Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans went so far as to Instruct his police officers to stop their search and rescue mission for trapped survivors, and instead go out looking for looters, backed by a shoot to kill policy.
For a classical bourgeois politician like Ray Nagin human lives (or at least black and/or working class lives) come a poor second to the defence of private property.
Most of the 'looters' were simply helping themselves to food and drink from stores as the only means to avoid starvation or dying of thirst. With no power for refrigeration, much of the food stock would swiftly rot in any case.
And many accounts of socalled looting are hardly Impartial and have highlighted the racism that permeates much of the US media.
Observers in the US have noted instances where white survivors shown on TV taking food and drink from. abandoned stores have been given favourable coverage from the commentators because of their desperation.
But in TV footage of black survivors shown doing exactly the same thing they have been Invariably denounced as looters.