Surviving Civil Unrest

As The End of the American Dream blog notes, there is a lot of civil unrest going on all around the world, including in Chile, Spain, the UK, Hong Kong, Lebanon. And, the author warns, the United States could be next:

      The impeachment process is bringing a focal point to the deep anger that has been building on both sides of the political spectrum for many years.  Now that this process has begun, there is no going back, and both sides believe that there is only one result that will bring justice.

      For the left, any result that does not remove Donald Trump from office will be a bitter disappointment.  The Democrats in the House of Representatives are going to draft articles of impeachment, and they believe that they already have the votes they need to send those articles of impeachment to the U.S. Senate.

      If the Republican-controlled Senate does not vote to convict Trump and remove him from office, this will greatly upset the left, and could result in an explosion of anger in our city streets.

      On the other hand, if the Republican-controlled Senate does vote to convict Trump and remove him from office, tens of millions of hardcore Trump supporters are going to be absolutely livid.  There would be an explosion of righteous anger on the right, and it would almost certainly spill into our city streets.

    The riots and protests in Chile are interesting because they have apparently been violent and extensive, but I've seen very little coverage in the U.S. media. Organic Prepper has published a guest post by J. G. Martinez D. discussing the situation in Chile. He notes that the level of violence and the organization of the protesters is immense, stating: "Someone is organizing those vagrants. There is someone behind providing drugs. Weapons. Someone telling when to attack what. This is not a spontaneous protest." He describes the general situation as far as what utilities are down, the disruptions to travel, and so on. And he offers some advice:

Dear fellows, the wisest action is to hunker down with your gas masks (if you live in downtown of a city being looted), close your windows, and avoid to be in the streets for a few days. Vinegar is a good antidote for tear gas, but surely you knew that already.

• Turn on your HAM radios and start making contacts with your network to monitor the scope of the situation in other areas. (You should already have that network organized)
• Keep your tanks as full as you can afford. Charge everything you need for long term bugging in to your credit cards. No need to max them out, just to rush the stuff you could need.
• Pack some gear and supplies, ready to get out of dodge.
• If you have to bug out by car, try to not to rush. Use the radio or cellphone, if you can, to monitor if your route is safe.
• Timing is key. Identify bottlenecks where the possibility of authorities checkpoints is higher, and try to look for alternate routes.

Before finishing this article, I stood astonished watching some news about how things are getting stirred…in Panama.

Because of these events, the Organic Prepper has another article on prepping for civil unrest entitled, "How to Survive Riots and Civil Unrest." It has some ideas on recognizing the pattern of civil unrest and how it develops in order to predict when it might be time to get out of Dodge or hunker down. As the author states, the primary rule is to not be there when a riot or protest breaks out, and don't be poking around when and where the police may be looking to bash some heads. Read the whole thing, as they say.