LOOTING IN NEW ORLEANS.............................

[ssd]

I can't believe the news that US troops are being deployed AWAY from rescuing people to stopping looters taking things from stores??

Where are the priorities? People will die but shops won't have as much knicked?

Makes me furious

oh, that is terrible

But they are nicking guns - which is slightly different to their nicking peanut butter and soggy bread.

I do think they should deploy MORE people, though - so that they can do both (oh no, that's right - some of the national guard is in Iraq...)

This is no longer the case..even the police are looting.
considering everything will be submerged or washed away, then whyever not i think...
if i was there i would take what i can to help my family survive, rathere than have it washed away.

And whats worse is, two girls were raped in the superdrome as they were seeking refuge, and people were shooting at police helicopters which caused the rescue operation to be suspended.
which is worse?
i'd forgive the people taking stuff from already ruined and highly insured businesses ..for sure

Obviously it's a terrible situation - but from a purely 'academic' point of view, it's interesting to see just how quickly 'civilised' behaviour breaks down. It's a bit like 'Lord of the Flies'...

I totally agree.but then yo have to think 'civilisation' is often a facade, and just a means of dealing with living in close proximity to others..the crime rate in general tells you just how easily this breaks down.

As a resident in Louisiana, I can tell you that the media is portraying the looting & violence as a way to make us look uncivilized, ingnorant, & not worthy of any sympathy.

There are bad people there, don't get me wrong.
1% of the people are doing these savage acts, 99% of the people were starving in the Superdome, not knowing whether or not help was going to arrive.

Don't any of ya'll think that the media was trying to show the worst in people to take the focus off of the fed. government slow responce?

read this article... sounds thoroughly awful...
link

babyonbboard... the stuff isn't being washed away any more!
it's still stealing. lots of people are stealing piles of trainers and designer clothes... not things they need to survive!

how will people get paid insurance if they can't even prove what they had in their shops?

Good point CT. I'm from NI and the media always managed to make things seem worse than they were - like living there must be the worst thing in the world! Not that bad things didn't happen - don't get me wrong, but it was portrayed as an unsafe place to live and for the most part that simply wasn't true.

thats so sad, well disgusting really.

saw sean penn on tv this morning- he helped to evacuate people in NO yesterday- spent 9 hours wading waist deep looking for survivors.

he said in that 9 hours that he only saw 3 non civilian boats with officals on looking for people ---3 boats

why are they treating these people like this? how long would it of taken to get help in if it happened in Los Angeles???

As an American living here, it is very sad to watch the news coverage (and it is constant)and it even saddens me more to think and feel that our country is racist and/or is racist in your eyes. The disaster has damaged a huge area, not just New Orleans--it has damaged 3 States.

My company is offering and implemented call center solutions and has donated more than 3 million dollars to the relief effort to date and continues to take matching employee contributions. Many, many Americans are donating time and money and many corporations are doing the same. I don't know all of the details and hope that I am coming off intelligently here.

I can't speak for the government and I don't speak to what could have gone differently in the Superdome and New Orleans--the article cut and pasted here is sheds light on terrible situation and I could not possibly rationalize what happened to those people. I just felt compelled to post something here, as all we have done as a family is help in the best way that we can for each and every disaster.

Well I guess it is a huge concession on your part Sally to agree that the whole of America is not racist. I believe it may be best to leave it at that. Clearly the government were not prepared for a disaster of this magnitude and in particular the Superdome was only meant to be a temporary shelter during the hurricane. There is a ton of information out there to read and dissiminate on why a city below sea level even existed without a detailed disaster recovery plan. Local governments and federal governments alike are accountable. It is a horrible situation and I believe I don't know the half of it in terms of why the responses were not timely and more effective.

Am astounded by the testimony posted below. Good God. How could the officials treat human beings like this? They actually shot at people to stop them escaping? It's the shameful behaviour you (sadly) expect from dictatorships, not from a so-called democracy.

I wonder how many people were killed, or died, as a result of this oppression, rather than the actual force of nature. Bet we never find out.

