Post Collapse Security Considerations

[plank white]

Interesting watch....... thoughts?

scenario Plausable ..or more of a "Yeah Right" scenario?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=DOo9bjLtL3Q

[Makiaveli]

Not implausible that gangbangers with military training or ex-military types could plan such operations after a collapse.

[Jamie Jackson]

Not completely implausible. It does underscore the need for both a low profile and a MAG (Mutual Assistance Group) and certainly points out the folly of the Lone Wolf mentality.

The concept has been explored in PAW fiction by several authors... Rawles, Forstchen, and Crawford.

It's necessary to cover the Beans, Bullets, & Bandaids of prepping, but you also need Training to go along with the physical accoutrements.

[TMF]

Society has a way of stabalizing itself. There have been lawless times all through history where rougue elements have attacked and pillaged civilized society, but that is more of an exception to the rule.

I don't think that folks consciously consider the concept of mutually beneficial relationships. We all are a part of them, but we don't acknowledge them in such a deliberate way as folks did before we had all our modern comforts. If that all went away it would be immediately apparent the importance of mutually beneficial arrangements... probably in less than 24 hours.

One of many anecdotes on the subject I'll share... I was in the middle east while Egypt was at the height of its revolution. I had a bartender who was himself an Egyptian of the Christian faith. To set the background on this there had been a lot of Christian-Muslim tension in Egypt that year after a couple terrorist attacks against churches so the two groups weren't exactly getting along. Add onto that the general support the Christian community in Egypt had for Mubarak, it just wasn't terribly popular to be Christian at the time. So I asked the bartender how things in Egypt were going and if his family felt safe there. He launched into a story about how the security had collapsed and there was rampant violence and thievery being committed by gangs of thugs. He said that his parents lived in a Muslim neighborhood (generally Christians and Jews live in communities in Muslim countries) and that they had formed a security group of all the able males in the neighborhood and were patrolling constantly. He said his father was armed with a shovel while on patrol.

This is a small example of what folks will do in dire times, but I think if we saw it here communities would be quick to combat armed bands of locusts. Society just won't stand for that kind of stuff. Especially a society that has such a rich history of not putting up with crap and is armed to the teeth. I'd say that most of the country would take care of itself. NYC, Chicago and LA probably won't make it though... bummer.

[Makiaveli]

@TMF 18B I get what you are saying, but I don't think that would work if there was a total collapse. It would be more like the early 1800's, so yea the community would band together and form a "posse" once someone noticed that the 18B family hadn't come into town recently and they discovered your burned out home. Assuming the local small town still existed.

This brings up the debate between security through strength or obscurity. Fences, patrols and cameras give away your position. Then again, hiding only works if they don't see you.

[Spiffy]

What worries me more is Bubba with his deer rifle than roving bands of Black/Mexican gang bangers.

[Dennis1209]

Another consideration would be the two million convicts in our prison system. That doesn't even count those arrested in jail awaiting trial or those on parole.

Would you go to work in a total collapse? What if our fiat currency becomes worthless, would you work for little or nothing? What would they do with the convicts?

[RichardR]

My phone signal isn't good enough to watch the video, but if the economy collapses, society as we know it will follow, and historically, the longer the duration of a collapse, the more backwards a society will transgress.

Geographic areas in which basic resources are very limited, such as cities or essentially any urbanized areas, tribalism will undoubtedly be revived, especially within certain cultures which have never completely abandoned the whole "tribalistic mentality" to begin with, some of those tribes will undoubtedly be more hostile than others, the peaceful tribes barter and trade will be possible, however the more hostile of the tribes will probably send out raiding parties into surrounding areas on a regular basis.

What does that mean to us? Probably a whole lot of semi-organized lawlessness post-collapse, so it would be wise to automatically assume that you will eventually experience an encounter a roaving band of bandits, will the roaving bands of bandits consist of experienced combat vets? Maybe not in the beginning, but you can bet your last can of beans &/or you or your loved ones lives, that they will get experienced awful dern quick.

Marauders won't spend their days and nights getting experience by cultivating a garden, tending livestock, digging a well or rebuilding, they will be out day and night preying upon other folks in order to obtain resources, and I am guessing that some of them are going to get real good at it too.

How can we defend our families, our homes, our resources, our neighbors, etc against scenarios like that? Historically the use of an overwhelming force, that tracks them down and slaughters them, all of them so that they cannot just recruit more fodder & continue pillaging, is the most effective solution, however in a post-collapse modern society, successfully organizing and executing such a task would be extremely unlikely, volunteers and equipment would be in short supply, attempted leadership of this sort of "ad hoc posse" would probably be constantly contested, questioned, undermined and even subverted by those who did actually volunteer.

It certainly isn't a scenario that I would ever want to have to deal with, but it is one that is possible if there ever is such a societal collapse, scary stuff indeed, especially considering "how soft" most modern family-men have become.