Machete-wielding Haitians loot

[Dunedain]

This is the country Obama is giving up 100 million dollars for.

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2010/01/14/world/worldwatch/entry6097747.shtml

[Zippyjuan]

No water, no food. New Orleans went crazy for a while too.

[Dunedain]

No water, no food. New Orleans went crazy for a while too.

That's a good excuse.

[ladyjade3]

Come come now. In Haiti, a machete is like a pocketknife. And it looks to me like a lot of the "looting" is a lot like scavenging and is a matter of surviving and making use of what is available... I'm sure that's not universally true, but...

Don't be too judgemental - you're not there.

[Andrew-Austin]

That's a good excuse.

You are dumb.

[Dunedain]

Come come now. In Haiti, a machete is like a pocketknife. .

In Haiti, murder is like going for a walk in the park.

When we import millions of Haitian refugees due to the Earthquake excuse hopefully we'll take the Machetes from them so they don't loot with their Machetes here.

[sofia]

In Haiti, murder is like going for a walk in the park.

When we import millions of Haitian refugees due to the Earthquake excuse hopefully we'll take the Machetes from them so they don't loot with their Machetes here.

Haitians loot and riot??????


nahhh.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=950&dat=19810904&id=4BcMAAAAIBAJ&sjid=7FkDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6958,935287

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=886&dat=19911001&id=kicOAAAAIBAJ&sjid=u30DAAAAIBAJ&pg=6999,9487

[Joseph de Maistre]

When we import millions of Haitian refugees due to the Earthquake excuse hopefully we'll take the Machetes from them so they don't loot with their Machetes here.

False! Machete wielding is an important part of their noble culture. :D

[BlackTerrel]

Dunedain I need to get one of my developer friends to design a thread starting application for you. It will have a drop down menu and the options will be:

1. "Black people are dumb and primitive"

2. "Jewish people are evil and control the world"

3. "I don't really support Ron Paul"

This would really streamline things for you.

[Kludge]

In Haiti, murder is like going for a walk in the park.

In the United States, rape is like riding a bicycle.

[revolutionisnow]

These people had the right idea on how to deal with looters

YouTube - LA 1992 riot Korean town (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VmExQq2gWs)

[Joseph de Maistre]

In the United States, rape is like riding a bicycle.

Nay, you're thinking of South Africa:

# 1 South Africa: 1.19538 per 1,000 people
# 2 Seychelles: 0.788294 per 1,000 people
# 3 Australia: 0.777999 per 1,000 people
# 4 Montserrat: 0.749384 per 1,000 people
# 5 Canada: 0.733089 per 1,000 people
# 6 Jamaica: 0.476608 per 1,000 people
# 7 Zimbabwe: 0.457775 per 1,000 people
# 8 Dominica: 0.34768 per 1,000 people
# 9 United States: 0.301318 per 1,000 people
# 10 Iceland: 0.246009 per 1,000 people

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_rap_percap-crime-rapes-per-capita

The winner at number 1! :D

[Mini-Me]

In the United States, rape is like riding a bicycle.

If you're riding an insufficiently ergonomic bicycle, they're pretty much the same thing.

[Kludge]

If you're riding an insufficiently ergonomic bicycle, they're pretty much the same thing.

Haha. Thanks.

[Dieseler]

If you're riding an insufficiently ergonomic bicycle, they're pretty much the same thing.

Yeah.
What are those bike seat designers thinking anyway?
This is what we need.
http://img3.musiciansfriend.com/dbase/pics/products/regular/4/0/5/254405.jpg

[prophet]

No water, no food. New Orleans went crazy for a while too.Maybe the hundred million bucks will settle things down to where Haiti will experience a return to normalcy. Normalcy in Haiti, according to the US State Department, is not much more civilized than post disaster craziness.

"The State Department warns U.S. citizens to exercise a high degree of caution when traveling to Haiti. ....."

" there is potential for looting, the erection of intermittent roadblocks by armed protestors or by the police, and the possibility of random crime, including kidnapping, carjacking, home invasion, armed robbery and assault....."

"U.S. citizens traveling to and residing in Haiti despite this warning are reminded that there also is persistent danger of violent crime, especially kidnappings. Most kidnappings are criminal in nature, and the kidnappers make no distinctions of nationality, race, gender, or age."

