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| -Short Attention Span Theater- |
| Bracken: When The Music Stops – How America’s Cities May Explode In Violence |
| 2013-01-22 |
| I believe we can safely replace "May Explode" with Will Explode. I also believe the panic buying of weapons we see today is a reflection of that fear. |
| Posted by:Glaling Ebbuper4150 |
| #23 My point is that once the food is looted those areas will tear into each other. The cops don't have to go into the rioting areas, they just need to contain and wait. The bulk of the gangbangers and troublemakers are not actual soldiers and there is a world of difference between a soldier (a lot of cops are ex-military these days) and a thug. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2013-01-22 22:03 |
| #22 See: LAPD, 1992. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2013-01-22 21:25 |
| #21 rj, I think Bracken was assuming that the police would be too badly outnumbered to handle things. Wikipedia says Chicago has 12K police. The population of the city is over 2M. One estimate claims it has 68K gang members. If things erupted along racial lines, it would seem more likely that the white cops would retreat and attempt to protect the north district and abandon the rest. I have no idea what racial attitudes are like in the police force; the result might be better. |
| Posted by: James 2013-01-22 20:25 |
| #20 The gun check waiting time in Colorado has changed from 11 minutes, (my last purchase), to over a week. There's a message there. |
| Posted by: Angairong Spaiger6091 2013-01-22 16:18 |
| #19 Good point RJ. A simple escalation of the "turning on each other" taking place right now. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2013-01-22 15:13 |
| #18 I agree with tipover. Unless the whole essay takes place in a long weekend the rioters will run out of food and bullets fairly quickly, cell service will go down and the power will probably be cut to their areas as they are pacified. They would turn on each other before they threatened neighboring areas for long. The whole thing assumes a tepid police response when the rioters have escallated everything. I just don't see that. Just watching the police in the last few decades indicated to me that overreaction is a very real possibility in many areas. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2013-01-22 15:01 |
| #17 Some Korean War perspective: Popular uprisings against Communist governments usually fail. The ruthlessness of the Communist security and counterinsurgency forces generally serves to limit the support of anti-Communist rebellions. So it was in Korea. The Communist regime in the North, aided by the Chinese, had such tight controls over the people and their movements that operating on the mainland was extremely difficult. Identification and pass cards were constantly changed and checked by NKPA security forces. Strangers coming into an area were easily spotted and monitored. The partisans could go in and out of the coastal areas with some ease. But along the major supply lines and deep in the North Korea there were tight security controls they could not avoid. Denying people their civil and individual rights to stamp out fledgling insurgency is never a worry for Communist-controlled regimes. In these situations concern for personal safety among the general population often outweighs the need for political change. Support of the people generally will go to whichever side offers them the greatest security and the opportunity to continue life as safely and as normally as possible, no matter what the restrictions. The great mass of politically neutral people will favor that side which affords it the greatest protection. In the case of the people of North Korea it was the Communist government. Ben S. Malcom COL(Ret) US Army, White Tigers, My Secret War in North Korea, COL, Brassey's 1996, pp. 36-37. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2013-01-22 14:26 |
| #16 Tipper -- the Roman government imported and distributed the food; they didn't have third parties handling the distribution. P2k had it right -- the breakdown in food will be that the trucks won't run when the drivers are pulled from their cabs and beaten, the food won't be edible after fires bring down the local power grid, and the stores won't be staffed when the commute to and from work means risking murder. |
| Posted by: Rob Crawford 2013-01-22 14:23 |
| #15 Spanky Clineter1354=Procopius2K and forgive me for a finger twitch double post. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2013-01-22 13:45 |
