{"id":35941,"date":"2013-05-24T17:29:44","date_gmt":"2013-05-24T16:29:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/cities-will-collapse-even-sooner-than-we-fear\/35941\/"},"modified":"2013-05-24T17:29:44","modified_gmt":"2013-05-24T16:29:44","slug":"cities-will-collapse-even-sooner-than-we-fear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/cities-will-collapse-even-sooner-than-we-fear\/","title":{"rendered":"Cities Will Collapse Even Sooner Than We Fear"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article has been generously contributed by David Spero of\u00a0Code Green Prep<\/a> and was originally linked via Prepper Website<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

We have written several times about how major population groupings (ie cities) will collapse \u2018shortly\u2019 after the essential elements of life cease to smoothly flow in to them as needed. When there\u2019s no water, no sewage, no food, no gas and no electricity, things will unavoidably get very nasty.<\/p>\n

In an earlier post we suggested that\u00a0cities will decay into violent anarchistic morasses within a week or two<\/a>. \u00a0In that article we were deliberately trying to look at a \u2018best case scenario\u2019 (don\u2019t laugh \u2014 the collapse of cities taking a week or two is, alas, a best case scenario!). Our projection was based on the \u2018best case\u2019 hope that people would remain passive for a few days and it would only be when people realized no help was coming and they were starting to starve that things would turn truly nasty.<\/p>\n

One of our readers, \u2018Lt. Dan\u2019, wrote in to share his perspective of what might go down, and alas, it is not nearly as sunny and optimistic as our earlier best case hope. His point is that violence will break outimmediately<\/em>. There will not be days of ambiguity before things start to fail.<\/p>\n

He says that in known \u2018hot spots\u2019 in larger cities, the violence will start at once, and as soon as the violent offenders realize that the police response is inadequate (or totally missing) it will skyrocket in scope and extent.<\/p>\n

This is a key issue for us, because it impacts on our decision about when to \u2018Get Out Of Dodge\u2019 (GOOD) and hightail it to our remote retreat. How much time do we have to decide what to do between when a massive problem occurs and when the city becomes lawless?<\/p>\n

Lt. Dan writes :<\/p>\n

\n

As a retired LEO with over 30 yrs dealing with \u201csociety\u201d I have a number of thoughts on this topic. I grew up on a working farm not close to any major metro center but in adulthood joined a sizable metro PD. So I have perspective from various angles.<\/p>\n

The speed and spread of lawlessness with be much faster than most will think. Even now in \u201cquiet\u201d times LE staffing is usually based on the lowest number of officers to reasonably handle a \u201cnormal\u201d day. Any event(s) beyond \u201cnormal\u201d immediately overwhelm on-duty forces. Planned events like anarchists protesting the latest capitalist conference allow time to plan for enough ON-DUTY personnel (plus resources from other agencies) to be available when violence breaks out.<\/p>\n

In most major metro areas there are areas the police routinely avoid because they\u2019re too hazardous. The violent elements in these areas are constantly looking to explode their violence at a moment\u2019s notice when the opportunity happens. And when it happens it will spread like a ruptured gasoline storage tank afire. LE forces will be quickly overwhelmed and retreat to a safe place\/bunker for self-preservation.<\/p>\n

Most LEO\u2019s have families and a desire for self-preservation. If the collapse involves monetary problems (like no paychecks) the officers will not be reporting to duty, they\u2019ll be protecting their own. When this happens the initial violent outbreaks will mushroom like a nuclear reaction. If the officers are being paid yet, they\u2019ll set up a \u201ccontainment perimeter\u201d IF they have enough manpower\u2026. which is highly unlikely in a regional or national SHTF scenario.<\/p>\n

On other really scary thought I never see mentioned is\u2026. what happens to the tens of thousands of violent criminals in prisons??<\/p>\n

In a farming community where religion\/moral values are generally much higher than urban dwellers, the problems of violence will be much reduced. Plus everyone usually knows each other so its harder to want to take advantage of them. One tip for urbanites\u2026..farmers are not working their butts off to feed the city slickers (who\u2019ve been ridiculing them for years as hicks, etc) and they certainly will not welcome the urbanites showing up during a crisis.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

We asked Dan about his comments and background, and he told us a bit more about how he has formed the views he has \u2014 and, let\u2019s face it, thirty years in a major metro police department and retiring as a lieutenant gives him a lot of credibility, particularly on police related operational issues and on matters to do with how people will (mis)behave when given half a chance to do so.<\/p>\n

