Here we go again…
Looters in Wilmington, NC, at a Dollar General, no less… HERE. And more looters, HERE. This is one of the reasons folks don’t want to leave, and I understand that, but at the same time, if you choose to stay, you are responsible for your own safety, IMHO. Changing your mind mid-hurricane, and yelling for rescue, then getting pissed when they don’t come get you is YOUR fault.
Damn looters should be shot, period. There was a lot of looting in NOLA during Katrina, including by the cops, and it was never prosecuted (at least to my knowledge).
There were ‘reports’, quickly hushed up, about some looters being shot in some neighborhoods, but nobody looked real deep into those reports… But most of the folks I know down that way didn’t eat catfish for six months.
And there was looting during Harvey too, HERE. I think there was quite a bit less during Harvey, simply because there were more armed people guarding their property/subdivisions/businesses.
I have absolutely NO sympathy for the looters, they aren’t after food/water/necessities, they’re after TVs, booze, athletic shoes, jewelry, etc. Stuff that’s easy to pawn, or barter for ‘stuff’.
Kicking the soapbox back in the corner and looking for my BP meds… sigh
Is there anything more pathetic than a shoplifter at a dollar store?
Leave ’em in the street as a warning.
Or hang them from light poles.
Ever since we stop shooting rioters and looters both have become more commonplace. LOOTERS AND RIOTERS should be shot and hung from a tree or lamp post with a sign that says LOOTER or RIOTER around their neck. That would slow it down
At least it’d reduce repeat offenders.
In the first article you linked to, the Wilmington PD are reported to have said they “were initially asked by management ‘not to intervene at this time.’”
I’m taking that to mean that they are referring to management of the retail store, but it might be referring to city/enforcement management, too.
In either case, it presents problems, doesn’t it?
I guess I can understand the owner of a store, who has already written his entire inventory off on an insurance claim, being grateful for the people who are cleaning the damaged goods out of the aisles (said with a degree of snark).
However, is it proper for a person owning a store to have control of the on/off switch for law enforcement? I see this as being different than a merchant choosing not to press charges after a thief has been caught; in that case, they don’t want to spend the time they would have to in order to go to court, etc. But in THIS case, if I’m understanding it correctly, they are asking the cops not to do the job.
That’s hinky, at best. And maybe if I was the insurer, and I knew the merchant hadn’t taken reasonable precautions to protect the inventory, maybe I would be disinclined to write out that check.
My take, if it was store management, because store management stepped outside the law, they should be charged with inciting a riot.
The law is the law.
I was talking to a friend after looters after Hurricane Ike. He has close friends in law enforcement, and was told the number of looters shot was higher than news reports. I’m guessing the looters were from out of town, research indicated they weren’t productive members of society, and there was really no reason to make an investigation.
I know what the local rule on looter is: shoot on sight. Such predators make coyotes look like house pets, and ridding society of these animals is necessary.
Good on Texas for adding the enhanced charges for idiots found looting during a disaster. Maybe if more states and municipalities passed those laws, some folks might think twice.
My question, when my cousin said he boarded up his home in Wilmington with his wife and teen age daughter inside as he had to go to his work to help prevent flooding into the plant, was did he leave the gals with a means to protect themselves? The answer was “Oh yea!” His daughter is a senior in high school now, and evidently enjoys going to the range. They grow up so quick!
I think it is just so sad that in the middle of a hurricane, there are idiots are planning on going looting. What goes on in people’s minds? I just don’t understand…
Signs in Florida: You Loot, We Shoot!
Florida residents are experienced hurricane survivors, and the aftermath of a hurricane can make for a hard three or four days. Eventually, things get fixed up and life returns to normal. The people I feel sorry for during a hurricane are the working class poor. The little they have is likely to be destroyed, and they have no where to evacuate to except the FEMA run shelters. Believe me, no one with the sense God gave a water moccasin wants to go to a FEMA shelter.
There is a big difference in scavenging for survival and looting. Both are bad.
Scavenging for survival after a disaster is only ‘permissible’ if the authorities aren’t able to help and the scavenging is for needed supplies. Grey area, but for the most part an allowable one. One must survive until help does arive.
Looting, basically free shopping, for whatever, should always be an immediate “Drop the stuff or you will be shot” moment. This continuing breakdown of the social order in our country, where it is acceptable to smash and grab whatever as soon as 30 people congregate, is destroying us all. It affects us in areas where the ‘Free Shite’ army never will appear. And it is just wrong.
