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What Should You Do When You’re Surrounded By a Mob?
Townhall.com ^ | January 18, 2021 | Scott Morefield

Posted on 01/18/2021 3:23:01 AM PST by Kaslin

One of the highest-clicked media posts I've ever written up at the Daily Caller was about former Navy Seal Jack Carr appearing on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” last August to explain what to do in the event one finds oneself in the proximity an angry (in this case, BLM/Antifa) mob. It’s obviously a harrowing thought that, judging from the search clicks this post continues to get, has been pondered by many a conservative who witnessed with horror the seemingly neverending weeks of unchecked mob violence in cities and even suburbs across America.

Much of Carr’s advice centered around using situational awareness to avoid finding oneself in that predicament in the first place. "The main thing is to avoid those right away,” he told Tucker Carlson. “So situational awareness. Looking around, being aware that there are threats, picking your head up out of that phone and turning around. If you turn a corner and you see something that doesn’t look right – as an army special forces sniper from Vietnam told me years ago – he said, ‘if it doesn’t look right, it’s probably not.’ So trust those instincts and pay attention to that sixth sense that has kept us alive as a species since we’ve been on this planet. If it doesn’t look right, turn around, reverse, get out of there.”

As recent events have shown, Carr's general advice about situational awareness doesn't just apply to violent BLM/Antifa mobs. Turns out, it also applies to mobs of the MAGA variety, like the one that rampaged through the U.S. Capitol building on January 6. If you were anywhere in the vicinity of that particular mob, however, the danger is a bit different. You see, in our current two-tiered “justice” system, people who actively engage in violent riots typically don’t have the book thrown at them AS LONG AS those violent riots were done under the guise of the nebulous notion of “social justice.” I would add the caveat that they don’t take place in or around federal government buildings, except for the fact that, for starters, nothing of significance happened to rioters who beat on the Supreme Court’s doors in 2018 or those who attacked Secret Service near the White House last year.

On the other hand, if a violent riot is based on a right-of-center cause (this almost never happens, but they did get their purple squirrel on January 6), expect the authorities to cast as wide a net as possible and BURY anyone caught up in it. Right now, though only a few hundred people actually made their way inside the Capitol building and only a few dozen of those actually seemed to have participated in doing damage, hundreds if not thousands are likely to be charged with something related to that day’s lawlessness. We obviously have no idea how this will ultimately play out, but we can be pretty sure that these initial, seemingly lower-level charges are just the tip of the iceberg to the coming “sedition and conspiracy” raps that could put many away for decades. And while some of these will be more than justified, in my view, others could ensnare people who tragically may have simply been at the worst place at the worst possible time.

Certainly, those who went inside the Capitol building with the intention of kidnapping (zip ties?!) members of Congress and "forcing" them to vote their way deserve what’s coming to them, and then some. Criminal charges should also apply to those who attacked police, broke into offices, accessed computers, or committed vandalism. We can’t have any of that in a democratic society. But what about those who just followed the crowd? What if you were at the entrance where Capitol Police opened the gate. Maybe, just maybe, you weren’t aware of the violence right away and just saw a crowd walking toward the building. “Hey, can’t hurt to go take some video, see what’s going on,” you think, before making the greatest mistake of your life.

What should happen to someone like this? Trespassing charges? Perhaps. But "sedition and conspiracy"? Seriously? Of course, unless we’re a prosecutor or on the jury, it doesn't matter what you or I think. The federal reaction to this has and will be a massive OVERreaction, and people who may have merely followed the crowd are likely about to lose everything.

Which is a cautionary tale for the rest of us. What do you do when you’re in a politically-charged crowd and it begins to move angrily in a particular direction? I won’t get into the theory about who may have had a role in provoking this (one leftist has already been charged), except to say that it only takes a small number of instigators to turn a demonstration into a riotous mob. The right answer for those who wanted to merely demonstrate, obviously, was to never enter the Capitol building in the first place. But most people who were there that day, other than those who planned and/or instigated it, likely had no idea what happened was going to happen. That's the crazy thing about mobs. They can get out of control fast.

Applying Carr’s advice to this, would better situational awareness have helped? First of all, when involved in a protest or demonstration, NEVER go into an unauthorized area with other people, no matter who tells you it’s OK. There is NO SUCH THING as safety in numbers when it comes to the long arm of the law. Second, look for things that seem extraordinarily unusual and/or out of place. At what point would someone paying conscious attention to what's going on around them begin to experience some "spidey sense" tingling? When things got really loud? When people started hanging off the balcony? When offices and especially the SENATE CHAMBER were being broken into? When podiums were being drug around? When windows were being smashed? When police were being attacked? When one found oneself within the proximity of a man wearing Viking horns and wielding a spear?

At any of these points, no matter how far one had gone, continuing on was a VERY dumb mistake. The right move was to GO THE OTHER DIRECTION as quickly as possible. Get the hell out of there.

