Context

A live broadcast from KTLA reporter Chip Yost on Jan. 8 confirmed this rumor was false and that the video users shared on X did not show looters. Yost’s report documented the same people pictured in the clip on X, identifying them as a group of family members and their friends who banded together to remove items from partially burned home occupied a woman, her three children, dogs and other animals. […]

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  • @[email protected]
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    5721 days ago

    I wonder what segment of the population started the rumor. Could be anyone, I guess. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

  • @[email protected]
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    3021 days ago

    This is almost always the way.

    Most people, when faced with a horrifying disaster that threatens the systems they’ve come to depend on, will band together and work together to try to survive. Those instincts are built in, for a vitally important reason, and they’re very strong. There’s a whole book about it, called “A Paradise Born in Hell.” It’s very good. There’s a consistent pattern within the survivors that they’d never experienced that kind of camaraderie in our current dystopian world, and years later, still look back fondly on the time everyone was on one team, just working together and depending on each other to get everything done. Hence, a paradise.

    Certainly there are people who will take advantage of the disaster and the anarchy it brings with it, but there are a lot fewer of them than you would think, and usually gets coverage far in excess of how much it happens. Of course, sometimes they can make problems far in excess of their small numbers.

    One of the other consistent patterns, is that the forces of law and order are almost always convinced that everyone who’s suffered the disaster is now a violent enemy, and they must be prevented at all costs from entering the places where the non-enemy people live, stealing things they need to survive, and so on. Often they go on the attack against the survivors, forming a much bigger danger than the “looters” ever were.

    Humanity, whee. It’s like the good parts and bad parts all on display together.

    • @glimse
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      1120 days ago

      Channel 5’s coverage highlights a group of people who ignored the evacuation orders to save the homes in their community. It’s a sad video but that part speaks to your point

      • @[email protected]
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        520 days ago

        People need to stop glorifying those who ignore evacuation orders and get lucky. For all those you hear about getting lucky there’s a bunch that cause issues, get in the way, and take resources away from fighting the fires.

        • @glimse
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          120 days ago

          I am not glorifying them. I was showing an example of comraderie in the face of tragedy.