Looting on Rise amid Haiti's Growing Desperation

(CBS)

A desperate citizenry combined with an absence of police forces has led to increased looting in Port-au-Prince in the wake of a massive earthquake that is estimated to have killed tens of thousands.

Video footage from the city showed bands of Haitian youths armed with machetes wandering the streets looting, as the local police were largely invisible.

(Ed. note: CBS News correspondent Kelly Cobiella will report on looting in Port-au-Prince on the CBS Evening News, tonight at 6:30 p.m. EST.)

"The Hatian National Police are not visible at all," said David Wimhurst, a spokesman for the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Port-au-Prince. The U.N. peacekeepers are themselves devastated by casualties from the quake.

Whether the machete-wielding men posed a violent threat to the rest of the city is unclear, but what is clear is that quake survivors are taking more drastic measures as relief efforts have become bogged down in what some aid workers call a "logistical nightmare."

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Matt Marek, of the American Red Cross, said the widespread looting has mainly been relegated to collapsed buildings, not undamaged stores.

"There is no other way to get provisions," he told The Associated Press. "Even if you have money, those resources are going to be exhausted in a few days."

But some think the looting is becoming a more serious threat.

"It is dangerous at night. Lootings were widespread and some markets were ransacked," Oxfam spokesman Cedric Perus said in a statement to the AP. .

And the problem will likely get worse in the absence of more effective relief.

"Literally I can say the whole population is homeless. … People grow more desperate and then God only know what's going to happen," Frederick Auzate, a Haitian-American from Silver Springs, Md., told CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric in Port-au-Prince Thursday.

U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said there have been reports of minor looting. Crowley said the U.S. military is headed to Haiti to "stabilize" the country – a priority set forth by Haiti's own government. Up to 3,500 soldiers are en route to the quake-ravaged nation from the U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne Division to assist with disaster relief and security, with the first 100 troops set to arrive Thursday, an Army official said.

Looting and violence are not uncommon in the wake of severe natural disasters that leave local communities isolated and desperate. After Hurricane Katrina battered New Orleans, television cameras captured widespread looting and there were reports of rooftop snipers firing upon rescue and news helicopters.


In this CBS News video, men carrying machetes are seen walking the streets of Port-au-Prince



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[clear_thinker007]

Haiti looks like Detroit everyday.

[slrassoc]

Every time something hapens down there it is the same story...insanity!!!
Perhaps the only solution is to aim an ICBM on the island and erase it.

[KWHodges56]

A ship load of Mexicans could have Hati cleaned up in a week's time. I'm sure they would love to have the work too!

[sean56v]

The FEMA simeons have failed to activate for disaster. Remember the Looters in New Orleans during the Katrina Hurricane? In Haiti, dead bodies are everywhere, the people have not been evacuated to safe ground, and the USAR mission is slow. Emergency management is a job for skilled professionals, not rank monkey politicos.

[DaisyD.]

The main looter in Haiti is whining that he has no place to sleep tonight: His Presidential Palace collapsed in the earthquake.

And our main looter, Obama will send in our money to this thug and his thugees .... with NO conditions ... because his main objective is to come off as a savior (without actually helping any of the Haitien people)and in the process, save his own political ass. Obama's true objective is to make the USA into another Haiti w/himself as dictator for life in the Presidential Palace on Pennsylvania Avenue.

[SocietysNightmare]

There are THOUSANDS dead in Haiti, and you're worried about politics?! Your priorities are f***** up !!!!!!

[glidescube]

Obama is a Good President and Republicans suck.

[MDSARMYNurse]

As a member of a reserve component of the military, I am having a hard time volunteering for this humanitarian effort. I, and several of the other medical personel I work with would all like to go down and help to stop a potential seconday disaster from occuring due to poor healthcare and inadequate numbers of trained personel on the island. Unfortunately the system doesn't allow for this without an order from the National Guard Bureu allowing us to volunteer to assist the other states that are going to be assisting with this effort.So for now, here I sit with my bags packed, along with four of my other cohorts, a Nursing and EMT background with all of us, while innocent people die waiting for security and medical help to arrive. I find this deplorable since we have such a large medical reserve force that would probably volunteer to go in a heartbeat if they were permitted, and expedited to the location. All I need is a ride and some gear, and a little food and water to get me through. We are all humans in need of a hand at times.

[retm-w]

Once they get the situation fully accessed I'm sure they will be asking for volunteers. From what I see the problem is getting personel into the country. I spent 4 years active duty and 18 years in the Guard and understand your frustration.

[edgy44]

Cuba is trying to inject medical help, and is having trouble too. You just have to wait for the assessment teams to finish figuring out where to deploy everyone. Once the helo's start flying off the carrier, then the rescue teams will have support and won't die of starvation themselves.

[edgy44]

We should put all the Haitians on C-17's and take them to their mother country: France. Then bulldoze all the rubble into the sea.

[glidescube]

That not a bad half baked idea. Yes bulldoze an rebuild. Only tis time with some proper building codes.

[gaeland]

There is only so much looting you can do in a poor country like Haiti.

The real concern is Obama/Reid/Pelois's looting of the United States Treasury.

[glidescube]

It kept us form sliping into another Republican caused depression.

In 1929 Republican Hoover did nothing when the banks collapsed and the great depression was the result.

You should be thankful we have a President that can actually learn form history for a change.

[billy3700]

You know thousands of people die and suddenly everyone wants to pray for them. What about when they were alive? Or couldn?t we of cared less back then? Why do we only care about people who are already dead? Remember the tsunami a few years back. Anyway I just read this totally wacky story by a guy who wishes he was a tsunami?!
<a href="http://ketiva.com/Arts_and_Humanities/why_i_want_to_be_a_tsunami.html">http://ketiva.com/Arts_and_Humanities/why_i_want_to_be_a_tsunami.html</a>
Maybe the world really is coming to an end!

[Hanoisteve]

The Racist tone to the comments is astounding, for every looter they are ten people digging through the rubble with their bare hands looking for survivors, or should they standing guard with their guns to protect the flat screen TVs.

[glidescube]

That depends.

Conservative Haitians will protect the Flatscreen and their property rights.

Liberal Haitians will care more for thier fellow man and start digging and helping out total strangers.

[retm-w]

glidescube

Just have to add politics into a disaster. I doubt there are liberals and conservatives in Haiti.