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Shiftless Thieves Thieve Shiftlessly

Just caught this story on the local news, and see that one of you readers put it into another thread: food-stamp recipients in two north Louisiana towns heard that Wal-mart’s system was glitchy, and basically looted the grocery departments in the stores: The chaos that followed ultimately required intervention from local police, and left behind […]

Just caught this story on the local news, and see that one of you readers put it into another thread: food-stamp recipients in two north Louisiana towns heard that Wal-mart’s system was glitchy, and basically looted the grocery departments in the stores:

The chaos that followed ultimately required intervention from local police, and left behind numerous carts filled to overflowing, apparently abandoned when the glitch-spurred shopping frenzy ended.

Springhill Police Chief Will Lynd confirms they were called in to help the employees at Walmart because there were so many people clearing off the shelves. He says Walmart was so packed, “It was worse than any black Friday” that he’s ever seen.

Lynd explained the cards weren’t showing limits and they called corporate Walmart, whose spokesman  said to let the people use the cards anyway. From 7 to 9 p.m., people were loading up their carts, but when the cards began showing limits again around 9, one woman was detained because she rang up a bill of $700.00 and only had .49 on her card. She was held by police until corporate Walmart said they wouldn’t press charges if she left the food.

Lynd says at 9 p.m., when the cards came back online and it was announced over the loud speaker, people just left their carts full of food in the aisles and left.

“Just about everything is gone, I’ve never seen it in that condition,” said Mansfield Walmart customer Anthony Fuller.

They stole it, the mob. Fortunately, taxpayers aren’t going to have to foot the bill for the food-stamp frenzy; Wal-mart will. Still, what a repulsive display. Welfare nation at its finest.

UPDATE: When I say “welfare nation at its finest,” I mean people who think they have a right to live off the labor of others with no sense of personal responsibility for themselves or obligation to the common good. If a people will steal like that when given the opportunity, I don’t care whether they’re rich or they’re poor, they show themselves to be people of low character. By their action, these Wal-mart thieves give pretty good evidence of why they persist in poverty.

UPDATE.2: Another thought. I wrote earlier this week about why, in early voting, I voted against the Republican candidates running to fill an empty seat in my Louisiana Congressional district. A Republican will win, of course. Ours is one of the poorest Congressional districts in the US; I share it with the Wal-mart welfare looters. To many voters, those looters are the face of the undeserving poor, and a good reason to vote Republican. I don’t agree with this, because I think we’ve got much worse problems here than welfare cheats. But I can’t deny the political impact of the video of these thieves ripping off Wal-mart and the taxpayer, which is getting lots of TV play in Louisiana. It’s depressing, and infuriating.

You readers who chastise me about linking to this story because it will encourage people who hate welfare remind me of the Catholic priest who, in the spring of 2002, strongly exhorted me to quit writing stories about clerical sex abuse, because it could cause the state to pass laws taking away some of the Church’s freedom. I didn’t buy it then, and I don’t buy it now.

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