America is burning.
A perfect storm of political-cultural unrest and the worst pandemic in a century have combined to produce deaths and injuries among months of rioting, arson, and looting. Liberal mayors and governors, eager to demonstrate solidarity with the “protesters,” did little or nothing to quell the violence in Minneapolis, Portland, Seattle, and elsewhere. National figures in the Democrat Party were largely silent, although the current vice president said on camera that the “protests” needed to continue and would continue.
Spurred by controversial police use of force, political opportunists and hell-raisers seized the opportunity to run rampant in extremely permissive jurisdictions.
Nationwide riots followed George Floyd’s May 2020 death in Minneapolis, spurred by emotionally-charged video of a while police officer kneeling on the black man’s neck. Aside from at least 25 ensuing deaths, the national mayhem was estimated at $2 billion by insurance companies although many businesses were uninsured or underinsured. Some of those—operated by black and other minority owners—would never recover.
Caught in the political crossfire are minority police officers who, like their uniformed brothers and sisters, are vilified and heartsick as their cities are torched and trashed, and a precinct house was burned in Minneapolis, ground zero for the riots. Meanwhile, at least two reports by CNN and MSNBC featured reporters commenting on “mostly peaceful protests” while stores burned in the background.
More recently some focus shifted to abuse of Asian Americans, as if it’s something new. This March, six Asian women were among eight killed in three Georgia massage parlors. Some media assumed the gunman’s motive was racial when subsequently it appeared that he was spurred by conflicting religious and sexual beliefs.
Meanwhile, a California State survey in 2019-2020 reported nearly a 150 percent increase in hate crimes against Asian Americans. The presumed reason: devastating effects of the Chinese-Wuhan-Corona Virus without resolution from an uncooperative Bejing regime wielding enormous influence with the World Health Organization.
In fact, the trend was widely covered nearly 20 years ago during the Los Angeles riots of 1992. Four LAPD officers were acquitted in the prolonged beating of Rodney King, a parole violator captured after a highspeed drunk driving spree. Eventually two of the cops went to prison.
Public response to the acquittals was immediate and violent. Four days of arson, looting and vandalism left about 50 people dead and perhaps 1,000 injured. Monetary loss was reckoned at $1 billion with more than half sustained by Korean-American or Korean immigrant businesses.
LAPD was largely absent from what appeared an inter-racial war zone frequently with black looters feeding off Asian merchants. Korean business owners watched their neighborhoods go up in flames, unopposed by police. As one merchant said, “The community felt abandoned by law enforcement.”
Left to fend for themselves, store owners’ family and friends took turns standing guard and patrolling rooftops—popular antigun imagery in the mainstream media.
After last year’s rampages the mayors of New York and Chicago asked vacating business owners (mostly whites) to return to often police-free environments. It was all the more ironic with the Big Apple’s De Blasio, whose NYPD relations have been toxic almost since he took office in 2014.
Then last June a St. Louis couple, attorney Mark McCloskey and wife Patricia, brandished an AR-15 and a handgun in the face of a BLM mob that broke through the community’s gate, intending to protest at the mayor’s nearby house. Instead, the crowd confronted the homeowners with threats of violence and arson. The city attorney announced charges against the McCloskeys, saying, “We must protect the right to peacefully protest, and any attempt to chill it through intimidation or threat of deadly force will not be tolerated.”
Missouri’s Republican governor quickly stated that if the McCloskeys were convicted for defending their home, he would issue a pardon. Eventually the attorney and her staff were removed from the case for conflict of interest in linking personal agendas to the case. Apparently no charges were filed against any of the assailants but the case against the McCloskeys continues.
Whatever the circumstances, when business or home owners defend themselves with police absent or overwhelmed, armed citizens are branded “vigilantes.” The media, almost universally lacking in knowledge or context, apparently neither knows nor cares about San Francisco in the 1850s. Absent adequate law enforcement, and amid obvious civic corruption, “committees of vigilance” took matters into their own hands. The comparison between Then and Now are readily apparent.
Politics is not the only reason for large-scale riots. Look no farther than Detroit “celebrations” of the Tigers’ World Series victory in 1984 and the Pistons’ NBA win six years later. Mobs numbering thousands caused multiple deaths, rapes, arson, and property destruction.
Regardless of the timeframe, facing a determined, unarmed attacker can be high risk. Year by year the FBI Uniform Crime Report shows 600 to 700 people killed by blows from fists or feet. (Youtube has numerous videos of gangs stomping victims on the ground.) There seem no figures for how many people sustain permanent injuries. So what are the odds of escaping a swarm of enraged assailants? Or those armed with pipes, bricks or skateboards? (Google for Kenosha and Skateboard.)
Whether the police or DA would acknowledge the “unarmed” threat is of course another matter.
So: assume that everything you do will be filmed—that’s the world today. It could be a Good Thing if it shows you had to defend yourself, although remember this is the XXI century, and often facts do not matter.
Train for muzzle awareness. The St. Louis couple was prosecuted by socialists partly for pointing guns at the mob. Check your state laws on “brandishing.” If you have a long gun, maintain low ready until-unless you reach your trigger decision. With a sidearm, certainly low ready is an option but consider “holster ready” with hand on the grip because you know how long it takes to draw and shoot.
As for “nobody needs 30 ‘bullets’” consider facing a vicious mob with 10 rounds in your firearm. You’re surrounded by urban jackals with no cops in sight—and the Supreme Court has twice declared (1989 and 2005) that police have no obligation to protect any individual.
Avoidance is the preferred tactic whenever possible. But sometimes that option is unavailable, and you are your own first responder.
