Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
We have had a spell cast upon us. The American people are at each other’s throats and the division seems to great greater by the day. It seems there are not enough hours in the day to argue all the issues in the world.
With such a divisive media and divided population, civil unrest is a given. There will be large scale riots and protests, like those we have seen. There will also be smaller low grade instances of civil unrest like the violence and theft we see in the streets of New York.
Are you prepared to deal with that. I have a collection of tips to assure you stay safe as civil unrest gets worse in America.
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Make YOU Better
Whether we are talking about the mental, physical, or financial side, now is the time to make YOU better. In hard times some most people fall to their worst inclinations,but some rise to be their best.
Thanks to the internet and Twitter we get to pass judgement on others at an alarming pace. We spend less time looking at ourselves and more time telling others what they need to do better.
Now is the time to sharpen yourself up. Make it so you can be as agile in this changing world as possible. Those who can be physically, mentally, and financially agile are the ones who are going to fair the best.
Read Your Local Self Defense and Home Defense Laws
Before you even consider carrying a weapon you should know what will happen to you when you use that weapon. No matter how threatening someone may appear from 20 yards away, you cannot just pull out a gun and shoot them.
I was very surprised to find out in Virginia that you can shoot a person who is actively trying to break into your home, but you cannot shoot someone who has successfully broken into you home!
Figure that one out! Doesn’t matter if I like the law. If I break it then I go to jail.
Learn How to Hurt Someone
You might hear this expressed as ‘learn self defense’ and that opens up a whole range of conversations about what to learn, how to learn, who to learn it from. When you break it all down what you really want to learn is how to hurt someone.
Whether its with fists, knees, elbows, wrist lock, or any other of the many ways it can be done, the deterrent of pain is what you need to learn. The confidence that goes along with knowing you can inflict pain on someone with your hands can be seen and felt, too.
Martial arts are a noble pursuit that creates discipline and honor in a person. If you want to go that route, that is fine. I am telling you that you need to know how to hurt someone, and you need a means of proving it will work against real people.
This might sound barbaric,but should this need arise you will be very happy that you know how to hurt people.
Carry a Weapon
Thanks to cellphone cameras we have seen thousands of recorded reasons why every law abiding citizen, especially women, should be carrying a firearm. The monsters on the streets have no morality, they show no mercy, and its getting harder and harder to put them away.
If you get swept up in a civil unrest situation it will not be 1 or 2 people that could attack you. It might be 10 or more! That is why you need the threat of lethality. At the very least you need a less than lethal weapon that can cause some serious damage. Damage enough that will snap some sense into those under the spell of civil unrest.
Fortify Home Security
The modern home is much more about comfort and curb appeal then security. Large bay windows, large pane French doors, skylights, these are all features that make a home brighter and look very nice.
In civil unrest these are also all entrances into your home. If someone wants to get into your home how hard would it be? Do you have fortified locks? Deadbolts. You might even consider plywood to board them up!
3M sells a clear film that when applied to your windows makes it much harder to break them. Home defense can go as far as you want it to go. Though at the very least you should be able to detect, deter, and defend against threats to your home and property.
Don’t forget about fire. Sometimes, in civil unrest, its not about breaking into homes and hurting people or stealing things. Sometimes its just about setting things on fire. Do you have fire extinguishers at home?
Gather Local Intelligence
Who lives nearby? While it is just as important to have relationships with the people who are next door to you, you should also know who lives on the other side of town? Who lives on the bad side of town? Which gangs are roaming your area at night? Chances are there is at least some kind of gang activity in your area.
If you are preparing for civil unrest, it would make sense to know who the warlords will be, right? Gangs have people and resources so they could be something to avoid or to deal with.
There is also an app called Broadcastify that allows you to listen to chatter from local EMS and Fire Departments. You can learn a lot about what is happening by listening to these channels during protests and riots.
Establish Neighborhood Communications
During civil unrest, the people you are going to talk to most will be your neighbors. They will be the people you meet with and communicate what you are seeing to. We had a small community meeting on the night of the Trump/Biden election. It was to address what could come and what we were willing to do about it.
There are great tools out there like the Nextdoor app. This allows you to send messages, plan events and communicate with the people in your neighborhood. It can really help you develop and sustain those relationships.
Report Crimes to Police
This might not seem that important, but I remind you that the squeaky wheel gets the oil. As you watch the world around you sink deeper and deeper into despair be sure that you report crimes to the police when they happen.
Don’t assume others are reporting them. Take action. The more you do that the more the police will watch your area. They will never come to your area if you are quiet about the issues.
Have a SOLID Evacuation Plan
There are levels of civil unrest that are simply unmanageable. You do not want to try and leave a city where all hell has broken loose in all places. For this reason, you need to be prepared to evacuate.
You need an evacuation plan that prepares your family to leave at a moment’s notice. The civil unrest of 2020 was all about proximity. Though it happened in a lot of places in the nation, the true effect on people came down to proximity. How close was it to you?
If it is across a bridge and you are safe, then civil unrest is more of an inconvenience or something to talk about. However, if the mob comes walking through your neighborhood, its better you not be there.
Conclusion
There is a lot to consider when you are in the midst of a collapsing society. Its not to say the waters of chaos will not recede but for now the tide is rising. Each on of these recommendations will see that you are better prepared to survive this changing world.
Civil unrest is something that you can prepare for. You must understand what is happening near you and have a plan to react to it. You also need to realize that the safety and security of day-to-day life is changing and that YOU are the deterrent.
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