Violence Increases in Haiti

[tekisui]

Source: AP/KGAN

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) -- Flare-ups of violence are increasing in Haiti, as a growing number of looters roam the streets of Port-au-Prince.

Many struggling Haitians are angry and frustrated that it's taking so long to get help

At the Vieux Marche, or Old Market, police tried to disperse hundreds of stone-throwing looters today by driving trucks through the crowds. Hundreds scrambled over partly destroyed shops grabbing anything they could.

Elsewhere downtown, gunfire rang out and bands of machete-wielding young men roamed the streets, their faces hidden by bandanas.

Police used tear gas to scatter looters at street markets near the collapsed presidential palace. At the Cite Soleil slum, moments after police drove by, a reporter spotted a gunman stealing a bag of rice from a motorcycle rider.

http://www.kgan.com/template/inews_wire/wires.international/37d7fd03-www.kgan.com.shtml

[maryf]

1. "Looters"

equals starving crazed human beings...I saw another report about a "looter" being shot...near street markets??? where else does one look for food???

[tekisui]

3. I have refrained from posting some informative articles

because of the language used within. Framing desperate and dying people as looters is offensive and wrong.

I have also read of horrors such as a woman being beheaded for the few processions she had.

Haiti is in an unbelievably dire situation. Violence is adding bodies to the streets with little to no security protecting anyone there. It truly is in a state of chaos and anarchy.

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. Well we need some changes in law, in the West

outside of the Umma, the Muslim world, shooting a looter for stealing a TV or a loaf of bread is justifiable. In the Muslim world you are required to share that bread.

There are many things I might be critical about the Muslim world, but that one... none whatsoever.

[vadawg]

2. its going to worse before it gets better, we are in the crucial period now

between when some aid starts to roll in and saturation point, this period is when you have the most tension as aid is being given out but mayby not fast enough so you start to get violence and rioting until everyone starts to get aid. This was always the time when you needed to be on your guard.. and you prayed that you had enough numbers to control the situation...

[alsame]

4. Fear and desperation. My heart aches for all of them. nt

[kestrel91316]

6. If they are getting food/water, it's NOT "looting". It's "scavenging", and is NOT

morally wrong IMHO. People have to eat to survive. As long as they are not directly taking from another hungry person, it's not a crime.

SHAME.

[EFerrari]

7. This morning I heard a surgeon say a third of her patients

were going to die from starvation, dehydration and the lack of surgery. I think she was talking about 30 of her patients.

Heartbreaking.

[tekisui]

8. I heard the same statistic is applicable in most of the hospital/refugee sites.

A third of the population, really, is at risk of dying from various complications within a day or two.

[jwirr]

9. For God's sake, there is nothing left in this nation to call a store or

a market. Everything is going to have to start from scratch again. Let them salvage whatever is left and let us consider it one step we will not have to take in the recovery. So someone actually finds a TV that is still in one piece. With no energy what is he/she going to do with it? To call these people looters is absolutely idiotic. However, when they steal from another survivor and when they kill to get things that is wrong.