> Max:
>
> >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.
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
This comment above is not from someone on this list so your fears of irrationality run amok on the list can be put to rest.
The author also only questions the intention of the police. He is not stating for a fact that their intentions are for personal gain exclusively or even primarily. He is most probably correct. It makes sense to try and remove firearms from a city such as this but that doesn't mean many of the weapons won't end up in the homes of cops or sold by them later. Cops steal, a lot, get used to it.
John Thornton