The
rhetoric in the United States is heating up and we’re sounding anything
but…well…united. It
seems to most media pundits like we are too far down the path to Civil War 2.0
to turn back now. Activists are laying siege to government offices. Threats
toward people who disagree are growing in ferocity. It’s ugly and getting
uglier. It’s a powder keg that is about to erupt. (Here are some thoughts on what a
full-fledged Civil War might look like.)
It is only a matter of time before civil unrest begins to
escalate and spread throughout the country. Many people are wondering, how do
you keep your family safe during widespread unrest? It’s not about being
fearful. It’s about being prepared.
My
thoughts on this manipulated division are fodder for another article. (You can find it here.) This article is
apolitical (to the best of my ability, anyway) and focuses strictly on what you
need to know to survive should the unrest come to your neighborhood.
You need to understand how riots unfold.
First things first, you need to understand how this kind of
unrest unfolds so that you can see the warning signs earlier. Never
underestimate the power, rage, and motivation of a mob.
Here’s the pattern:
·
An outrage occurs.
·
Good people react and protest the outrage.
·
Those perpetrating the outrage try to quell the
protest because they don’t think that the outrage was actually
outrageous. (And whether it was or not can fluctuate – in some cases,
force is necessitated, but in more and more cases, it is flagrantly
gratuitous.)
·
Others react to the quelling and join the protest.
·
A mob mentality erupts. Thugs say, “Hey, it’s a free for all.
I’m gonna get some Doritos and while I’m at it, beat the crap out of some folks
for fun.”
·
All hell breaks loose.
·
The military gets called in.
·
The city burns, and neighborhoods get destroyed, and no one in
the area is safe.
·
Cops act preemptively, out of fear, and for a time, there is no
rule of law.
·
If you happen to be stuck there, know this: you’re completely on your own.
Some
people are just waiting for the opportunity to behave in this fashion. They’d
love to act like that every single day, but they don’t want to spend the rest
of their lives in jail. But when a verdict gets rolled out, when a storm takes
out the power, when a disaster strikes, they delight in the chance to rob,
pillage, loot, and burn. Who can forget the day before Superstorm Sandy
hit the East Coast, when thugs were coordinating looting
rampages via Twitter?
I remember learning about “sublimation” in a high school
psychology class.
Sublimation is
a defense mechanism that allows us to act out unacceptable impulses by
converting these behaviors into a more acceptable form. For example, a person
experiencing extreme anger might take up kickboxing as a means of venting
frustration. Freud believed that sublimation was a sign of maturity that allows
people to function normally in socially acceptable ways. (source)
If you believe Freud’s theory, then it’s easy to see that many
people look for an excuse to revert to their true natures. In a situation
where “everyone” is doing something, they are able to cast off the normal
control of their impulses without much fear of reprisal. The number of looters
and thugs far outstrips the number of arrests going on in Baltimore, so there’s
a very good chance that someone swept up in that mentality can go burn somebody
else’s home or business and completely get away with it.
Make a flexible plan.
With situations of civil unrest, it isn’t as clear-cut as
disasters like a looming storm or a chemical spill. It depends on where
you live. In a small town, far away from riots and protests, your lockdown area
could be much greater than your own home. It could encompass your immediate
community, too, and life might go on as it always has for you, aside from the
need to stay just a little closer to home than before.
However, if you live in a city or suburb, it may become
essential to make a decision quickly. Do you lock your doors and stay home? Or
do you get out of Dodge? It is a question only you can answer. One thing
that is very important is this: if you need to go, do NOT miss your window of
opportunity to do so safely. If the entire city feels the same way, you’ll most
likely be stuck in traffic and trapped in your car. Protesters have shut down
the highways more than once in recent years, and you’ll be far safer behind the
brick and mortar of your home than you will be in your car.
By the way, there’s always someone who chimes in with a snide
remark about how cowardly it is to lockdown with your family in order to stay
safe. Blah, blah, blah. If you want to go get involved in a battle to make a
political point, that’s certainly your prerogative. However, my priority is the
safety of my family, and as such, I hope to avoid engaging altogether.
The first thing you need to do is get home.
If your area is beginning to devolve, the first thing you’re
going to want to do is to get everyone in the family home. (Or if your home is
in the thick of things, to a safer secondary location.)
In a perfect world, we’d all be home, watching the chaos erupt
on TV from the safety of our living rooms. However, reality says that
some of us will be at work, at school, or in the car when unrest occurs.
You need to develop a “get-home” plan for all of the members of your
family, based on the most likely places that they will be.
·
Devise an efficient route for picking up the
kids from school. Be sure that anyone who might be picking up the
children already has permission to do so in the school office.
