ABC Reporter Informs on Hungry People, Diverts Rescue Resources in Disaster Zone

Tom Llamas is an ABC News correspondent, and he’s in Texas to cover the disastrous after-effects of Hurricane Harvey. Here are two tweets he made this afternoon, since deleted:

Now, there’s a certain kind of reader who will see this, and think: Looting is illegal, these people need to be punished! It doesn’t get more complicated than that, for a certain type of black-and-white thinker. If you’re one of those readers, well, you should probably stop reading now.

Because for anyone with a conscience, or a drip of human empathy, this is heinous. A neutral observer from the media saw some hungry people trying to find food at a grocery store—an illegal act, by the letter of the law, but one geared toward helping them survive—and decided to inform on them to police. To react that way when witnessing human suffering is bad enough, but Llamas went further—he actively drew police and coast guard to the scene, which means that there are now fewer resources available for rescue missions and other critical activity in a time of great danger. I don’t need to spell out the consequences of that, do I?

Here are a few reactions from Twitter that sum it up well:

This is revolting. Adhere to the SPJ tragedy coverage code.

“Show compassion for those who may be affected adversely by news coverage.”

— Eoin Higgins (@EoinHiggins_) August 29, 2017

Not to mention you’ve taken Coast Guard and police away from helping people.

— Eoin Higgins (@EoinHiggins_) August 29, 2017

The fact that the Coast Guard/cops actually responded to this cynical, oblivious snitching shows what they’re really employed to protect. https://t.co/Yxj03WQoWb

— the bodyslam politic (@joe___nelson) August 29, 2017

thank god, now the food can sit in there and be destroyed instead of going to hungry people https://t.co/4xo2kEPFYC

— thomas violence (@thomas_violence) August 29, 2017

The entire store is literally a biological bomb. They’re going to go in with a bobcat and gut the entire thing.

— SwiftOnSecurity ???? (@SwiftOnSecurity) August 29, 2017

Hey, @TomLlamasABC: if you want to call something “looting” and report it to the authorities, start with this: https://t.co/bMp18ZSfO9

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) August 29, 2017

When you see people desperately trying to survive. pic.twitter.com/XJe6DU21N7

— Gladstone (@WGladstone) August 29, 2017

UPDATE: Llamas has attempted to clarify his earlier tweet. We’ll let you be the judge:

Let me clear this up-we were w/police who had discovered a dead body & mentioned we saw ppl w/faces covered going into a supermarket nearby pic.twitter.com/bfM5WCCO1e

— Tom Llamas (@TomLlamasABC) August 29, 2017