# Worthless shithead New Orleans looters. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 31, 2005, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worthless-shithead-new-orleans-looters/319379 "2005-08-31T02:46:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2005, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worthless-shithead-new-orleans-looters/319379/81 "2005-08-31T17:26:30Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > And add me to those who are disturbed by the racism here, especially the posts berating the black people who stayed for being too dumb to evacuate. A lot of people in New Orleans don’t have cars. N.O. is something like 67% black, 27% white; you tell me who most of those people are. Greyhound stopped running buses out of the city on Saturday. I can’t blame them, but it certainly limited the options of people without wheels and with limited money. Thanks for this. It seems to me like the television coverage (especially on Fox) contains a fundamentally racist subtext. Black people (and _only_ black people) are being shown running around with bags of looted groceries and/or electronics while the news anchors shake their heads and cluck with disapproval. They don’t _say_ anything about race but it practically screams out just from the images. _Look at all those \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_'s stealing everything that isn’t nailed down from hard working white people._ I’m sure a lot of people will tell me I’m imagining it, but I don’t believe I am. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2005, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worthless-shithead-new-orleans-looters/319379/82 "2005-08-31T17:31:48Z")
> [@Stephe96](#): > > How many mandatory evacuation orders did this ‘family of five’ ignore? This is your answer? Do you think it’s that simplistic? Even if the family ignored eveacuation orders for no good reason does that mean the children (and let’s ad a baby, what the hell) should have to suffer for the decisions of their parents? You can save a baby or you can save a frozen turkey. What do you choose? ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2005, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worthless-shithead-new-orleans-looters/319379/83 "2005-08-31T17:32:29Z")
> [@Diogenes the Cynic](#): > > I don’t give a fuck about next time. Well, then, it’s a good thing you aren’t in charge of disaster planning. > [@](#): > > Imagine you’re in a helicopter and you see a family of five on a roof suffering from injuries and dehydration. A couple of blocks away, you see a guy running with a … from a Winn-Dixie. Do you rescue the family or do you peel away to gun down the … thief because you want to make sure nobody steals any … the NEXT time? (Ellipses added to allow the reader to plug in an item that correctly reflects the issue of opportunistic looting, as distinguished from survival scavenging.) I’d make a rational determination of how much difference a 10-second delay in addressing the former would make, and then address the latter, or not, accordingly. ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2005, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worthless-shithead-new-orleans-looters/319379/84 "2005-08-31T17:38:15Z")
> [@BluePitbull](#): > > You think people should starve? When there isn’t a disaster they go hungry if they didn’t have any money. Other than an interest in an argument I really don’t have a dog in this fight. -Joe ---
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2005, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worthless-shithead-new-orleans-looters/319379/85 "2005-08-31T17:38:33Z")
> [@Diogenes the Cynic](#): > > Thanks for this. It seems to me like the television coverage (especially on Fox) contains a fundamentally racist subtext. Black people (and _only_ black people) are being shown running around with bags of looted groceries and/or electronics while the news anchors shake their heads and cluck with disapproval. They don’t _say_ anything about race but it practically screams out just from the images. _Look at all those \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_'s stealing everything that isn’t nailed down from hard working white people._ > > I’m sure a lot of people will tell me I’m imagining it, but I don’t believe I am. You’re imagining it. Especially when you consider that most of the cable news footage of looters seems to be coming from a common feed. I’m watching the exact same helicopter shots on Fox and on CNN. But a nice try, nonetheless. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2005, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worthless-shithead-new-orleans-looters/319379/86 "2005-08-31T17:39:04Z")
> [@Diogenes the Cynic](#): > > A couple of blocks away, you see a guy running with a frozen turkey from a Winn-Dixie. ? Considering this is NO in the summer and the power is off in most places, I don’t think that turkey is frozen anymore. ---
