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| Home Front: Economy |
| Looters Run Amok in New Orleans |
| 2005-08-30 |
| NEW ORLEANS — With much of the city flooded by Hurricane Katrina, looters floated garbage cans filled with clothing and jewelry down the street in a dash to grab what they could. In some cases, looting today took place in full view of police and National Guard troops. At a Walgreen's drug store in the French Quarter, people were running out with grocery baskets and coolers full of soft drinks, chips and diapers. Staples of the local diet, now doubt. That fancy cajun stuff must be reserved just for tourists. When police finally showed up, a young boy stood in the door screaming, "86! 86!" — the radio code for police — and the crowd scattered. Denise Bollinger, a tourist from Philadelphia, stood outside and snapped pictures in amazement. How often does a tourist from Philly get to document a third-world uprising? "It's downtown Baghdad," the housewife said. "It's insane. I've wanted to come here for 10 years. I thought this was a sophisticated city. I guess not." Must be Bush's fault then. Obviously, this woman is not up-to-date on moonbat left definitions of "sophistication." Around the corner on Canal Street, the main thoroughfare in the central business district, people sloshed headlong through hip-deep water as looters ripped open the steel gates on the front of several clothing and jewelry stores. One man, who had about 10 pairs of jeans draped over his left arm, was asked if he was salvaging things from his store. "No," the man shouted, "that's EVERYBODY'S store." But only honest people will have to pay for it, through higher insurance costs. Looters filled industrial-sized garbage cans with clothing and jewelry and floated them down the street on bits of plywood and insulation as National Guard lumbered by. Ingenious. I guess these Guardsmen aren't trained to resist amphibious assaults. Mike Franklin stood on the trolley tracks and watched the spectacle unfold. "To be honest with you, people who are oppressed all their lives, man, it's an opportunity to get back at society," he said. Being required to pay for your own jewelry and threads is oppression. Franklin must be a recent poli-sci or human services grad. A man walked down Canal Street with a pallet of food on his head. His wife, who refused to give her name, insisted they weren't stealing from the nearby Winn-Dixie supermarket. "It's about survival right now," she said as she held a plastic bag full of purloined items. "We got to feed our children. I've got eight grandchildren to feed." Her neighbors are eating jeans and jewelry, I suppose. At a drug store on Canal Street just outside the French Quarter, two police officers with pump shotguns stood guard as workers from the Ritz-Carlton Hotel across the street loaded large laundry bins full of medications, snack foods and bottled water. "This is for the sick," Officer Jeff Jacob said. "We can commandeer whatever we see fit, whatever is necessary to maintain law." Another office, D.J. Butler, told the crowd standing around that they would be out of the way as soon as they got the necessities. "I'm not saying you're welcome to it," the officer said. "This is the situation we're in. We have to make the best of it." Free for all The looting was taking place in full view of passing National Guard trucks and police cruisers. Wouldn't want to oppress anybody. One man with an armload of clothes even asked a policeman, "can I borrow your car?" Some in the crowd splashed into the waist-deep water like giddy children at the beach. What? He can't steal one of his own to cart the stuff away? |
| Posted by:Atomic Conspiracy |
| #16 Let them have their blue jeans and jewelery, what of any value could be left after a 4 day warning? They will be lucky to survive the next month, they should be looting penicillin and food. Poor dumb bastards. |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2005-08-30 23:50 |
| #15 Just heard the LA AG interviewed on Hannity. Mt takeaway: "We got to save people's lives. Property comes next." nstated, the insurance companies will pay and it's mouse nuts compared to the cost to rebuild NO. We don't need a riot on top of everything else. Besides, if these Beauzeaux haven't gotten out yet, they may not survive what's coming next. |
| Posted by: Mrs. Davis 2005-08-30 21:51 |
| #14 I'm just a civilian, but what happened to the maxim "when the lootin' starts, the shootin' starts." Had the governor said that, I think things would have never gotten to this point. |
| Posted by: JAB 2005-08-30 21:40 |
| #13 wonder how many vaults, safes, and gun stores will be cleaned out by the Big Squeezys finest? /damn cynicism |
| Posted by: Red Dog 2005-08-30 21:08 |
| #12 well at least they won't have a West Nile/mosquito-borne illness problem because.....oh...nevermind |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-08-30 20:49 |
| #11 Given everything that's floating in that water right now (cholera or dysentary, anyone? Exotic chemical brews?) I'd rather not let it touch my skin for fear of what exactly I'd be bringing home. Food and fluids are one thing, jeans and jewelry may well not be worth the final price the looters pay. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2005-08-30 19:52 |
| #10 stealin a TV cuz you need food and water and ...there's no power, and....oh nevermind. I could see stealing food if you and your family's starving and isolated....the TV is kinda hard to justify |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-08-30 19:37 |
| #9 Some officers joined in taking whatever they could, including one New Orleans cop who loaded a shopping cart with a compact computer and a 27-inch flat screen television. Just taking what you need to get by, right officer? I figured this was only a matter of time. I know a few folks from down there and they've always said the New Orleans PD was the worst big city police force in the country. This is going to be grim. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2005-08-30 19:31 |
| #8 I am hearing that martial law has been declared, along with a 'prison riot and hostage situation' in Orleans Parish...may God have mercy on the Big Easy. Mike |
| Posted by: Mike Kozlowski 2005-08-30 19:22 |
| #7 Atomic Conspiracy---I was thinking the same thoughts this morning when my colleague was telling me about the looting and the plastic garbage can amphib operations in Operation Brewski. My grandmother lived through the 1906 quake and she told me that looters were shot. Martial law was established toot sweet in SF right after the earthquake. PC treatment of looters during emergencies condones the activity of looting during normal times. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2005-08-30 18:49 |
| #6 Article: "We got to feed our children. I've got eight grandchildren to feed." Don't her grandchildren have parents? |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2005-08-30 18:45 |
| #5 "I'm not saying you're welcome to it," the officer said. "This is the situation we're in. We have to make the best of it." Translation: It's not worth my badge to shoot all of you. |
| Posted by: Secret Master 2005-08-30 18:39 |
#4 AP photo: "A looter carries a bucket of beer out of a grocery store in New Orleans on Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2005, as floodwaters continue to rise in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina made landfall on Monday. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)" This must be a key ingredient in the famous blue jean and jewelry gumbo that the starving people of New Orleans are mixing up in a desperate bid to survive. |
| Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy 2005-08-30 18:29 |
| #3 Mike Franklin stood on the trolley tracks and watched the spectacle unfold. "To be honest with you, people who are oppressed all their lives, man, it's an opportunity to get back at society," he said. Hey! Let's all head over to Mike's house and pick it clean! He'll "understand". Won't you, you liberal dipshit! |
| Posted by: Oppressed Looter 2005-08-30 18:23 |
#2  Proclamation issued by Mayor Eugene Schmitz after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. |
| Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy 2005-08-30 18:22 |
| #1 Dammit! Move to page 3. |
| Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy 2005-08-30 18:19 |