Where are all these people going to plug this shit into? Or are they looting these valuable items in order to trade or sell them so that they can leave the city?

[Guest JMT]

WTF? Where are all these people going to plug this shit into? Or are they looting these valuable items in order to trade or sell them so that they can leave the city?

my guess is its just people being ghetto.

[Guest trancepriest]

WTF? Where are all these people going to plug this shit into? Or are they looting these valuable items in order to trade or sell them so that they can leave the city?

Hell no the people are poor and ignorant. The people are so damn poor that they couldn't afford to leave the city. To leave the city many of them would need over a thousand dollars and they didn't have it. I think this is one of the side stories of this event. The poverty in New Orleans. These are the hidden... marginalized people... the rats below the system. The same thing would happen in Miami or any impoverished area. I for one did not know New Orleans was so poor. These people are not living in a capitalist system... they are subsiding below the system. My guess is that most of them are unemployed or making around $800 - $1000 a month.

[Guest saintjohn]

Poor? In many cases, yes. Ignorant? Definitely.