Looting went down. I wonder why.

Note to all would-be armed robbers : Attempting to rob a Bank and shooting at Armed Military personnel in the process is hazardous to your health. Real Darwin-Award material.

it's as if they think that we're the substitute teacher...

Note to self: Removing evildoers from the street lowers the crime rate. Must try that here some time.

Once again, only violence is what Arabs understand...

Safety Tip: When looting, avoid shooting at the members and armored vehicles of the post-industrial military that just obliterated the army of your nation in three weeks flat.

"Once again, only violence is what Arabs understand..."

Gee, that isn't a bigoted remark.

Funny thing is, if they were robbing a bank in London with those weapons they almost certainly would have pulled it off.

"Once again, only violence is what Arabs understand..."

It worked in LA too, remember?

ScoPi, that may have come off bigotted, but the actual facts and history of the Arab society would indicate that he's correct.

I don't blame Arabs as an ethnic group or a people, I blame the fact that the world has allowed them to be ruled by dictators and radical Islamo-Fascists for years. It's all they are being taught.

Nothing bigotted in that remark... Its been said by their own scholars that only the threat of force or delivery of such force accomplishes order.

The Americans and British tried to peacefully control the population. No curfews, not using the soldiers to restrain and prevent looting, and guess what, it didn't work.

There are very few cultures and people groups willing to blow themselves up for what they believe in. It seems that most of those cultures are found in the ME.

Also, there society is far more violent then ours, or any Western nation. Riots occur from time to time, but the police and national guard seldom have to shoot people to regain order...

In the ME, its common. So before you label me a bigote, research the area, and you will see, only force is understood with some people.

what is in these banks? gold?
if it is only iraqi money good.. they could use some fuel for thier hearths

Leave it to the Ingelse to know how to make a volley of musketry into the rabble count. They have a knack for controlling native mobs acquired from years of experience -- they should give lessons. It's going to be an increasingly valuable skill if we hang around Iraq and the middle east. The half-life of Arab gratitude is measured in weeks, not years.

i say days

Original Mark, if we had a breakdown of law and order in an American city, many of the people in that city would probably resort to looting and violence (take a look at the LA riots, as an example). Such behavior is not unique to Arabs. I realize that indeed many of the cultures over there are wrapped in violence, but painting with a broad brush is the first step towards dogmatic ignorance.

Note to self...best to stop armed thieves by being armed....perhaps this would work for citizens in high crime areas. Must contact Handguns INc.

ScoPi, you state that LA is an American city, but over 1/2 it's population is illegal immigrants...such behaviour is endemic to third world populations, and overzealous sports fans....though I don't recall the police shooting anyone
in Kansas when KU lost.....

Is the entire Iraqi population walking around with guns and looting? No, they're not. QED

Genghis,
What a gross statement...just because over half of LA's population is made up of latin americans doesn't make them all illegal immigrants...and a significant portion of those latin americans settled in Los Angeles when Los Angeles was a Mexican outpost.

Also, the LA Riots, as much fun as they were, began life as a reaction to long-standing problems, but quickly degraded to a free for all...but they were limited to a rather small portion of Los Angeles...I never felt like I was in danger, though I did stay out of certain neighborhoods.

I wasn't even referring to LA's Hispanic population as counted by the US Census, but to INS's estimated 2,000,000 illegal Mexican immigrants in CA. with over 40% of those estimated to be in the LA area. Your rewrite od history is interesting as far a when and who settled where. in 1890 Population of LA was 50,093, in 1960 LA Population was 80% white non hispanic.
Today Hispanics (legal) represent 45.6% of the population of 3.5 million in LA,
Whites are 32.1%. I'm not buying "they settled here when it was a Mexican outpost. Foreign born population of total LA population is 40.9%. The LA riots weren't a reaction to long standing problem. It was the actions of some thugs and when those less thuggish saw there were no consequences took the opportunity to act out.

My figures from above were provided by the US Census and the INS both available on line

Genghis,
you make good points...the riots started as a demonstration of anger, but quickly degraded to looting just cause people saw the opportunity...its also true that LA didn't appear as what it is until the mid twentieth century, but there were already Chicano families in California that moved around and then settled in LA. There are a lot of Mexican folks in these parts who are second, third, fourth generation (and older)...and even if their families started life out as illegals, there have been a good number of amnesties in the past twenty or thirty years that have made a large number of once-illegals legal.

So forty percent of two million illegals (as you say INS claims CA has) in LA would mean eight hundred thousand...LA city, with over three and a half million people, would not lead to over half being composed of illegals...I guess it was the word "illegal" you used that I had issue with...on your follow-up post you refer to 45 percent of LA being "legal" hispanic residents...and keep in mind that those eight hundred thousand are likely spread throughout LA County (with ten million people) and not only LA city.

Re: LA RIOTS. The bulk of the damage was in the Pico-Union area of town. Pico-Union was predominately Latino (specifically from Central America: Salvadorans, Nicauraguans, etc.). The arrest stats for looters were overloaded with "undocumented immigrants" from countries south of Mexico. One area which experienced only a brief episode of looting was Koreatown: Mostly because the Korean shopkeepers were armed and actually shot looters. After the first day, no more looting in Koreatown!