Many behavioral psychologists and sociologists have a saying: The best predictor of future behavior is relevant past behavior. When politicians, particularly those on the Left, refer to “civil unrest,” they are referring to what the man on the street calls a riot. Civil unrest is simply a “politically correct” or a “Liberal-friendly” euphemism for a riot.
Survival web sites also frequently mention the need for preparing for “civil unrest,” particularly in urban areas. While not civil unrest, as such, the identical behavior involved in civil unrest was seen in the streets of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, and every American who was of age in 2005 saw it and understood it for what it was, riotous looting that was a clear attempt to steal from others when the chances of being punished for it were minimal. (I am not particularly critical of those who were desperate for milk, bread, etc., and who took food to feed their starving families–if they were, in fact, starving. The televisions, sofas, $150 Nike running shoes, and bottles of Maker’s Mark being carried away were in an entirely different category.)
The reality is that, on any given day, the denizens of many urban neighborhoods, in particular, are kept in check only because of the fear of punishment. As in the case of mobs, in general, anonymity provides a protective cloak to looters. As the likelihood of punishment diminishes, the likelihood of anti-social behavior increases significantly until law enforcement is able to obtain a certain “critical mass” in gaining control of the situation. After that, their offense does not involve a violent major felony, looters understand that as long as there are enough looters, and as long as they keep their looting below a certain threshold, the urban criminal justice system will issue “misdemeanor permits” or what is almost a “get out of jail free” card when court proceedings take place later.
The Rodney King Verdict Riots
A friend with whom I have shared preparedness interests since the 1980s and who worked in South Central Los Angeles (LA) for years for the phone company, sent me this link. It is two hours long, and it is a comprehensive compilation of Los Angeles television news coverage of the Rodney King Riots in 1992. More recent events in Ferguson, Missouri, and Baltimore pale by comparison to the LA Riots. There were estimates of property damage as high as a billion dollars (yes, billion with a “B”) as people in certain neighborhoods turned on commercial enterprises nearby, whether they were Korean “mom and pop” stores, major supermarkets, electronics stores, clothing stores, or furniture stores.
LA burned and, as is shown in the video, its denizens celebrated the chance to get “free” stuff before setting the stores on fire as they left. LA burned and, as is shown in the video, its denizens celebrated the chance to loot before setting the stores on fire as they left. Asked by a television reporter why he was running away from a shoe store with several boxes of running shoes in his hand, the looter responded, “Because it’s free!”
The riots spread to Pasadena, Pomona, and as far away as Las Vegas as opportunistic rock throwers and looters joined in. Rodney King, of course, was beaten by LAPD officers after a high speed freeway chase in LA and a chase through residential neighborhoods at night at speeds up to 80 mph. Exactly how Pasadena, Pomona, and Las Vegas rioters thought their behavior was going to improve their lot in life in their cities is something someone else will have to explain.
What began as a political protest or demonstration concerning the Rodney King verdict, turned into a riot, and then turned into what was simply a massive looting opportunity in which the participants lost all interest in protesting, if they ever had any interest in protesting in the first place. Indeed, as one black LAPD officer said toward the end of the video, “I haven’t heard anyone yelling out anything about Rodney King as of this point. It’s just people taking advantage of an opportunity.” Indeed, not one time while I watched the two hour long video did I hear anyone scream, “Rodney King!!!” I am reminded of what a co-worker related to me one time. He said that he watched a television reporter approach an individual who was laughably outfitted in an obviously new suit that was two sizes too big for him, and he was also wearing leather shoes that didn’t match. The reporter asked him what he thought about the Rodney King situation. The individual responded, “Well, to tell you the truth, I don’t follow sports much.”
Appropriately, the LAPD was heavily criticized later for its failure to act quickly to shut down the situation the first night. By falling back and letting the mob have its way, it served to inspire many others to join the effort because it was obvious that the chances of being punished were very low. If you watch the video, you will see LAPD officers in patrol cars slowly passing looters coming out of stores. The officers do nothing. You will see groups of LAPD officers standing together within 50 feet of stores as they were being emptied, again, doing nothing. The excuse offered was that the legendary LAPD did not have “enough” officers on the scene. (In California things are different. The LAPD obviously does not follow the historic Texas Ranger rule, i.e., “One riot, one Ranger.”)
In reality, I strongly expect that the Mayor Tom Bradley administration simply did not want the LAPD to use more harsh measures due to the political blowback that would occur during the next election cycle. Bradley and the City’s “powers that be” understood the underlying truth–which was, to paraphrase the old NRA expression, “I’m a looter and I vote.” Just as the clueless and impotent woman mayor of Baltimore said her city was doing a few years ago, they gave the rioters “space” to express themselves–which, in reality, meant, that the rioters could wear themselves out looting.
