I’ve just seen the first footages of the area half an hour ago (I don’t watch much TV) and I saw a number of non-black looting too.
Muddy.
If it helps, I think the racism by the OP (who’s black) is really classism. Look at all the references to these unlucky people being “ignorant ghetto motherfuckers” “with a lack of restraint and self-control” and who are “too stupid” “to read.” The parting shot about good luck finding businesses to come back to the area and good luck finding jobs shows more concern for business entities than people who, as hillybilly queen reminds us, had few if any means to leave the city.
I’ve been through a hurricane (largely unscathed) and lived through a flood. My family lost 70% of our possessions in the Michigan flood of '86. Shit’s no fun. Help came from the iman of our masjid and if he hadn’t, I’d have been desperate enough to loot food, clean clothes, medicine and some entertainment in a heartbeat, too – despite my mama’s fears – and lost not one wink of sleep over it.
Survival mode. You grab what you can while the getting’s good. You do not always do things you’re proud of when your family’s best interests are at stake.
Belowjob2.0’s whole “Shoot to kill, I’ll buy the bullets” thing makes me sick.
All this discussion about the lack of white looters is silly. New Orleans is reportedly more than 2/3rds black and the black poor constitute most of who had to stay in the path of the storm.
To be honest with you, I don’t believe this quote for one second.
Call it the “Jayson Blair” syndrome running around my head, but I don’t believe it for one fucking second.
Way too neat. Show me a guy say it on the TV and I’m there.
I think he might have originally wrote, “To be honest with you, people who are oppressed all their lives, it’s an opportunity to get back at society,” and realized he had to “soul it up” so he added the ‘man’ in the middle of it.
Hmmm, now I gotta come up with a name. . .what’s a name where if they actually tried to find the source, there’s hundreds of 'em but it’s not John Smith?
No argument here that media coverage of these kinds of situations is usually biased. Tim Wise has some good articles about it:
http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/1999-08/26wise.htm
http://www.alternet.org/story/12479/
But those people in New Orleans can do better. And they should. These events will be used as a justification for denying all kinds of resources to that community and similar ones across the US.
Here’s the full quote from the AP:
“To be honest with you, people who are oppressed all their lives, man, it’s an opportunity to get back at society.”
That guy’s a douchebag. How has he been oppressed all his life?
The looters are putting their own lives and health at much greater risk by going out in the dangerous conditions. No doubt, there are live power lines down in the water, not to mention the disease and sewage. At some point, the waters will recede, and the city will have to rebuild. The actions of the looters are making that job that much more difficult. There will be less work available. And less govt aid.
I’m sick of the looters. I’m sicked of the messed up mentality and the fucked up behavior. And if bullets are what’s needed to back them off, bring it on.
If a massive hurricane flooded Boston, I’m sure there’d be Irish from Charlestown and Southie looting the local shops. It’d still be way fucked up. And do the most damage to the people who actually lived in those communities.
First, we’re dealing with idiots too stupid to get out of town when the getting was good. I know, I know, there are some decent folks too poor and maybe having other circumstances which didn’t allow them to leave town. Those people aren’t the looters.
Snipers should be positioned on top of buildings around town and shoot these animal looters in the head… These pigs are the lowest of the low. I’m sure it could be easily justified by keeping order, or whatever. Too bad these pigs will probably get away with their looting.
If there was no looting, all those business owners would 100% honestly claim for just the stock and damage to their buildings. Nope, they are certainly not going to just write everything off and claim on everything.
unless they manage to rebuild it higher than sea level, it’ll happen again.
I can confirm this. Fox news has been showing a loop of blacks and whites stealing stuff. The whole situation is just sickening.
Well I don’t mind them looting a grocery store for food. The stuff in the store is going to rot long before the place can open. I bet if the store owners were there they would be giving the stuff away anyway.
But non essential stuff, well, that’s just theft.
Many people did try to leave town and couldn’t. The roads were just too jammed.
Relativism. So is it wrong for them to loot canned stuff? Stuff in vacuum-packed foil envelopes that won’t spoil? Jars of stuff?
It’s either wrong or it isn’t.
-Joe, 51% amoral
Food that isn’t in those containers is probably all wet. If they need it to survive, let them take it.
Yes it is Relativism. In this situation it is OK.
You think people should starve?
It’s easy to feel self-righteous from a distance but if any of us were in that situation we’d probably do the same thing.If I’ve got to feed my kids, I’m going to feed my kids. And as long as I’m feeding my kids I might as well grab a plasma TV. The stores are all going to write everything off as a total loss anyway, so the way I see it, these people are only taking garbage. I think it’s a victimless crime. None of this stuff was going to be salable anyway.
It isn’t.
I understand stealing foo and medicine, but TV’s? They are not necessary for survival in a flood.
Is it OK to go wander through your neighbor’s house and take stuff? Well, why not? It’s probably gonna be destroyed anyway. Bottom line: if the stuff belongs to somebody else…don’t steal it!
These idiots had plenty of warning. Just because they were stupid enough to ignore all warnings does not give them the right to steal stuff so they can “survive.”
Poverty, combined with the trauma and despair that a natural disaster, is a really fucked up state to be in. I’m fortunate to have never lived through a natural disaster, though I have lived very near to places affected by earthquakes and hurricanes (Frederick, to be exact). I have friends and family affected by such events, and when they take place, I usually react with sympathy to those affected by the disaster. I suppress my occasional urge to condemn those who didn’t prepare or evacuate when warned, because being destitute usually means that having the ability to drop everything and go is quite complicated.
I’ve got more to say but I’ve got to go… however, though I hope I would behave in the proper, law-abiding manner if I was in the same situation, I do think living in an unending cycle of poverty might make it more difficult to do so. trunk also makes a good point - sometimes reporters lie and exaggerate, so I’m not sure if I buy looters taking the time from their criminal activity to give a sound bite to the press…
No, it’s not necessary and it’s not exactly honorable, I just don’t think that in a situation like NO, that it does any more damage to the storeowners than what’s already been done. I think the stores are already writing off everything as a total loss, so it doesn’t matter what happens to it. The people taking shit they don’t need aren’t good, but I don’t think they’re hurting anybody any more than they’ve already been hurt.