The left would like the right to forgo any and all public demonstrations out of shame for what happened on January 6, but the right to protest peacefully - PEACEFULLY - is firmly enshrined in the Constitution. Conservatives shouldn't let this stop them from speaking truth to power in person. But responsibility and situational awareness means walking - nay RUNNING - the other direction if anything seems as it shouldn't. Don’t get captured by an angry mob, and don’t get caught up in one either. Both can lead to dire consequences.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: bigtech; demonratparty; mobmobility; mobs; selfdefense
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1 posted on 01/18/2021 3:23:01 AM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

If you are on the right - run away;
If you are on the left - get ready to rumble.


2 posted on 01/18/2021 3:27:41 AM PST by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
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To: Kaslin

This seems obvious what to do... flip the full-auto lever to “on”.


3 posted on 01/18/2021 3:31:36 AM PST by BiglyCommentary
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>> Certainly, those who went inside the Capitol building with the intention of ...

Always remember to wave the virtuous flag...


4 posted on 01/18/2021 3:31:50 AM PST by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
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To: BiglyCommentary

I like that option:)


5 posted on 01/18/2021 3:36:01 AM PST by New Perspective (Proud father of a son with Down Syndrome and fighting to keep him off Obama's death panels.)
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To: Kaslin

Head shots.


6 posted on 01/18/2021 3:37:24 AM PST by nonliberal (Caput gerat lupinum)
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To: BiglyCommentary

All the way to eleven.


7 posted on 01/18/2021 3:37:45 AM PST by teeman8r (Armageddon won't be pretty, but it's not like it's the end of the world or something)
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To: Kaslin

Overall, the article simply states take personal responsibility for your actions and that participating in a group doesn’t absolve that responsibility.

However, I am glad the founding fathers didn’t take the advice in this article.....


8 posted on 01/18/2021 3:39:01 AM PST by nevergore (I have a terrible rash on my covfefe....)
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To: Kaslin

Be aware of your surroundings and remove yourself as quick as you can.


9 posted on 01/18/2021 3:42:57 AM PST by Jonty30 (What Islam and secularism have in common is that they are both death cults. )
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To: Kaslin

There is a deep irony here very few people would be willing to admit- the leftist violence worked. And, at the debate, Biden refused to condemn it.

Who is running around telling the lefties not to riot, loot and burn?


10 posted on 01/18/2021 3:56:19 AM PST by Fido969 (,i.)
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To: Kaslin

There is a deep irony here very few people would be willing to admit- the leftist violence worked. And, at the debate, Biden refused to condemn it.

Who is running around telling the lefties not to riot, loot and burn?


11 posted on 01/18/2021 3:58:27 AM PST by Fido969 (,i.)
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To: Kaslin

Jan 6 was a false flag operation led by leftists and most likely with the knowledge of deep state operatives.


12 posted on 01/18/2021 4:08:34 AM PST by joma89 (Buy weapons and ammo, folks, and have the will to use them.)
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To: Kaslin

what to do?

donuts. lots and lots of donuts.


13 posted on 01/18/2021 4:13:27 AM PST by sten (fighting tyranny never goes out of style )
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To: Kaslin
He might be right, but this also means a few people (sometimes from the other side) can shut down legitimate protests. It is “the heckler’s veto.”

Antifa can go to any pro-democracy rally, break things, then the State can pretend it is a “far-right” riot to suppress free speech.

14 posted on 01/18/2021 4:36:49 AM PST by UnwashedPeasant (Trump is the last legally elected U.S. President.)
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To: UnwashedPeasant

CArry a fake grenade, show it and threaten to pull the pin and die a Hero.


15 posted on 01/18/2021 4:49:27 AM PST by oldasrocks
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To: Fido969
There is a deep irony here very few people would be willing to admit- the leftist violence worked. And, at the debate, Biden refused to condemn it. Who is running around telling the lefties not to riot, loot and burn?


Leftist violence worked; Biden would not condemn it and the media propaganda machine did not press him on that issue when he was hiding in his basement.
16 posted on 01/18/2021 4:49:40 AM PST by The_Media_never_lie (I do not regret my decision to cut all ties with Fox News. )
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To: Kaslin

Hope the kangaroos leave you alone?


17 posted on 01/18/2021 4:57:34 AM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Kaslin

I can picture the author Scott Morefield in East Berlin on 11-09-1989, telling the citzens of E Berlin to go home. That it is not right to trespass on State property nor vandalize the Wall.


18 posted on 01/18/2021 5:06:12 AM PST by Deaf Smith (When a Texan takes his chances, chances will be taken that's for sure.)
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To: Kaslin

I wonder why Townhall, and other so-called “conservative” media, only have Twitter and Facebook share buttons?

Everyone with any decency has moved off of those totalitarian platforms.


19 posted on 01/18/2021 5:18:38 AM PST by jacknhoo ( Luke 12:51; Think ye, that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, no; but separation. )
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To: Kaslin

Point your hog leg at the most vocal huckleberry and tell him that he will be the first to meet his maker.


20 posted on 01/18/2021 5:43:47 AM PST by airdalechief
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