I knew it was an evil world we live in. But this is pretty bad. Shooting at a rescue helicopter? This looting is unreal. They’re saying gangs control the streets armed with AK-47’s.
Posts: 2845 | Registered: Oct 2003
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posted
I heard about this on the raido about an hour ago...
It is a sad state of affairs, to be sure, and it really makes me angry.
How many people will suffer because of these idiots? How many people who were oging to volenteer to help are going to change their mind because of the dangers?
Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001
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posted
I posted this quote in the earlier thread, but it is probably more appropriate here.
"Tempers were beginning to flare in the aftermath of the storm. Police said a man fatally shot his sister in the head over a bag of ice in Hattiesburg, Miss."
It is absolutely unbelievable what we humans are capable of doing. It just shows the importance that society plays in keeping us civilized.
Posts: 1256 | Registered: May 2005
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posted
Sounds like we need to pull the troops out of Iraq and invade New Orleans. People are always declaring martial law in the movies. What does it take for it to happen in real life?
Seriously, though, I think the police and military should treat looters in Louisiana like insurgents in Iraq. Taking a TV is one thing, but carjacking buses from nursing homes and trucks taking supplies to hospitals is a whole different type of crime. If they live by the AK-47, they should die by the AK-47.
Posts: 2804 | Registered: May 2003
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posted
Speed, martial law has been declared (on Tuesday). But many police precincts are flooded or otherwise all but incapacitated.
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
Ya know I had no idea how bad it was until last night. I was busy wrapped up in my own little misery that is this week...
But OMG... People shooting at rescue workers? People camping on the remains of I-10? It's like a bad movie.
When I first read how bad it was on Yahoo I said to my husband "Thousands dead? We don't have natural disasters like that in America! Not anymore!" I just couldn't believe it. We have "50 dead" or sometimes "100 dead"... but Thousands?
I cannot *believe* people would shoot at helicopters evacuating others. It just doesn't make sense.
The Pixiest - in terms of your response, I guess that's how the news stations have been reporting it here. "The world's richest nation, now with third world conditions... " etc etc.
But what really shocks me is not that it happened - it's a natural disaster - but people's response. Shooting police, shooting rescuers - that is what I find hard to fathom in a first world country, and in America.
Posts: 4393 | Registered: Aug 2003
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posted
The behaviour of the people in New Orleans is an embarassment to our country and to humanity as a whole...
Posts: 1480 | Registered: Dec 2004
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[Edit - this was to AFR. I'm not sure any other community would behave differently, giventhe circumstances. ]
Posts: 4393 | Registered: Aug 2003
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posted
Well, it's an unfortunate sociological experiment gone bad.
It's a fact that most of the people left behind were those who didn't own or have access to cars. These are the poor and destitute, and I'm not surprised they've seized this chance to try and improve their standing in the world. Nor am I surprised with the way they went about it. It sucks, but I saw this coming three days ago. Total Anarchy.
Posts: 5462 | Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
It's very simple, really. Don't arrest the looters, it takes too much time away from policing the streets. Instead, zippertie them to a lamppost and write LOOTER across their forehead with a Sharpie.
Posts: 7790 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
*serious* With the situation as it currently is, too many people might take it upon themselves to torture and/or kill someone. Not deliberately setting out to do anything that drastic, but mobs can be frightening things.
Looting is bad, no question. But I don't think it deserves that sort of penalty.
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
The looting I saw was mostly people breaking into grocery stores for food. Is that just how it started? I don't have cable, so I get news in broken bits.
If I was stranded with only a bottle of water and peanut butter sandwich for three days, would I bust into a Safeway and get food for my family? Food that would probably be bad in a week anyway?
YES. Yes I would. THAT kind of looting... I totally get it. I saw a woman put out a cigarette before going into a grocery store, to loot. That is some deeply ingrained law-abiding behavior, to put out a cigarette before going into a store to 'loot' (though it was a food store). I get that. I really do.
Stealing jewelwry and TVs and $500.00 shoes? That's... not a matter of necessity.
I think some people are arming themselves to protect themselves against the gangs. It's crazy. Understandable, I guess, but frightening.
Who was it that said no civilization is more that three meals away from revolution?
Posts: 9293 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
They've already engaged 28,000 troops and more are almost certainly going to be on the way... it's not like order's going to be restored overnight...
And it's not going to go quickly with people firing shots at rescuers.... as someone on a military forum I frequent said, can you imagine surviving Iraq or Afghanistan to be shot trying a humanitarian effort in a major US city?
Edit: now I'm seeing 2800 troops there with 1400 a day arriving... that's a drastically different estimate than the first one I got. I guess we have to remember that we really don;t know what's going on there...
posted
He still looks foolish saying "these people" need to controll themselves. 1. They can't hear him. 2. They are hungry and desperate in a way most of us (especially our priviledged commander in chief) don't really understand.
I VOTED for the guy (once) and I'm cringing. And ashamed.
Posts: 9293 | Registered: Aug 2000
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quote: Doctors at two desperately crippled hospitals in New Orleans called The Associated Press Thursday morning pleading for rescue, saying they were nearly out of food and power and had been forced to move patients to higher floors to escape looters.
I have to think that at least a few of these people who would loot a hospital so badly that the doctors have to move higher -- have got to be druggies who haven't been able to get a fix for days now.
I've seen an addict come down -- it isn't a pretty sight. If there are many of those types of desparate people around -- they can be extremely dangerous...
posted
Why were there still tens of thousands of people in the city? I thought that it was supposed to be evacuated long before the huricane hit.
Posts: 2437 | Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
Iraq? I really don't know. Large numbers of troops are definitely elsewhere. I don't know how that affects this, though.
Posts: 9293 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
Once again FG's post makes me think of a movie. Edit: the post about the hospital
It brought to mind the movie 28 Days Later - waking up in a hospital to find that your city has been destroyed and your life is threatened by a bunch of human zombies.
Sometimes truth is scarier than fiction.
Posts: 1256 | Registered: May 2005
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Wait, I just realized that some looters are shooting at helicopters. Sorry for these stupid posts. I can't think straight at this moment.
Posts: 4116 | Registered: Apr 2002
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posted
Yeah, I was about to point out that helicopters are coming under fire...
Olivet, you and FG made all those posts over a period of about 2 minutes... it's likely that the one was made while you were posting the other...
But at the risk of dredging it back up, I don't see the Bush comments you are fuming over in the transcript CNN has... could you tell me where to look?
Posts: 3846 | Registered: Apr 2004
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posted
I got it of a link in someone else's LJ post.
And since I agree that this shouldn't be political, I'm not going to post it.
I'm really upset right now. I did not mean to attack the president. I only meant to express my sadness at the shame I feel regarding this whole snafu.
Plus, I think FG can chose to explain herself, or not, as she wishes. I've always liked FG. Edit: and there it is. :)I figured.
I promised my Beloved that the next time I cried over some stupid internet forum, it would be my last time. So I'm going to get myself some distance.
Posts: 9293 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
National Guard helicopters were in use from the begining of the crisis. Very few vehicles other than the blackhawk and other military choppers are capable of mass rescue.
Posts: 686 | Registered: Sep 2001
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