N'oleans

[jan_andrea]

I have been totally disgusted by the various governing bodies' reactions to the flooding in New Orleans. Saw on CNN today that they are removing police forces from search and rescue efforts *to prevent looting*. WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK!?!?!? Where are our priorities? Is STUFF really more fucking important than PEOPLE?!? I suppose it should have been obvious to me from day one that it's STUFF, otherwise corporations wouldn't have nearly as much power as they currently do, but I'm still completely aghast. FIND THE PEOPLE WHO NEED HELP. FUCK THE STUFF FOR NOW. THERE WILL BE MORE STUFF.

I don't mean to yell, but this just makes my blood boil.

Comments

[mollyf.livejournal.com]

Exactly!

[clovecigarettes.livejournal.com]

Not only that, maybe the looters need the stuff -- water, tinned food, etc. Not to mention, companies like Wal-Mart are insured for the stuff and most of it is going to get trashed for water damage anyway.

[jan-andrea.livejournal.com]

I know -- that's what makes me extra mad. It's just ludicrous. Makes me far more prone to using all-caps and profanity than I usually am...

[warpedwitch.livejournal.com]

it's not the *stuff* they're protecting, it's that the looters have gotten violent and are shooting at the relief people...

[tahoebean.livejournal.com]

and trying to shoot at helicopters evacuating people from hospitals, etc... it's really a sad and dire situation. I wish our government was more on the ball. It would have never gotten to this point if they had had emergency help there IMMEDIATELY like they should have.

[allyphoe.livejournal.com]

And breaking into houses where people are still living, and raping the women.

[webhill.livejournal.com]

They should have had troops in there from the get-go. You can't have people looting ammunition and gun and sporting goods stores, stealing guns and ammo, and then going around shooting the humanitarian workers, as has been going on. They are carjacking, raping, and murdering people for their cars and so on. It's beyond horrific and I for one am THRILLED they are finally cracking down on it. Those poor, poor people.

[jan-andrea.livejournal.com]

I stand corrected, then. Seems like there should be some shade of difference between "looters" and "rapists" though -- I mean, people who are grabbing stuff from Walmart vs. people going into private residences. They never mentioned that on CNN.

[jan-andrea.livejournal.com]

CNN just said "looters" -- if I'd known it was as you describe, I wouldn't have said anything :) I pictured, you know, WalMart and the grocery stores. Not so much private residences and people.

[allyphoe.livejournal.com]

And to make it worse:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/triciawang/38922728/
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/09/01/photo_controversy/index.html

[webhill.livejournal.com]

Ah, well, my understanding is that both kinds of looting are going on. I agree that the garden-variety moron stealing a TV set can be ignored, but apparently there are THUGS, organized in packs, with guns, roving through NO and stealing and carjacking (and raping and pillaging and blah blah).

Actually, I've read that there is at least one NICU where babies are sitting without doctors due to looters attacking the hospital and making the doctors run for their lives! I really really hope that turns out to be untrue :(

[warpedwitch.livejournal.com]

there was one story of a woman whose baby was in the nicu and they'd gotten transported to different hospitals, so she had no clue where her baby was...i almost cried...:(

[jan-andrea.livejournal.com]

So. Looks like reports of widespread violence, etc. were not true after all:

http://www.pandagon.net/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/1559