Even a cop joins in the looting - Pathetic humans

[Ziroc]

http://www.nola.com/newslogs/breakin...08.html#075195


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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.

While many people carried out food and essential supplies, others cleared out jewelry racks and carted out computers, TVs and appliances on handtrucks.

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.”

Inside the store, the scene alternated between celebration and frightening bedlam. A shirtless man straddled a broken jewelry case, yelling, “Free samples, free samples over here.”

Another man rolled a mechanized pallet, stacked six feet high with cases of vodka and whiskey. Perched atop the stack was a bewildered toddler.

Throughout the store and parking lot, looters pushed carts and loaded trucks and vans alongside officers. One man said police directed him to Wal-Mart from Robert’s Grocery, where a similar scene was taking place. A crowd in the electronics section said one officer broke the glass DVD case so people wouldn’t cut themselves.

“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.)
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Why is it when this happens, some people think it's a free for all? Loot or riot.. damn morons. Instead of helping others, they go for TV's... god, you have no idea how mad this makes me.


They need to do what they did in the Texas Hurricane of 1900-ish-- Looters will be SHOT and Whoever isn't working to clean up doesn't get food.

How do YOU feel about these pathetic human pieces of shit?

[ 08-30-2005, 08:42 PM: Message edited by: Ziroc ]

[John D Harris]

I can understand looting of food and neccesities(SP?), they have lost everything and need to eat. Without electricty lots of the food will go bad, food that can keep people alive. But what the "Hale" are they going to do with a TV? They got no where to put it, their houses are gone, or at best under water. The La. Governor just issued an total evacuation order it seems that what pumps are remaining and working are soon to fail, anybody that drowns hualing a looted TV, well prehaps the gene pool is better off without them.

[Ziroc]

Originally posted by John D Harris: I can understand looting of food and neccesities(SP?), they have lost everything and need to eat. Without electricty lots of the food will go bad, food that can keep people alive. But what the "Hale" are they going to do with a TV? They got no where to put it, their houses are gone, or at best under water. The La. Governor just issued an total evacuation order it seems that what pumps are remaining and working are soon to fail, anybody that drowns hualing a looted TV, well prehaps the gene pool is better off without them.

Yeh, I too understand the food thing. It'll spoil anyway, so most places are giving it away if they have someone to open the store, which is cool. But yeah, TV's and PC's and crap? It's sad.

[Chewbacca]

Truly shameful. If my own or my neighbor's house just got destroyed/flooded/ect and/or my neighbors might still be missing or in danger getting a new TV would be the last thing from my mind.

Like I asked in the other thread...Where the hell is the National Gaurd?

[mad=dog]

I think that we can accept theft to a minor degree. It is within our moral capacity to accept that some people can be in so dire straits that they have to resolve to theft. Also we are more willing to accept theft from those who are in no apperent need. If you steal from a big company with a large profit margin it's not as bad as stealing from the local convenience store.
That's why pillaging is so utterly dispicable and tasteless. It's simply breaches far beyond what we can reasonably accept and ultimately forgive. Stealing from people in a city in the middle of a disaster that may define a lifetime is simply so *beeeep* low that I lack an explitive strong enough.
What on earth are these oppotunists thinking? Where is the respect of other peoples lives? People who have had to flee to avoid destruction and death. I shake my head in disgust.

[John D Harris]

Originally posted by Chewbacca: Truly shameful. If my own or my neighbor's house just got destroyed/flooded/ect and/or my neighbors might still be missing or in danger getting a new TV would be the last thing from my mind. Like I asked in the other thread...Where the hell is the National Gaurd?

There's not a whole "Hale" of a lot a ways in there I-10 is gone for the most part, Slidel(sp?) is under water I would bet dollars to donuts the other way in is just as bad. I know your not a FOX news fan but Rick Leaventhal(sp?) left Tuscaloosa last night at 7:00pm headed to N.O. normaly a 4-5 hour trip, unless you're like me a drive the speed limit then it's 6 hours. 13 hours later he was still in Mississippi 75-100 miles from N.O. there are trees and Stuff all over the place. What National Guard there is in the city is looking for people that need rescuing and lives that need saving. Property is not high on their list nor should it be right now. Alabama activated about 800 guard this morning 100 or so to work Alabama the rest to help Mississppi, and La. If anyboby has traveled down I-59 there ain't a whole "Hale" of a lot between Tuscaloosa and Hattisburg Mississippi but trees, same for Hattisburg to N.O. and those trees were looking at CAT 3-CAT 4 winds so the roads are damn near impassable if not completely impassable. They aren't going to parachute the guard in, not all guard are jump qualified. Most area miltary bases are damaged. The USAF, USA, USN, & USMC moved all planes and helos out sat and sunday to safer locations. They have to get back home to their damaged bases before they can fly out. N.O. airports are closed flood waters have a tendency to do that, so there is nowhere any MAC planes can land close by. They can't call the National Guard up in the areas effected there isn't any phones to get in contact with them. Besides they have their own problems to deal with, like where the "Hale" are they going to sleep tonight, it sure isn't a nice air-conditioned home. What are they going to feed their families looks like prok&bean for awhile, maybe some SPAM.

[ 08-30-2005, 11:34 PM: Message edited by: John D Harris ]

[johnny]

When people are looting for food and everything else one needs to sustain, you can hardly call it looting anymore, it's trying to survive by all means necessary. People who are at this very moment trying to loot electric stuff like dvd's and tv sets are most likely the most ignorant people alive, so shooting them won't harm anything at all.

[Chewbacca]

Reply from a GD post in the hurrican sticky thread!

Originally posted by Ziroc: Micheal Moore is an asshole. He would blame Bush for the size of his penis being too small. Come on.. [img]smile.gif[/img] Just using another tragedy to attack Bush. same song, new day. It takes time to gather things for a 90,000 sq mile disaster. They are finally there though. Lets not play the blame game right now. I DO NOT see Micheal Whore down there with a shovel or helping people, so he should shut his mouth.

Sure he might be an asshole, but the question:

Has the optional Iraq conflict taken away National Gaurd Equipment (like 'copters) that could have been used to rapidly respond to this unavoidable disaster or any other?

I think thats a valid, yet, as far as I know, unanswered question. We know plenty of the Gaurd personel is stateside....but how much of their functional equipment is?


Would deployment for this disaster been faster and/or bigger if Iraq was handled differently?

Look I was againgst the Iraq war for a Myriad of reasons, one of the chief ones being we needed to secure the homeland and getting mired down overseas will make that goal even more difficult. After 9/11 and in the age of terrorist WMD dirty bomb threats responding to and evacuating entire cities should have been a top priority along with securing the border, airports, and seaports.

We can only judge the Iraq war by it's results. If we left the homeland vunerable to go on the offensive overseas then I think we had our priorities wrong.

[ 09-03-2005, 10:34 PM: Message edited by: Chewbacca ]

[Memnoch]

Unfortunately it's in times like this that we see what human beings are really capable of - great good as well as great evil. It shows how tenuous our civilisation really is, doesn't it.

[Thoran]

Chewbacca I don't believe that Iraq has had a significant impact on government ability to respond to this disaster. We have a huge amount of military hardware, and only a small fraction of it is in Iraq. I think judgement mistakes were made early on, the first two days nobody pulled the trigger to put the military on the case, so once they did (and it took a couple days to get them moving) you had a situation where for 4 days it looked like nothing was being done.

Personally I think there's blame enough to go around... and while the buck stops at GW... I put more responsibility on the State and Municipal government (you know... the one's who are blaming GW for the fact that they themselves dropped the ball big time).