The actions of the many Americans in N.O. during the disaster recovery is despicable. Looters, rapists and murderers have taken control of the city. I am still a proud American, but these actions have provoke some emotions and thoughts that I have not felt before about our nation. Disgust. I have even gone so far as to wish harm on the wrong doers. Have we as a nation lost all sense of humanity?

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"Democracy is a process by which the people are free to choose the man who will get the blame."

-Laurence J. Peter

Like I asked before, how can we expect to stand united against our enemies if we cannot even get along with each other?

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WARNING: In the unlikely event of an accidental agreement with any or all points made in the above post, contact a clinical psychologist immediately.

The views expressed in the above post are not necessarily those of Joker and/or any of his affiliates.

. "You have found the secret message. Do you have too much time on your hands? ...Let it go."

You have to understand that the people who were doing these things were ALREADY doing these things. They were just doing them covertly in their neighborhoods, and mst of their victims were poor white, black, and brown folks. They have ALWAYS acted like this. But, they have been kept under control and isolated into their ghettos by a heavy police presence in the touristy areas of N'awlins.

Now they are out and there is no control...

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I'll get nicer when you get smarter.

"A reader writes:


This kind of anarchy in big cities isn't unusual. What *is* unusual is that it's being exposed for what it is -- because the whole infrastructure has collapsed.



You can be sure it would happen anywhere else there's a booming, gov't-dependent underclass. The veneer of civilization is very thin."

This is exactly what people expect to happen when anarchy consumes an area. Regular people become thieves. People with sick desires feel that there is nothing left to lose, so they go ahead. I don't put the rapists and murderers in the same sentence as the looters. I can't come up with any rational explanation for rape and murder. But does anyone actually believe that if they were stuck in an area where the infrastructure collapsed, all communications were lost, and you still needed to keep your family or yourself alive that you would not steal from abandoned structures or the dead? Even if there was no evidence available to you that things would soon return to order? Morality is a luxury. Food and water are necessities.

For the most part, I agree with you here. Many people don't even need to face starvation or death by flood to begin acting animalistic. And I fully agree with your point that nothing breaks human moral codes down faster than desperation.

I'm a person who has never had much faith in mankind's general ability to do the right thing (not just in N.O., but this week has proven me SO right!). I expect very little from my fellow man, but some of the things I'm reading about in New Orleans are shocking, even to me. I just don't get it. Why shoot at a helicopter that's bringing food to your area??? Why shoot at the boat that is coming to rescue people in your area???

To protect or provide for my family, there aren't many things I wouldn't do. In fact, I can't really think of anything that I wouldn't do. Their lives are worth more to me than my own or anyone else's. The way I believe I would see this situation is, those rabid teens who are shooting at the boats and helicopters would be preventing my family from being rescued or fed. A ballistic tipped round from a .300 Weatherby will make a watermelon explode at 500 yards. My (unproved) theory is it would do the same to a human's skull. 3 guys shooting at a chopper. Guy #1's head explodes. Ahh, snap! The other 2 (rightfully) decide it's probably time to switch sides and help find a place for the chopper to land. With proper motivation, I've found humans will sometimes do the right thing.

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"Tweeter was a Boyscout before she went to Vietnam and found out the hard way... nobody gives a d@mn."

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I'll get nicer when you get smarter.

Crush them.

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"Better to die on you feet than live on your knees" - Emilio Zapata