First let me say LW I'm not trying to hijack ... as you know I can't comment.
I live in Shreveport, LA. We are far north and west of the situation in New Orleans, however, we are not removed from this horrible situation.
I volunteered at the Red Cross Shelter last night. At the height of the donations we were taking in nearly 500 cars an hour. It was all that we could do to just pile all this shit up and sort it out later. While we are accepting donations people are backing up their trucks and taking this stuff. Now these folks aren't from New Orleans. They are from right her in Shreveport.
Guess what ... not a white person among them. Apparently these people feel that they are being slighted because they aren't receiving this help. Our local law enforcement has called upon all auxiliary officers to come and help control the situation. They are paying overtime for six officers at this location alone. This is the best of the three locations as it is at the LSU gym. The other two locations are in much rougher neighborhoods.
Sadly, I have more distressing news. The refugees are not much better. They are stopping people in the parking lot and taking the stuff they are bringing. How do you say no to that person? My wife couldn't. We carried our boxes of stuff over to this woman’s brand new Suburban and loaded it up. I saw the same lady six more times last evening, each time with a new set of stuff. She couldn't even pause from her cell phone call once she had requested the stuff to say a simple thank you. Luckily I didn't need or expect her to give me that courtesy.
I was approached many times last night for people looking for specific items (medicated powders and such). Many of those people were kind and some of those kind people were even black. I was also approached several time and demanded that I find something for someone; all of those people were black.
I don't owe any of these people anything. I do have compassion for them even if they are rude and greedy because I don't know how I would react if I had to walk a mile in their shoes. I can't stand any abuses of the system. One person doesn't need your donation, thousands do. I just hope they aren't so greedy that my compassion fades.