Posted on 09/01/2005 5:17:32 AM PDT by AbeKrieger
I knew it would happen - just didn't know when.
I'm talking about television news footage of looters played over and over in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Looting occurs whenever law and order breaks down as a result of disasters natural or manmade. But since the advent of television, looting seems to be a black thing. From the Watts riots in the 1960s to today, you can count on pictures of black folk hightailing it away from some store with electronic appliances, jewelry and furniture.
So while reporters from 24-hour TV news channels poured into the area almost as fast as the rising waters, I didn't have long to wait for the looting story to flash on my television screen. And even though it was expected, I found myself a little sad. But mostly mad.
We journalists have a collective knee-jerk reaction in certain situations, disasters especially. We look for people, things, quotes that will convey what we want or need to convey. But overuse of this practice leads to cliche and stereotype.
In Iowa, where tornadoes are a summertime surety, reporters are always looking for someone to say that the barn-flattening winds sounded like a freight train. At my old newspaper, the first reporter to get that quote was treated to a beer after work.
For television reporters, shots of blacks looting are quick, easy and downright expected.
New Orleans is more than a party-time tourist destination. It's a city where two-thirds of the population is black, so I'm not surprised to see black people looting. Many are poor: The median income for whites is a low $31,971; for blacks it's a subterranean $11,332. Truth is, life in the Big Easy has never been that way for many.
My question is, are blacks really the only looters? Or are they the only ones deemed worthy of camera time? Does 30 seconds of tape, rewound and replayed, tell the whole story? If pictures of looters never made it onto the air, would viewers be deprived of crucial information? Do these images advance the story of the plight of people?
Or do they play to stereotype, prejudice and fear?
Yes, stealing for profit and personal gain is wrong. And I hope those who decided to take advantage of a disaster to haul off flat-screen televisions and DVD players find no way to profit from their theft.
But during a devastating disaster like this, good, law-abiding citizens may do things they would never do normally. On TV I saw people carrying what appeared to be groceries, water, and bags of ice. With no water, power, or way out of town, it looked to me that the "looters" were trying to survive rather than upgrade their stereo system.
Before you say "I would never," just remember that's pretty easy to say and believe as we sit in our comfortable, dry, air-conditioned homes with ice, water and food a few steps away. Hunger to us means we haven't eaten in a couple of hours.
Think about it: Water's at your knees, kids are hungry and thirsty. You'd call 911 if you had a phone and if someone would answer. How could I say that if this were my situation, I wouldn't be one of those people heading out of the Wal-Mart with things that could help my family survive?
So don't draw conclusions about the ways of black people from the few moments of "de rigueur" pictures of looters. Black citizens are also among the weary, the rescuers and the rescued, the resilient, the righteous... and the dead.
They just don't get much airtime.
You are right, that's not the subject of this thread, no matter how someone tries to make it so through misquotes, implications or wrong inferences but it's a common tactic for some.
I'm pretty safe from such people here in this neighborhood because the overwhelming majority around here were at one time or other in their lives war refugees!
We even have some young men who were pulled from the firing line in Afghanistan as young children and flown straight to America.
They don't steal. However, in case of a disaster like that one in New Orleans, I'd feel confident into organizing them into an effective survival force ~ they already know what to do.
Fixed it a little bit.
You probably got your eye on the diabetics.
I used to work security. Newsmedia is notorious for setting up a place just to get that 2-minute shot of a reporter (actress/actor) standing in front of building (prop). Saw it everyday for weeks. The building is just for "background" because it looks good on TV.
Just as this idiot editorialist says that they expected to see the pictures of black people looting...so to did I expect some liberal moron to say that the pictures of black looters are proof of america's racism.
Texas had no plan whatsoever for housing people in a flooded dome though.
I can extend the principle of Pro 6:30 to tennis shoes. It's harder to extend it to a rolex.....although I can imagine a reason for a rolex long before I can imagine a reason for taking a large, lunky television.
Notice how it said "MEN" do not despise? Sure, that may be true, and that's just an observation statement.
Where's the "God"?
I believe most of us would agree with that statement.
However, what makes that attitude exclusively yours?
And if the holder of the food feels the same way ... ?
Don't allow the media to mislead you about reality. The area is flooded and just had a massive hurricane. The government has ordered that it be abandoned!
So the point that the AP described the black woman as "looting" and the white woman as "finding" products in a grocery store is not worth making?
perhaps she would be happy if the film were shown as a negative. That way the looters would "appear" white. Good grief.
Yes, it matters from whom you steal your food. Watching people come to the closed shopping centers where they are accustomed to getting their food and breaking in to get food is not surprising to me.
Who knows...perhaps some of them are honorable and will make restitution some day.
But it's obvious that the food in those stores is just spoiling anyway. Better a broken store window than a starved human.
"The nursing home should have been evacuated BEFORE THE STORM. They were warned."
So were the looters and it is a lot easier for able bodied folks to evacuate than it is for the infirm. Are actually defending the looters in the case that they stole from the nursing home?
Notice the passage about Jesus approving of David inappropriately taking the showbread intended only for God.
I believe Jesus is God.
Refugees throughout history have taken food that was not their own.
I respect that statement and your standards, I cannot say the same for myself.
Watching shows on tv about survivors eating human flesh causes me to wonder what I might do under similar circumstances. I have been hungry but never that hungry - yet.
I'm really surprised that we could have so many Freepers so easily mislead by the "newsies" out there.
Well said.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.