Joe, how has this worked in other looting situations? Is that how they quelled the riots in England a few years back?
If you cut the power, than the innocents are at an extreme disadvantage. Sieges take a long time. I say bring on the rubber bullets, but don’t aim for the booty. From what I;ve seen on this site, they are really padded (lol).
It would seem to me that first responders have to rethink entirely their modus operandi. I say go back to basics: Morse code or ham radios. I bet the ferals won’t bother to learn that!
IIRC there are now phone apps that translate Morse code.
Cutting power or phones, as I said, could be a problem because you may end up cutting services critical to getting Emergency medical help or maintaining oxygen concentrators and the like for patients who would then have serious respiratory issues.
At that point, whoever made that call becomes the bad guy, not the rioting multitude.
National guard, water canon, and even the threat of "shoot on sight" for looters could work, and if successful at getting people off the streets may be the solution, but there is an unprecedented ability to organize a new start of misbehaviour--something that wasn't present in the past.
Before, once you got the crowd inside, usually maintaining order was more routine. Now, though, the ability to pick a sector and flash mob it--or hit all areas at once exists so long as communications are not disabled.
Maybe they can cut all but 911, and that might make it easier to keep a lid on things.