·
Discuss the plan with older kids –
there have been rumors that children could be moved by the schools to a
secondary location in the event of a crisis. Some families have
formulated plans for their older kids to leave the school grounds in such an
instance and take a designated route home or to another meeting place.
·
Keep a get-home bag in the trunk of
your car in case you have to set out on foot.
·
Stash some supplies in the bottom of your
child’s backpack – water, a snack, any tools that might be useful, and a
map. Be sure your children understand the importance of OPSEC.
·
Find multiple routes home –
map out alternative backroad ways to get home as well as directions if you must
go home on foot.
·
Find hiding places along the way. If
you work or go to school a substantial distance from your home, figure out some
places to lay low now, before a crisis situation. Sometimes staying out
of sight is the best way to stay safe.
·
Avoid groups of people. It
seems that the mob mentality strikes when large groups of people get together.
Often folks who would never ordinarily riot in the streets get swept up
by the mass of people who are doing so.
·
Keep in mind that in many civil disorder
situations the authorities are to be avoided every bit as
diligently as the angry mobs of looters. Who can forget the scenes of innocent
people being pepper sprayed by uniformed thugs in body armor just because they
happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time?
·
Know when to abandon the plan to get home. Sometimes,
you just can’t get there. Going through a war zone is not worth it. Find a
different place to shelter. Pay attention to your instincts.
The reality is, family members are likely to be at work or
school when things start to break down. You need to have a plan laid out in
advance to get everyone together and you need to be flexible enough to know
when to go on to Plan B.
Be ready for lockdown.
Once you make your way home or to your bug-out location… STAY
THERE.
By staying home, you are minimizing your risk of being caught in
the midst of an angry mob or of sitting in stalled traffic while looters run
amok. In most scenarios, you will be far safer at home than you will be
in any type of shelter or refugee situation. (Obviously, if there is some type
of chemical or natural threat in your immediate neighborhood, like a toxic
leak, a flood, or a forest fire, the whole situation changes – you must use
common sense before hunkering down.)
This is when your preparedness supplies will really pay off. If
you are ready for minor medical emergencies and illnesses, a grid down
scenario, and a no-comm situation, you will be able to stay safely at home with
your family and ride out the crisis in moderate comfort.
Here’s a quick checklist:
·
Get cash in small denominations out of the bank.
·
Make sure you have enough garbage bags, pet supplies, and
toiletries.
·
Flashlight and spare batteries and/or dynamo wind up
flashlights.
·
Make sure all electronics are fully charged and keep them
charged during the lead-up to an event
·
Fill up your gas tank up to the max.
·
If your vehicle isn’t in a garage park it trunk end in as close
to a wall as you can. This makes it harder to get to the tank to either steal
the fuel or set fire to it.
·
Check your home security –
walk around looking at your property as if you were a burglar and take
appropriate action to improve security if required.
·
Have something on hand for the kids to do in case
of school closures.
·
Make sure you have a fully stocked first aid kit and enough OTC
medications to last the family for at least a month.
·
Pick up some extra ammo
·
Plan to keep pets indoors
·
Make sure you have enough of needed prescription medications to
last a few weeks
Staying home is the number one way to keep yourself safer from
during a civil unrest situtation. If you find yourself in an area under siege,
the odds will be further on your side for every interaction in which you avoid
taking part. Every single time you leave the house, you increase your
chances of an unpleasant encounter. Nothing will be accomplished by going
out during a chaotic situation.
Try to stay under the radar.
Your best defense is avoiding the fight altogether. You want to
stay under the radar and not draw attention to yourself. The extent to
which you strive to do this should be based on the severity of the unrest in
your area. Some of the following recommendations are not necessary in an
everyday grid-down scenario, but could save your life in a more extreme civil
unrest scenario.
·
Keep all the doors and windows locked. Secure
sliding doors with a metal bar. Consider installing decorative gridwork
over a door with a large window so that it becomes difficult for someone to
smash the glass and reach in to unlock the door.
·
Put dark plastic over the windows. (Heavy
duty garbage bags work well.) If it’s safe to do so, go outside and check
to see if any light escapes from the windows. If your home is the only one on
the block that is well-lit, it is a beacon to others.
·
Keep pets indoors.
Sometimes criminals use an animal in distress to get a homeowner to open the
door for them. Sometimes people are just mean and hurt animals for “fun”.
Either way, it’s safer for your furry friends to be inside with you.
·
Don’t answer the door. Many
home invasions start with an innocent-seeming knock at the door to gain access
to your house.
·
Keep cooking smells to a minimum.
The goal here is not to draw attention. The meat on your grill will draw people
like moths to a flame.
·
Keep the family together. It’s
really best to hang out in one room. Make it a movie night, go into a darkened
room at the back of the house, and stay together. This way, if someone does try
to breach your door, you know where everyone is who is supposed to be there. As
well, you don’t risk one of the kids unknowingly causing a vulnerability with a
brightly lit room or an open window.