Open fire on site. Same with any riot that becomes violent. Start throwing stuff at other people or cops? “Level, Fire.” Hop up on an Interstate and shut it down? “Level, Fire.” Start smashing store windows for Christmas presents for all your kids and dope dealers? “Level, Fire.”
Don’t want to be shot? Don’t enter into a riotous thieving mob.
That’s my two cents worth.
I have always liked the response to the riot at the end of gangs of New York. I believe they Commander said you are ordered to disperse and when the do not they opened fire and kept advancing and shooting.
All- Don’t disagree with anyone, thanks for the comments!
Posted from my iPhone.
Hey Old NFO;
Man I can’t add anything to the comments by the other posters and what “Beans” said is spot one about the breakdown of society.
Bob- It’s happening… sigh
Why should you kick your soapbox back into the corner? That’s the NFO we love. Your soapbox is the same soap I use. I concur!
A FB friend posted a photo of a case of water in a supermarket that had been marked up to $24 – he called it “supply and demand”. I call it illegal. Since when does a weather related disaster give supermarkets a license to price gouge it’s customers, or dirtbags permission to loot stores or homes that have been evacuated? And if you loot a dollar store, you should beg to be shot – because you’re a total loser.
I have mixed feelings about the blatant price gouging that often takes place after a major catastrophe. It’s supply and demand, which is the way our system works. Wouldn’t prices go through the roof under any other kind of shortage? I seem to remember the price of .22 ammunition increasing sharply some years back.
First of all, it’s illegal. Second – there was plenty of advance warning that a storm was coming, grocery stores had adequate time to stock up on additional cases of water. For people living from paycheck to paycheck, jacking up the price of gas to $10 a gallon could prevent some of them from evacuating.
During Hurricane Fran, there were multiple reports of debris removal that came with exorbitant prices. One landscaper was arrested for charging an elderly woman $18,000 to remove two fallen trees.
Don’t want to pay $24 for a case of bottled water? What if the next store you go to has no water? Overcharging for gas, water, propane, or hotel rooms isn’t supply and demand, it’s taking advantage of people’s desperation during a natural disaster.
Modern supermarkets don’t have much stock room anymore. Everything really is on next-day order status, ordered by 5pm, loaded on trucks from distribution centers and at the store by 10am the next day. There is no ‘Stock’ anymore in most stores.
As to the people? Well, every year, comes around May of every year hurricane season begins. Why shouldn’t the people be prepared by, well, May? I have been, all my adult life. I keep 2 cases of water all the time, and supplement it with another case or two along with 10 gallons in 1 gallon jugs just in case, from May to December.
So, a store jacking its prices up right before, and during, is no problem to me. Considering there are lots of relief agencies that provide water and basics after the storm, there should be no reason for even a partially prepared person to have to buy ‘inflated’ prices. Want to tackle someone who’s price gouging? Attack the vendor prices at music or sports venues.
As to hotel rooms, again, by charging more for rooms it keeps one family from dominating a whole section, leaving no room for other refugees. Again, want to attack price gouging, then hit it during football season or holiday pricing.
Me? I understand that the hotels will be hit by huge repairs after every storm (ever seen the damage caused by storm refugees?) And stores that will be closed for days or so, who’s going to pay to fix and restock? Pay for the employees who have to do the cleanup (refrigerator and freezer cases need major cleaning after the power is out.) And some store chains, like Publix, have to afford to run their backup generators, which cost lots of money.
Tree removal? I’ve had to pay $6,000 for one tree during non-storm season (really bad tree, dangerous) so $18,000 does not sound too unreasonable. Again, that’s what prepared people have preps for, insurance or church resources or such.
Price gouging is what DeBeers has done with diamonds. Or textbook printers, or, sadly pharma companies, or United Launch Alliance. Charging way excessive prices during normal times, that’s price gouging.
What makes it illegal is a bunch of people who don’t understand economics. Like those who push for ‘rent control’ or ‘minimum wage,’ both of which it has been shown though they sound good actually are probably two of the worse concepts ever foisted upon us.
You make a lot of great points – especially planning ahead and stocking during hurricane season. Reminds me of co-workers who walked around the city for two hours looking for a open place to eat after Mother Nature dumped 36″ of snow on our fair city. Despite the hysteria of the local meteorologists – they had no food in their house.
One gouger you left out – movie theaters!
Shoot looters and leave their bodies in the open as a warning