>From a N.O. blogger, hanging on by his fingernails:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/interdictor/
. . . The Iberville Housing Projects got pissed off because the police started to "shop" after they kicked out looters. Then they started shooting at cops. When the cops left, the looters looted everything. There's probably not a grocery left in this city.
. . . 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....
WS:
It strikes me as making the same type of blanket prejudice based on the status of the involved person as some of the media stories showing black people "looting" and white people "retrieving goods."
Undoubtedly, there are corrupt cops in NO - is not it what NO is known for? - but it is also good police work to retrieve weapons and ammunition or cash in the situation of total lawlessness. The cops observed doing that may be doing good police work or looting, or perhaps some of each, but the casual observer has no way of knowing which. He/she makes a blanket judgment based on his/her own prejudices - just as the media people do.
Have the common sense and critical judgment went south altogether on this list?
Wojtek