Originally Posted By: Blast
The looters aren't just stealing from stores, they are stealing from other people, too. This fact pretty much negates Martin's bit about everyone pulling together and being too busy saving people to rob them.
-Blast


The two behaviors are not mutually exclusive. It is likely that most people are helping when they can but taking what they feel they must. I doubt anyone is standing on legalisms. A weak infrastructure and extreme poverty are so widespread in the best of times that there were few reserves of anything to start with. The terms 'clothes on their back' and 'a pot to [censored] in' come to mind.

There will always be a few that take advantage of the situation, phishing sites for fake charities showed up online within hours of the earthquake hitting the news, but most people seem to be cooperating and helping as much as they can.

Quote:
... steal the belongings left behind by hundreds of fleeing people.


Yea ... that's got to be a kings ransom. Take the poorest people in the poorest nation in the norther hemisphere. Wreck their homes and infrastructure to make them refugees. Take everything they have left and dump it in your yard ... and a day later you would pay someone $100 just to haul it all off.