Looters take advantage of hurricane chaos, destruction

Well, we knew it would happen and it has....

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — 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 on Tuesday 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.

When police finally showed up, a young boy stood in the door screaming, "86! 86!" — the radio code for police — and the crowd scattered.

[url=http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-08-30-hurricane-looting_x.htm]http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-08-30-hurricane-looting_x.htm[/ur l]

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."

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.

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.

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."



[edit on 30-8-2005 by elevatedone]

It is no surprise that this is happening, most of the entire area is going to be a total loss and the cost to rebuild alone will be astronomical, if any company would insure future building in the soup bowl.

Right now the concern should be on how to stop (if even possible) the incoming flow of water into the city, and the continuing efforts to help the stranded.....material items mean little at this time..

With the lack of power, lines of communication sketchy at best, these people who think they are gettting back at society, may just be under the assumption that things will return to normal in the immediate future....

With the video of New Orleans and even worse the Mississippi and Alabama coast, this storm may take a couple of years to straighten out, what of the thousands and thousands of now homeless people, I heard a report that the southern end of the Plaquemines parish has been reclaimed by the Mississippi River which means, it no longer exists.....


I just hope these obviously uninformed people get the word from authorities that it is an extremely dangerous situation and they should get out of the city before they end up perishing with the items they wrongly hold in such value......

this is covered under this thread
Martial Law Declared in New Orleans

btw elevatedone, there's no need to create a new thread for every Hurricane Katrina aftermath development, there's going to be many new developments in the days to come, try to keep all the info contained to the already active Katrina related threads, including your own on relief help and international response.