[Mb-civic] The looting instinct - Jeff Jacoby - Boston Globe

[William Swiggard]

The looting instinct

By Jeff Jacoby, Globe Columnist  |  September 4, 2005

HURRICANE KATRINA was horrific in its devastation, but the orgy of 
looting and lawlessness that exploded across New Orleans in its wake 
was, in a way, even more sinister. A natural disaster can inflict 
massive physical damage on a community. But when human beings become 
savages, they shred the ligaments of civilization -- fairness, trust, 
respect, consideration -- that make life as a community possible.

The viciousness began almost before the storm had passed. A Wal-Mart was 
one of the first stores broken into; its inventory of guns promptly 
disappeared. Crowds of thieves ransacked clothing stores, jewelry 
stores, liquor stores. In full view of television crews and news 
photographers -- and in some cases, even police or National Guardsmen -- 
looters hauled cases of stolen beer through hip-deep water, filled trash 
barrels with clothes, shoes, and jewelry, and crammed car trunks with 
computers and DVD players. In a video clip shown on NBC, security guards 
joined looters in stripping one shop bare. Police officers looted, too.

To break into a drugstore protected by a steel barrier, reported The New 
York Times, ''someone had stolen a forklift, driven it four blocks, 
peeled up the security gate, and smashed through the front door." 
Thieves entered the parking garage of a New Orleans hospital and 
stripped cars of their batteries and stereos. Carjackers stole a vehicle 
from a nursing home bus driver. Looters ransacked a police truck filled 
with food.

But the breakdown of civil society didn't stop with attacks on property. 
Soon the predators were attacking people.

On Thursday, New Orleans Police Chief Eddie Compass described the 
savagery inside the convention center, where 15,000 people had taken 
shelter: ''We have individuals who are getting raped; we have 
individuals who are getting beaten." He sent 88 police officers to 
restore order; they were beaten back by a mob. Police snipers took up 
positions on precinct roofs, on guard against the armed gangs who were 
roaming the city. Not all the corpses turning up in New Orleans were of 
drowning victims. Some had been shot to death. The Federal Emergency 
Management Agency was trying to operate, director Michael Brown said, 
''under conditions of urban warfare."

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/09/04/the_looting_instinct/
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