Why during Hurricane Katrina, when people evacuated, what followed was looting, murder, rape, etc .. BUT?

Question

When people are evacuating from the California wild fires, when they evacuate there is no looting, murder, rape, and more folks are helping one another that not? What is the big difference?

Are some of you implying that it is more acceptable to murder, loot and rape if you come from a low income? Income should have nothing to do with civility!

Answer 1

I live on the Gulf Coast and we know exactly what the problem was (is). Keep in mind that rape, murder and looting did NOT take place in Mississippi -- only in the city of New Orleans, the murder and crime capitol of the U.S. Call it cultural, economic, oppression, whatever....the fact is the city has been a cesspool of corruption, drugs and crime for over thirty years. Those idiots didn't even have enough brains to LEAVE after five days of pleading from every govt. agency down there before the hurricane made landfall. Look at some of the aerial photos of the flood damage taken a few weeks after the flood. Every damn home you see has at least one car parked in the driveway yet all those hapless crybabies just sat around waiting for someone to come along and bus them away to safety. Hell, I sat on those very same levees twenty years ago and wondered why in the heck any sane person would live there -- twenty five feet below sea level with only a dirt wall between you and certain death. DUH. But it's always some else's fault -- like the Corps of Engineers (whatever....)
What is it about that city that makes everyone so sorry? The mayor; a crooked P.O.S. that hid in Dallas and then blamed everyone else for his misconduct. The Governor; a ditzy, braindead politician that wouldn't even ASK for federal aid for 72 hours after the storm hit, even the Saints -- the world's sorriest football team every year since they began. I swear, as much as I dearly love that city the United States would be much better without it.

Answer 2

It has to do with the people who chose not to evacuated New Orleans before the hurricane. Unfortunately some of those people were criminal types who remained in New Orleans for the express purpose of looting and such when it was over. They saw the chance to have free reign with little or no restrictions. They knew that police and law enforcement would be minimal.

Answer 3

Well armies of police and security, national guard etc., were dispatched to deter this type of behavior, unlike New Orleans. Personally, I hold the mayor responsible for most of the carnage. He knew it was coming, days before it actually hit and should have made better decisions and taken stronger measures for his people. He knew there would be a chance for years, so did the past mayors, and they all knew the levies needed repair. Federal monies were sent to do the job, but it was never accomplished.

Yes, unfortunately the poverty level does have a lot to do with it whether you would like to admit it or not. Watch how fast California will be rebuilt as compared to New Orleans, Biloxi, etc.

Money talks my friend. A sad but true fact.

Sorry so long winded here, you can thumbs me down now.

Answer 4

Because people were running for there lives during the fires getting away quickly. Also, there was a presence of many authorities (police&firemen) around.

During Katrina it took forever for any law enforcement. Human nature is that if the cats away the mice will play. Also, the New Orleans area has a larger lower socio-economic area with less educated people.

Answer 5

First of all we only hear one side of the story. I do not condone the behavior reported after katrina. But I also find it funny how we were hearing these negative stories about the residents, but everyone was covering up the incompetence going on from the highest level of government. In California, Arnold has been doing a great job with support from different branches of government. They didn't have that durring Katrina, for AT LEAST A WEEK. Also there has been looters in California.

Katrina was much different from the fires in California.

Means to evacuate, and preparation is the first difference. People were able to take their cars and go to neigboring towns. They could afford to do so.

The second difference is people effected by Katrina were out of food or water, for days, let me emphasize that, D-A-Y-S. Most of the looters were trying to get neccessities. Like FOOD, DIAPERS, FORMULA. I don't know about you but if I am without a meal. I am pissed and cranky. There were babies with no formula. Maybe you don't have children but you try to keep children quiet when they are displaced and hungry.

There seemed to be no one coming to there rescue. They were being called refugees. As if they didn't belong to this country.

Don't forget families were displaced, floating dead bodies, were everywhere.

In California they had food, shelter water, not crowded. They even had masseuse there.