Meanwhile, In Beverly Hills
The police force for the City of Beverly Hills, on the other hand, was not troubled by such political restraints. Video of Rodeo Drive at the time shows that it was untouched. Beverly Hills residents (and, more particularly, Beverly Hills voters) weren’t rioting and wouldn’t be complaining about “excessive force” used on looters. Therefore, the Beverly Hills PD was able to insulate the city’s population from the troubles in LA, the enclave city of Beverly Hills is surrounded by LA.
What is notable in listening to the news anchors’ and reporters’ commentary is that they are much less concerned about “politi-speak” during the early ’90s, a time when the country’s population looked very different than it does today. While the television screen, itself, provides easy identification of the racial and ethnic groups involved, anchors and commentators come right out and say it at times. (Notice how reticent reporters are to identify by race or ethnicity the rape suspects being sought by police today, even when the description of the suspect is being given by a radio reporter and with obviously no ability to broadcast a police artist’s rendering? Political correctness and the fear of offending a certain bloc of listeners usually mandate that the racial or ethnic description of the suspect be left unmentioned, so the public is left to guess about the perpetrator’s appearance.
Television News Reporting Highlights
Here are some issues and points that stand out to me in the video:
- A witness account of a mother who sat in her car and was heard sending her children into the store to get her “something good.”
- Korean store owners standing their ground and exchanging repeated gunfire with looters in cars and on foot. (The looters apparently failed to consider that most Korean immigrants were new arrivals from Korea at that time. Korean males have a mandatory military service obligation.)
- Correspondents’ reports that some arson teams were driving around the city with a goal of setting ten fires an hour.
- Firemen attempting to suppress fires being shot at, and one being wounded with a blast from a shotgun. As a result, firemen were issued “bulletproof vests.”
- Reporters saying repeatedly that looters tended to scatter when the LAPD showed up, but when the officers were dispatched elsewhere, the looters were returning.
- Half of Southwest Airlines flights into LAX being canceled, and, instead of landing with an approach over Inglewood, an area adjacent to South Central, aircraft were landing at LAX using an ocean approach due to actual sniper fire–or the risk of it.
- Hours passing before National Guardsmen arrived to support the LAPD, and then arriving without ammunition. Yet, they were sent to the streets without ammunition, their ammunition arriving hours later.
- A line of white Scientologists guarding the Dianetics Center on Hollywood Boulevard, apparently successfully, some with baseball bats in hand.
- After the looting of the stores in some neighborhoods, some looters turned to apartments and homes.
Over a quarter century has passed since much of LA burned. If anything, the potential for chaos has worsened with the shift in LA demographics since then. Those who live in what was formerly called “South Central” complain about the fact that there are so few grocery stores available now, and that so many find it necessary to eat fast food and unhealthy food from “mom and pop” markets and convenience stores. High prices and the lack of fresh vegetables are singled out as a problem with these stores. For a great part of the population in these areas, the only choice is to take long trips on mass transit to find suitable food elsewhere.
Of course, the risk of rebuilding in what is called “South Los Angeles” now has provided plenty of incentive for the major supermarkets to avoid operating in such neighborhoods. While there are numerous individuals on the public stage who criticize the supermarket chains’ reluctance to return, they almost always seem to avoid criticizing those who burned the markets over 25 years ago. Odd, that. (A few years ago, the LA City Council changed the name of the area known as South Central to South Los Angeles in an effort to avoid the stigma of “South Central.” Voilà! No more problems in South Central!)
Some What-If Questions
For many of the younger readers of this article, the LA Riots seem to be almost from ancient history. Yet, it is said that “the best predictor of future behavior is usually past behavior.” While on any given day, a riot could break out across the country due to social, political, or racial conflicts (yes, we’ve all heard the discussion about “Civil War II”), what if an EMP attack occurred, or to a lesser extent, a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME)? While tensions with North Korea have arguably lessened, the situation with Iran is heating up. With an EMP or CME as a possibility, ask yourself the following:
- What would happen if police and fire units could not operate because their electronics were fried?
- What would happen if credit card and debit card transactions could not be processed because the grid was down?
- What would happen if EBT cards (modern food stamps) could not be used because the grid was down?
- What would happen if every National Guard unit was located in areas in which their own localities were overwhelmed by their own problems? (One National Guard officer being interviewed in the video said that she lived 300 miles from LA.)
