How Would You Survive a Riot?

To survive a riot, you will need a couple of things.  Your best options depend on you being on your toes and ready to go, not being there, or being lucky.  Which one do you want to use?

I live on the north-east side of San Antonio and am deeply saddened by the rioting that has come to my hometown.  Not surprised, but still saddened.

The signs of unrest have been there for years.  Over the last five years, there have been protests in San Antonio against police brutality multiple times. 

When the latest riot broke out, I wasn’t surprised.

Your first riot survival strategy should be knowing if there will be a riot or not.

The place you live in is easy.  You know the area and you are plugged into that area.  If it happened before it can and probably will happen again.

The places you visit are an easy web search away.  Just type in the city you are visiting and riots.  The news articles will show you the last riots and why they happened.

The “why” they happened is a good indicator of what will happen again.  If the riots where because that city’s team won or lost the championship you can be pretty assured if that team is in the championship, there will be another riot there during that time.  It really is that simple.

The number one, best way to survive a riot, don’t be there!  Awareness and avoidance around your best options by far.

This week the car broke, and I had to go to the south side of San Antonio to pick up a part.  I took the long way around even though it would have been faster to drive straight through downtown.  Downtown is where the riots were happening the night before, so I chose to go around. Simple.

Most riots seem to start out as protests.  A lot of peaceful protests do not turn into riots.  But to have a riot you have to have a bunch of people all one spot.

By all means protest if you want, I generally don’t, but have in the past.

You need to be on your toes for the signs of a protest turning into a riot. Little fights breaking out are the biggest clue the protest is going to turn into a riot.  Fights between different protesters that go from shouting to shoving to hitting.  And fights between police and protestors.  If the police are starting to fight and round people up, they are looking for a riot and will probably get one.  That’s your cue to leave.

Objects being thrown is your next clue that something is going down.  The broken window theory of policing really works here.  Once one thing is thrown in any direction, more things are sure to follow.  It is hard to see things being thrown when you are in the crowd.  You probably missed the first couple being thrown because of all the people.  Once you see objects being thrown, that should be your cue to leave.

Once the riot has started, get out.  Nothing good will come of you being there.  

Any port in a storm, except police. Under a Car

Under a car can work if the crowd is only moving in huge waves up and down and you are getting swept up in it.  If cars are being turned over and/or set on fire, that is not a good place to be.

If you hide under a car watch out.  First, getting under the car requires you to get onto the ground and slide under.  Will you get trampled as soon as you get on the ground?

Once under the car, you need to see this as temporary.  You can’t stay there forever.  Sooner or later someone will find you and pull you out and/or set the car on fire.  You being under the car will look unusual and when fight or flight kicks into large crowds they will attack anything that is not like them.  You are not them if you are hiding under a car.

You are looking for a way out from under the car.  If the crowd surges one way and then passes, that would be your cue to get out of there.

You could also slide under one side of the car and go out the other.  Escape should be your mindset.

Through a Shop

Every retail location in America is required to have an emergency exit on another side of the building.  If you can run through a shop and out the back door you can probably create the space you need to get away from the crowd and save yourself.

Most back doors are in the back employees-only area.  Follow the emergency exit signs and don’t worry about normal protocols.  You are running for your life.  Going through the back is an acceptable faux pas.

Don’t forget if the shop is open, there will be someone working there.  Ask for help.  Tell them you are trying to escape the riot and most people will help.  Don’t fight the shop owner, they are just trying to survive and save their shop. 

Down a Side Street

This is a great way to escape a crowd.  Watch out for police on that side street.  It could be blocked because police are trying to drive the crowd out of the area in a given direction.  You don’t want to go the same direction as the crowd, but also make sure you don’t get stuck between a rock and a hard place.  You don’t want to be crushed against a dead-end ally or a police line and the rioting crowd.

Except Police

Police will not be there to help you.  You might get lucky and get help, but more than likely the police won’t be able to tell the difference between you and the rioter that just through a brick and hit one of them in the head. 

If you run at them and they think you intend violence, they are going to hurt you and take you into custody.

If the police have started moving a line, that line will push anything forward that is in front of them.  They will use baton strikes, crushing mass, less-lethal munitions, and gas to get the crowd to move. 

If you stay there, you will get hit until you go down or move.  Once the shield line moves over you (yes you will get stepped on and probably kicked and hit as it goes by) another line of cops will arrest you and put you in a large group of all the people they have arrested so far.  You will get medical attention once it is safe for medics to get to you, or you to them.  But not before. 

Police will be scared.  Put yourself in their shoes.  You have a hundred or so officer looking at a crowd of thousands and you have to make it work. 

What would you do as a cop looking at thousands of people that are there to hurt you and destroy things?

Fighting the Crowd

You can’t carry enough ammo to fight the crowd.  Don’t try.  Cops show up in huge groups and mutually support each other.

Your only hope would be a show of force to scare off the group.  Even with a rifle and normal capacity magazines you will not have enough rounds to put down a group that rushes you. 

Securing a Location

The place you are securing needs to look less desirable than other places.  A couple of suggestions:

• Board up windows
• Visible Armed Security behind barricades of some kind
• Rifles and Shotguns are a good deterrent
• The bigger the group of defenders the better
• Handwritten signs like “You Loot, We Shoot” work well, but are hard to defend in court
• Talk to your neighboring business and get everyone to help each other
• Ask all your friends for help, this is not something you can do as a lone ranger

Standing with Police

I would love to help if a call from the local police came out for help.  Even during a riot, I’d be there to defend my city.

But over the years police have come up with an “us versus them” mentality.  If you aren’t a cop you aren’t one of them.  In any encounter during a riot, you will be seen as part of the problem.

This has been bred into them from the top to the bottom of our society, and from the bottom to the top.  Police need help, but they don’t want it from you.  And there is the problem.

Police agencies are afraid of what will happen if they let citizens help them. They are afraid of liability, afraid they might get a bad apple, and afraid to be seen as not being able to handle the problem of policing (AKA do their job). 

Politicians are afraid of the same thing and will keep police from getting help.

Most line officers would be very afraid of anyone that hasn’t been vetted and they don’t know.

I’m afraid of the same thing if I was asked to help.  How well trained are the cops I’d be working with and what will they do under fire.

Not a good working situation during a riot.

As in any self-defense situation awareness and avoidance will be your best options.  Don’t be there is your only sure way of surviving a riot unscathed. 

Say Safe,

Ben

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