The success of criminals tying up huge swaths of traffic with illegal street takeovers bodes ill for citizens trapped in their cars.
During a recent weekend in Cleveland, criminals shut down an entire freeway for more than an hour. Roving bands of criminals took advantage of citizens immobilized in their cars while police were not to be found anywhere.
Don't think that criminals have not learned that they can trap you and hundreds of others in a street takeover that creates easy pickings for them going from car to car terrorizing and robbing everyone stuck in traffic. The fact that police did not or could not respond effectively provides a true proof of concept for other criminal gangs to follow in the future.
The incomparable John Farnam offers a dire analysis:
This is why “street-takeovers,” like the one described above, are so dangerous!
When you are inside a vehicle that isn’t moving, and blocked-in so you can’t move, you are in extreme peril from mobs of street-criminals, the very ones who manufacture the street takeover to begin with in a effort to trap hapless victims!
When stalled with a violent riot, stationary vehicles are death-traps!
Farnam's prediction is that these street takeover situations will happen across the nation and put you at risk.
We’ll see many of these incidents, mostly around metro areas, in the coming weeks, and surely immediately after the election.
Arrests are rarely made, so overwhelmed police have few tactics that are effective in preventing these dangerously obstructive/paralyzing riots. Most will go on for hours, maybe days, with no effective police intervention.
Trapped victims will be at the mercy of violent mobsters, who have little to worry about.
What Can We Do If We are Trapped in a Street Takeover?
Avoidance. Without sounding like Captain Obvious, the best strategy is to avoid problem areas. The only fight we can win is the one we avoid. If you are a local, you should have some situational awareness of the parts of town where these type of takeovers are most common. If you are not a local, it might be smart to ask others which parts of town to avoid.
Social Media? I've heard advice often of checking social media for any advanced warning. That seems like it would make sense because a lot of these street takeovers are organized on social media. But as general users of one of the social media channels, it's not likely that we are going to be able to find advanced notice of events like this. By the time it's being covered by the general social media, the crimes are already occurring. Does anyone listen to AM radio anymore? What is a reliable source of information we can use while driving?
Heads Up! Unfortunately, we are really short on solutions if we find ourselves boxed in with no ability to move or escape. That's why we have to try to stay alert as to what's happening in front of us on the roads so that we don't get so far into traffic that we cannot find an exit or drive over the median to go the other way.
What is Our Situation? This is going to be heavily dependent on what the streetscape is like. If we are on a freeway, we may be in between exits or not have the physical ability to U-turn into the other lanes. If we are on a city street, we have more options such as taking a U-turn or even driving up on a sidewalk to escape.
What am I Driving? This is also where the choice of your vehicle can have a dramatic effect on your decision-making. There is a best selling author who survived the 2001 economic collapse in Argentina, and one of his pieces of advice was to own a SUV or truck with 4-wheel drive. These vehicles have the ground clearance and the power to get up and over various obstacles. Cops will tell you that it is much more difficult to force a large, heavy, and powerful vehicle to a stop than it is for smaller and lighter cars.
Prepare to Repel Boarders. Finally, how well are we prepared to deal with the violence if we are surrounded and the mob is straight up dragging people out of their cars or shooting people?
Unfortunately, we are going to be plagued with continual increases in interpersonal violence as the US and Europe continue to undergo social, cultural, and political fracturing.
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