- What would happen if the National Guard could not appear at the scene because Guardsmen had no transportation to get to their armories? (National Guardsman often live quite far from their unit armories.)
- What would happen if National Guardsmen decided to stay home to protect their own families?
- What would happen if statewide/regional mutual support agreements among fire departments were not honored because every fire department was overwhelmed by its own problems? (After the November fires here in Southern California, I talked to men in my neighborhood from the Texas A&M University Forestry Service. I heard on the radio that units from Indiana also responded to the California fires.)/li>
- What would happen if law enforcement, firemen, and National Guardsmen decide to stay home and protect their families?
- What would happen if municipal workers (water, power, sanitation, etc.) were rendered useless because, without power, there wasn’t much to run anyway?
- What would happen if municipal workers couldn’t get to work because they had no transportation to get to work?
- What would happen if municipal workers decided to stay home to protect their families?
I could keep going, but I expect that most readers will comprehend the enormity of the situation.
No Trucks Rolling
Nevertheless, I will add one more category: What if truck drivers didn’t show up because: 1) their trucks weren’t working; 2) they, too, wanted to protect their families; or 3) they were afraid of the danger of being on the highway? How many truck drivers would refuse to report to work because they were fearful of winding up like Reginald Denny, the truck driver pulled from his cab during the LA Riots and brutally beaten within an inch of his life on national television? How many truck drivers would refuse to transport food into riot zones, thereby making the rioters, once their food supplies were exhausted, even more desperate and likely to engage in forays into areas well-removed from their own starving neighborhoods?
It’s just a hunch, but I would guess that the great majority of Survivalblog readers live outside the types of the neighborhoods shown in the video.
Coming to a Neighborhood Near You
Yet, if truck drivers refuse to make deliveries in riot zones, once the looters’ food supplies were exhausted, looters would become even more desperate and would become more likely to engage in forays into areas well-removed from their own starving neighborhoods. As the old movie trailers used to say, it is entirely possible that, if the calamity lasts long enough, similar troubles would be “coming to a neighborhood near you.” If anyone persists in their belief that the violence and mayhem shown in the video would be limited to places like Los Angeles, Ferguson, and Baltimore, all I can say is that I they are living in a Pollyana-style fantasy world, or in an alternate universe. It may also be that they are simply prisoners of “The Normalcy Bias.”
The knee jerk reaction of many readers is to say to those living in the risky areas, “Move!” Yet, as with many problems in life, the solution is often not simple. Many readers will have to deal with the risk because various circumstances, e.g., job, family, friendships, pension issues, etc., currently prevent them from moving.
The teaching point or takeaway point here? It is better to be very prepared to deal with the danger and, as a wise person once said, it’s better to be prepared “a couple of years too early than a couple of days too late.”
Unrest is coming fast! Do all that you can to prepare, train and stock up.
BH, has it right with >Stock-Up. …. >Check out the SurvivalBlog advertisers; they have good deals at good prices. From Earthquakes, to Weather events, to Urban Riots, there are events that can leave a person ‘stranded’ in their own home. … At least a small supply of >stored food would be needed. … There have been recent >weather events, which have left people ‘stranded’ without electricity for weeks.
Make sure to check out the SurvivalBlog advertisers for a quality WATER FILTRATION SYSTEM. … During a disaster, the drinking water might be polluted with dead animals, sewage, chemicals, diseases, and things you wouldn’t even want to look at floating in your drinking water. … A pantry full of food might be useless to a family forced to drink polluted water. ~ Useless because the family might be ‘running’ constantly to pollute the drinking water even more!
Second that one BH!
Appreciate the history compared to today. Would live a follow up article going back another 20-25 years to the unrest of the 60s.
Normalcy Bias is so very difficult to suppress…
I live in South Carolina. In the ’60s the students and townfolk in Orangeburg commenced to riot and burn the town. The SC Highway Patrol showed up in force and killed several rioters.
Haven’t had a riot in SC since…..
Awesome!
How I read this article” Predictors of Urban Riot Behavior – The teaching point or takeaway point here? – Poor people, who are often black, are violent, steal your stuff. So, you better be prepared of the black hordes will get you. Just look at the picture that JWR used for the article.
Never mind the fact that in your example of Katrina, the government confiscated weapons, declared martial law, had private military contractors patrolling the streets and the media framed the coverage in ways that resembled the streets of Baghdad rather than a US city.