THATS THE BIG DIFFERENCE!!!

Answer 6

The difference is that some people might have thought they had more time to play with in New Orleans, whereas in California they didn't. Would you hang around if there was fire on your ***? In addition to that, New Orleans was a city where the majority of people were disadvantaged. Where there are so many poor people, you will also find those who react in desperation. I read you loud and clear. Your question seems innocuous enough but I decipher a subtle, racial implication to it. No. It had nothing to do with race. It had everything to do with poverty and desperation,too many people all thrown together in one small space, young, old, decent and criminal, sane and demented, and that inevitably led to bad behavior. If thousands of different people in California had to be confined to one auditorium for several days or weeks, what do you think the outcome would be?
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Edit: I would like to add that one of the major contentions by people in New Orleans, is that many of them tried to take items that they needed in order to survive. Not everyone tried to commit theft or other crimes. Some reports of looting were exaggerated. If you were in a disaster area and needed food, blankets,formula and diapers for your children and saw them sitting in a store that was abandoned and getting destroyed by water, what would you do?

Answer 7

Although everyone above me seems to think socio-economics and education levels averted violence, I believe it was the fact that the mayor called a state of emergency. This enabled the national guard, military and police enforcement powers that were delayed in NO because the emergency wasn't declared for so long. In addition, even the news teams were noting license numbers of those in evacuated areas who didn't appear to live there for investigation by authorities. That really helped those of us in evacuated neighborhoods feel secure that our homes and properties wouldn't be looted. And, because this was broadcast on the news, looters were put on alert that this would not be tolerated.

At Qualcomm, the Red Cross, Salvation Army and other volunteers organized the distribution of donated supplies and the processing of evacuees. When it was discovered that those who were not affected evacuees were hoarding donated goods in their tents, filling up pick-up trucks and selling these goods off site, the volunteers quickly called in law enforcement and arrests were made immediately. Once again this was also broadcast, so that scammers and slime buckets realized that this behavior was not going to be tolerated and they would be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Finally, evacuees themselves were vigilant, reporting activities that were suspicious, unseemly or unlawful assured of the fact that it would be immediately investigated. There is a sense of conservative morality in San Diego that there is assistance for those truly in need but those who take advantage for their own gain are wicked and must be stopped.

Answer 8

I hate to have to say it, but... the crimes that accompany different types of "crises" normally occur in poor communities where the residents feel disadvantaged and/or oppressed. When people feel deprived unfairly of something they feel entitled to, and an opportunity presents itself to easily acquire those entitlements, they seem to do so. Anger and frustration that are barely kept in check under normal circumstances are unleashed in crisis situations.

The California fires are mostly affecting moderately affluent home and business owners who are fully insured. They feel generally successful and don't live with the day to day tension of feeling they have a raw deal in life. Sure, they are experiencing a devastating loss, but one they are mostly confident they will recover from. They can afford to be helpful.

For the most part, the poor, who are concerned with day to day survival, probably tend to develop a more self-centered world view while the affluent, who have little concern for day to day survival, probably are free to think about the lives of others.

I'm not meaning to put anyone or any group down, I just think those are the personal dynamics that naturally develop. Maybe not the best answer, but the best I can do!

Answer 9

To me the difference is one - that New Orleans was so chaotic and so unprepared for anything like that (although it had been warned for many years since the last major one in the 1960s) that mass hysteria ensued; two - I believe that it was much easier on a practical level to address the disaster in California; and three - I hate to play the race and social class cards, but well, it's true - the area where the fires are in California is a largely affluent and white population while in New Orleans most of the people who were stuck were poor and minorities. In this country, if you don't have the money, you get left and no one really cares if you survive or not. Social Darwinism on full display.

Answer 10

In Japan rape is less newsworthy. But if it happens enough it will make the Japanese news. The looting after Katrina was less of a problem that the vigilantes reaction. Japanese people are less worried about petty thieves tha Americans are.