Looters of N.O.

Re: open letter to President Bush

BumbleBeeBoogie wrote:

Dear Mr. President

Mr. President,

Stay the hell out of the hurricane disaster area!

The efforts to save peoples lives don't need to be diverted by one of your political photo-op trips to the areas.

Do us a favor. Rear the newspapers. Watch CNN and CSNBC if you want to know what is going on. Feed your dog. Ride your bike. Take another vacation. Reread the My Goat book.

You've already seen the scope of the devastation from the safety of Airforce One. Don't do anything to get in the way of the rescue operations. You've already done enough to make it worse!

Sincerely,
BumbleBeeBoogie, U.S. Citizen

Quit complaining!

If he stayed in Texas humping his horses you'd whine about that too.

Hypocrite!

0 Replies

i watched msnbc last night and they had a reporter go into a new orleans walmart where people were just looting like crazy. then amazingly he ran into two new orleans police officers in full uniform...what were they doing there? looting. and these people weren't in there looting food/clothing/tents, etc (which could be said to be necessities given their extreme situation and i could understand) ...they were looting tvs, the jewelry department, vcrs, dvds, movies etc.

where you gonna watch that stuff? its not like they have power...

and i don't get the shooting at rescuers. does any one have the full story behind that? i mean do they want the rescuers to leave them to their soon to be bacteria ridden/virus laden sess pool that new orleans would turn into if just left the way it is?

0 Replies

dragon49 wrote:

i watched msnbc last night and they had a reporter go into a new orleans walmart where people were just looting like crazy. then amazingly he ran into two new orleans police officers in full uniform...what were they doing there? looting. and these people weren't in there looting food/clothing/tents, etc (which could be said to be necessities given their extreme situation and i could understand) ...they were looting tvs, the jewelry department, vcrs, dvds, movies etc.

where you gonna watch that stuff? its not like they have power...

and i don't get the shooting at rescuers. does any one have the full story behind that? i mean do they want the rescuers to leave them to their soon to be bacteria ridden/virus laden sess pool that new orleans would turn into if just left the way it is?

I guess you were under the impression police never break the law.

After all, they're human and subject to temptation like everyone else.

Some people don't need a rational reason to shoot at other people, so if you're looking for a rational reason I don't think you'll find one.

0 Replies

Re: open letter to President Bush

CerealKiller wrote:

BumbleBeeBoogie wrote:
Dear Mr. President

Mr. President,

Stay the hell out of the hurricane disaster area!

The efforts to save peoples lives don't need to be diverted by one of your political photo-op trips to the areas.

Do us a favor. Rear the newspapers. Watch CNN and CSNBC if you want to know what is going on. Feed your dog. Ride your bike. Take another vacation. Reread the My Goat book.

You've already seen the scope of the devastation from the safety of Airforce One. Don't do anything to get in the way of the rescue operations. You've already done enough to make it worse!

Sincerely,
BumbleBeeBoogie, U.S. Citizen

Quit complaining!

If he stayed in Texas humping his horses you'd whine about that too.

Hypocrite!

No offense BBB, but I have to agree with the CKiller......

Answer this please........seriously.........if you were president of the US right now.......what exactly would be your course of action..........provide in detail..........

0 Replies

I think the shooting is just inchoate anger/ frustration. They're in these terrible conditions, people are dying around them, and nothing seems to be happening. Looking for someone to blame, someone to focus all of that emotion on. And at some point the authorities became that focus.

Though yeah, it doesn't make sense.

After this long without food and water and in that heat, I wouldn't be surprised if some people are literally not in their right minds, though. As in, usual logic may not apply.

0 Replies

One of the papers has a photo I can't link to that has a picture of an older fella sitting outside his shop with a rifle across his lap. On the door behind him, in red spray paint it warns "Looters will be shot."

