To be expected when the message goes from 'looters shot on sight' to 'OK to loot clothes & groceries, but not TVs & jewelry'. This society had better find its moral footing fast, not to mention its b*lls.
You know it realy doesn't matter one way or another, waiting for 2-3 months for the power to come back on there will not be anything to come back to.
Maybe, and maybe not. The authorities can commandeer private property in such situations. It's quite possible that is what they were doing, but it was misinterpreted by others, both looters and other observers.
When I was a kid, something similar happened. We observed police loading bunches of stuffed animals, carnival game prized, into the trunk of their vehicle. We assumed that they had gotten them as a sort of low level bribe, when in reality they were merely collecting them from the carnival operators who were donating them to local orphanages and such. One must be careful not to jump to conclusions without the big picture of what is going on.
OMG you are going to get flamed,,,,,it's ok to steal clothes and groceries according to several people on another thread. Morals you say??? Hell no, let's twist the morals to suit our needs, hell with the deed.