Carried Away

More images: A kid slinks by with three boxes of shoes. One guy shoulders a batch of fishing rods. A pair of cops joins the thievery, pushing a basket of stolen goods through a Wal-Mart in New Orleans, which according to a TV reporter is on the verge of becoming "a city of outlaws."

Aguirre says: "We want to act as if we can live apart from each other. To me that's the tragedy."

But there were dangerous times yesterday. Wire services reported thieves stealing guns from stores and a policeman and a looter who engaged in a shootout. "Amid the chaos Wednesday," the Associated Press reported, "thieves commandeered a forklift and used it to push up the storm shutters and break the glass of a pharmacy. The crowd stormed the store, carrying out so much ice, water and food that it dropped from their arms as they ran. The street was littered with packages of ramen noodles and other items. Looters also chased down a state police truck full of food."

Who is to say whether these were criminals or people desperate to survive, Aguirre says.

The report also said that the city police chief chased looters away "while city officials themselves were commandeering equipment from a looted Office Depot. During a state of emergency, authorities have broad powers to take private supplies and buildings for their use. At one store, hordes of people from all ages, races and walks of life grabbed food and water. Some drove away with trunkloads of beer."

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said yesterday: "Once we get the 3,000 National Guardsmen here, we're locking this place down. It's really difficult because my opinion of the looting is it started with people running out of food, and you can't really argue with that too much. Then it escalated to this kind of mass chaos where people are taking electronic stuff and all that."

That is a very plausible explanation, Aguirre says. We have never had to evacuate so many people from a city. "This whole thing has gone beyond the likely scenario." Things can get totally out of hand.

Politicians adopted different postures: "I have instructed the Highway Patrol and the National Guard to treat looters ruthlessly," Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour told CNN. "Looting will not be tolerated, period. And the rules of engagement will be as aggressive as the law allows."

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) said on MSNBC, "Thousands of people are stuck and stranded without food and water. Now, I'm not excusing looting. I'm not the attorney general. I'm not a law enforcement official. But the situation is, is that people have been without food and water."

Some TV journalists are trying to understand the nuances of looting.

Here's a recent exchange between Nancy Grace and Anderson Cooper of CNN:

"It's my understanding," Grace said, "that there has been rampant looting. In fact, martial law declared in other areas. Have you seen looting?"