"Most of the Americans were abducted in Haiti's two largest cities, Port-au-Prince and Cap Haitien. Some kidnap victims have been killed, shot, sexually assaulted, or physically abused. "

Those quotes are from the State Department's assessment of Haiti BEFORE the earthquake. http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/tw/tw_917.html

They must be wonderful people, to reach such a high level of civilization only two hundred years after they killed last of the evil Whites.

[torchbearer]

woohoo! anarchy!
in the absence of government authority- the mobs take to the streets.
better get your defense force together quick!

[nobody's_hero]

Where the hell are they going to sell the stuff they steal?

At least in New Orleans, looters could actually find buyers willing and able to purchase other people's junk.

[nobody's_hero]

These people had the right idea on how to deal with looters

YouTube - LA 1992 riot Korean town (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VmExQq2gWs)

Wow, that's awesome.

[dannno]

^Is that Larry David's wife?

[Dreamofunity]

These people had the right idea on how to deal with looters

YouTube - LA 1992 riot Korean town (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VmExQq2gWs)

YouTube - Sublime-April 29 1992 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gh5ogOH82Aw)

[Mini-Me]

woohoo! anarchy!
in the absence of government authority- the mobs take to the streets.
better get your defense force together quick!

Don't Be a Treasure Troll in Ron Paul Forums While Drinking Your Samuel Adams Beer in Liberty Forest!

[WRellim]

Come come now. In Haiti, a machete is like a pocketknife. And it looks to me like a lot of the "looting" is a lot like scavenging and is a matter of surviving and making use of what is available...

Crisis and chaos also equals "opportunity" in many people's minds.

The country was hit by a major earthquake, yes. But I've seen the videos, and not every building collapsed (far from it) -- it seems mainly the multi-story "fancy" buildings in the downtown areas (ones with government officials, UN people, etc).

Even if the statement that 100,000 or more may be dead -- in a country of 10 MILLION that constitutes about 1% of the population, and even if injuries are tenfold greater than that, it would still leave 90% of the population relatively unharmed.

If, as is very likely, there were certain areas of the capitol city that were harder "hit" by the earthquake -- then that also means that other areas were LESS damaged and suffered fewer casualties.

And it WASN'T flooded like New Orleans, nor a Tsunami like Indonesia suffered -- so majority of their food should still be intact, and likewise with their water supply (it's probably NOT in good condition, but then it wasn't before the quake either).

Long story short -- this isn't some BLACK PLAGUE where 1/2 of the population dies suddenly. Yes its another disaster, but Haiti seems to go through one or another of them every 5 years or so (the place is a frigging mess, but that has been true for centuries).

[revolutionary8]

I'd rather be shot than Machetteee'd

[revolutionisnow]

Food? What food?

YouTube - Dwindling Food Supply Forces Haitians to Eat Mud (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxT7qxkzjRs)

[Mini-Me]

I'd rather be shot than Machetteee'd

Your preference has been duly noted by the CIA and will be deliberately ignored. ;)

[revolutionisnow]

More Haiti
YouTube - Poverty in Haiti spawns child slavery 13 October 2008 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnklOtfJRSE)

YouTube - Kidnap Capital - Haiti (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8OvnvuQcRA)

[TotalLiberty]

The government will CAUSE more problems than it will solve in this crisis, and with stolen money. Get government out of Haiti and let the free market get to work and provide actual help to those people.

[revolutionary8]

Your preference has been duly noted by the CIA and will be deliberately ignored. ;)

:eek:
You know I think everyone is an agent. :D

[TotalLiberty]

woohoo! anarchy!
in the absence of government authority- the mobs take to the streets.
better get your defense force together quick!

This is the farthest thing from anarchy. In fact the government is there causing even more problems.

[daviddee]

...

[Promontorium]

If some people are looting, then most people aren't. If all people were looting, then it would be war.

Silly racists.

[BlackTerrel]

And I could do the same for you:

1. "Statistics lie"
2. "Facts are not facts"
3. "Random apologist for not accepting 1 and 2"

Seriously, every topic that is started stating facts you jump right in (assuming it is difficult for you to accept reality) and start spouting crap instead of looking at the facts.

Do Haitians commit a disproportional amount of crime? Yes.

