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Tim Taylor
Dr. Wendt
Unit 2 Response Essay
2-17-14
Looting after Hurricane Katrina
After Hurricane Katrina hit, New Orleans was stricken with looters; stealing all sorts
of appliances for both personal gain and survival. Looting is defined as stealing during
times of disaster. The stealing not only took place in the actual city, but online as well.
Corporations like Wal-Mart and Home Depot rounded up supplies before the storm hit for a
precautionary measure. Supplies that should prove useful in times of disaster, and would
additionally act as a counter against looting.
The looting was by any criteria massive. Not only were all consumer goods in
sight stolen. But electrical and wall fixtures as well as carpets were also
stripped. The biggest malls with over 150 shops as well as two others were
swept clean with less than 10 percent of the businesses reporting they were
not totally looted (Quarentelli 884).
Enrico Quarentelli, who wrote “Conventional Beliefs and Counterintuitive Realities,” then
explained the looting started with juvenile gangs who chose stores holding expensive
consumer goods. Secondly, people with no pre-existing criminal charges targeted hardware
stores. Finally the main crowd followed both groups and looted grocery stores with basic
necessities (Quarentelli 884). New Orleans was a mad house after Katrina hit, Stanton
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Samenow who wrote “Making Sense of Senseless Looting,” spoke out, “They snatched
items from stores that they could not possibly use--multiple pairs of shoes, televisions, and
other appliances” (Samenow 1). He then said, “They invaded commercial establishments,
ransacked homes, and even looted and vandalized the D-Day Museum” (Samenow 1).
New Orleans benefited from private enterprises divvying out supplies and food to
the victims of Katrina. If not for these enterprises, much more conflict and casualties could
have resulted from Katrina’s aftermath. Steven Horwitz, wrote "Wal-Mart to the rescue:
Private Enterprise's Response to Hurricane Katrina,” and remarked how Wal-Mart did
come to the rescue.
The untold story of Katrina involves the way in which Wal-Mart in particular
responded with speed and effectiveness, often in spite of government relief
workers' attempts to stymie it, and in the process saved numerous lives and
prevented looting and chaos that otherwise would have occurred (Horwitz
1).
The mayor of a suburb in New Orleans (Kenner) Phillip Capitano said, “The only lifeline in
Kenner was the Wal-Mart stores. We didn’t have looting on a mass scale because Wal-Mart
showed up with food and water so our people could survive” (Horwitz 1). Horwitz
explained in more detail by saying, “Wal-Mart quickly got a good sense of the disaster's
dimensions and adjusted its estimate of the supplies its stores and the community would
need” (Horwitz 1) and how, “The company moved emergency supplies such as generators,
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dry ice, and bottled water from their current warehouse locations "to designated staging
areas so that company stores would be able to open quickly” (Horwitz 1).
“Wal-Mart was not alone in providing much-needed resources to the stricken
areas; other big-box retailers, such as Home Depot and Lowe's, also
responded similarly. However, Wal-Mart's response was the largest and,
according to local reports, the most effective” (Horwitz 1).
Horwitz also pointed out,
In the three weeks following the storm's landfall, Wal-Mart shipped almost
twenty-five hundred truckloads of merchandise to the affected areas and had
drivers and trucks in place to ship relief supplies to community members and
organizations wishing to help (Horwitz 1).
“For example, a distribution center in Brookhaven, Mississippi, had forty-five trucks in
place before Katrina's landfall” (Horwitz 1). Regarding Home Depot, Horwitz wrote, “Home
Depot provided more than eight hundred truckloads of supplies to the hard-hit areas and
used buses to transport one thousand employees to the region from other areas” (Horwitz
1). Wal-Mart and Home Depot are both recognized for providing supplies during tough
times, but the difference between the two enterprises was the timing. Horwitz revealed
some eye opening facts in his article,
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By Wednesday, August 24, five days before Katrina's eventual landfall on the
Gulf Coast, the command center had gone into planning mode, and two days
later, when Katrina struck Florida, the complement of personnel in the
command center exceeded fifty persons (Horwitz 1).
“For example, a distribution center in Brookhaven, Mississippi, had forty-five trucks in
place before Katrina's landfall” (Horwitz 1).
Whenever the social fabric weakens, the criminal moves in. We have seen
this all over the world. When governments fall, the criminal spots
opportunity. The Mafia took hold as Communism fell in the former Soviet
Union. When Saddam Hussein's regime ended, lawlessness prevailed in much
of Iraq (Samenow 1).
This problem has always been around. “However, the mentality as articulated by one
perpetrator is, 'Right' is what I want to do at the time” (Samenow 1). “The destruction of
the city provided criminals with a vast arena in which to operate. They could help
themselves to whatever they wanted with impunity. And so it became open season to steal
whatever was not bolted down” (Samenow 1). Samenow is very keen on the fact that once
some kind of uproar in government or catastrophic occurrence, the flood gates open. He
believes people loot because they can and want to, and he backs up his belief with this; “I
remember one man who stole a huge iron cross from a church just to brag that he could do
it” (Samenow 1).
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Looting is a difficult act to comprehend. Were looters looting for personal need or
personal gain? Dorrance Kennedy wrote “When Trouble Comes”, a chapter in The Sky is
Crying; Race, Class, and Natural Disaster, which is an anthology focusing on how the
government turned its back on the poor and the hurricanes aftermath itself. Kennedy wrote
an important thought,
And, there has been much discussion about the looting that took place in New
Orleans – people carjacking, and stealing food, televisions, and VCR’s. We
know that looting is wrong. Some people stole food and water because they
were dehydrated and starving to death; but these people were not the only
‘looters’ (Kennedy 200).
