More on Looting
Regarding the looting, some folks have the right idea:
Employees at A.J.’s Produce Co. on Chartres Street in the Bywater neighborhood of New Orleans, spray-painted bright-red stern warnings for would-be thieves right on the sides of the building.
“You loot, we shoot!” they read. “Looters will be shot!” And “loot and die!”
“We had a few come around, but the boogie man scared them away,” said 59-year-old John Allen, who sat in a lawn chair guarding the building about 10 a.m. Tuesday. “The signs did the job.”
Via Joe.
Update: Oh dear. Katie notes that in the press coverage, black folks are looting while white folks are finding things. (update to the update: as Xrlq points out in comments, Yahoo! News used two different news agencies. Nothing to see here, keep moving.) Update to the update to the update: Xrlq blogs about it:
the stories were written by two different news agencies, with different reporting policies, and those big racist meanies at Yahoo! had the gall to carry both companies feeds.
To which Allah points out (in Xrlq’s comments) this. Something to it after all, I guess.
Update 2: Et tu, officer friendly.
Update 3: While authorities shift resources to search and rescue (which they should do!), the looting continues. Looters are taking guns:
New Orleans’ homeland security chief, Terry Ebbert, said looters were breaking into stores all over town and stealing guns. He said there are gangs of armed men moving around the city. At one point, officers stranded on the roof of a hotel were fired at by criminals on the street.
The Times-Picayune newspaper reported that the gun section at a new Wal-Mart had been cleaned out by looters.
So, for all you anti-gunnies out there: what do you do when the system breaks down, there is neither law nor order, and your protection is up to you?
August 31st, 2005 at 12:35 pm
Either that, or looters appearing in AP stories are looting while looters appearing in AFP loots are finding things, and Yahoo! carries both agencies’ stories. Using this methodology, it should be equally easy to prove that Hamas is a terrorist organization but al-Qaeda are just a bunch of militant freedom fighters – just dig up one FoxNews article on the former and one Reuters story on the latter.
August 31st, 2005 at 12:43 pm
Good point. Didn’t notice.
August 31st, 2005 at 3:44 pm
as Xrlq points out in comments, Yahoo! News used two different news agencies
Hey, *I* pointed that out first, not Xlrq. Why no love for me?? 🙁 I guess it’s cause I’m not a Real Conservative(TM) or something.
August 31st, 2005 at 3:46 pm
Did you? I missed it. Sorry. Just saw your comment over at Katie’s. I should read comments, I reckon.
August 31st, 2005 at 4:28 pm
It is appalling that these people are acquiring firearms with no background check.
Where is Sarah Brady when you need her?
August 31st, 2005 at 6:10 pm
Something, maybe, but not much. The piece Allah linked to is in a very different context from the two the lefties are trying to spin into a racism thing. It’s one thing to give individuals the benefit of the doubt as to whether they “looted” their goods or “found” the goods somewhere else, and quite another to deny that looting took place at all – as AFP would have to have done in order to use the word “find” in the article Allah linked to. Even if it could be shown that AFP is racist, so what? Everything else about France sucks, why not that, too?
Methinks this entire tempest in a teapot arose because a few leftists were desperate to find racism where none existed, and everyone else casually assumed the letters “AFP” stand for “Associated F’ing Press.”
August 31st, 2005 at 9:29 pm
I was wondering how long it would take for the looters to get guns. Not even two days.
I am trying to impress upon my girlfriend the nature of these type of situations and the absolute need for as many guns and ammo as i can afford even it it means her not buying shoes.
August 31st, 2005 at 10:37 pm
Cube…you’re a good man. I’d take my hat off to you if I were wearing one. 🙂
September 1st, 2005 at 12:12 am
I noted the looting and told my girlfriend this is why we need guns. She said we only need one. Even if things break down, she’s going to leave the home defense to me.
Still, she is eager to go to a shooting range, so maybe once she handles a gun, she’ll come around.
September 1st, 2005 at 2:40 am
the stories were written by two different news agencies, with different reporting policies, and those big racist meanies at Yahoo! had the gall to carry both companies feeds.
How does this matter? The point is that its a perception thing in our society…black people loot, white people find stuff. The fact that it was different news agencies (and for that matter different reporters) is irrelevant.
September 1st, 2005 at 2:54 am
what do you do when the system breaks down, there is neither law nor order, and your protection is up to you?
Who’s protection is up to themselves? From what I’ve seen, there has been looting and little or no threats to peoples lives from other people. I think that given everything thats happened, looting should the last of anyone’s concerns. I certainly don’t think anyone should be killing looters.
September 1st, 2005 at 6:55 am
“So, for all you anti-gunnies out there: what do you do when the system breaks down, there is neither law nor order, and your protection is up to you? ”
Simple. You blame George Bush.
September 1st, 2005 at 8:15 am
Manish, you’re not paying attention. There’s supposedly an assault by looters on a children’s hospital, hijackings, and people have pinned the police to rooftops.
September 1st, 2005 at 10:30 am
brutal hugger,
“Still, she is eager to go to a shooting range, so maybe once she handles a gun, shell come around.”