They could be categorized under the black subset in the FBI crime statistics. Which again would ask, "Do blacks commit a disproportional amount of crime?" The answer is: YES

So before you jump on another thread with your obfuscation just accept that various different races do have a higher propensity for wielding machetes, violent crime, etc.

Which races wield machetes the most? Could you make me a list? What about Samurai swords?

[CasualApathy]

Wow, that's awesome.

No it isn't. They are just shooting at random people on the street. They should at least have stayed in their stores and only shot at people breaking in if they didn't drop their loot once they saw the gun, and even then only at the legs...

[fj45lvr]

I'm 100% confident that if this magnitude of event happened in some of our metropolitan areas that we would see nearly the same if not worse.

to be expected

[prophet]

Which races wield machetes the most? Could you make me a list? What about Samurai swords? So far as I can find out, the Bruthas in Rwanda hold the record for malicious machete-wielding. According to Wikipedia, "Rwandan government estimated the number of victims of the genocide to 1,174,000 in 100 days (10,000 murdered every day, 400 every hour, 7 every minute)...Militia members typically murdered their victims by hacking them with machetes"

That's probably the record as of today.

Not surprisingly, the butchers wielded another weapon, in addition to the machete: "In 1998, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda made the landmark decisions that war rape in Rwanda was an element of the crime of genocide....Thousands of widows, many of whom were subjected to rape, are now HIV-positive. ...The Trial Chamber held that "sexual assault formed an integral part of the process of destroying the Tutsi ethnic group and that the rape was systematic

The motive? Why, color, of course!"The lighter colored Rwandans were typically Tutsi, the minority group, while the darker skinned Rwandans were typically Hutu, the majority group in Rwanda….the genocide was openly discussed in cabinet meetings and that "one cabinet minister said she was personally in favor of getting rid of all Tutsi; without the Tutsi, she told ministers, all of Rwanda's problems would be over." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rwandan_Genocide

I am sure you will let us know if you find a group that has broken the record of the Hutu.

[Promontorium]

No it isn't. They are just shooting at random people on the street. They should at least have stayed in their stores and only shot at people breaking in if they didn't drop their loot once they saw the gun, and even then only at the legs...

Oh if only the store owners were already highly trained combat specialists!


They were willing, and they used their right to bear arms. Many store owners eventually got their act together, and kept their property from burning.


LiveLeak.com - Koreans showing off their guns in LA riots (http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=a05_1235367821)

[nobody's_hero]

No it isn't. They are just shooting at random people on the street. They should at least have stayed in their stores and only shot at people breaking in if they didn't drop their loot once they saw the gun, and even then only at the legs...

I didn't say it was appropriate, just awesome, like watching atomic bomb footage—The fact that it got so chaotic to the point that it boiled over, and what people will do when they have been pushed too far.

[angelatc]

I am going to defer to the wisdom of Lady Jade in this instance, since she's the only one who has experienced the culture firsthand.

Also, I know several people who have been to Haiti, and they all relate very somber tales of how desperately poor the living conditions are. I honestly don't think we can relate to it unless we've been there.

The looting in New Orleans happened before the flood. Nobody was hungry, there was fresh water available, there were not corpses rotting in the streets. There's an ethical distinction between realizing that the store isn't going to reopen and deciding to take blankets (which is what's going on in Haiti) and realizing that WalMart is going to reopen soon, so "we best be quick" taking beer, TV sets and Power Wheels (which is what happened in New Orleans.)

It wouldn't be a stretch to imagine a store owner allowing his store to be looted, simply because that means insurance will cover his losses, while he won't be reimbursed at all if he gives his stuff away.

[LDA]

If all order broke down, wouldn't you be looting? If people are in the streets and everything is going to get stolen anyway, there's no turning back. Might as well join in and provide for your own survival (or entertainment).

[Dreamofunity]

If all order broke down, wouldn't you be looting? If people are in the streets and everything is going to get stolen anyway, there's no turning back. Might as well join in and provide for your own survival (or entertainment).

April 26th, 1992,
There was a riot on the streets,
Tell me where were you?
You were sittin' home watchin' your TV,
While I was paticipatin' in some anarchy.


Cause everybody in the hood has had it up to here,
It's getting harder and harder and harder each and every year.

Some kids went in a store with thier mother,
I saw her when she came out she was gettin some pampers.

