It's all anecdotal at this point, but if police reports following hurricanes Katrina and Irene are any indication, the East Coast is in for a crime wave, post-Sandy.
No reports of looting or Hurricane Sandy-related crimes have been reported yet but that doesn't mean we won't see some soon.
Following Hurricane Katrina, the most devastating hurricane in modern memory, New Orleans was besieged with reports of looting, rape, and murder, causing delayed troop deployments, delayed medical evacuations, and police department mutiny, The New York Times reported in 2005.
From the Times:
"Beyond doubt, the sense of menace had been ignited by genuine disorder and violence. Looting varied from basic thievery to foraging for the necessities of life. Police officers said that at least one person fired for nights on end at a police station on the edge of the French Quarter. The manager of a hotel on Bourbon Street said he saw people running through the streets with guns.
At least one person was killed by a gunshot at the convention center, and a second at the Superdome. A police officer was shot in the Algiers neighborhood, across the river from downtown, during a confrontation with a looter."
Same can be said for Hurricane Irene, albeit on a less dramatic scale.
Looting of evacuated homes was so widespread TruTV compiled all the security images into one crime-filled slideshow.
In New York City alone, about 30 arrests were reported for crimes that happened as the hurricane pummeled the city, The New York Times reported last year.
From the Times:
"Shortly before midnight, a Staten Island man choked his girlfriend, and was later arrested. A half-hour later in Brooklyn, a woman’s boyfriend punched her in the head. The hours passed with more punches and kicks, and shortly before 5 a.m., with sunrise soon to come, a Queens man beat a woman and shoved her down stairs before taking her cellphone so she could not call the police."
Doesn't bode too well for Hurricane Sandy.
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