**Author:** ![Duke\_of\_Rat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Duke\_of\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke_of_Rat)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2005, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worthless-shithead-new-orleans-looters/319379/87 "2005-08-31T17:41:36Z")
> [@Diogenes the Cynic](#): > > Thanks for this. It seems to me like the television coverage (especially on Fox) contains a fundamentally racist subtext. Black people (and _only_ black people) are being shown running around with bags of looted groceries and/or electronics while the news anchors shake their heads and cluck with disapproval. They don’t _say_ anything about race but it practically screams out just from the images. _Look at all those \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_'s stealing everything that isn’t nailed down from hard working white people._ > > I’m sure a lot of people will tell me I’m imagining it, but I don’t believe I am. Do you think that the news choppers circle around twidling their dicks until the white looters get out of the shot so that they can get only shots of black looters? Or maybe, just maybe, the majority of the looters might, just might, happen to be black? Like, you know, a large proportion of the people who live there are? My eyes done rolled plumb around my head. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2005, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worthless-shithead-new-orleans-looters/319379/88 "2005-08-31T17:45:43Z")
> [@HPL](#): > > Considering this is NO in the summer and the power is off in most places, I don’t think that turkey is frozen anymore. If so, that turkey will be a lot less kind than suicide. Food poisoning being what it is… ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2005, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worthless-shithead-new-orleans-looters/319379/89 "2005-08-31T17:45:57Z")
> [@Steve MB](#): > > Well, then, it’s a good thing you aren’t in charge of disaster planning. > (Ellipses added to allow the reader to plug in an item that correctly reflects the issue of opportunistic looting, as distinguished from survival scavenging.) > > I’d make a rational determination of how much difference a 10-second delay in addressing the former would make, and then address the latter, or not, accordingly. Well it wouldn’t be a ten-second delay because there’s hundreds of people with frozen turkeys (and if you don’t like “turkeys” change them to “Gamecubes”). If you decided that it was more important to fly around killing looters in the street (nice moral code you’ve got there, by the way. It must be nice to go through life unencumbered by a conscience) before you rescued any babies all the babaies would die. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2005, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worthless-shithead-new-orleans-looters/319379/90 "2005-08-31T17:46:01Z")
> [@HubZilla](#): > > From the NO [Times-Picayune](http://www.nola.com/newslogs/breakingtp/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_Times-Picayune/archives/2005_08.html#075278) : > > > [@](#): > > > > Children’s Hospital under seige > > Tuesday, 11:45 p.m. > > > > Late Tuesday, Gov. Blanco spokeswoman Denise Bottcher described a disturbing scene unfolding in uptown New Orleans, where looters were trying to break into Children’s Hospital. > > > > Bottcher said the director of the hospital fears for the safety of the staff and the 100 kids inside the hospital. The director said the hospital is locked, but that the looters were trying to break in and had gathered outside the facility. Here is an example of why relief to the injured and displaced can’t be treated as a completely separate problem from the restoration of order. In this situation, the only real choice is exactly how much warning to give before shooting to kill anyone who continues trying to break in. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2005, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worthless-shithead-new-orleans-looters/319379/91 "2005-08-31T17:47:54Z")
> [@Stephe96](#): > > You’re imagining it. Especially when you consider that most of the cable news footage of looters seems to be coming from a common feed. I’m watching the exact same helicopter shots on Fox and on CNN. But a nice try, nonetheless. No, I’m not imagining it. It’s not the footage itself, it’s the tone of the commentary. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2005, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worthless-shithead-new-orleans-looters/319379/92 "2005-08-31T17:50:39Z")
> [@Steve MB](#): > > Here is an example of why relief to the injured and displaced can’t be treated as a completely separate problem from the restoration of order. > > In this situation, the only real choice is exactly how much warning to give before shooting to kill anyone who continues trying to break in. Nope. Nice try but no sale. The problem at the hospital involved the safety of people inside, not the simple loss of damaged merchandise from totalled stores. You don’t get to kill people for stealing TVs. That’s not how it works in civilized societies. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2005, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worthless-shithead-new-orleans-looters/319379/93 "2005-08-31T17:51:43Z")
