An American Lion

This is not looting. This is panic, anarchy, and a desperate fight for survival:

An arresting Damon Winter photo of a Haitian child graces the cover of the Sunday New York Times. A boy of about 10 wearing a bright red, oversized polo shirt, is caught mid-stride by the camera, dashing through the streets of Port-au-Prince, eyes gazing purposely ahead, gripping a white plastic bag.

The caption gives a seemingly “objective” recitation of the facts. “Haitians fled gunshots that rang out in downtown Port-au-Prince Saturday. Tons of relief supplies had arrived for delivery.”  It is up to the viewer to connect the dots, and connect them to another front-page article below the fold: “Looting Flares Where Order Breaks Down.”

So was the kid looting?

Nearly five years ago, when you could see photo captions of white Hurricane Katrina survivors side-by-side with black survivors, the racial double standard in the news media covering a catastrophic tragedy were obvious.  Hungry, desperate white survivors were “finding food” while hungry, desperate black survivors were “looting” for food.

Looting occurs when there is, palpably, the presence of some form of law and order AND a desire to exploit chaos for personal gain. In desperately poor Haiti, the entire city of Port au Prince is irretrievably broken. There is no food, no water, no law and no order. When someone says that the people should only be “looting” or taking food and water and nothing more, they are missing the point entirely. Stealing in this manner becomes a frenzy; a panic sets in. The people cannot be expected to distinguish between what they need and what they think they need.

For example, there is someone in that article saying that you’re not looting if you’re stealing food and water; you are looting if you’re stealing bolts of carpet.

In a city where there is no shelter, stealing bolts of carpet, which could be used to create temporary shelter, makes sense to me. And it is not looting. It’s an irrational panic, brought on by a complete and total breakdown of society. It’s a return to stone age thinking—survival becomes paramount. Therefore, stealing anything, however irrational, that may allow a human comfort or survival becomes a rolling panic in a crowd situation. Why else would someone steal a can of Chef Boy-ar-dee Spaghetti when they don’t have a can opener? The absence of a can opener is not the first thing on a the mind of a desperately dehydrated and starving  human being.

It’s not about race, it’s about class. It’s about being poor and hungry. No matter what race you are, you’re going to do whatever you can to survive because you’re human. To introduce Katrina and race into this is to miss the boat entirely. They are not stealing in Haiti because they are black. They’re stealing because they are frightened, hungry, thirsty, injured, homeless and being shot at.

Look at that picture above. It tells the entire story. Frightened police officers with shotguns and no discernible order are trying to protect property in a ruined city. There is nothing of value left to protect. And yet, they are shooting the wrong people for the wrong thing. They should be protecting doctors and food distribution points, not shooting blindly into crowds. All they are doing is creating more panic, more frenzy, more killing and more wounded, which will overtax medical authorities. Those shotguns are putting pellets into human bodies, and an over-worked medical person is going to have use badly needed supplies to remove those pellets.

And for what? To protect a city that is already destroyed? To protect goods that have no value anymore because they are lying damaged in a devastated city?

What a useless endeavor. You can’t explain this to anyone.