| #14 Only criticism I have is that the article assumes that food stamps would be the first to be cut. Don't need food stamps for food that never shows up. Once the food stores are looted, who's going to rebuild them fast enough for restocking, if anyone is willing to drive a delivery truck to the store in the first place. Then there are the rail lines and long distance truckers that move the bulk of the food which will reroute around troubled areas. The intricacies of a very elaborate system of the free market provide that foodstuff, not to mention that magic electrical switch that turns on and off the light, do not survive anarchy. These concepts are beyond the immediate gratification of the mob, until the days after when they have to start roving to find replenishment. They'll quickly become aware that 'free' has been funded and operated by others who don't work for free. Not that they'll care beyond their aching stomachs, because they've been told their owed it because of something that was common in all cultures over a hundred years ago. If enough cities explode, there's not enough manpower or sympathy around to alleviate such a self inflicted wound. |
| Posted by: Spanky Clineter1354 2013-01-22 13:44 |
| #13 Foods stamps are the Holy Grail of this administration. They may not be cut, but hyperinflation and shortages could make them (along with the USD) virtually worthless. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2013-01-22 12:46 |
| #12 Only criticism I have is that the article assumes that food stamps would be the first to be cut. If you look at Rome, entitlement were the last to be cut. Pay for security, army navy etc. were the first to be cut(sequestering?)and security was subcontracted out to outlying barbarian tribes. When they didn't get paid they went over to the invading tribes. Rome itself had ceased to be military orientated. It's citizens had become "soft" and indulged in the new Christian concept of otherworld rewards, i.e Hope and change. Thirty years after the fall of Rome a visitor to Rome said all that was there was brigands and wild animals. |
| Posted by: tipper 2013-01-22 12:37 |
| #11 Get your Danger Swag while you may. |
| Posted by: newc 2013-01-22 11:04 |
| #10 Interesting theory but ignores that cell service would go away almost immediately, either deliberately or from lack of service. Get a handheld CB Radio, and/or something in the 2 meter class. Join a HAM club, get involved. I could say a lot more but why give away the farm. |
| Posted by: Rupert Omegum8398 2013-01-22 10:41 |
| #9 The sniper stuff near the end reminded me of the tactics of the Beltway Sniper. He used a car and shot from the trunk. |
| Posted by: BrerRabbit 2013-01-22 06:13 |
| #8 A good video is worth a thousand words. Be nice if it WAS a good cideo, just whiney Country make believe. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2013-01-22 04:47 |
| #7 What will they call the new currency? The Hansea. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2013-01-22 02:56 |
| #6 Entirely possible Phil. When that day comes, Champ will 'go totally FDR' and issue an EO banning the private ownership of gold as well as silver. We'll get the worthless script, he'll have the new currency. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2013-01-22 01:36 |
| #5 I've been thinking about what's the end game for currency debasement? The writer under-estimates how bad it will be and then there is internationally. Egypt only produces half of the food it consumes. It will get very bad, very quickly in a lot of places. The scenario I came up with is Germany, the UK, Switzerland and some E European states introduce a new gold backed currency that can be exchanged for gold on demand like the old Bank of England. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2013-01-22 01:10 |
| #4 The pecking order for $$$ will be lower under "Globalist" OWG + OWG NAU than under the present "Nationalist" order. WILL BE MUCHO LOWER OR WORSER STILL IFF THE GLOBIES + ALIGNED EVER DECIDE TO DEV LEVELS OF GOVERNANCE HIGHER THAN NAU BUT STILL BELOW OWG, e.g "Trans-Global/Continental Federal Unions". Trans-American + Trans-Atlantic/Pacific + Trans-Hemisphere + .... LUNAR??? lol. AND - SURPRISE, SURPRISE - STILL NO US NATIONAL OR EVEN STATE-WIDE VOTE ON SAME. [AL "WHAT A SHOCK [Not]" BUNDY here]. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2013-01-22 00:54 |
| #3 Interesting theory but ignores that cell service would go away almost immediately, either deliberately or from lack of service. After that there would be no "flash mobs". Doesn't mean that things couldn't get "interesting", just not quite as described. Especially in less populated areas and Red States.... |
| Posted by: tipover 2013-01-22 00:47 |
| #2 A good video is worth a thousand words. |
| Posted by: Secret Master 2013-01-22 00:46 |
| #1 Surely seems to have done his homework. As I've said before, I'm just waiting for it to start so we can clean the mess up and get back to where we should be. |
| Posted by: Orion 2013-01-22 00:45 |