What should happen to the New Orleans looters?
 

Discuss.

Re: What should happen to the New Orleans looters?
 

arrest them?

Re: What should happen to the New Orleans looters?
 

We saw the havoc that looters collectively can wrack upon a city illustrated quite dramatically in Baghdad.

Of course, in a situation like New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, the activities ongoing might be construed as "salvage" rather than looting.

But generally speaking, martial law, shoot on sight, and tagging executed looters where they fall with a bold-lettered sign (e.g., LOOTER) is the way to go.

Re: What should happen to the New Orleans looters?
 

Don't waste our valuable, yet limited, resources on something as insignificant (given the context of the disaster) as a property crime. In short, do nothing.

Re: What should happen to the New Orleans looters?
 

Nothing.

The store owners are not taking a loss here; they are insured. In fact, you could say that by now, any goods they have are owned by the insurance companies. But the insurance companies will not salvage most of them in order to sell, so the goods themselves have no inherent value, IMO. This goes especially for food items. By my way of thinking, they are now valueless items and should be free.

Open the doors of the grocery stores and let people have the stuff.

KJS

Re: What should happen to the New Orleans looters?
 

[ QUOTE ]
Nothing.

The store owners are not taking a loss here; they are insured.

[/ QUOTE ]

Not sure about this but isn't there an issue regarding what damage was caused by the hurricane winds and rain and what damage was caused by flooding as to whether and what people are covered for? My understanding is that most homeowners insurance does not cover floods and separate flood insurance must be purchased to cover flooding. Not sure if this extends to busnisses but I'm guessing it does.

Imagine if you're not covered by flood insurance trying to convince an insurance company that the damage was due to the hurricane and not the resulting flooding.

All the Jails are Flooded
 

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Shoot Them........
 

Martial law and shooting looters after huricanes use to be SOP(standard operating procedures). As a teenager I would watch the news coverage of hurricane damage and the policy of shooting looters was common place.

I'm not sure why the current state govenors are not doing so.

Re: What should happen to the New Orleans looters?
 

[ QUOTE ]
Imagine if you're not covered by flood insurance trying to convince an insurance company that the damage was due to the hurricane and not the resulting flooding.

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I'm not sure, but I think that many insurers do not necessarily cover damage from "natural catastrophes" or require additional policies for that. If an insurer did have extensive coverage in the NO area, I can't imagine them not going bankrupt at this point. I smell an enormous government bail-out on the taxpayers' dime...

Re: Shoot Them........
 

[ QUOTE ]
Martial law and shooting looters after huricanes use to be SOP(standard operating procedures). As a teenager I would watch the news coverage of hurricane damage and the policy of shooting looters was common place.

I'm not sure why the current state govenors are not doing so.

[/ QUOTE ]

Would you shoot someone coming out a store with a basket of canned goods, camping gear, and water (technically looting)? I couldn't. Obviously the stereotypical looting of TVs and stereos is what most are talking about here but given the circumstances and resources stretched to the limit how is it possible to discern? I also can't see handing that responsibilty over to private citizens who probably won't exercise proper judgement when protecting their property (protection of life is a completely different matter).