FEMA again

[pegkerr]

Noted by docbrite: "Not satisfied with simple incompetence, FEMA is actually looting us now."

Wow. That is so low.

Comments

[copperwise.livejournal.com]

That is vile. But I don't think it's really fair to characterize it as FEMA's doing. All emergency management organizations hire local help and this guy was just a bad apple.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Very true.

[king-tirian.livejournal.com]

It goes at least a little deeper than that. The degree of nonchalance with which this guy walked around with stolen goods would indicate that the rest of his FEMA team was comfortable with the operation, and he wasn't nervous that someone he thought was a plumber would be sympathetic. So it's either a lot of bad apples down there or a culture that tolerates pouring salt in the wounds of victims. Neither is charming.

[copperwise.livejournal.com]

The degree of nonchalance with which this guy walked around with stolen goods would indicate that the rest of his FEMA team was comfortable with the operation, and he wasn't nervous that someone he thought was a plumber would be sympathetic.

Nothing in the article suggests that. Other FEMA workers aren't even mentioned. What is more likely is that he realized that if he acted nonchalant about it and looked busy, nobody would question him. Nor does anything written give a reason to suspect that he thought a plumber would be "sympathetic"; he thought the homeowner was the plumbing inspector, presumably a city or county government employee. Possibly that was his idiotic, stammered explanation as to why he'd be stupid enough to do it right in front of people, which takes us back to the nonchalant, look busy concept. All the article states is that when confronted by the homeowner the guy was stunned. He probably didn't expect to be caught, much less that the homeowner would actually be there.

Nothing in this article suggests anything deeper than catching a petty thief working his angle. We don't even know if the man took the job with malice aforethought, planning to steal from houses he was sent to work on, or if it was simply a crime of opportunity.

Michael Brown, scum? You betcha. The entire debacle of Katrina and the FEMA officials disgusting? Indeed. The people affected by Katrina resenting the pathetic government handling of the whole thing? Damn, I resent it, and I live in Oregon.

Seeing vast conspiracies under every rock? Not so much.

[anghara.livejournal.com]

given the situation, the fact that this guy tried to steal a *surge* protector is actually grimly funny...

But good Lord. Talk about callousness.

[lizziebelle.livejournal.com]

That is lower than low. Sheesh!

[scott-lynch.livejournal.com]

I'm betting it will be mere moments before the heartless ninny brigade starts gnashing their teeth about how it was the guy's own fault for leaving the stuff in his home. As though he had a handy bank vault, when he was struggling just to get a place together for his family to sleep. As though he had the time and resources to blow off his other needs and sit on his front lawn with a shotgun, stoically guarding his surge protector, stereo speakers, and flute...

[copperwise.livejournal.com]

He's exactly as much at fault for leaving things in his home as I am or you are when we leave the house. And you are 100% correct, some asshat will suggest that.

[dreamflower]

*sheesh!*
Doesn't surprise me though. This mess has brought opportunists out from under every rock. We've not had quite so many looters here as in LA, but there have been other things...

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

There's a Rolling Stone article from a couple of weeks ago about this that's worth reading. Unfortunatley, it's not on line. (Isn't it sad when some of the best investigative reporting about the Bush Administration comes from Rolling Stone?

B

[dustybinx.livejournal.com]

Ouch...I have to add my voice to the objections. It was a recently hired, local employee of FEMA, not a FEMA policy. Headlines can be misleading at the least and slanted at the worse.