How one can characterize as “looting” the desperate struggle to secure food and water in the wake of a natural disaster that has razed or severely damaged up to 90% of St. Martin’s infrastructure and compromised its water supply is beyond me.
“MARIGOT, St. Martin — At dawn, people began to gather, quietly planning for survival after Hurricane Irma.
They started with the grocery stores, scavenging what they needed for sustenance: water, crackers, fruit.
But by nightfall on Thursday, what had been a search for food took a more menacing turn, as groups of people, some of them armed, swooped in and took whatever of value was left: electronics, appliances and vehicles.
“All the food is gone now,”Jacques Charbonnier, a 63-year-old resident of St. Martin, said in an interview on Sunday. “People are fighting in the streets for what is left.”
Humans are going to do what humans have always done, secure by any means necessary the necessities to sustain life in the next uncertain weeks for themselves and theirs.
That’s not “looting” that’s survival.
Sure, when food and water are difficult, if not impossible to secure, it is always a good idea to send in troops to protect the demolished shops…/s...
”After an emergency meeting with his government on Sunday, President Emmanuel Macron of France said he would travel on Tuesday to St. Martin, an overseas French territory. Mr. Macron also announced late on Saturday that he would double France’s troop deployment to the region, to 2,200 from 1,100; officials say the increase is in part a response to the mayhem on St. Martin.”
I understand the need to keep order, but it seems to me the sustenance needed to fuel over a thousand extra troops would be better used to feed the people who don’t know where their next meal is coming from.
The troops that are already there could oversee its distribution.
I’m sure there is some real looting going on, after the food is gone, people will take consumer goods that might be easier to barter.
But let’s not waste precious cargo space on soldiers at this precise moment, Macron.
Food and water first, then law-n-order.