0 Replies

dragon49 wrote:

then amazingly he ran into two new orleans police officers in full uniform...what were they doing there? looting.

i saw that. it blew my mind. when asked what she was doing, one of the cops said "searching for looters". i mean, what ??? she continued to try and evade having her face on screen, kept walking away and finally gave up and rejoined her fellow officer in their search for loot(ers).

i don't think they're gonna be in uniform for very long.unless it's one with stripes and a number.

like you guys, i can fully understand grabbing what ever my family needed to survive long enough to get evacuated. i would do the same thing. but 90% of what i saw was just a replay of the l.a. riots; pure, unadulterated theft in the wake of upheaval.

when this all started, they interviewed a local official who explained that there was indeed a specific legal defense for the looting of survival items. but how is a t.v. a survival item ? a radio and a bag of batteries is, but not an armful of belts or a shopping cart full of purses. i would consider a cart full of backpacks, flashlights, tents, canteens, camp stoves and sleeping bags and, ohhh yeah, water and maybe even food a good choice .
how is raping a woman vital to survival ? picking the valuables off of corpses. setting buildings on fire. they aren't.

what really amazes me is how anyone could totally ignore the impact that the similarly graced looting of baghdad has had on the entire endeavor there. how could that lesson in what not to do be so quickly forgotten ?

sorry i won't excuse a total disregard for simple human decency just because the opportunity to get over appears.

especially when it means that innocent people who aren't doing anything but trying to get rescued from a flooded home or need emergency medical treatment are paying the price for it.

Evil or Very Mad

0 Replies

BBB, I understand what you are saying.

The national guard has been sent, it sort of looks like a war zone, but I guess it is needed. Evidently frustration is what is causing a lot of looting and violence.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/01/AR2005090100533.html

Quote:

Exodus From New Orleans Continues Amid Chaos
24,000 National Guard Forces to Be Deployed to Help Relief Operations

By Peter Slevin, Fred Barbash and William Branigin
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, September 1, 2005; 1:21 PM

NEW ORLEANS, Sept. 1 -- Armored military vehicles and National Guard troops started moving into New Orleans Thursday morning amid continuing reports of violence and chaos, including shots fired at the Superdome that interfered with an evacuation there after only a few hundred people had been moved out to Houston.

At the same time, thousands of refugees from locations other than the Superdome --including downtown New Orleans hotels -- tried to join the exodus, significantly increasing the numbers who need to be transported. Some non-Superdome refugees turned up on their own at Houston's Astrodome but were initially turned away.

At the Superdome, long lines of people waited for evacuation buses as helicopters buzzed through the sky, and thousands more people gathered at the convention center and lined highways hoping for a ride out of the city -- or even some information about what to do.

Some frustrated residents complained that no one seemed to be in charge.

"We've been trying to get out," said Cornelius Washington as he walked along a highway overpass near the Superdome. "No one is giving the who, what, where, why and when. When they give us information, it's about what they're not going to do."

0 Replies

Ah, you're all overreacting. Screw it, let 'em loot all they want. Most of them are probably very poor. This is a chance for them to get something for themselves. Good for them. You know what they say...when god closes a door, he opens a window...

0 Replies

kickycan wrote:

You know what they say...when god closes a door, he opens a window...

Who are you and what have you done with Kicky?

:wink:

0 Replies

I'd watch Ebay for an increased number of sellers from the impacted areas.

Likely, most looters will sell at roadside stands, not having access or means to sell online, but I bet there will be some. (Like the officers mentioned above)

0 Replies

Ill stick out my neck..

if I were there, and I was ok, family ok..
im human. I would have looted SOMETHING by now.
Food, clothes, probaly jewlery.. have to be able to afford my self later on. I could sell it to pay for house repairs, shoes, tents, blankets..
yeah.. I would loot some of that stuff.

just being honest. ;-)

0 Replies

Well, we are getting our wish, they are shooting the looters. (Posted by revel)

Great post revel! I absolutely love the irony! Obviously we have some young posters here who fail to see the ironic humor. Very Happy

Although I don't agree it is pretty easy to joke about and surely understandable why many, many people are so dissatisfied with the Federal Government at any time, not just during this horrific situation in New Orleans.

