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.
I am not doubting you but will you cite chapter and verse for me?
You haven't seen film from INSIDE Winn-Dixie, etc - BTW they're dry - of people w/2 shopping carts of stuff, and taking entire RACKS filled w/things? Never mind the giant orange floating platic bins - big enough for 3 curbside trash cans? (BTW, what's the deal w/those giant orange things? Why are there so many - where did they come from?)
That is greedy stealing. Indeed, it may be taking food out of the mouths of other people who haven't gotten there yet, or who themselves wouldn't selfishly HOARD everything they can stuff in stolen carts and racks.
The sad thing is TV will never show the innocent people who really suffer cuz of others' plain-English selfish greed.
They'll just have to raise our taxes, that's all! Let's repeat the mantra offered by Oliver Wendell Holmes: "I like paying taxes, they purchase CIVILIZATION." ROTFLMAO!
Most of us will be involved in some creative form with the rescue-evacuation-rebuilding efforts. However...
"Envision" the most hostile victims of this disaster who made it to the TV cameras, the ones who blame everyone around them but who won't even lift a finger to help their sorry selves, let alone their fellow victims! And they are in very good health to have such loud mouths! Thanks to the mainSCREAM media for bringing the downside to us, the human dregs who were obviously as hostile and nasty as they reveal even before this disaster struck.
The President says the rebuilding of New Orleans is going to take YEARS!!! We'll just have to listen to these violent sentiments for a long, long time!
Latest news from New Orleans: the evacuation has been temporarily suspended because some "victims" are shooting at the rescuers (helicopters)!!!
Just FYI.I've been through 4 tornados,outside during one.Just for the record,dipshit,they DO sound like a train.Only,when they get over you,all you can hear is rumbling like he could never imagine.
You know it's time to just walk away when someone responds like that.
If the bank didn't have all that money, I wouldn't have robbed it.
You really haven't thought this part through, have you? (I'm being charitible in this estimation).
I didn't say you did.
You said ... " People taking food, water, ice ~ life sustaining necessities ~ are not, under Louisiana law "looters"."... then I said ..."They are if they are taking it from another person, and I would suppose that penalty would be death. ( assuming, of course, that the victim was armed and able bodied )"
They are if ... they are if ... they are if ...
Say it outloud a few times. You will eventually get it.
It was a picture of over weight women and some over weight men but mostly able bodied people who waited for someone else to do the work for them rather than help themselves. A sad commentary showing in part, a branch of society raised on television, dumbed down education, and welfare for too long. These “refugees” were from residential areas as well down town New Orleans. The question of “did they stay to loot” has already been raised. The question of the drug problem in that city has been exposed and it is a very big one. The Fox Fire books should be required reading for all. Stupidity is not a disease, it is a symptom.
This catastrophic storm may have released some from the abject apathy of some lives and given them a chance to start fresh somewhere else.
Oh really!.
This MENSA member may be on to something here. Spontaneogenesis. Ever wonder where all the matching socks went? Well, this is the reverse.
Wherever a natural or man made disaster occurs, even in Antarctica, looting inevitably follows. You didn't know that? Pay attention OK? And for God's sake, don't ever mention the "R" word or the "B" word.
That is the main reason a scientific explanation has never before been found. It may never be found.
Anyway, since we know that looting inevitably follows any and all disasters, the only remaining question is where do the looters come from? They always look the same and act the same and speak the same. This fact has eluded researchers maily because we haven't seen major disasters in the larger urban areas of, say, Norway or Prince Edward Island, or one of the Japanese minor islands.
I have a theory about why this mystery has never been solved. The phenomenon has been well-known for years, but the research requirements which have evolved over time may be the major impediment to solving the mystery: the researchers are all required to be blind, deaf and dumb. Being handicapped and living in proximity to endangered species is a recent addition, too.
Normal people need not apply.
Intuitively, my feeling is that the mystery will not be solved any time soon.
AMEN, sweetie. ;-)
And Amen on your "good riddance", too.
You got a problem with that?
I'm sure we could hire some and throw in some orientals to even things out...
Jesse Jackass?
He is too busy counting his money from his shakedown of Toyota and other corporations.
Got the ID on that paticular store, and a URL to a news story about it would be good too.
Still waiting on the MSM to cover the hospital situation. There's a couple of lengthy threads here, but this doesn't seem to be showing up anywhere else.
"It's interesting how you folks who want to shoot someone taking a can of beans from an abandoned store find it necessary to change what other people actually said."
And it's ironic how you did just about the same exact thing - "you folks" want to shoot some1? Where did you get that?
Oh, they're probably "documented" well! And fingerprinted and photographed in profile.........
This writer is a nut. The pictures are of black people looting because BLACK PEOPLE ARE LOOTING!! To try and intimate otherwise or excuse it is ridiculous.
I have my suspicions about some of the looters. If these people had any sense, they would have left or gone to a shelter when they were told. Instead, they decided to stay on their own. It makes me wonder how many of these people actually made that decision for the very PURPOSE of looting post-disaster.
Finally, if a disaster struck suddenly and I was left with absolutely nothing to provide for my children, I'm not sure I wouldn't take some water or bread from an abandoned store. Knowing myself though, I'd probably leave a polite note with my name and assurances that I would pay for everything later. LOL
It's like those plane crash survivors who ate other passengers. You do what you have to do to survive.
I hope some of the bleeding hearts on Looting, illegal immigration, like the sight of anarchy in the strrets. Not pretty is it?
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