Getting Ready for Protest Season

This weekend, anti-Trump protests have sprung up all over the country. I felt like it was time to throw out a few reminders.

The prudent see danger and take refuge,
    but the simple keep going and pay the penalty.

Proverbs 27:12

First, it’s absolutely foolish to underestimate the resolve or training of these protestors. As Mike Shelby over at Forward Observer has documented, they have been training with firearms, counter-police tactics, and medical skills. They are so dedicted to their cause that a few have tried to light themselves on fire – that’s not insanity, it’s resolve. Respect it.

Second, gather as much local intelligence on any protests (both left or right) that are planned in your area. If you don’t know about them, you can be caught by surprise. Learn who the organizers are and watch their social media. Adjust your daily plan to avoid their planned activity. The best way to avoid trouble is to not go where it is.

Travel with a Get Home Bag. You might have to leave your car somewhere and walk out on foot to avoid more trouble. The contents are up to you, but generally 24-36 hours worth of gear. Include a change of clothes in the bag. Mine always contains a black hoodie to blend it. Maybe throw a Palestinian Kafiyyeh in to blend with pro-Hamas protestors.

Keep your car full of gas. It would be bad to find yourself in the midst of a protest and needing to fill up. First, gas stations are often targets and gathering areas. Second, local authorities will order gas stations closed in an affected to area to prevent fuel purchases.

Develop a communications plan with your tribe and family. Phones will be jammed, but radio works as long as you have battery power. Check out license free options like FRS/MURS/CB as well as licensed radio. Have a plan to make positive contact now, so that all you have to do is implement it. Have the ability to monitor license free channels as that is what the protestors use (no records).

This goes without saying in our community, but STOCK UP. If there is unrest in your town, you don’t want to have to run out for a 12 pack of TP and some ground beef. Buy extra now and have it on hand.

My friends at Sheild Arms have a motto: “Before all else, be armed”. That’s pretty solid advice. Now through the inauguration, be as armed as you legally can be. That’s very situationally dependent, so make good decisions.

If you have one available, gas masks are a good item to keep in your car. I have a PD-100 mask from Parcil Safety. It’s right around $100 and will protect you from crowd control munitions, or, as I have experienced twice, a random spraying of people by ANTIFA or other protestors. I have it in a bag that I can clip to my Get Home Bag.

Carry a first aid kit. At a bare minimum, carry a “bleeder kit”, which is a tourniquet, a pressure bandage, and some hemostatic agent or gauze. This is the one piece of preparedness gear your could use on any given day to safe a life, but it does you no good back home in your “gear stash.”

Carry paper maps. Street maps if you live and work in the city and topo maps if you live rural. Having the ability to re-route without reliance on a cellphone network or government supplied GPS signal can be vital. Remember, during the Virginia 2nd Amendment rally, they shut down GPS in the area as “drill”.

Lastly, please don’t just write off the risk. There are agitators on both sides and the election of Trump actually raises the risk of civil unrest.

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