A suggestion that I have to ease the tranision is to let your girlfriend “pick out” her own gun. I know my girlfriend is obessed with the word “pretty”. She does not want anything ugly and getting her to buy or own somthing ugly is like pulling teeth. No ugly guns or ugly dogs, is what I have learned though hours and hours of discussion. If it is pretty my girlfriend is on board.
I have a .40 springfield xd (four inch model compareable to a glock 23, but a little heavier) and let my girlfriend shoot it at around 7 feet, it was absolutly horriod. I would suggest starting with a either a .9mm or a .22.
September 1st, 2005 at 11:16 am
Manish, that’s very tolerant and understanding of you to say that but…
…what do you do when it’s your house that’s being looted? Stand by and let them take whatever’s there?
If so, I’ll be by soon to get that big-screen TV of yours. 😉
September 1st, 2005 at 12:29 pm
Surely you jest. The whole point of the race pimp’s post is to imply that the media is racist. Showing that one news agency said one thing about Incident A while another wrote something different about Incident B proves nothing. Even if the two incidents were equivalent (which they’re not), the fact that two different news agencies used two different words tells you at least as much about the differing policies of the two news agencies (i.e., how to handle ambiguous situations where it’s likely that the subject looted his goods, but also possible that he simply found them somewhere) as it would about anybody’s perception of race.
Oh, really? How about the fact that in this case, the black person depicted in one photo probably did loot, and the two white people in the other almost certainly did find stuff? I suppose that’s irrelevant, too, right?
September 1st, 2005 at 12:59 pm
Manish, youre not paying attention. Theres supposedly an assault by looters on a childrens hospital, hijackings, and people have pinned the police to rooftops.
I just saw an article on this..my bad, I thought you were only referring to people protecting their stuff.
what do you do when its your house thats being looted? Stand by and let them take whatevers there?
In a situation like this, the answer is that I’d rather have my stuff looted than shoot someone. Lets not forget that there is chaos all around and shooting someone is only going to give the authorities more work to do in terms of deploying emergency services. Besides, I probably have insurance to cover the looting. If they were threatening my family its a different matter.
How about the fact that in this case, the black person depicted in one photo probably did loot, and the two white people in the other almost certainly did find stuff?
no clue how your coming to that conclusion. The exact caption is “Two residents wade through chest-deep water after finding bread and soda from a local grocery store” How does one find something from a local store as opposed to looting it? They are chest deep in water and I somehow can’t believe that the store was actually open.
September 1st, 2005 at 1:03 pm
Manish, I would concur if it’s just ‘stuff.’ However, if it’s, say, my baby’s food/medicine, then you die. Or I do.
September 1st, 2005 at 6:23 pm
The only way to find anything from a store, as opposed to in it, is for the item in question to have already left the store at the time you found it. Which, according to photographer Chris Graythen (who took the photo and wrote the caption in question) is precisely what happened.
Believe it. It wasn’t open for business, of course, but it was open in the most literal sense of the word, as it had no doors and stuff was floating all over the place. That is, according to the guy who took the photo. Do you know something he doesn’t?
September 1st, 2005 at 6:58 pm
[i]In a situation like this, the answer is that Id rather have my stuff looted than shoot someone. Lets not forget that there is chaos all around and shooting someone is only going to give the authorities more work to do in terms of deploying emergency services. Besides, I probably have insurance to cover the looting. If they were threatening my family its a different matter.[/i]
That all sounds very Nice and Reasonable, but how do you know they’re only interested in your stuff? What would you do if they enter your house and suddenly decide to take liberties with your daughter/wife/significant other? How you gonna stop them once they’ve entered?
People who loot property after disasters are generally the same people who rob, steal, beat, rape, and even murder during normal times. Not the type I’d trust in my house or even on my front yard. And the only way you can make sure they don’t decide to escalate the situation is to make sure you can conclusively stop it before it begins; that is, have a gun in hand, warn them off when they approach, and shoot to kill if they keep coming.
Otherwise, you might as well evacuate and write off your whole house and belongings before the storm even hits. It’s better to not even be there when the looting occurs, so you won’t have to make such life-and-death decisions.
As for me, I’ll be the one putting up the “You Loot, We Shoot” signs.
September 1st, 2005 at 8:35 pm
They are chest deep in water and I somehow cant believe that the store was actually open.
So were the people in the AP photo.
What would you do if they enter your house and suddenly decide to take liberties with your daughter/wife/significant other
If they’ve entered my home as opposed to my business that would be a different story.
People who loot property after disasters are generally the same people who rob, steal, beat, rape, and even murder during normal times.
Do you have a link or something to support your argument or is coming out of your ass? I would suspect that some of the looters are in this boat (i.e. the armed gangs taking advantage of marshall law would be an example..should not be construed as advocacy for gun control), though there would be a number of people who’ve lost everything and are normally law-abiding but are trying to regain some of what they’ve lost (the cops who were caught getting into the looting themselves would be an example).
September 3rd, 2005 at 6:34 pm
Man thats bullshit. I’m neither white or black and im offended.