Volunteering for Looters?

[tntrn, ASN, RN]

ON another discussion looting "mostly for food" was mentioned. I feel for those who are in such need, but I'm looking at a photo in my local newspaper, taken in front of a store called Supreme Sports in New Orleans. The seven people there are certainly not hungry, they are greedy at the very least and thieves when you get right down to it. One gal is holding 5 shoes boxes, while her friend, holding two, is checking out the labels. A man, coming out of the store has at least 15 shirts, still on hangers in his arms. On the news are film clips of people carrying out armloads of electrical goodies, computers, and such, in knee deep water. Why do they think this is justified?

I feel, deeply, for those who lost everything, but that does not explain how that translates to this kind of behavior. It makes me very sad for all involved: certainly sad for the people who have lost their homes and family members, sad for the merchants who are being robbed blind and sad that there are those who so entrenched into entitlement they feel behavior just as this is right.

Hopefully, those who go to volunteer will encounter good people who will appreciate the aid and help they are given. As tolerant as I try to be, I would struggle there, I think.

[UM Review RN, ASN, RN]

I saw those pictures too, but my reaction was a little different.

It was, what are these people thinking?

How salable and usable is any of that merchandise? It's been sitting in flood waters that are for all practical purposes, reeking with stench, bacteria, and raw sewage. All those stores, all that merchandise will be declared a total loss.

The people who are still in the city obviously didn't have the means to get out or a place to go if they did. The city likes to think that fair warning was given to these people, and it was, but if you don't have the money to buy gas or a car with which to leave, you're stuck. I know a lot of people here in Florida who would be in the same situation. They live literally hand to mouth on minimum wage jobs and can hardly afford toilet paper.

Then the order comes to evacuate. Where are they to go without the means to get them there?

Don't you think it's pitiful to be photographed in a waist-deep cesspool of water with a loaf of bread in your hand, hoping to God there are no water moccasins or alligators or dead bodies or flesh-eating bacteria to ambush you before you get back to wherever you were to eat it?

And as for the pitiful prizes that these looters are dragging out. I ask you, would you wear those shoes? Would you use a computer that sat in that kind of heat, moisture, bacteria? Would you want to even wade in that water to paw through garbage? Because that's what all that stuff is. Garbage.

I mean, come on! Think about it.

I look at those pictures and the emotion it evokes is pity.

[mika_sf]

This kind of looting reminds me of a book I read in high school called "Alas Babylon." In the aftermath of a nuclear war, people loot jewelry and all manner of material goods. In the end, many of those people die of radiation poisoning because of the way that the metals in the jewelry became radioactive. It's very sad really, because I would imagine that these people are going to need to evacuate eventually too since clean water is hard to come by. I wonder if having 50 pairs of really nice sneakers will be worth it...

[Blackcat99]

On the news it said that many looters are not stealing things like food and water. Rather, they are stealing clothes, TV's etc. I think it's disgusting. And what really makes me mad is when the looters smile for the video-camera's!!!!

They don't even have the decency to be ashamed of themselves.

[zumalong]

What bothers me the most is the amount of coverage the media is giving to this. These are the images that the rest of the world are going to take with them. "those greedy Americans". If they want to loot the stores let them. What are they going to do with it????? When they get evacated they wont be able to take it with them anyway.

[mandrews]

On the news it said that many looters are not stealing things like food and water. Rather, they are stealing clothes, TV's etc. I think it's disgusting. And what really makes me mad is when the looters smile for the video-camera's!!!!

They don't even have the decency to be ashamed of themselves.

Big cheezy grins! I could half way understand if they were getting diapers, formula, water, toilet paper. But I saw people looting a walmart and it looked like Christmas shopping. Are these folks going to load their goods up on the evacuation bus? HELLO!

melissa

[tntrn, ASN, RN]

melissa, that's exactly what bothers me, their glee over what boils down to stealing! If they were getting first aid supplies, or diapers and such, okay. Those things really are necessities right now. But anything else, no. What a rotten image it is.

There is so much photo documentation of it, too, so I'm really hoping that some of them can be apprehended later and prosecuted. Outside chance, I'm sure.