Legal Commentary

"A Disaster of Epic Proportion" as Violence Grows In Haiti

By Jeralyn

Despite the world-wide effort to get supplies, food, medical care and security forces to the people of Haiti, it's not happening fast enough. Violence is growing and spreading.

Apparently, the Haitian police are on the scene and they are shooting and killing looters, or leaving them to vigilante justice. Here's a dismal report from The Telegraph:

Police opened fire on a group of looters, killing at least one of them, as hundreds of rioters ransacked a supermarket. One, a man in his 30s, was killed outright by bullets to the head as the crowd grabbed produce in the Marche Hyppolite.

Another quickly snatched the rucksack off the dead man's back as clashes continued and police reinforcements descended on the area armed with pump-action shotguns and assault rifles.

[More..]

Residents in the Delmas area caught two suspected looters, tied them together, beat them and dragged them through the streets. Both were eventually dumped, motionless.

...Gangs of men on Boulevard Jean-Jacques Dessalines, their faces covered with bandannas to mask both their identity and the smell of decaying bodies, brandished machetes and sharpened planks of wood as they ran from shop to shop stealing shoes, rolls of carpet and cooking pots.

There are reports of aid workers being shot:

It is also understood that two Dominicans were shot and seriously wounded as they handed out aid.

Lieutenant General PK Keen, deputy commander of US southern Command says:

Clearly, this is a disaster of epic proportions, and we've got a lot of work ahead of us."

Update: Urban Search and Rescue today says it has not given up on finding survivors.

More than 70 people have been found alive, which is a record number for USAR operations after an earthquake. Forty-three international USAR teams, comprising 1,739 rescue workers and 161 dogs, are working on the ground around the clock, and under extremely difficult and challenging conditions.

"We haven't given up hope of finding more survivors today. Even six days later, it is still possible that we might be able to find more people alive," said Jesper Lund, head of the international USAR operations in Haiti. "

Full post as published by TalkLeft on January 17, 2010 (boomark / email).