Looting

There is a thread on Metafilter about some interesting use of language to describe this.

”Black people
loot, white people borrow. Racist photo captions by Yahoo News/AP illuminate more than Katrina’s aftermath. If these pictures are taken down, there are mirrors right here”

There’s a large difference between looting to feed your family and looting for jewelery, beer and other non-necessities. The majority of the looting is of the second nature, as state reports.

I think even shop owners would give the okay to take food and water from their stores at this point, but that’s not what’s going on there.

When young my town was destroyed by tornoadoes. The National Guard was called in, and to move between neighborhoods or into/outof the town you had to show ID that you belonged. The curfew was sundown and most of our food and water came from the Red Cross. Ours was a small enough town that the National Guard could keep looting under control, but just as in New Orelans - rescue is top priority right now, not stopping looting.

If I were a crack-vending Uzi-toting hoodlum and my society’s workings had been completely interupted for what seemed likely to be a very long time, would I loot an abandoned jewlery store? Ya! Would I shoot another thug or policeman who tried to stop me? Ya! What if I were a good but practical person who had been obliged by economic circumstances to live in neighborhoods poorly served by the state but well “served” by thugs. Would it look like the whole city now belonged to the thugs? Ya! Would I recall that gangsters don’t provide welfare or food stamps or money unless you collude with them? Ya! Would I want to acquire some instruments for self reliance as my world decends into chaos? Nah. I’ll just hang out on this roof and wait for my friend W to come by.