0 Replies

I just looted an armload of necklaces and rings......

I've run out of water.........

Someone else has water to trade..........they get a present for the wife or themselves when it's over......I get some water.

How the hell do you people think trade developed?

I'd be the first one to go native if I had a commodity that someone else wants, to get what I want......

thins can go down really quick, and you never know what you have that'll save your ass.

0 Replies

i also read somewhere people are shooting to get the attention of the helicopters so they come pick them up...that's a little odd. i think what struck me as the worst i have read so far were two incidents that fox reported...

1. carjackers took a bus that a nursing home was using to evacuate 80 nursing home residents (mostly in wheelchairs) as looters has taken all food, water, etc and the power was off in the nursing home. i mean, i know they are doing what they "think" they need to get their families to safety, but a nursing home? with most people in wheelchairs?

2. hospital officials said they had move patients to higher floors in the hospitals not because of flood waters but because of the rampant looting and armed men coming through the lower floors.

i can see an argument for why this might be "acceptable" in these extreme situations, but call me a prude, i just can't possibly see how either of these can be condoned.

it was said that when the same happened in Iraq (the looting, etc), they aren't worthy of democracy or our help if they are just going to do that in the absence of leadership...well, guess what, its happening in our backyard now. very scary.

0 Replies

BBB
In times and situations like those found in the hurricane devastation areas, it's survival of the fittest. People go back to their animal instincts and don't care who they harm to get what they need.

It's called violent survival anarchy and gang mind set.

Only armed troops can put a stop to it. Only rescue and care will stop the cause of it.

BBB

0 Replies

I understand the looting, but I don't see what good it does to shoot at the ones helping people. Why are they doing it?

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WEATHER/09/01/katrina.impact/index.html

Quote:

Gunmen target medical convoy
New Orleans mayor issues 'desperate SOS'

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- New Orleans' Charity Hospital halted efforts to evacuate its patients after it came under sniper fire, according to Dr. Tyler Curiel, who witnessed the incidents.

The attack came as New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin issued "a desperate SOS" for the thousands of people stranded in an around the city's convention center with no food or water and fading hope.

Curiel and his National Guard escorts, were returning to the hospital after dropping off patients at nearby Tulane Medical Center, when someone started shooting at their convoy of Humvees.

"We were coming in from a parking deck at Tulane Medical Center, and a guy in a white shirt started firing at us," Curiel said. "The National Guard (troops), wearing flak jackets, tried to get a bead on this guy. "

0 Replies

I'm guessing that most of the looters stayed in town because:

1) They didn't believe that the authorities were telling the truth about evacuation being a necessity.

and/or

2) They had no transportation, no out-of-area family for free lodging, no money for motels and no camping supplies or survival know-how for taking their chances.

and/or

3). Rather than admit helplessness, they chose to pose as Courageous Fatalists...."when that bullet has your name on it....."

and/or

4) They believed that the aftermath of Katrina would be some sort of tv survival show with time out for snack break and potty trips during the commercials.

0 Replies

#2 mostly.

Isn't Mississippi if not the poorest, one of the poorest states in the union?

People that are being relocated at this time will more than likey stay where they land, no money or reason to go back.

Families have lived for generations in many run down areas, not because they wanted to stay, but had no options to leave.

This has happened many times in history.

0 Replies

Noddy24 wrote:

I'm guessing that most of the looters stayed in town because:

1) They didn't believe that the authorities were telling the truth about evacuation being a necessity.

I heard last night on Date Line that have been all all these warnings every year in the past for N.O. to brace for "the big one" and every year people would run out and buy wood, board up their houses and nothing or very little would happen. I would wager that many of the people who stayed did so beause they just didn't believe that this was that bad. The unfortunate tale of the weatherman who cried wolf.

0 Replies

Looters of N.O.

Related Topics

Quick Links

My Account

able2know