When is looting OK?

New Orleans TV station WWL, with its amazing and harrowing blog on hurricane events, posts an AP story analyzing the looting that has apparently been rampant in the city.

"Ethicists and social psychologists said in interviews that rules of human behavior -- including respect for others' property and for social order itself -- dissolve quickly in desperate circumstances like the storm's aftermath," says the AP News Analysis.

The report also quotes an ethics professor from Purdue University, who draws the line at items crucial for survival.

"Obviously stealing things like TV sets or beer or any items that aren't crucial for survival, that's a nonstarter," the professor said.

But he made an analogy: If the only pharmacy nearby were closed, and it had a drug your mother needed to stay alive, breaking into the pharmacy would be the right thing to do.

"If it's truly for survival -- and I emphasize that, really for your children or wife -- I think you have an obligation to your family that is at least as strong as the respect you have to pay other property owners," he said.

News Analysis: When Is Looting OK [AP via WWL-TV]

Wash Post does some analysis, too:
Carried Away [Washington Post]

And also, check this racial take on "looting" vs. "finding":
Finding vs. Looting [Wonkette]