> [@Diogenes the Cynic](#): > > Well it wouldn’t be a ten-second delay because there’s hundreds of people with frozen turkeys (and if you don’t like “turkeys” change them to “Gamecubes”). I am reminded of a classic example of the difference between rote “book learning” and common sense: “If there are six birds on a fence and you shoot one, how many birds will be on the fence afterwards?” ---
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2005, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worthless-shithead-new-orleans-looters/319379/94 "2005-08-31T17:51:54Z")
> [@Diogenes the Cynic](#): > > . They don’t _say_ anything about race but it practically screams out just from the images… Your own words. ---
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2005, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worthless-shithead-new-orleans-looters/319379/95 "2005-08-31T17:53:58Z")
Actually, if you want the truth, _I’ve_ heard that Fox has rented out the water tank used to film _Titanic_ , constructed a big set of New Orleans in it and _hired_ black actors to pretend to be looters. This way the evil right-wing Fox execs can _ensure_ that no white looters accidentally appear in any of their shots. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2005, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worthless-shithead-new-orleans-looters/319379/96 "2005-08-31T17:54:56Z")
> [@Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor](#): > > If so, that turkey will be a lot less kind than suicide. > > Food poisoning being what it is… And keeping in mind that the toilets aren’t working either… ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2005, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worthless-shithead-new-orleans-looters/319379/97 "2005-08-31T17:57:17Z")
> [@Duke of Rat](#): > > Do you think that the news choppers circle around twidling their dicks until the white looters get out of the shot so that they can get only shots of black looters? > > Or maybe, just maybe, the majority of the looters might, just might, happen to be black? Like, you know, a large proportion of the people who live there are? > > My eyes done rolled plumb around my head. Yes, the majority population is black. The racism isn’t in the pictures alone but the commentary which not only dehumanizes the people doing it and carictures all of them as subhuman scum, but in the fact that they never TELL you News Orleans is majority black. They leave an _impression_ that only black people are doing it because they don’t tell you that only black people live in those neighborhoods. Or to put it another way, they’re leaving an impression that white people are choosing _not_ to do it simply by refraining to tell you that there _aren’t_ white people. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2005, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worthless-shithead-new-orleans-looters/319379/98 "2005-08-31T18:00:09Z")
> [@Steve MB](#): > > I am reminded of a classic example of the difference between rote “book learning” and common sense: “If there are six birds on a fence and you shoot one, how many birds will be on the fence afterwards?” I don’t know what the fuck this means. Do you save the babies or do you save the Gamecubes? Quit stalling and answer the question. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2005, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worthless-shithead-new-orleans-looters/319379/99 "2005-08-31T18:01:48Z")
> [@Diogenes the Cynic](#): > > Yes, the majority population is black. The racism isn’t in the pictures alone but the commentary which not only dehumanizes the people doing it and carictures all of them as subhuman scum, but in the fact that they never TELL you News Orleans is majority black. They leave an _impression_ that only black people are doing it because they don’t tell you that only black people live in those neighborhoods. Or to put it another way, they’re leaving an impression that white people are choosing _not_ to do it simply by refraining to tell you that there _aren’t_ white people. You’ve gotten entirely too strange with this one. [CNN anchorman] We would like to mention that the reason you only see black people in these shots of looters is that only black people live here. Rest assured, if any white people lived here, they would also be breaking into stores and looting. [/CNN anchorman] Is that what you expect? (Not true anyway, I’ve seen white people on camera too.) ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Wrong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@Mr.Wrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Wrong)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2005, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worthless-shithead-new-orleans-looters/319379/100 "2005-08-31T18:02:19Z")
> [@Diogenes the Cynic](#): > > Nope. Nice try but no sale. The problem at the hospital involved the safety of people inside, not the simple loss of damaged merchandise from totalled stores. You don’t get to kill people for stealing TVs. That’s not how it works in civilized societies. Nor do you get to steal TV’s just beacuse there’s no one to stop you. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worthless-shithead-new-orleans-looters/319379.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worthless-shithead-new-orleans-looters/319379.md?page=6)