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Monday, May 4, 2015

Riots and other spectator sports


One line in this Washington Wire article caught my attention.

“A resounding 96% of adults surveyed said it was likely there would be additional racial disturbances this summer”

So I had to ask myself: what do they plan to do about it? Well if someone plans to riot they know what to do. What about everyone else? As for myself I live way out in the country where there's not enough people for a sewing circle, never mind a riot.

Let's say that you in a metropolitan area. At the very least you should have some idea if your city is ripe for the type of riots that swept Baltimore. In fact, you should have a darn good idea in which part of the city riots are most likely. If you don't your situational awareness needs some fine tuning or you should move out in the country with me. At the very least you should have some idea how to avoid the likely trouble spots. Riots rarely involve whole cities. The recent Baltimore riots were much smaller than the riots of '68 and even those didn't involve the entire city.

The best way to deal with a riot is to be somewhere it ain't. The thing that drives me absolutely drunken ape nuts is the people who'll go towards trouble. They want to see what's going on. It's exciting and they don't want to miss it. Next thing they know a brick hits them in the head and a police car runs over their legs. This we call bad luck. . .

. . . or we call it what it really is, stupid. I use to see a similar effect all the time when I was a Firefighter. Big fire at the toxic chemical storage area? Spectators all over the place. Bring the kids and pack a lunch. The police could not keep them away. What is it with people?

Whatever it is, don't be those people. Stay safe out there. As for people with real personal grievances? Destroying your neighborhood won't improve your life. In '68 more than a 100 cities had riots. Most of those neighborhoods never fully recovered. Some politician or “Community Leader” will get some recognition, power and a career boost. The average Joe won't.

The logical thing to do is to keep your ear to ground listening for trouble, then get yourself to a place where it ain't. Do you want to protect your family? Great. Now ask yourself if they'd be better protected by you standing in front of your house with a baseball bat or by being on a long camping trip in the mountains? Worried about your property? Is anything you own worth your life?

Unrest can get nasty and get there fast. Whatever you do, don't rush to have a front row seat at the erupting volcano.

-Sixbears

17 comments:

  1. I've never understood the attraction of being a spectator at an emergency either. Here's a thought, I wonder statistically how many of those spectators would be classified as sheeple?

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  2. I have never liked crowds, not even well behaved ones. I'd rather be well away from them. As to go and watch a riot? No way would I voluntarily go towards it! Herd mentality has never been my thing. Pretty much any animal in the world will run, or fly away, or slither away from trouble. Humans seem to be the only ones who generally don't. Now that's the stupidity of the supposedly cleverest ape on the planet.

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    1. Humans are strange critters, aren't we? Maybe we should use those big brains of ours sometimes.

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    2. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    3. Second time blogger played up today! This should show up as a wood man's wanderings and ramblings, not as Welcome to my website! Weird.. Joel

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    4. By any name it's nice to have you drop by.

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  3. A police scanner might not be a bad thing to have at certain times, if you live in bad areas.

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  4. Glad I have mostly corn fields, horses and cows for neighbors. The few people that live around here don't come out of their houses. We've been here almost 6 years and I've talked to only four of them.

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    1. I don't mind knowing my neighbors, as long as there aren't that many of them.

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  5. Good advice, Sixbears. Never, ever jump out of the frying pan into the fire. . .

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  6. I adored the woman who bitchslapped her son all the way home because he was on tv about to or did throw rocks at the police, she is my hero..who stands for that crap? not her! We detest crowds, when my hubs gets a feeling something crappy is about to unfold we get the hell out of dodge..I lived in southern middle and northern California for many years, dated newspaper fellows who had degrees in journalism, went to lots of places others did not behind the scene when the shit hit the fan my friends/dates we got out like a person on fire..I saw plenty, never understood big ole crowds of people going batcrap crazy for entertainers, one could yell fire and that would have been it, the places only used to cost a few dollars but the crowds would have killed you and the sounds were ridiculous, that is why people actually purchased LP records and listened on am radio, fm came in like a tidal wave while I lived in colorful California..it was different time, but riots and all that crap was not my forte, many people get killed just being innocent bystanders and who the hell goes to riots anyways? not I said the spy..If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck it isn't and Uof Oregon duck but a bunch of CRAP & get the hell out of dodge! Oh, my hubs is kinda psychic he can figure out if some you know what is coming down and we never ever go there and it has worked for about 50 years since I have known him and married 41 years!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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    1. If mom ain't happy ain't nobody happy.

      It's good to have a sixth sense about trouble. I've got a hard time to read cities as normal days seem like a crisis to me.

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  7. My kids live in a Northern city with a "history." When this started in Baltimore we went to the first stage of "time to leave" but it didn't spread to there. Mine can get out, fully equipped, provided they launch before the roads close. They can either go south, back home or north to friends in Canada. I think civil unrest is going to become a lot more common than it has been in the last decade, especially if city mayors set aside designated looting areas as this one seems to have done.

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    1. On my good days I hope we can prevent the mistakes of the past, but I prepare for those bad days.

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