News reports in the aftermath of the storm put officers at the scene of some of the heaviest looting, the Wal-Mart in the Lower Garden District. Some witnesses — including a Times-Picayune reporter — said police were taking items from shelves.
Police spokesman Marlon Defillo — rejected the use of the term “looting,” but said authorities were investigating “the possibility of appropriation of non-essential items during the height of Katrina, from businesses.”
The article is nothing out of the ordinary. I’m posting it as an example of how absurd political correctness can get. This dude used 15 words — to keep from offending possible “looters”.
Maybe I should take a pistol to a bank and appropriate non-essential currency. It’s the curse of Huey Long and his assorted relatives. Like one NYT columnist said, you haven’t seen looting until the LA politicians gets a hold of all those federal rebuilding dollars.
Articles are now appearing in the op-ed pages of the Houston Chronicle (and perhaps others) citing statements by Katrina evacuees in Houston that much of the horror, atrocity, and “animalistic” behavior reported in the media at the time simply didn’t happen. I certainly appears as though Mayor Nagin’s body count estimates were off by and order of magnitude or two.