Are you, or anyone else aware, that it is through stories such as this one, they justify big government surveillance? Support a police state? These types of narratives are really creating our own prison. So, I find it both strange and funny when you say “The best predictor of future behavior is relevant past behavior.” Perhaps you’re correct in this sense that stories such as this one do absolutely nothing but reproduce narratives that are over 500 years old, and in response, the government further restricts everyone’s freedoms.
Do you fear the poor? Perhaps you should further read about the 2008 financial crisis that resulted in corporate welfare, while the rest of us became poorer. Was not Jesus poor? Would we be lock and loaded against him today? Strange times.
Jesus was not poor. He had faith in the will of the father and provisions thereof.
Agreed about the black population (no I’m not racist just a statatition today). Look at Africa today and realize everything has been built by whites predominantly- the blacks live in fields and still don’t have wells dug for drinking water. That’s what we do in African mission trips. Dig wells and build homes for the black folk.
Statistics also prove that one race is always highest in crime, violent crime, school dropout, babies out of wedlock, aborted babies, on welfare, in Section 8 housing, and incarcerated. Sad but true and you make a great point about the “black hordes”.
Again we love all black folk and wish them the best but there’s a reason Obama began moving Section 8 housing subsidies to wealthy white neighborhoods. BO wasn’t putting white people into black communities it was the other way around so they can thrive I guess.
Sorry. Tough post on this one but needs to be said. Hope you black folk stock up well.
God bless.
@ Ole Granny, my point is less about race and more about how people often think in double standards and simplify their talking points by cherry picking examples. They do this to say…”see, there is civil unrest, and therefore, ALL black people are violent”. Never mind the structural reasons for the unrest.
When I was reading this article by EM, I could not help but to think about the Bundy Ranch standoff. Government is aggressive against a group of people, this becomes framed in the media that those people are bad, the public begins to pick sides based on their personal similarities (or not) to that particular group, and contention follows. All the while, rights and liberties are lost for all groups. I wonder if most people miss the last part, which IMO is the more important part.
What is more, it is not uncommon to see anti-LEO rhetoric in Sblog’s comment section. I recall not long ago some LEOs were saying they were offended by such comments and were no longer going to participate with this website. That is a shame in a number of ways. Could we say that based on these examples, together with EM’s story here, that perhaps many that read and comment on this site are only supportive of their particular views and types of people that are similar to them? I mean, can any of us really be good at survival if we are scared of everyone that is different from us? Because there are more differences out there in the world than similarities, and I am not sure people are going to survive well by being scared of it all. In most instances, stories such as this one are cherry picking talking points while choosing to not pay attention, or are too lazy to see the larger picture.
When someone like Rodney King is pulled over and has the cr*p beat out of them, yes, let us focus on why ALL black people are thieves. When the Bundy Ranch situation happened, let us focus on why ALL LEOs are power hungry thugs. All of this together suggests to me that people that think in this way, they are not going to be good at survival. They are good at judging, sitting in their armchair taking in what the media tells them too, and placing blame on everyone else while they buy a bunch of survival junk so they feel safe. How safe can one be when they judge, complain and point fingers at everyone?
ole Granny
Jesus was not poor is correct, remember all that Gold, Frankensense and Myrrh?, well guess what, the amount was a substancial amount, not the nonsense of a dozen gold coins, handful of Frankensense, no, no ,no, complete fallacy and misreading of Jewish texts.
Muddykid, you think outside the box. I like that.
Knowing lots of people who live in South Central-type communities, I can tell you that most residents DO NOT riot. They lay low and hope the criminals that think they have a free ticket will be killed or arrested…or just go away.
As you stated, E.M., opportunistic rock throwers and looters joined in. This was in Pasadena and LAs Vegas.
A few criminals, acting like criminals give the impression that all “those people” are like that. I know a few of “those people”, black neighbors who would ventilate members of a mob looking to torch a neighbor’s home.
Note the small story of the Scientology members protecting their HQ. Thieves look for easy pickings. So do government thieves.
Don’t ask for protection from the cops. Make connections in your community. Train. Trust. Work hard together on a project.
