Boston Looting? Video Shows Marathon Gear Taken During Boston Bombings (VIDEO)
Video footage captured during the Boston bombings showed a mass of people allegedly looting from an official Boston Marathon tent. Many people clamored to get jackets and other official race swag from a tent vacated by race workers in the immediate aftermath of Monday's bombings.
The YouTube user who posted the video entitled the clip "Looters stealing marathon jackets while others are just feet away critically injured." The user said in the description that the individuals captured on video were looting items that were provided by the sponsors of the marathon.
The video produced some strong reactions from viewers, who were shocked that people could be so inconsiderate given the tragedy that struck nearby.
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"Take a high quality screenshot of each and every one of their faces," someone wrote. "Make a Tumblr. Plaster each person's face online. Get Reddit to front page it and make it go viral."
The user continued: "I honestly wouldn't normally advocate this sort of mob justice, but that one piece of s--- smiling while grabbing all the [jackets] he could carry while people were dying 20 feet away got to me."
However, some came to the defense of those in the video by insisting that the people were gathering jackets and other materials to give to the victims, rather than taking the gear for themselves.
"Entirely possible that some of them were doing this for a legitimate reason," one user wrote. "Namely, a runner was at the finish line but didn't have access to their belongings due to the bombing and were left in the cold."
One user who said he was there at the time and revealed that volunteers were trying to distribute the jackets "to comfort the injured or those who could not go back to the hotel."
"Yes, some people took advantage of it, what can you do," Sim Salabim wrote, "but it's not looting what you see."