They said it was for the black man,
They said it was for the mexican,
And not for the white man.

But if you look at the streets it wasn't about Rodney King,
It's bout this fucked up situation and these fucked up police.
It's about coming up and staying on top
And screamin' 187 on a mother fuckin' cop.
It's not written on the paper it's on the wall.
National guard??!
Smoke from all around,

[MelissaWV]

My family that lives in the tropics has a machete in each garage. Helpful things, those, living in a climate where one has to deal with vines or trees or sugarcane.

The US has imported a dozen or two earthquake victims iirc from last night's latest news. The ones they showed on television were distinctly Americans that had been imported to Florida for treatment.

"Millions" of Haitian nationals (refugees) are not pouring into the USA, don't worry your pretty little head off. They are, instead, going to wander over to the Dominican Republic and, eventually, to Puerto Rico, where the children they have will be US citizens anyhow. More shacks popping up all over the Caribbean; just what the area didn't need.

Things are bad enough without trying to add to it. It's an island that had scant natural resources to start with, and now there's almost nothing there.

I get pissed when I think of just *how many* reporters were flown into Haiti, though. Diane Sawyer certainly looked like she wasn't lacking fresh food and water. She was reporting on how supplies were slow to trickle in. Put three gallons of water instead of your dumb self in your seat, then, and three more instead of your cameraman.

As for areas of the country not being damaged, yes, you're right. There are a lot of sturdy houses that did not get demolished, too. Unfortunately, a large segment of the population lived in crappy little shacks, and the buildings that DID fall are now causing transportation to be almost impossible. Consider NYC getting struck by something really broad and powerful (not 9/11). The subway lines would be down, ferries would be down, the bridges/tunnels might be out of order, and the population density means lots of death (followed by lots of disease). The rest of New York state might be just fine, and Jersey might be as good as it ever was, but if no one can get in or out easily, then what's the help in that?

[ladyjade3]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-haiti-quake16-2010jan16,0,2230617.story

I almost hate to resurrect this thread as it was really starting to BOTHER me.... but this link above is what you will start to see, but lets think about this situation...

There are tons of food and supplies sitting in a UN warehouse while the people in the streets that it is intended for starve. Should they sit quietly and die waiting for some bureaucrat to stamp a paper or something? I think we're past that sort of gentility. This is life and death here. and again - YOU'RE NOT THERE.

Like Angela so sagely pointed out, if this or that store is NOT reopening, the owner for all we know is dead in the rubble... do you let the food sit there and rot in the 100 degree heat, or do you feed your child? I think you feed your child in this circumstance. And you don't apologize for it.

I'll share a little culture shock moment we had when we were down there. Down the hill from our house early one morning, we heard these two people screaming at eachother in Creole, on and on. We couldn't understand what they were saying, but we thought it must be some horrific fight that was about to get physically violent. We asked a fellow missionary who understood the language what they were fighting about, and they said, oh they're just chit chatting about their day, nothing to worry about. They were basically just shooting the s***!!!

These are very charismatic, dramatic people, and don't think that you understand them if you don't know them. so if you see videos of angry haitians appearing to riot, please take it with a grain of salt. They're not like you. and maybe the media down there don't understand perfectly what they are seeing either. And yes, there will be gunshots. We heard them all the time. It lets people around you know not to mess with you, just in case. We heard voodoo drums all the time too. Its a different world.

They are not perfect. I'll be the first to complain about their idiosyncracies and their sordid history.

But whatever. They are human and they are suffering horrifically right now. I kind of think the scorecard or whatever all that is supposed to be is unfortunate and says more about you than it really says about the haitian people.

shut up and help. or just shut up, please.

[fgd]

Remember - black people "loot" food. White people "find" food.

http://tradermike.net/movethecrowd/images/white_find_black_loot.jpg

[Toureg89]

This is the country Obama is giving up 100 million dollars for.

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2010/01/14/world/worldwatch/entry6097747.shtml
and i brought up this point on a neocon forum, but atleast Haiti didn't try to suffer from an earthquake.

Bush set us 1 billion$ in the hole for a country (Georgia) that was picking fights with a stronger neighbor.

[angelatc]

and i brought up this point on a neocon forum, but atleast Haiti didn't try to suffer from an earthquake.
.

Wow. You're a braver man than I.