Carry on
THE SUBURBAN ARMED VIGILANTE RESPONSE, concept by Matt Bracken
Bracken: When The Music Stops – How America’s Cities May Explode In Violence
Posted on September 3, 2012
Western Rifle Shooters Association
https://westernrifleshooters.wordpress.com/2012/09/03/bracken-when-the-music-stops-how-americas-cities-may-explode-in-violence/
Bracken: Covington Gives a Glimpse of Civil War Two
Matt Bracken
Jan 28, 2019
Posted by AP Staff
https://www.americanpartisan.org/2019/01/covington-gives-a-glimpse-of-civil-war-two/
I think that the best response is to not be in that area, but some folks have little options…
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07RR9GWSP/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B07RR9GWSP&linkCode=as2&tag=survivalcom-20&linkId=22ae2a1e5fd29e7742a138d88eb967c0
In the area of relevant prior behavior: before the LA riots, there were the Watts riots. In that time, there were TV shots of kids hauling TV’s out of stores, people moving washers and dryers, the local grocery stores were stripped and burned and stores miles from Watts had panic buying that left swaths of shelving bare. Several years ago I passed through the Watts area and there were still vacant lots where many of the burn- outs had been. As much as thing change, they remain the same.
Killing & chaos will be rampant & widespread…just being prepared will not protect you…You MUST have a plan to remove you and yours to a temporary (or permanent) safe area. This area may be over 100 miles away and only safe until the “Golden Horde” heads your way…It will be a daunting task. It will not only be TEOTWAWKI–it will be the end of LIFE as we know it! Death & destruction will become common place. Prepare yourself physically, mentally and SPIRITUALLY now! If you fail to do so, you will become a victim in a “society” that does not record statistics–a society that steals, kills, burns and moves on and probably will “take no prisoners.”
Everything will be okay after we pay them reparations.
Maybe even some precious metals.
Have done a little “recon” in my new area and even through paying extra taxes to live away from the “vibrants ” have noticed the next town over has a housing project.
Full of all the usual suspects it wouldn’t take much for them to end up in my neighborhood. More good news(sac) low income, read section 8 housing is being built a mile down the road.
The last train wreck of a president mandated low lifes be pumped into wealthy neighborhoods. Seems his presidency is the gift that keeps on giving.
Hard to say what’s going to be worse. Dealing with clueless boomers and their useless millennial brats or the “golden horde” as JWR likes to call them.
Did a google maps search and found some good fresh water locations near by. Hopefully with the right treatment there will be safe water to drink.
Trouble is the sheer numbers in and around the city make surviving any major society upheaval bleak.
It’s cringworthy to note that very small, insignificant examples we see in other nations, that are over exaggerated and embellished in The US Prove to validate EM’s point. But Will it really take a major event to see heads explode? Or just a hacked power grid on a nationwide scale, that will go back online in a day or two. What would happen if the food stamp program was hacked on a Capital-one, Equafax scale for a week?… We are in so much trouble.
Ayn Rand would probably say, “You can ignore demographics but you cannot ignore the consequences of ignoring demographics.”
Bracken wrote a great analysis: Bracken: When The Music Stops – How America’s Cities May Explode In Violence
https://westernrifleshooters.wordpress.com/2012/09/03/bracken-when-the-music-stops-how-americas-cities-may-explode-in-violence/
then there is this awesome piece on when the trucks stop: https://www.trucking.org/ATA%20Docs/What%20We%20Do/Image%20and%20Outreach%20Programs/When%20Trucks%20Stop%20America%20Stops.pdf
When Trucks Stop, America Stops A Timeline Showing the Deterioration of Major Industries Following a Truck Stoppage The first 24 hours
•Delivery of medical supplies to the affected area will cease.•Hospitals will run out of basic supplies such as syringes and catheters within hours. Radiopharmaceuticals will deteriorate and become unusable.•Service stations will begin to run out of fuel.•Manufacturers using just-in-time manufacturing will develop component shortages.•U.S. mail and other package delivery will cease.
Within one day •Food shortages will begin to develop.•Automobile fuel availability and delivery will dwindle, leading to sky-rocketing prices and long lines at the gas pumps.•Without manufacturing components and trucks for product delivery,assembly lines will shut down, putting thousands out of work.
Within two to three days •Food shortages will escalate, especially in the face of hoarding and consumer panic.•Supplies of essentials—such as bottled water, powdered milk, and canned meat—at major retailers will disappear.•ATMs will run out of cash and banks will be unable to process transactions.•Service stations will completely run out of fuel for autos and trucks.•Garbage will start piling up in urban and suburban areas.•Container ships will sit idle in ports and rail transport will be disrupted,eventually coming to a standstill.Within a week •Automobile travel will cease due to the lack of fuel. Without autos and buses, many people will not be able to get to work, shop for groceries,or access medical care.•Hospitals will begin to exhaust oxygen supplies.
Within two weeks •The nation’s clean water supply will begin to run dry.
Within four weeks •The nation will exhaust its clean water supply and water will be safe for drinking only after boiling. As a result gastrointestinal illnesses will increase, further taxing an already weakened health care system.This timeline presents only the primary effects of a freeze on truck travel. Secondary effects must be considered as well, such as inability to maintain telecommunications service, reduced law enforcement, increased crime, increased illness and injury, higher death rates, and likely, civil unrest.
