Up For Grabs: Sociologists Question How Much Looting And Mayhem Really Took Place In New Orleans

The Boston Globe ^ | 9/11/2005 | Christopher Shea

[Bellflower]

funny, LOL

[muawiyah]

Not just "screaming fire", but "falsely screaming fire".

[Recovering Ex-hippie]

The point I was trying to make is that when the Media wants a crisis or the War in Iraq to look really bad for Bush, they show the "bad" videos over and over. The "other side"...that things are not that bad, or there might be some good is just not shown as frequently or shown at all.

For every rerun of a looting video or someone beeetchin' about how Bush was NOT getting there fast enough, I would see one person helping another or praising Bush.

I am cynical about what I am being "allowed" to see, just as I am cynical about "research".

[onyx]

Has the APA really characterized the mayhem "partying"?
It wouldn't surprise me, but I'll await your answer, Your Honor, Sir.

[muawiyah]

Did you see the dry land around that Wal-Mart?

We are having a discussion of events in the 80% of the city that was under water.

[SuziQ]

In fact, if criminal violence were indeed rampant in New Orleans after Katrina hit (setting aside the taking of food, water, bandages, and other necessities of survival), that would contradict much of what sociologists have learned in a half century of research about such situations

Frankly, I'd like to know just where this research was done, and about whom?

[garyhope]

Besides all the looting and "mayhem", what about all the fires? How many were set compared to the ones starting accidentally? To me, they look "suspicious".

Anyone know any info on this?

[kcar]

We might all wind up agreeing then. I am cynical of damned near everything - there's absolutely no news source that can be relied on to press truth wherever it goes, and the more "established", the least reliable. I just can't take a sociologist professor's cynical research with even an ounce of respect. Can't take much of that Geraldo's histrionics or that G-Block guy's "passion" either, and FoxNews does in fact overplay the same looting videos relentlessly, and everyone else has discredited themselves beyond repair way back when. Could be that everyone over-sold yesterday's news yesterday, and today's oversold news will be that. But a BC professor couldn't make that point even if it were true.

Howver, I've seen more than a few pics of looters with stuffed shopping carts and truckloads of stuff, and video of NO cops shoplifting from Wal-Mart, to revise my mind's eyes "memory". Re-education may be in order.

[ModelBreaker]

As far as I can tell, the Old Media/Leftist story on looting is as follows:

1. Bush and the Republicans caused the looting by institutionalized rascism and cutting the budget for poor people;

2. Bush and the Republicans failed to stop the looting by responding slowly. The reason they responded slowly was to make Black people look bad on TV when they were filmed looting; and

3. There was no looting.

Does that summarize things accurately? It's a wonder the public has such a hard time understanding them. It is all so clear.

[Recovering Ex-hippie]

Excellant write up! LOL! Perfectly clear now.

[vigilante2]

you forgot to mention republicans hiding bodies

[HitmanLV]

This is not unusual: a real situation contradicts an accepted worldview, and the first reaction isn't to alter the worldview but rather to deny the real situation.

Liberals do it a lot, but everyone does it from time to time unless you really train yourself not to.

I know a young man - a passionate, though uninformed liberal. He fancies himself brilliant, though he is diagnosed with all sorts of problems that require medication, require his school to give him more time and special accommodations, etc. He was routinely rejected by the top schools, has poor social skills, can't get a date to save his life, etc., and instead of altering his world view (he isn't hot stuff) and makes some adjustments, he gets angry at the real world for not matching his expectations.

It's mental illness, when taken to the extreme.

[HitmanLV]

This is not unusual: a real situation contradicts an accepted worldview, and the first reaction isn't to alter the worldview but rather to deny the real situation.

Liberals do it a lot, but everyone does it from time to time unless you really train yourself not to.

I know a young man - a passionate, though uninformed liberal. He fancies himself brilliant, though he is diagnosed with all sorts of problems that require medication, require his school to give him more time and special accommodations, etc. He was routinely rejected by the top schools, has poor social skills, can't get a date to save his life, etc., and instead of altering his world view (he isn't hot stuff) and makes some adjustments, he gets angry at the real world for not matching his expectations.

It's mental illness, when taken to the extreme.

[ChadGore]

Don't post anything from debka or the Boston Globe. :)

[Yellow Rose of Texas]

LOOTING A WAL-MART

[muawiyah]

You have a nearly empty city, and a fire starts, and that looks suspicious to you!

Good.

[muawiyah]

Your URL doesn't work.

It's the same one we've seen many times.

I find it absolutely amazing that one store could be robbed so often, and by the same guys wearing the same old unimaginative disguises.

And then, just looking at the stuff being hauled away, that was definitely the largest Wal-Mart in the world ~ even larger than one of those regional supply centers they have.

Now, have you got a copy of the complaint Wal-Mart filed with the cops?

[ladyjane]

Fire suspicious? Do you think it might have anything to do with insurance? Most people didn't have floor insurance. They did have fire insurance.

Nothing to see here. Move along.

[dannyboy72]

You can bet your bottom dollar that is the coming weeks we'll begin to here that none of the stories were true. There were no murdered children (with throats cut), there were no rapes, there was no damage to the Superdome, there were no murders, there were no looters...etc.

They have to cover up this mayhem or the people who actually did this stuff will have to be examined. The MSM will never show the truth, it will be dismissed as "victims of circumstance". BS.

[ModelBreaker]

you forgot to mention republicans hiding bodies

I hadn't heard that--was that Noam Chomsky, Nancy Pelosi, or the Rev. Al? Maybe Maxine Waters or Howard Dean. What's sad is that any of them could have said this and I would believe the attribution. BTW, where did we hide them? Good body hiding techniques are always useful for us Republicans (you know, for when we do our lynchings and the other fun Republican stuff that Rev. Jesse et al are always talking about) and I always like to stay current.