Guys, you have no idea what's going on 'internally'...city officials are feeling the 'hit' right here in Houston, and multiple problems will ensue for Houstonians out of this whole ordeal. Just don't be surprised when things get worse for us here in Houston too. As of this moment, the city employees are working literally round the clock and even overnight to address this enormous challenge. By far the biggest challenge is security, and I would urge people to first fill up your cars with gas soon because prices will spike even more...you can bank on that. If you watched the O'Reilly Factor tonight, you would have seen some shocking stuff, even more shocking than what you are casually seeing on your local news. O'Reilly had a person from NOLA trapped in his own residence or store with few friends, and basically locking himself up. The man said that he personally saw a cop being shot in the forehead and killed by a looter, and then a group of looters proceeded to a nearby Cadillac dealership and stole EVERY single vehicle on the lot, and proceeded to loot other nearby stores, many of these things were in fact caught on video apparently, but we won't likely see much of the graphic stuff until later on. In short, NOLA is more akin to Somalia than a 'civilized' society, it defines anarchy and choas, and every country in the world is watching this piss-poor response by our government (federal that is) and our enemies are laughing aloud wondering how in the heck could this country 'defend' itself if it can't rescue its own people inside its own borders. The man O'Reilly had on from NOLA said himself that if this was the best our government can do 4 days after a 'catastrophe' on its own soil, then "this country is ruined if we ever get hit by a multiple-city attack". Even the conservatives like O'Reilly are saying it's "unfathomable" how the government has been unable to put the active military on the ground to take care of the situation. This is just sad, truly sad...
I don't know. I'm seriously starting to change my view on all of this. I feel a lot different that I did this morning after finally having a chance to see it all unfolding on TV. (My cable has been out since Tuesday) These people were told to leave town but they had no way to get out of town. Then they were told to go to the convention center for help but when they got there, no one was there to help them. These people have NOTHING but the clothes on their backs. No place to live, no cars to drive, no idea when or where their next meal is coming from. They have nothing. I'm not going to sit here and pretend to understand what that's like. I can't even fathom what that's like. We can all sit here on our computers with our high speed modems and our flatscreen monitors and say that we would never "loot" a store no matter what the circumstances were, but until it happens to us, we really have no idea. Of course I think the people using violence should be dealt with appropriately. There is NO excuse for that. But under these dire circumstances, I really can't blame these people for "looting" a grocery store so they can eat. No one is helping them, what else are they supposed to do, die in the streets? Is it OK for babies and the elderly to slowly starve to death as long as it doesn't affect some grocery store owners bottom line?
I think most people here agree that getting groceries is a completely different story from stealing a plasma TV or, even worse, being violent. After watching the reports on TV, like you, I cannot blame people for getting food for themselves, or even some basic clothing. There is a state of emergency. But stealing of luxury items and especially violence need to be stopped.
did anyof you all see that video of the diabetic man being helped onto a helicopter today, TONS of people are still stuck in their apartments, and no lights, food, water, damnnn i feel bad for them. the video was on download.com
How would you all feel if the refugees in Houston started looting? They may very well still be short in supplies and clothing. They will have no homes for quite a while. I am more disturbed by the loss of life, but I won't "understanding" of looting that happens here.
agreed. Luxury item looting and violence are even worse in this situation because they are exploiting ongoing tragedy and people's real life or death situations in order to steal items that they don't need.
If a person was dying for lack of food, and some food was in a locked barricaded grocery store in Houston or anywhere else, plus there was no legal way to get food, I hope that I would absolutely help them loot food and water from that grocery store.
How about someone breaking into your house? And they shouldn't be starving for food now that they are out of New Orleans.
The authorities are turning away people from the AstroDome, btw. ABC13 is covering it all life even this late... Apparently, however, city officials are working their butts off to accomodate some of those people tomorrow, get them more food which has now run out, and supplies like towels and stuff for the people already inside the Dome. Just unbelievable human tragedy, and these people are now being diverted elsewhere because the fire marshals declared that the Dome has reached 'max capacity' for safety/comfort of everyone inside, although no more than 5-8k are only inside, when it was said that up to 25k can be fit inside.
That is truly crazy if those stories are true. I believe when there is now law enforcement I believe anarchy is bound to happen. We are going to have to learn from this and try to restore order as priority one in the future.
Chron.com has a domeblog reporting on this. Apparently there are 11k in the dome. My apartment isn't too far from the Astrodome. I wonder where these people are going?
ALRIGHT! They just suddenly started letting some buses in to the AstroDome area! I guess they reversed their decision. GREAT NEWS! They are letting all the buses already there in (about 20-30 of them in front of the AstroDome), so thank God they won't be diverted further. Please if you can, volunteer your money/time to the Red Cross.
Good idea, I think. At least let them stay overnight. Houston Chronicle's domeblog: http://blogs.chron.com/domeblog/
Dude, I didn't see that at all in his post. I read that he meant the looters stealing goods like jewlery and tvs etc, keeping law enforcement from rescueing people by making them waste their time stopping looters. I didn't think his comment was that bad. NOthing to do with race. "These people = looters who aren't stealing necessities such as food and water, but rather tv's and jewels. "
I think the people who make it out of NO won't be starving and there isn't any reason at all for them to loot. My house isn't a grocery store. If they came to my house I would give them whatever food I could spare and any water I could. I would definitely want to stop them from looting my house. I would give them directions to grocery stores, and prehaps get any tools I had that would help them bust through grocery store windows to get that food... if I was in NO. Again there is no excuse for looting luxury items, or for people who have a legitimate way to get food to loot anything at all.
If I lost everything or had nothing to begin with, I'd probably grab as many things I could to get me back on my feet. I might get mugged or shot in the process, but living in that condition right now might not be a drastic change... That line of morality is so much easier to cross when you lose your comforts than to never have it at all. I think most people judge with their own intents and interests in mind without imagining what they would honestly do if they were placed in that situation.
I would have a huge problem with that and not just because I live in Houston. The conditions in Houston are obviously NOTHING like the conditions in NO. We have infrastructure in place, we have water, we have power, we have medical care, we have law and order. Right now NO has NONE of that. It's a totally different situation.
Here is what he said on Page 1 of this thread: 08-30-2005, 04:58 PM "I hope these people also looted themselves some birth control." However he said he never watched TV and had no idea NOLA is 75% black. But he admitted that if he had known that, it was inappropriate so I'm dropping it.
I was on my way down there to volunteer along w/ some Rotary friends of mine, but the ones that got there early told us that they weren't taking volunteers or even allowing those who showed up with food to distribute it!! Earlier in the day we had filled a U-haul w/ bottled water/ canned foods/towels etc. and some people are driving it to the refugee area in New Orleans.
Good post. Also, If I have 5 pairs of dry shoes, jeans, or other goods I might think I could trade some of them for food etc.