I think it's more about poverty than race. It just so happens to be that more black people are poor however and that is a racist issue. Things have to be put into their component parts if they're to be tackled as the whole body is too huge to take on. Racism is part of that but it's only one part of the picture. The Republicans are predisposed to care more about the rich and hence to discriminate against the poor. That is the basis of much of their policies. It's the basis of much of Democtat piolicies too, though they do make some effort towards fairness.

The Bush administration is racist in it's forien policies, the war in Iraq is racist. Every time that Bush speaks of the Iraqi's making sacrifices for (our) democracy and peace it's racist. And it's all in service to the market.

the images of being shot at for trying to flee a desperate position, to have your little survival encampment destroyed and food looted by authority, brings me images of the jews and the nazis. I find it regrettable that these were the images that this piece conjured up.

the puritans believed that God showed his blessings on his people by making them prosperous and conversely that people who are poor are poor because its their own fault. these episodes in this piece makes me wonder if this is why poor people are so distrusted by the 'haves'.

maybe it won't make sense to you but i am searching for reasons why ordinary poor people were treated so badly - besides being that they were black - as I believe that many more americans than we care to admit are latently racist. Maybe people all over the world would have behaved the same way, i don't know. But I do believe that, for example only, if it were middle class Houstonians who lived 'across the river' from these poor people, they would have felt the same need to 'keep them out' - so afraid of the dispossessed or is it 'the dispossessed black people.' What I am saying, is that it is easier to be generous to other people when we no longer feel threatened by them. conversely, I can see white people from NO doing the same for dispossessed black people from Houston because they would not feel threatened by the individuals standing in front of them. However, if they saw a group of a hundred poor black people.....

I speak as someone who is not white and lived in the US while attending university and as someone with many close relatives in NO. My family at large has, myself included, experienced enough hurricanes in the Caribbean to teach us to get the hell away from any hurricane the size of Katrina ASAP. I feel sorrow and anger for the people who did not have the luxury to run.

i know that what I have said will be seen as inflammatory by some. I must admit that it is how I feel. I used to be young, naive and trusting but age and experience has taught me to be more sceptical.

"Throughout, the official relief effort was callous, inept, and racist."

"This tragedy has been exactly what the US Government wanted to give them a reason to (In Mr Bush's own words) "build a brand new New Orleans".
I think this tragedy has played into the hands of the US government and allowed them to get rid of the poor underclass, by basically letting them die."

exactly what I surmise. Poor or weak people have no rights in the brand new world of the neo-cons.

I hope that these stories aren?t buried and that somewhere, some one trustworthy and morally incorruptable will stand up to the Govt and tackle this fully in the media spotlight. The very fact that Mr Bush has promised an investigation - headed up by himself (what a joke - he obv thinks everyone is as thick as himself) proves how corrupt they are.
Why aren?t other world leaders hearing and seeing these accounts and asking these humanitarian questions publicly? I am sure that if it were happening in a different part of the world, maybe somewhere of American financial interest such as in the middle East, Mr Bush would be the first one on global TV talking about how they need to end the oppression of their people or he will send in his forces...He is no stranger to wading in for "moral" reasons.
Are all of our world?s leaders really that scared of America??

Not scared BC, greeedy. But that's just the way the market works. No country can afford to opt out.

I agree with so much that has been said here. My sister sent me an email showing 2 pictures looting in NO. The first was a young black guy in the water with a loaf of bread. The caption: A looter tries to escape the water. The second a young white couple in the water with a loaf of bread. The caption: Lucky young couple find a loaf floating in the water.

These were actual news report photos, not a joke.

Of course racism has a large part to play. Why else were a large part of New Orleans unable to evacuate. They couldn't afford to get out. Why not? If a (ooh I so want to swear) huge hurricane is coming at you and you have time to get away and for help to be sent.... then why didn't that happen? Oh yes.... money! So not only racism but prejudice as well. The dispossessed blacks with no money... but no government aid, no free buses, lorries, helicopters. Too many people dying unnecessarily.

If that had happened in a predominately white state, you bet your last pound they'd've had relief rushing in. Those buses would've arrived before Katrina and Bush would've been there immediately.

No matter how much the world changes, how much people say how civilised we are, the truth outs! How civilised is it to let so many people die needlessly? Shame on the American government! And shame on the rest of us if we sit idly back and do nothing!