[Industrialblog,
September 1, 2005]
Swine
Peggy Noonan writes:
The answer is no, they wouldn't stop it. That's why you shoot looters.
We had a bad time in the 1960s, and in the New York blackout in the '70s, and in the Los Angeles riots in the '90s. But the whole story of our last national crisis, 9/11, was courage--among the passersby, among the firemen, among those who walked down there stairs slowly to help a less able colleague, among those who fought their way past the flames in the Pentagon to get people out. And it gave us quite a sense of who we are as a people. It gave us a lot of renewed pride.
If New Orleans damages that sense, it's going to be painful to face. It's going to be damaging to the national spirit. More damaging even than a hurricane, even than the worst in decades.
I wonder if the cruel and stupid young people who are doing the looting know the power they have to damage their country. I wonder, if they knew, if they'd stop it.
The answer is no, they wouldn't stop it. That's why you shoot looters.
You can't even compare this to the 2003 blackout. Millions were affected by that, but people knew the lights would be back on eventually.
This is different. A total breakdown of society. A million refugees. Unknown numbers of dead, rotting in the flooded streets. People left with little more than the flesh on their bones. No enemy to strike back at. No sense that this will all be over in a few days and everybody can get back to normal. On 9/11, people walked for miles to get home - but their homes were still there. This can't be compared to 9/11.
A lot of the looting is for food and water. I saw women running out of a store with armloads of diapers. Do we want to shoot them?
Then you have the guys systematically looting stores and carting the stuff to shelters to sell to the refugees. Them, you shoot, and take their stuff and pass it out.
It's the latter group you mentioned that we shoot. The looters. Peggy Noonan makes the distinction in her article.
Especially the armed gangs ...