Oh. My. Gosh. E.M., you are spot on, on so many points, well, basically everything! I remember seeing those unbelievable events on t.v. Your admonition to prepare is well taken. I’ve just had an epiphany that I could possibly be one of those pre- WWll persons that did not evacuate soon enough. When I have read WWll history, I would think to myself, “They saw how things were ominously changing politically, why didn’t they flee to safety like so many others did when they had the chance? Now I know not to judge in my heart. I see the current signs of the times, and yet am choosing to stay and become a nurse before moving. Will there be enough time? Only the Lord knows. Like many, I have researched for years for land in the redoubt, and will continue to do so until I find where the Lord wants me to be. When I bought my current house 1 1/2 yrs ago, the Lord unexpectedly placed a sheriff on my left and a state patrolman on my right, as next door neighbors. To me, this was a gift from God saying, “Krissy, I got you. I’m keeping you safe.” I believe I am in His hands whether I stay or go; e.g., believer Jim Elliott was speared to death by natives, but believer John G. Payton had the hand of God protect him from being speared by a group of natives throwing spears at him from just 6′ away. I’m not trying to be foolish by staying, I just feel called to become a nurse first.
I would like to relate a current story kind of apropos to what you shared. Believing an economical crash is coming, I wanted to sell a large diamond ring of mine. So, while visiting my daughter and son-in-law in, yes, South Los Angeles, I had her take me to a jeweler in Beverly Hills. While looking for parking on an ordinary day, with no crises whatsoever, I was surprised to see both security guards and homeless people everywhere in the diamond jewelry district. Then, my brain could not comprehend what I was seeing. Looking out the car window, I saw a man had his pants down and was pulling his finger out of his anus while he was defacating. This happened next to a diamond jewelry store. I observed the security guards looking for us and radioing ahead to each other to make sure we were safe as we walked to and from our car. I had no idea that we would need police protection just to go shopping. If not being safe is what is accepted as normal there during good times, I have no doubt the King riots of the past will become the new normal when a crisis of any kind hits. Also, I think there have already been 20 mass shootings so far in 2019.
I whole heartedly agree with E.M., so I would like to point out one more obvious thing. Having a core belief that robbing from others during a crisis is okay, is not limited to the poor and destitute. Two months ago, in my college psychology class, my esteemed professor, who is also a clinical psychologist with a Ph.d, was lecturing, when, out of the the blue, he went completely off topic about preppers. He declared in a matter of fact way, that he did not have to spend money on supplies because if a disaster strikes, he was going to find a prepper and take their food. He was not joking, and now a whole class full of kids had that thought put into their heads too.
Stand strong, Krissy. You are following your calling.
Carry on
Thanks for the encouragement, Krissy
For the record, when I wrote my comments, I was not thinking about color as a factor, but the common depravity of the human heart and behavior in some when the the police are not going to protect people and punish crimes. In the back of my mind, are haunting stories I’ve read about WWll towns in Poland where neighbors turned on neighbors, stealing, raping and killing because the Nazi’s told them that they could and not get any kind of punishment. They brutalized their decades old neighbors because they could get away with it! This murdering of women, babies, children and men was all done by white people! In addition, last year, 2018, Poland past a law making it a crime to even say certain phrases about Poland and what they did during WWll. Yep, it is at least a three year prison sentence to say truth they do not want to hear. So, in summary, it is not about color. It is about human depravity, which is in each of us. But for the grace of God, there go I.
https://time.com/5128341/Poland-holocaust-law/
Krissy
Did you ever read or have you heard of the Bromberg mass killing ? I encourage you go look it up.
Tom
Just looked it up. So many atrocities makes tears fall down my face.
Krissy
Thanks for looking it up, my mother is German, I thought I knew most of WW2 events and history, I never heard of Bromberg till a few months ago, I knew of a German man, who gave me more details, he lived in Bromberg saw babies and toddlers thrown in the air to be skewered like shishkababs by Polish soldiers laughing, I am not absolving any nation of commiting unspeakable evil upon innocents, after 60 years of being on Earth, looking back upon mans dark events, I see it’s within human nature to do as we do, once the restraints upon society were encased with biblical laws to protect both the godly and ungodly alike for a long, long time, now those same restraints are being broken at a acclerating rate, the walls are crumbling around us, now secularism is rising, where hedonsim rules, metoo, and self entitlement,you may have heard the story, often attributed to the Cherokees, in which a grandfather tells his grandson of a fight that takes place within him between two wolves. One of the wolves is virtuous, and one is evil. When the young man asks, ” which one will win ” ? the old sage answers…… ” the one you feed ”
Within our minds are two differant drives, they compete with each other, good & evil, Our appetites and instincts aren’t bad; they drive us towards the things we need to survive, thrive, and reproduce, sadly more and more people today are driven by base lusts.
