Following the landfall of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and the subsequent chaos, Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco dispatched National Guardsmen and police to the city with orders to “shoot to kill” looters; effectively establishing martial law. Before dispatching troops to New Orleans with orders to shoot and kill looters, the United States’ government had done absolutely nothing to help the victims of the tragedy. Despite the fact that the trajectory of Hurricane Katrina was know days before it hit land, and despite the fact that it has been known for years that a hurricane hitting New Orleans could result in thousands of deaths, the US government provided no evacuation plan for those too poor to leave New Orleans, leaving them to die. The people who could not afford to evacuate New Orleans were then abandoned for days on end, in horrendous conditions, without appropriate food, water, or health care.
Why did the government feel it needed to establish martial law in New Orleans? It was not for humanitarian reasons; during the state of “anarchy” and “disorder” in New Orleans, three or four people are rumored to have been killed, and perhaps as many raped, of a refugee population of tens of thousands. This number is negligible when compared to the thousands of people who lost their lives because they could not evacuate New Orleans, or the number of people who died because of lack of medical attention, lack of food, and lack of water is far greater; but the government made no attempt to save any of these people. Why has the government been so concerned with reestablishing “order” and ending “anarchy” that it sent National Guardsmen to the town before it sent any food or medical aid, or any buses to evacuate refugees?
The answer is pure and simple: the government needed to reinforce the supremacy of private property, and it did so with bullets. The government paid no attention to the people of New Orleans when all they were doing was dying, because the government could care less about a few thousand lower class black people. Once they started taking matters into their own hands and “looting” from private property, however, they became a major problem. Never mind that the vast majority of the “looters” were simply taking food and water to try and keep themselves alive. Never mind that most of the material that was looted had already been written off as lost by insurance companies, or would have spoiled in a few days time because of the power outage. These people presented a major threat to the status quo, because they infringed on the sacredness of private property. What kind of message would the government send to the rest of the country if it allowed the people of New Orleans to steal food to feed the hungry? Imagine what would happen if the tens of millions of people living below the poverty line across the country followed the example set by the people of New Orleans, and began to take what they need to survive. If this sort of action went unpunished in New Orleans, the results could be catastrophic for American capitalism, and could stir up revolution. This is why the cops and the National Guard have been told to shoot and kill looters: to defend the supremacy of private property at all costs.
