Observations on Looting

Good post from Amba on racial issues in the coverage of the N.O. looting.

As I post some of these things, I want to urge balanced skepticism and remind everyone that there are plenty of Web-savvy attention seekers out there who, for whatever reasons, might make up elaborate ruses about their Katrina experiences. I am assuming that those that I post are legit -- the bizarre circumstances allow them benefit of the doubt -- but I still want to keep that skeptical eye out.

Having said that, check out this LiveJournal page from a N.O. resident who is living a Lord-of-the-Flies existence in a high-rise. Not exactly confidence-inspiring comments about the police and looting:

Looting: The police are looting. This has been confirmed by several independent sources. Some of the looting might be "legitimate" in as much as that word has any meaning in this context. They have broken into ATMs and safes: confirmed. We have eyewitnesses to this. They have taken dozens of SUVs from dealerships ostensibly for official use. They have also looted gun stores and pawn shops for all the small arms, supposedly to prevent "criminals" from doing so. But who knows their true intentions. We have an inside source in the NOPD who says that command and control is in chaos. He reports that command lapses more than 24 hours between check-ins, and that most of the force are "like deer in the headlights." NOPD already had a reputation for corruption, but I am telling you now that the people we've been talking to say they are not recognizing the NOPD as a legitimate authority anymore, since cops have been seen looting in Walmarts and forcing people out of stores so they could back up SUVs and loot them. Don't shoot the messenger....