When I check my phone out of what can only be called a Pavlovian response; look at social media comments in which people communicate through memes and gifs, browse a reddit “discussion” in which the replies are completely predictable, peruse a website populated by clickbait; utilize any digital platform that’s been engineered to activate the react to parts of my brain, I viscerally feel dumber. I feel driven by base lusts, porn is like that, so is gambling or any other craven addiction, I feel like a rat in a cage, being prompted to push a lever to get more pellets of food. The more you push the lever, the beadier your eyes grow.
I counter the want to check my smart phone, by reading a book of worth, walking, going hiking on the trail, teaching myself about the wild, observing the animals. A really good way to be.
To be completely frank, I doubt even those of you in the Redoubt would be entirely free of such things in a no or low rule of law situation. Besides Hatfield vs McCoy style feuding there is always sectarian violence to be had. Assuming that we are somehow different from our forefathers in that respect is folly. Look no further than the early days of the Church of Latter Day Saints to see it in action in this country, in that area.
Whether you are able to escape to a BOL or shelter in place, the most important thing is to have a plan. How do you get back home if the freeways are jammed? When I lived in Riverside, CA and commuted daily to Santa Ana, CA, I had paper maps(Thomas Guides) with alternate routes via surface streets and 4-lane roads to get home. I kept a bug-out kit in my truck and hiking shoes if I was forced to abandon it and walk.
If you cannot leave the area due to the obligations of family, job, etc., you can still prepare. BUT, you must instruct every member of your tribe to keep their lips zipped about what you have and what your plans entail. Children are especially prone to blab to playmates.
If an event of an EMP or a CME than 90% of the US will be dead in mere months. How does anyone prepare for that event?
As to seeking a remote area in small cities, the new-comers will be outsiders. I have had friends treated that way in good times. What happens when a national crisis hits like a EMP event?
Skip, you prepare for an event like that the same as you would for nuclear war, a pandemic, or any other event on a global scale: Food, water, shelter, self defense, first aid, tools, retreat location, and have a plan A, plan B and plan C.
The goal is to be among the 10 percent that survive. Maybe you will make it, maybe you won’t, but being prepared and have the proper survival mindset is far better than giving up because of what you see as overwhelming odds.
The difficulty is not after the die-off, but leading up to it. Do what you can to avoid attracting attention and when that fails, hope you have overwhelming fire superiority or an escape plan and fall back position. After things calm down — and that might take years — and you adjust to the new normal, you may have to live with your actions and the side effects, but in my book, that is better than the alternative.
I agree with your comment, i think a powerful CME on the scale of the 1859 Carrington Event would be worse than a EMP.
No doubt that civil unrest is going to be part of the future, since it has been a part of our past. The present gaggle of politicians are really fanning the flames of rioting.
My thinking leads toward an economic problem because of the dire financial straits that we are in as a country. A second option would be an extended electrical outage that would affect thousands of people. The outage could easily be by terrorist design.
It has been mentioned how critical it is to have a plan of action when things go upside down. It is very important to have discussed your available options and be able to make sound decisions under stressful times .
We moved to the redoubt few years ago to get away from a large population but there are even some issues in a smaller rural population. Opec is still a critical part of the plan.
Russia and China will shut down our electrical grid in a moment of chaos. They already have the protocols in place and hacked in so many times.
Once civil unrest happens widespread the electrical grids will go down mysteriously
What I am about to share is not a “racist statement” but a quote from a personal customer of mine. At the time of the King riots I was operating a Smog Station in North Las Vegas. There was a shopping plaza a few miles to the west of my operation. This area was a low income area with a large population of blacks. During the riots, the mobs, looted and burned the complete shopping center. Now understand, this is a shopping center that was in a black neighborhood and many of the shops were owned by black business people. I’m a very outgoing type person and I regularly carried on all kinds of conversation with all the different demographics of customers that came through the station. The morning after the looting I opened for business as usual. One of the customers that came through early that morning was a very classy black lady that had been one of my customers for years, she worked at the hospital. We got to talking about the riots and I asked her, “Could you please help this middle aged white guy understand what is going on. I can understand why black people would be upset about that verdict but why are they burning down a shopping center that they use in their own neighborhood? I might understand if they were burning ‘white’ areas?”
