Heartbreaking photos from LA Times Photojournalist in Haiti

[flamingdem]

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/photography/la-fg-haiti-hires-html,0,7123168.htmlstory

[Skittles]

1. would be better if it didn't start with looter pics

[flamingdem]

2. I know, the focus is on looting for some reason

but that hasn't been covered much on CNN or MSNBC.

It's not PC, but it is happening, and the controversy is obviously that the police are so hard core, even towards a guy with evaporated milk.

[Skittles]

3. looting will always occur under desperate circumstances

sure there are always opportunistic folk but much of the looting comes from desperation

[CreekDog]

4. did you look at what they were carrying?

i saw fabric, rice, baskets. i'm not sure i'd characterize what people take when their survival is in jeopardy as simple "looting".

[Jamastiene]

6. To me, if they are taking survival items,

that should be fair game in these types of complete disasters. I wouldn't call it looting in that case. I'd call it desperation and survival. The food and milk will just go bad if not used. Let them take the food, water, and milk.

If they are trying to take a 60" HDTV, sure, call it looting then. If they are starving and desperate, geez, let them try to survive. I feel so bad for the dude arrested for taking milk.

[parasim]

10. The pics are fine (but tragic), calling them "looters" is not.

They should be calling them "survivalists".

[Leopolds Ghost]

14. We all know what underlying condition would be necessary for them to be called "survivalists". n/t

[Jamastiene]

5. That evaporated milk will go to waste.

In that case, it bothers me the man was arrested. Milk isn't exactly a 60" HDTV. :(

[lostnfound]

15. His lips look dry like he is dehydrated.

It is absurd that anyone cares about looting in an environment like that. What, Haitian grocery stores in rubble should be left alone while supplies are being flown in from around the world to alleviate the crisis?? If you even HAVE money (ATMs working, by any chance??) will the shopkeeper be there to take it, or are they lying under a pile of rubble or trying to dig out their neighbors? This is just stupid. Not to mention that a whole lot of goods will be destroyed when the first rain hits.

Asinine and utterly inhuman attitude.

[Leopolds Ghost]

19. And just think, our relief workers will go in there and back up the "police" against the "looters".

This is why I get irritated when people say that things are proceeding as best they possibly can under the circumstances.

We can HOPE that, but it's not true by DEFINITION IF the people we have on the ground buy into these attitudes ("Forget the bodies, focus on the looters first") and become part of the problem.

[Prometheus Bound]

18. I guess that cop will feel like a big man.

Fuck, if I was a cop, I'd organise an assembly line to make sure the evaporated milk goes to people who need it instead of it being wasted.

[Ron Green]

7. The LA Times caption writers are mostly full of shit.

The fact is that people are in survival mode. The emphasis on "looting" is standard racism and fearmongering.

[Leopolds Ghost]

8. This is the sort of repulsive shit that shouldn't be going on. My fears were right.

This is the sort of repulsive shit that shouldn't be going on. My fears were right.

** No visible Western relief aid presence.

** Relief workers obviously sticking to vehicles in accessible areas due to "security concerns"

** Emphasis on "looting" instead of scavenging.

** Emphasis on letting people "do their own thing" instead of organizing the survivors like Honore said.

** Then shooting at them when they attempt to scavenge for blankets, food, etc. Life of survivors not valued

** "looters" / scavengers percieved as a security threat.

** Bodies dumped haphazardly outside the morgue by people with no respect for the dead

** The fact that most people viewing these images will be repulsed by the way the
bodies were treated, and then say "oh well, it's a major disaster in a third world country,
be thankful they would never treat bodies like that here" and go back to eating their dinners.

** "Scientists focus on areas with high seismic standards while ignoring poorer regions, one expert says."

I guess I will be attacked now for being a negative nelly.

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. This is where law meets reality

Under the law yes it is looting... there were a couple cases where the judge threw case out since it was survival. But OUTSIDE the Muslim world this is looting. In the Muslim world this is survival and it is YOUR obligation to provide for a starving person.

In my view we should have a federal standard that does not penalize "looting" for survival items... but that ain't happening any time soon.

That said the photos speak to the partial reality on the ground...

[Leopolds Ghost]

13. Not just in Muslim world, but perhaps it would help if they interview some religious commentators.

Jesus said that if you are starving, you may take an apple from an orchard because under Jewish law, the orchard owner is required to help you -- anyone who has sustenance and property is required to aid those with no means of survival. Jesus actually took that one step further. So that covers two other major religions.

[peacetalksforall]

11. When the bulldozers come they are going to scoop the dry goods and food and perhaps the owner of

a store will get to save some goods - however look at the photos of tent cities - it appears they need some tarp for privacy and protection from sun and rain. If the store ownere can't be there to sell their products, If you can't get tarp, fabric will do. It will also do to cover a dead body or wrap a dead body in it.

But, getting arrested for food? Inhumane.

We are happy when we hear they are organizing and taking charge for themselves, but do we really want them to milk a cat?

Where is the line?

We keep hearing that no one is telling them what to do. But then the police move in?

A bank, yes. Protect it. A tv - don't let them steal it. But, now is the time to think of basics of life if supplies are not getting through. Did anyone study the map showing all the roads that are closed?

If they take the food and water, they should get back to the owner and help them get re-established when the land is cleared. It appears there is an unofficial brotherly exchange. Some of this is plain survival of their kids and themselves.

I am afraid of the soldiers. They are psychologically equipped to fight enemies, those people are not the enemy unless they are going after the bank or luxuries. But luxuries that can be sold equal food,

We really don't know what we would do.

[Leopolds Ghost]

12. This focus on scavenging and looting is mindblowing. All that stuff will be hauled away by bulldozer

This is not scavenging or looting, its recycling. Not to mention providing.

I wonder if they took pictures of Western aid workers walking around with their own water bottles with the caption "Westerners withold needed supplies that are rightfully Haiti's". Which would be similar level of bullshit.

Because they're assuming all that shit is sitting there under the rubble for the benefit of the (now dead) owners, and assuming everyone who survived should just sit and wait for a Westerner to give them something to eat or drink.

This psychological obsession with property is a pathology that has no correlate in reality. It is a mental fiction.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MightyWhitey

[Hannah Bell]

16. yes, pathological. like the owners are going to be sifting through the rubble to gather their

property & haul it off.

& look at the "security guards" - ripped jeans, dilapidated tennis shoes = the poor hired to shoot the poor.

[malaise]

21. SIckening

but more likely loyal gangs.

[ZombieHorde]

17. Recommended. nt

[Jamastiene]

20. Kicking and Bookmarking for the arrest for the milk "looting."

Un-fucking-believable they would arrest a starving person for "looting" evaporated milk in a crisis that bad.