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Man in Haiti killed for picking up rice in the street

Rescue workers, military, doctors and nurses work tirelessly – man shot with a bag of rice

Despite all the effort in Haiti bureaucratic bungles mean that people still need medical attention, serious medical attention. They also need food. Why don’t they just open up a line at the depots so people can walk across the city to get food?

People are also starving but the police shoot them if they try to help themselves. CNN reported a man was shot for picking up a bag of rice in the street that fell off a truck.

Thursday, January 21

“8:44 p.m. — Haitian police shot and killed a man they suspected of stealing rice in Port-au-Prince on Thursday, leaving his body on the sidewalk for hours as his family mourned. Witnesses said no one was looting at the time. A nearby shop owner said the five bags of rice the men were found with fell from a truck and passers-by picked them up.”

We’ve seen the videos and it’s true. Police are trigger happy. People were being threatened by the police to scrounging in a flattened store for food days ago. They called it looting. How do you called trying to save your life looting?

On the other hand, desperate people are raiding the food supplies at orphanages.

“8:30 p.m. — Haiti’s orphanages have become targets for people desperate for food, water and medical supplies, aid workers said. On Wednesday night, Maison de Lumiere, an orphanage caring for 50 orphans, came under attack from a group of 20 armed men, aid workers told the Joint Council on International Children’s Services. A neighboring orphanage sheltering about 135 children has been robbed several times over the past few days, they said.”

Someone with authority like the US ought to gerrymander a solution here that doesn’t take permission from the UN in Belgium or a meeting in NYC. Just give the frigging food to the people. That’s why we are sending the money.

The UN had a storage supply of food after the earthquake that they locked up. It was designated for hurricane relief and no one would let them distribute it for three days. Makes you shake your head.

2 Comments

  1. LC

    I am outraged! I started crying when I saw the report of the man killed over rice! Whether or not he stole it or picked it up there is no way in hell he should have been shot for trying to save his life and the life of his family by EATING! Those police are going to hell, they will answer for what they did. Humanity at it’s worst! I can not believe it. God bless that man and his family and all the people struggling to survive in Haiti!

  2. Michael

    Come on, LC, there is NO GOD for those police to answer to! God is just a figment of your imagination.

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