Her answer, “I’m sure you have heard of the term ‘dumb n***er’, also have you ever considered that all the stores are going to be rebuilt, with insurance and tax dollars…tax paying citizens are the real victims!” A side note, I graduated high school from Simi Valley High School, Simi Valley is where the trial was held. The world is way to small for all the stupid things childish people do.
I have a co-worker whom worked in Syracuse about 8 years ago as a Pepsi driver. In multiple occasions he had product stolen off his truck while making deliveries during broad daylight! He mainly delivered to convenience stores and bodega’s ……the owners were very nice and protected him more than a few times. You can guess what ethnicity they were….. not too difficult to figure out!
Way back in 1967 when I was 14 and living in Detroit MI, two black Vietnam War Veterans came home, went to a bar and had a party. The bar stayed open after the 2:00 AM closing time. The police raided it (a “blind pig”) and ten days later a large swath of the businesses serving the black neighborhood had been burned down, never to be rebuilt. Over 40 dead and I don’t know how many injured. The police told the civil authorities early on that it could be stopped but it would be ugly. Nope. My brother (18) and I had a 410 single shot with no ammo and a mag fed bolt action 22 with maybe 6 rounds. I will never live near a big city again or be without the means of taking care of myself and family. The deeper cause of the tensions that lead to the riot was that blacks were not allowed to buy homes in white neighborhoods and then an expressway was built through the black section. The pressure built and kaboom.
Recently had a “riot” in a neighboring town,it didn’t need a emp/police shooting/ebt failure to start it was a member of a very large family being beaten and shot with retaliation violence being swift and over a large area. The violence was mainly street fights with a few gunshots in residential areas but covered a good amount of area and almost all le was overwhelmed trying to respond (2 wealthy towns stayed home) if the situation had expanded the local gangs might of tried to loot with businesses defenseless(gun free zones). Do not assume this can only occur in central urban zones but suburbs too and not just gangs but any group that decides to defend/attack can have “knock on” repercussions (gang on gang/biker gangs/families etc) that could ripple through and overwhelm a area quickly. The shifting of urban poverty/crime/blight has been effect for decades with cities clearing LBJ”projects” to reclaim valuable real estate for upscale redevelopment/gentrification. The denisons of the projects were promised return to free housing but were given vouchers for suburban accommodation while connected developers made millions and ghettos spread.
And you wonder why I say, “When the big one hits out there, it’s time to drop the bomb!”
No food.
No water.
No power.
No roads.
No hope!
The bomb just ends their misery.
Huh? I do not understand what you mean. Krissy
Just have the San Andreas fault blow a M9, and triggering other faults in the area. The LA area will have no power, no gas, no water, roads will be impassable, and no food beyond a few days. How are you going to supply 10+ million people? Just restoring the water would cost around a trillion dollars alone. Even the military does not have enough equipment to be able to get supplies in at that scale. The looters will go wild, and when supplies run out, they’ll turn on each other. There’s no way to control it.
Dropping the bomb on that mess is the kindest thing you could do. Only the Lord could save them at that point, because man cannot!
When you all want to start building Community of like-minded, self sufficient, self sustaining people let me know…
Y’all should tone-down the racial aspect of desperation, crime and humanity. Crime is universal, we all know that. The ears have walls……..
Frankly, I am blessed not to be living in an urban area that would be prone to riots as spoken about in the article and the comments. No doubt there are those locally that would take advantage of a breakdown if they felt they could, but they are few in numbers. Most folks around here of all races wouldn’t allow it! People here are just different. I’m thankful for that and pray it continues. I know some who live in large cities and they love it for the variety of everything from shopping to restaurants to job opportunities. They either take the possibilities in stride or just don’t think of the risks at all.
too many ( ? ) survivalists / preppers espouse go to a remote BOL, and appear to think, they will survive and come through unscathed, no one will be unscathed. Last few years, my own thinking has changed in a profound way. I count myself as a eye’s wide open person and prepared as I can be, the real distinct problem for many in these categories, is the obvious one, no one knows how bad it will get, note my term ” will get “, that means, all is a educated guess, the old book describes a time future tense where the population planet wide has been reduced down to 10 percent surviving, of course many people today are not Religious or adhere to any of these readings, whether you believe or don’t makes no difference, just think about a series of events that kill’s of 9/10s of the planet, prepare as best you can, ….in the meantime, I do the best I can, so should you……you may survive
Tom