This brings up the Suspension Theory, which is described by Casey Faucon,
Some people initially react to looting as ‘wrong,’ while others excuse the act
as justified because they are sympathetic to looters in the neediest
circumstances. However, these feelings have a basis in the law. The
Suspension Theory allows society to see that its reactions have a direct
causal relationship to how a looter disrupts existing property rights (Faucon
1).
The Suspension Theory is then explained in further detail, again asking the question why.
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The Suspension Theory demonstrates that society's differing reactions to
looting are causally dependent upon how each different looting scenario
affects existing property rights. The responses vary depending on the type of
goods that the looters take, raising the question as to why this is (Faucon 1).
“Property affects our personhood,” after the new type of looting exemplified in Katrina, all
types of looting affect our personhood and society in different ways (Faucon 1). “The
Suspension Theory provides us with one possible explanation. It shows us that our societal
responses to looting are connected to our conceptions of property laws, without which we
may not have found such a causal connection” (Faucon 1).
Whenever the social fabric weakens, the criminal moves in. We have seen
this all over the world. When governments fall, the criminal spots
opportunity. The Mafia took hold as Communism fell in the former Soviet
Union. When Saddam Hussein's regime ended, lawlessness prevailed in much
of Iraq (Samenow 1).
Hardware and groceries were not the only things looted from New Orleans prior to
Hurricane Katrina. Paul Roberts who wrote “Cyber-looters Capitalize on Katrina” explains
the hidden looting not known to many people. “Within hours of the storm's landfall late last
month, scam artists snapped up Katrina-related web domains and began using them to
siphon money from unwitting web surfers” (Roberts 1). “State attorneys general in
Missouri and Florida both took action last week to shut down Web sites with names such as
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katrinahelp.com and katrinafamilies.com, which were using the tragedy to direct money to
dubious organizations” (Roberts 1). Roberts then said “On Sept. 3 alone, about 450
domains with the word "Katrina" in them were registered” (Roberts 1), but then ended the
article by giving solutions in blocking spam and developing “a web domain reputation
service” (Roberts 1) to stop the looting completely.
Although some individuals loot under survival terms, most of the looting taken place
after Katrina was solely for personal gain. There were corporations in the New Orleans
community lending supplies to victims of the storm, but that did not put a halt to looting as
a whole. Several people out there took advantage of the opportunity when the criminal
justice was down. As a result, it took New Orleans that much longer to get their community
and city built up again to get back to being one of the major tourist attractions in the
country.
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Works Cited
Horwitz, Steven. "Wal-Mart to the rescue: Private Enterprise's Response to Hurricane
Katrina" Independent Review 13.4 (2009): 511-528 EBSCO Host. Web. 11 Feb. 2014
Steven Horwitz wrote about Wal-Mart preventing looting after Katrina. He explained about
Wal-Mart preparing before Katrina even hit, and how they provided food, shelter, and
appliances to the victims of the hurricane. He also said home depot did a lot of the same
preparing as Wal-Mart did to diminish looting in New Orleans.
Kennedy, Dorrance. "When Trouble Comes." The Sky Is Crying Race, Class, and Natural
Disaster. Ed. Cheryl A. Kirk-Duggan. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2006. 199-202 print.
Dorrance Kennedy wrote about Hurricane Katrina, and the damage it left behind. The
chapter I focused on is called "When Trouble Comes". Kennedy explained the trouble going
on after the hurricane hit, she knows first hand what happened after experiencing the
hurricane in person. I personally took information from page 200, the information
regarded looting in New Orleans, and what types of things were taken.
Faucon, Casey E. "The suspension theory: Hurricane Katrina Looting, property rights, and
personhood" Louisiana Law Review 70.4 (2010): 1303-1338 EBSCO Host. web. 11
Feb. 2014
Casey Faucon writes about the different kinds of looters, and what they steal. Casey focused
on the necessity looters, luxury looters, and the Wal-Mart looters. The historic background
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of looting was given, along with multiple looting scenarios. Lastly looting was discussed on
a criminal account, with the potential effect on criminal laws.
Roberts, Paul F. "Cyber-looters Capitalize on Katrina" eWeek 22.36 (2005): 11-12 EBSCO
Host. web. 11 Feb 2014
Paul Roberts discussed the impact of cyber looting during the weeks following hurricane
Katrina. He wrote about how much money was taken total, and how that number was
larger than the actual looting in New Orleans itself.
Samenow, Stanton E. "Making Sense of 'Senseless Looting'" The Forensic Examiner
14.4 (2005): 45 Academic OneFile.web. 11 Feb. 2014
Stanton Samenow writes about why people loot in times of disaster. He explains who loots
and where it usually happens. He also explains when it starts and when it starts to die
down. There are some pictures of New Orleans after Katrina in the article, along with some
key examples of looting.
Quarentelli, Enrico L. "Conventional Beliefs and Counterintuitive Realities" University of
Delaware Disaster Research Center 450 (2008): 883-886 Google Scholar. web. 11 Feb.
2014
Enrico Quarentelli was mentioned in the article from unit one. The article "Conventional
Beliefs and Counterintuitive Realities" focuses on popular myths and widely held incorrect
beliefs about individuals and groups in times of disaster. The part I was interested in talked
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about looting and its impact on the society and city of New Orleans. Enrico talked about
who started the looting, and what kinds of things were looted from where.