Now that he can \u2018tell it like it is\u2019 we asked him in particular about something that opinions widely vary on \u2014 will the police bravely \u2018man the battlements\u2019 and fight to the last man in a failing and doomed effort to save civilization, or will they adopt \u2014 as he suggests above \u2014 a \u2018my family first, everyone else second\u2019 approach when they see the inevitability of a city\u2019s collapse.<\/p>\n

Dan replied :<\/p>\n

\n

When I first started on the PD in the 70\u00e2\u20ac\u00b2s\u00a0I was stuck in the Comm room and on boring nights I\u2019d actually read the Civil Defense binders (HUGE things) full of detail, much theoretical. For example, upon receiving alert of a nuke attack we were supposed to call a long list of elected officials and city unit directors etc. We all knew it\u2019d be a total waste of time to call these clueless government people because all they\u2019d do is panic and babble on the phone asking US what to do!<\/p>\n

We (cops) talked openly in the Comm Room about what we\u2019d do and we decided we\u2019d immediately leave our posts and spend our remaining time with family. The point being alerting totally clueless and incompetent \u201cleaders\u201d would do nothing except add to the panic and confusion over which we (cops) would have ZERO control over.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It is important to understand how much we can learn from past \u2018lessons\u2019 with breakdowns in cities (in the case of the US, the L.A. riots being a prime example) and how much we have to adjust for a future breakdown of society.<\/p>\n

We suggest that the big difference is that in past events, the problem has been successfully contained to a restricted region, and the police have had, in effect, virtually unlimited reinforcements and resupply, and there has never been any question of what the ultimate outcome would be \u2014 of course law and order would triumph.<\/p>\n

But in a future society-destroying event, none of this applies. The police will have no resupply or reinforcement, and problems will break out in multiple locations.<\/p>\n

We agree with Lt. Dan that very quickly, the police will see the unwinnable nature of the contest and will switch from attempting to defend a disintegrating society from itself, and will focus instead on attempting to ensure the safe survival of themselves and their immediate family and friends.<\/p>\n

Summary<\/h3>\n

Lt. Dan puts it very vividly when he writes<\/p>\n

\n

[Violence] will spread like a ruptured gasoline storage tank afire<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This means that if you have a GOOD plan and a retreat to go to, you need to be ready to activate this sooner than you might have otherwise hoped for. As soon as you hear the first word of lawlessness, rioting, looting, and general disorder breaking out, you should accept that this will spread like wildfire across the entire city, and leave as quickly as you can.<\/p>\n

Oh \u2014 one more unsettling thought. How will you learn that violence has broken out in another part of the city if the internet is down, and radio and television stations are also down? Even if some broadcasters remain in service, they\u2019ll probably have limited sources of information and it might take a while for them to become appraised of events and to then broadcast them.<\/p>\n

It is also reasonable to guess that broadcasters will be asked \u2018not to spread panic\u2019 and so initial reports of violence breaking out might be downplayed or omitted entirely.<\/p>\n

Choosing when to bug-out is a difficult but essential issue. You need to be willing to leave before it becomes too late, and with inertia and resistance to change and desperate hope all encouraging you to delay your decision, you need to fight these tendencies. Better to leave \u2018too soon\u2019 and return back again some time later, safely; than to leave it too late and suffer the consequences.<\/p>\n

We talk about\u00a0the issues to do with making your bug-out decision here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

David Spero has been prepping since before it was ever an issue. He remembers how his father would store vast quantities of food and supplies at home, and both of them thought it to be normal prudent actions \u2014 as, of course, they are. He has a masters degree in business, has worked internationally, speaks several languages, is a nationally accredited firearms instructor, a licensed ham radio operator, and through this website is becoming increasingly a respected authority on matters to do with prepping. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

You can visit David\u2019s web site at Code Green Prep<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0and learn more about the Code Green Community<\/a><\/strong>, a\u00a0self-contained, self-supporting and self-sustaining retreat community in the western United States.<\/em><\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on: SHTF Plan<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article has been generously contributed by David Spero of\u00a0Code Green Prep and was originally linked via Prepper Website. We have written several times about how major population groupings (ie cities) will collapse \u2018shortly\u2019 after the essential elements of life cease to smoothly flow in to them as needed. When there\u2019s no water, no sewage, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-35941","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-breaking-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35941\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}