Recently I was part of a training exercise that was meant to update the kinds of risks that might occur during the workday.\u00a0 And most of it was what everyone expects; fire, flood, power outage, tornadoes and hurricanes, earthquakes(?), downed power lines, automobile crashes, etc.<\/p>\n
And after several hours and hundreds of questions that were meant to flesh out our thoughts about what would have to be done in these circumstances, I was thoroughly bored (as you could imagine).\u00a0 But then we got to the really wacky stuff.\u00a0 We got to the active shooter, hostage taking, suspicious powder in a letter, malicious drones and angry mob scenarios.<\/p>\n
Now I had gone through what-ifs for active shooters, hostage situations and anthrax attacks.\u00a0 But killer drones and mob violence was new.\u00a0 And (as you could imagine) some of my answers started getting a little humorous.\u00a0 Even the instructors were a little tongue in cheek when it came to events like the angry mob (actually called large combative protest group).\u00a0 Our predictable answer was to summon the police. Lock the doors and provide information to employees and bystanders and shelter from the demonstrators.\u00a0 But when first asked for my plan I said, \u201cI\u2019d recruit a squad of able-bodied men armed with salad tongs and cafeteria trays and wade into the center of the mob.\u201d\u00a0 This got some chuckles and some frowns.<\/p>\n
Suffice it to say that our answers were very perfunctory and tended toward actions that revolved around calling for police support, summoning emergency workers such as utility companies, calling for an ambulance and providing the kind of first response help that usually doesn\u2019t accomplish much.\u00a0 So afterward I didn\u2019t think much about the training but later it occurred to me that drone attacks and mob violence are both now solidly in the center of the radar screen for corporations and governments.<\/p>\n
And they\u2019re right.\u00a0 Ten years ago, drones were toys that photographers were starting to buy to get interesting and difficult to capture perspectives on photographic subjects.\u00a0 Now they\u2019re almost the primary weapons of war.\u00a0 They can take out a tank or a trench full of infantrymen.\u00a0 They can spy on people in their homes and even attack other drones.<\/p>\n
And everyone is now aware that mob violence is a favorite tactic of Leftist groups like BLM and Antifa.\u00a0 And, of course, the favorite answer we had for the trainer; calling for the police and waiting for their arrival, isn\u2019t really an answer when the police have been instructed to stand down and let the mostly peaceful mob sack and torch your home.\u00a0 As far as the drone scenario, chances are the drone belongs to the federal government and if you attempt to interfere with its activities, I\u2019m guessing that will just increase the charges against you to include malicious destruction of government property.<\/p>\n
What I\u2019m trying to say here is that we live in very troubled times.\u00a0 None of these scenarios are what Americans of fifty years ago would consider things to worry about or plan to survive.\u00a0 But today, if you don\u2019t you may be putting yourself at risk.\u00a0 Even twenty years ago home invasions and carjackings only happened in the worst parts of the worst cities.\u00a0 Now they happen in Beverly Hills and the Upper East Side of Manhattan.\u00a0 We live in the dystopic future that science fiction writers imagined back in the 1970s.\u00a0 And we\u2019ve just kind of accepted it.\u00a0 And that is the scariest thing of all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Recently I was part of a training exercise that was meant to update the kinds of risks that might occur during the workday.\u00a0 And most<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[328,2616,4546,4582],"class_list":["post-29176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events","tag-antifa","tag-blm","tag-fpv-drones","tag-rioting"],"yoast_head":"\n