·
Remember, first responders may be tied up. If
the disorder is widespread, don’t depend on a call to 911 to save you. You must
be prepared to save yourself. Also keep in mind, as mentioned earlier in
the article – the cops are not always your friends in these situations.
Be prepared for defensive action.
If,
despite your best efforts, your property draws the attention of people with ill
intent, you must be ready to defend your family. Sometimes despite our best
intentions, the fight comes to us. (Have you seen the movie The Purge?)
Many preppers stockpile weapons and ammunition for just such an
event. I know that I certainly do. Firearms are an equalizer. A small
woman can defend herself from multiple large intruders with a firearm if she’s
had some training and knows how to use it properly. But put a kitchen knife in
her hand against those same intruders, and her odds decrease exponentially.
When the door of your home is breached, you can be pretty sure
the people coming in are not there to make friendly conversation or borrow a
cup of sugar. Make a plan to greet them with a deterring amount of force.
·
Don’t rely on 911. If
the disorder is widespread, don’t depend on a call to 911 to save you – you
must be prepared to save yourself. First responders may be tied up, and
in some cases, the cops are not always your friends. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina,
some officers joined in the crime sprees, and others stomped all over the 2nd
Amendment and confiscated people’s legal firearms at a time when they needed
them the most.
·
Be armed and keep your firearm on your person.
When the door of your home is breached, you can be pretty sure the people
coming in are not there to make friendly conversation over a nice cup of tea.
Make a plan to greet them with a deterring amount of force. Be sure to
keep your firearm on your person during this type of situation, because there
won’t be time to go get it from your gun safe. Don’t even go to the kitchen to
get a snack without it. Home invasions go down in seconds, and you have to be
constantly ready.
·
Make sure your children are familiar with the
rules of gun safety. Of course, it should go without saying that you will have
pre-emptively taught your children the rules of gun safety so that no
horrifying accidents occur. In fact, it’s my fervent hope that any child old
enough to do so has been taught to safely and effectively use a firearm
themselves. Knowledge is safety.
·
Be ready for the potential of fire. Fire
is a cowardly attack that doesn’t require any interaction on the part of the
arsonist. It flushes out the family inside, leaving you vulnerable to physical
assaults. Have fire extinguishers mounted throughout your home. You
can buy them in 6 packs from Amazon. Be sure to test them frequently and
maintain them properly. (Allstate has a page about fire extinguisher
maintenance.) Have fire escape ladders that can be attached to a windowsill in
all upper story rooms. Drill with them so that your kids know how to use
them if necessary.
·
Have a safe room established for children
or other vulnerable family members. If the worst happens and your
home is breached, you need to have a room into which family members
can escape. This room needs to have a heavy exterior door
instead of a regular hollow core interior door. There should be communications
devices in the room so that the person can call for help, as well as a reliable
weapon to be used in the unlikely event that the safe room is breached. The
family members should be instructed not to come out of that room FOR ANY REASON until you give them the all clear or
help has arrived. You can learn more about building a safe room HERE.
Focus the tips for creating a safe room in an apartment to put it together
more quickly.
Again,
even if your plan is to bug in, you must be ready to change that plan in the
blink of an eye. Plan an escape route. If the odds are
against you, if your house catches on fire, if thugs are kicking in your front
door… devise a way to get your family to safety. Your property is not
worth your life. Be wise enough to accept that the situation has changed
and move rapidly to Plan B.
You have to remember that civilization is just a veneer.
So many times, when interviewed after a disaster, people talk
about being “shocked” at the behavior of others. Their level of cognitive
dissonance has lulled them into thinking that we’re safe and that we live in a
civilized country. They are unwilling to accept that civilization is only
a glossy veneer, even when the evidence of that is right in front of them,
aiming a gun at their faces, lighting their homes on fire, or raping their
daughters.
They refuse to arm themselves and prepare for an uncivilized
future.
Accept it now, and you’ll be a lot better off when the SHTF.
Then tell me again how “civilized” our country is.
About
the Author
Please
feel free to share any information from this site in part or in full, leaving
all links intact, giving credit to the author and including a link to this
website and the following bio. Daisy is a
coffee-swigging, gun-toting, homeschooling blogger who writes about current
events, preparedness, frugality, and the pursuit of liberty on her
website, The Organic Prepper. Daisy is the publisher
of The Cheapskate's Guide to the Galaxy, a
monthly frugality newsletter, and she curates all the most important news links
on her aggregate site, PreppersDailyNews.com. She is the
best-selling author of 4 books and lives in the mountains of
Virginia with her two daughters and an ever-growing menagerie. You can find
Daisy on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter.