Cool story Bro.

He lived in CHAZ? That worked out well....

Whew that's ALOT of freeze dried pasta!

"So this one time, my parents went out of town, and I threw this raging party. My house got totally destroyed!

But you want to know the best part? My friends totally helped me clean the place up!

Are we the coolest or what?!!"

minneapolis and st paul, after george floyd was murdered.

emergency services were shut down (including police), no stores open, no gas stations open etc.

So you've never been to Canada, eh? Look up where Calgary is on a map. We are less than 100 miles from the mountains, the continental divide and the source of the river(s).

This ain't India or SE Asia where the rivers are everyone's toilet, washing machine, tailings pond, bathtub...

Granted a long term hardship and inconvenience but was that really a total collapse of society? I was not there and only know what I saw on the news but I think it was somewhat normal during the day? "residents" could come and go? food and supplies were being brought in from out side the zone? Can you explain more from first hand experience what it was like, what you and your neighbors did? How did you feed yourselves, etc?

Because there is a working civilization... now.


We aren't talking now, the discussion is about when SHTF.

You'll have 100 miles worth of people that can do whatever the f they want to that river and they'll be doing their survival, won't give a rats ass who needs the water downstream...

I want to know how the police were “useless” and in the same sentence you were “fighting the police and Nazis”.

You are correct, but isn't that the way the rivers are now? I don't think anyone is suggesting dipping your Dixie cup into a river and drinking it? It would need to be filtered and purified prior to consumption. That is basic prepping. The issue isn't bacteria, rotting flesh, feces, that can all be filtered out. Petroleum, chemicals would be the problem. But, again the argument for prepping. Rain barrels, other sources.

This would bring me to a question? You stated you lived total collapse of society? Where did you get your water from?

Hey so one thing that has not yet been discussed and hard for us in North America to imagine - what if there is a government melt down and you have to seek refuge in another country - that's where a bug out bag and greenbacks (or some other universal currency) will be what you need. The trouble with North America is that there are only 3 countries here to evacuate to (if you include Mexico).

Consider the real refugees (like maybe Stign's parents), getting out was the best survival tactic, not sticking around to get killed.

idk, when i talk to conservatives about it, they either try to downplay its severity as if it wasn't really that bad (in order to try to insult me), or they try to say my city was a warzone to make a political point, so i dont know. they flip flop back and forth so fast i dont know what they actually think, or "how bad it actually was"

it was what is was for me. which, was more than it was for 99.9% of the country.

what i can tell you, is that all government resources were unavailable, including police, and all businesses were shut down, for days. even weeks.

days were really interesting. in the mornings, we'd go to the rioted areas from the night before, and clean up. masked, socially distenced, we all showed up with brooms and trash bags and cleaned up. we also brought our protest signs. basically everyone had protest signs, there was no one cleaning up with pro-police signs. and then in the afternoon the aid stations would open up. without government assistance and with stores closed, hundreds of aid stations across the city opened up. those of us with trucks and gas, would collect money, and buy supplies and bring them into the city. i delivered thousands of dollars in supplies. and volunteers would stack the food shelves, and others would distribute it. i spent one afternoon helping coordinate supplies for boarding up local businesses, it was out of a local theater. the theater community was sending teams of carpenters around the city to repair and refortify businesses. theater people are very productive. this was all free of charge of course.

lots of times there would an evening protests. protests were well supported, with food, bathrooms, water, etc. again, free of charge, donated, and totally volunteer coordinated. or in the evenings is when id work from home. i remember very vividly the feeling of sitting on my deck, drinking a beer, listening to the walgreens 2 blocks south getting attacked. it was a surreal moment.

and at night, we'd prepare for the worst. we coordinated neighborhood watches, google docs with times and places, coordinate schedules. these watches were highly effective at preventing outsiders from coming into the neighborhoods and starting fires. even put many fires out that the police/fire department couldn't/wouldnt. we didnt need guns, being armed was a great way to be shot by the police. i mean, a lot of neighborhood watches were shot by the police, even unarmed, while trying to protect their own neighborhoods because the police couldn't.

its also why when folks try to characterize these times as BLM versus police, its a false conclusion. the police were utterly useless at best, if not outright dangerous to the community. they would show up hours after a building was attacked, and just start macing and beating up folks attempting to cleanup, or defend buildings. the police openly admitted to slashing tires at protests. the police were either incompetent in not understanding what was happening, or unwilling to understand what was happening.

and the national guard is not effective for the reasons people think it is. 99% of the national guard here were unarmed. they had zipties in there magwells. the national guard works not because they are an overwhelming show of force, but because they do not want to be there. the national guard look like they are wearing uniforms 2 sizes too big for them. they dont want to be there at all. on the other hand, the cops, THEY WANT TO WIN. and so they show up to win a fight, and the national guard shows up, talks to you/them, communicates, and coordinates aide. the cops show up to win a fight. and fight or not fight, they will make one. my friend she tells an interesting story where a building was on fire on her block, and people attempted to get the polices attention to send the fire department to put it out, and the cops refused to go down that block because it was "too dangerous" and the national guard showed up, 3 guys got out, unarmed, and cleared a path for the fire department. it wasn't even dangerous.

keep in mind, all this volunteer work, all this coordination, everything was done while social distancing and masked. because like how there werent any pro-police protest signs while cleaning up, there arnt anti-maskers who show up to volunteer time, money and energy to help people in need.

it was strange time. it was a defining 2 week period in my life, that i saw many things, many things i never would have otherwise seen. and i learned a lot. it changed my mind a lot, and reframed a lot of what i thought about the world. i do not recommend it to anyone.

i dont know if that answers your questions, but that was some of my experiences.

So assume you are speaking of a meltdown of the US Government? If that were the case I am not sure bugging out to any other countries becomes feasible. The US Dollar is the current visa currency if the US Government collapses the dollar goes with it. Since the rest of the world is measured against the dollar all those monetary systems become worthless as well. Everyone goes as the US goes. Mexico and most of South America is dangerous now. It would only be worse.

Bugging to any place with out a predetermined place that is ready and welcoming you isn't feasible or recommended. While I question Cockerpunkts statement he "lived total collapse" he is correct in that the best course of action is to band together with neighbors and family, support each other and build a community.

I don’t know. Maybe it’s just me but bragging about creating a “Kumbaya Society” to triumph over an environment of violence and chaos that you yourself helped create, well, that’s just “Bizzaro World”.

that isnt what happened here. after the 3rd precinct fell, and the officers were arrested and charged with murder, local violence largely ended. the community won, the protests had achieved everything they set out to do. that was a thursday when that happened.

that was when the nazis and boogaloo folks really show up in numbers, and they wanted to start a race war here. they hung around trying to **** ****up for 2 weekends, but were less and less effective the longer they stayed.

of course the cops didnt care who they fought, and what really lost them the support they needed. they fought folks trying to clean up, defend buildings, or even there own homes just as much as they fought anyone doing any actual crimes. thats what really made the town turn on its police force.

i would not describe anything that happened here as a Kumbaya Society. that is another, totally moronic idea that only folks who have not seen what happens when civilization collapses would hold.

Thank you for sharing. That is a lot and a lot to try and respond to but I will try. I see it that you lived through a societal disruption brought on largely by poor Government but not societal collapse. Hopefully this doesn't turn parfy but it began with a bad cop that the government didn't remove from his position when similar incidents arose prior to the killing of George Flloyd.

Second police, fire, EMT were not absent they were told to stand-down by the Government. Business were closed not due to societal collapse but because it was unsafe to open and the owners were doing the best they could to protect what they had.

As I have highlighted above you had ready access to supplies. In societal collapse all the items you went to get wouldn't be available, the gas in your truck wouldn't be available.

In true societal collapse you wouldn't have been sitting on your deck drinking a beer listening to Walgreen's being broken into. You wouldn't have had the beer and you certainly wouldn't have been kicking back. From what you say you suffered no hardship and volunteered your time.

Supplies kept rolling into the city or nearby that you drove to picked up and took back to be distributed. What if the supplies stopped rolling in what would you do?

While I am conservative and completely and fully disagree with and condemn the riots of this past year and the Capitol uprising I do commend you for cleaning up your city and helpping your fellow man during that time.

the point is, that doesn't happen. "societal collapse" doesn't happen, there is always a community to build, and in that community, is safety, food, supplies, skills etc. that is why the best prep you can do for the end of society, is to be ready to make a new one: ie get to know your neighbors.

MadMax isn't real.

you are confusing me with somebody else, I never stated that.

And I already mentioned chemicals upriver in my first post bout river not being a great source for water.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/1082836-disaster-preparedness-gear-source-2.html#post11178460

Fair enough, you were there and I wasn't.

I will agree that knowing your neighbors (and also their strengths and skills) can make a bad situation turn around for the good, sooner rather than later.

Agreed in that the best prep is to prepare to make a new one. But you are wrong in that there isn't societal collapse, it does happen. But in order to rebuild a society you need to live to get to that point to rebuild. The great depression is an example, Valenzuela, the collapse of the USSR and others. Many people died in those situations, There was a lot of crime, Venezuela is still playing out but it took twenty years for the former Soviet Union countries to straighten themselves out. Some are still working through it. It took the US ten years and a world war to right the ship from the depression.

Eventual life sorts it self out and society slowly comes back. You live in the United Sates of America, we don't know what many parts of the rest of the world live every day. There is a reason hoards of people are trying to come through our Southern boarder. Food is scarce, it is dangerous, clean water is hard to come by where they live. It is foolish to think it can not happen here. Everything is pointing in the direction it will happen here at some point. The point is if/when it occurs you can make it until the immediate danger is over. I am not of the belief you need twenty five years shelf life. But one to three years shelf life with a years worth of stock pile. I do not think we are in danger of EMP, nuclear nihilation or even a natural disaster, but the effects of our own Government Fking things up which would be nation wide, world wide and last years until it recovers.

We live in a "just in time" society all supplies are brought to us and stacked neatly on shelves and in refrigerated cases. If that supply chain was disrupted with in ten days there would be pandemonium. Most people would be out of food and starving. Think of what it would be like in Chicago, NYC, Detroit, even Minneapolis, St. Paul if that were to occur. Most people can not fend for themselves and they live day to day. Within a month fifty percent of the population would be dead from starvation or sickness. In about six months seventy five percent of the population would be gone, the large immediate threat would be over. Disease control would now be a main concern. rotting corpses, trash, feces, rats, etc. I think people that were left would have started to band together in communities, but there would be gangs as there are now. In about a year a more hierarchal society would start to form. Not the old society we knew but a "new" society what ever it might be. The degree and time frames would also be different depending on what part of the country you were in. Big cities would be hole holes, but small towns say in the mid West or South that are more isolated with temperate climates may remain relatively normal and adjust more quickly. My little town would be someplace in the middle of the spectrum.

Look at the mess that took place in New Orleans after Katrina and those people were warned a week in advance that danger was coming. Imagine that occurring in every major US city at the same time.

Madmax isn't real but if simply look to Europe after WWII that is real. It took years decades for those countries to rebuild their economies and get back to "normal" after the war.