>SNIP
>>
>>Determination must be real.
>>
>>What negatively struck me, seeing television, were the many robbers. They were having a great time.
>
>Yes, the looters are having a field day, but it frankly seems quite short-sighted to me. Where are they going to put this stuff? What good is it going to do them?
>
>The police are powerless right now - no police stations to bring them to, no jails to lock them in, no justice place for bail or jail, etc.

Our news reports interviewed women calmly pushing shopping trolleys of goods inside a wrecked supermarket. One woman said that the police had OKd it. She said she had no food, water, shelter, even clothes. I guess:

1. the supermarkets and shops aren't going to sift through the damaged and sound goods once this is over - all will be just an insurance write-off, so people mi's well have them.
2. I don't suppose there are too many check-out staff in the stores to take the customers' money anyway
3. Many people DO actually desperately need these goods, having lost everything
4. OK, TVs aren't of much use right now but see point 1.

I saw 1 report with a cop pointing his shotgun at looters and ordering them to put down the clothes they were carrying. They may have desterately needed them for themselves or family. They just dropped them onto a muddy heap of rubble - what use to anyone now are those clothes - again, insurance write-offs.

This is a bizzare and tragic situation, totally unlike looting where, say, people have evacuated but the storm hasn't hit, or in a black-out.