A new word for looting?

A thread on my Facebook page expresses disdain for the media's continued use of the "looting" frame. As my wife said, "I heard about people "looting bags of rice" on NPR this morning.... As far as I am concerned those are probably first responders doing rescue work." Indeed, we know that the "victims" or "survivors" of disasters are the first first responders. But the thread became a discussion of what to call looting that isn't looting. How about eating? Gleaning? Salvaging? I proposed "scavenging," but several people have pointed out its negative connotations. A colleague points out what Robert Neuwirth wrote in today's New York Times: "Not all theft is criminal. Looting is wrong, but lifting necessities like water or electricity is not. " (Neuwirth also uses the term "scavenging," but in a different context.)


Perhaps we can distinguish between the "gleaning" of things that are immediately useful and needed--water, food, clothing, medical supplies--and the "looting" of things that aren't immediately useful, like televisions. I don't understand the problem with gleaning such things in a city where the shops are in no threat of opening any time soon. To the extent that business owners lose money from looting, perhaps we can consider the existing stocks of necessities as "prepositioned aid," and then compensate the owners later. In any case, gleaning or "looting"  activity is usually opportunistic, and is no reason to condemn any group of people to claims of lawlessness or malevolence.