If TEOTWAWKI Suddenly Ends After a Few Years Will People Be Criminally Charged With Murder?

I will be the judge jury and executioner.

 

There will be major unrest no matter how you look at it, and it may require what we consider criminal activity today, to survive this future before us! I say as long as you hold your self together and righteous, things should sort themselves out!
I predict a sort of Martial Law senerio, the power in charge ( legally or not) will be the arbiter of law, what ever thay law look like, and we will be held to those standards. During a Martial Law situation, regular rights are suspended and that includes our rights under the legal system we are used to. What thay looks like, I cannot say, it's never happend, but there are mechanisms in place to address this. Full military administered tribunals where you don't get a lawyer or present evidence in your defence, face your accuser, Ect.............so you have to be ready to deal with in that.
Precieved crimes against the State ( who ever in in charge) will be delt with decisively, and any resistance will be met with vigor, and you can expect retribution for acting!

 

The OP said world wide pandemic. That might lead to a number of things, martial law probably, but things would still work, cars would run, planes would fly, crops would still be grown etc. An EMP on the other hand would be a death sentence for most and those that were left would be the government. How are you going to fix the grid if no one is alive to do it, and for whom are you going to fix it? I can see criminals being tried after the fact in the first instance, the second... well good luck.

 

ED GEIN and his dog

 

And the packs of feral hogs.....

 

I too don't go for hypothetical way-out there "what if..." topics because they do tend to run away into fantasy land. But if the fantasy ever came true, this is how I think it would go down:

The problem with martial law is that it has never been implemented on any widespread scale. And if it were, there would still be anarchy because no government, including the USA, has the means to exert this kind of power over more than a small area.

The US military is neither big enough nor well equipped enough to control the entire USA. They may take over some big cities and key assets like airports, but complete control of everything is logistically impossible. Consider too that A) a fair chunk of military and civilian police personnel would refuse to participate (and even join the opposition), and B) a lot of the civilian contractors that the military heavily depends on for almost everything will not go along or be unavailable.

Cultural attitudes come into play as well. Europe and the UK, and to a lesser extent Australia, have very egalitarian societies where people expect the government to take care of their every need, so they will be more inclined to comply with an over reaching government under the guise of it being "for the good of the people". This is how the Nazis came to power without firing a single shot.

Mexico, parts of South America, and nearly all of Africa and the Middle East are currently close to chaos if not fully engulfed. There isn't much more any government can do to make their lives worse. Russia and China are de facto totalitarian/martial law states already, so no changes there. Asia will end up doing what China wants as those countries do not have the collective power to resist.

That leaves the USA and Canada. Most North American big cities have the same nanny state attitude as Europe and would accept martial law, or at least, not fight it. But huge swaths of both countries are populated by people who are not willing to lay down easily. These folks typically have a lot of their own resources, including firearms, and are willing to use them.

So in my opinion the bottom line is, martial law would work but only in limited areas.

 

only problem with your various ideas of martial law in the US - it's your perception of what that martial law thru the US Military would be >>>>> it would be very much like how terrorists & insurgents are currently hunted down & killed - suspicions of activity at your farm - a predator levels it from altitude - these areas you think wouldn't/couldn't be contained from violence would simply be de-inhabited - no civil laws, civil rights, human rights, or anybody to complain to .....

 

I get what your sayin about martial law, but here's the thing, in a true SHTF/TEOTWAWKI that lasts for some time, there will be a large number of people no longer amoung the living while the Government will have protected it's minions, so the numbers start to look better for those who want control. Second, survived will be grouped together, easier to round up/eliminate. Area control/denial will be easier with much fewer people to resist, and while there will be pockets of Resistence, time is not on their side!

It's all a game of numbers, it all depends in who can amass the bumpers and hold a favorable ratio longer, and is better equipped to stand!

This is all theoretical any way!

 

How well did martial law work out in Katerina?

 

A "World Wide" event may see it end differently but you can look to the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda for how it will be judged post the event. Not much in the way of prosecutions for individuals fighting/protecting themselves but they went after (successfully in many cases) the architects and enactors of the worst of the events, when the basic rules of humanity (not as much the local "criminal codes") were perceived as having been broken. How does that translate, well I don't think you would be prosecuted for running off looters or fending off an attack, even perhaps offing a sketchy character you find tooling about your AO, organise something systemic that is directed or controlled (even if only by way of perception) then if the place unscrews itself and you are not the ruler, then expect people to come looking for you.

 

What was "Katerina"?

 

Great points!!!!

 

That's a great point too and I underestimated the time it would take to restore order.

 

And then, there'd be the Judge Roy Bean style of judgin' 'n' executin' murderers and other criminals during a TEOWAWKI event...there'd still be a 'justice', rough tho' it may be.

 

Well the main reason I asked was, I don't want to be involved with Law Enforcement Process even if I'm just defending myself and kill someone to save my life like that clown, George Zimmerman. He had no choice to shoot that kid as he would have been dead otherwise, but he still payed the price even though he was in the right. I think for the first year I would still kill in self defense if that was the last option but would be my last resort. Not because it would bother me to kill someone but because going through a trial and prison would ruin my life. After a year, I wouldn't contemplate Law and Order any more. Obviously I have no faith in out legal system at all.

 

You know Katrina the big one

 

Ah. Spelling is important.

 

Killing is easy enough, every one though sticks with you for the rest of your life if you have any conscience or moral compass at all. Justified or not taking another human life carries a price. That being said......... if it is common knowledge that you whacked someone, then you did it all wrong.

 

I agree with Chello.

As herd animals, we will probably cluster together for the most part. Whoever leads the cluster will administer some form of justice. The party that rises to the top in recovery may well not be allies of every particular group and politics will weigh heavily on how that plays out as war crimes or other charges.

I would imagine squatting, foraging of abandoned resources, and actions in self-defense will get a general amnesty