Member-only story
The Origin Of The “Looters Can Be Shot On Sight” Myth
It turns out that you can’t legally shoot looters
There is a misconception that looters can be shot on sight. The idea is that in the wake of a natural disaster when emergency departments are stretched thin, people are given the right to patrol the streets and use lethal force as they see fit to protect the lives and property of people who might not be able to. The fire and police departments can’t deal with protecting electronics stores when others' lives are in jeopardy. While that part is true, looting is not a capital offense.
In fact, the laws regarding looting are not even mandated federally. If you damage or loot federal property, you could be on the hook for federal charges. There are laws on the books regarding rioting and the behavior of individual rioters. But neither of those statutes apply to a person that decides to wander into a burned out storefront after a natural disaster.
When it comes to how to prosecute looting at a local level, those laws are based on the regulations surrounding grand theft and burglary. And burglary is not a capital offense.
So why does everyone think that people have an innate right to shoot looters in disaster zones? That stems back to a proclamation made by the mayor of San Francisco in 1906.
