Martial Law... thoughts?

This article appeared on the Organic Prepper site this morning, authored by Selco from his experiences during the Balkan War. Many of you have probably read some of his stuff. This one concerns martial law and some generalities about it once implemented. His attitude seems to be that martial law is never as you may have perceived it would be and that if you don't go along you'll disappear. SELCO: What It's Really Like to Live under Martial Law - The Organic Prepper
I am of the opinion that martial law was much easier to implement in the Balkans than it would be here in the US due to topography, demographics, and shear size. While there are a lot more sheeple than there ever has been in the past, there is still a sizable contingent of independent-minded citizens that may not be so easy to corral.
I am just wondering what some or your thoughts are on this topic.

 

A gridwork of drones are set up over the affected area, the entire country if necessary. These are monitoring and triangulating ay radio transmissions, tracking any movement by people with infrared sensing devices, videoing any deemed illegal activities, and relaying all intel to fusion centers from where ground forces, and, or helicopters are directed to move and respond to any situation deemed worthy of attention. There are also armed drones, and you will either comply or die.
Selco's experience with this situation was in the pre-drone age, things have changed considerably since then.

 

what you need to remember is that there can be marshal law without it being officially declared - if the unofficial is observed by the population - it'll never go official where it can be challenged ...
prime example was during the Boston Marathon Bombing hunt - not only was the Boston communities locked down - the SWAT teams pulled homeowners from their homes and did both body & residence searches ... damn close was in Santa Barbara/LA looking for those muslim Xmas party killers
important to anyone looking to bug out long distance and especially across state borders - takes minutes for state police to set up road blocks and hold ground until the NG arrives with man & gun power ... state borders with physical chokepoints like rivers/bridges or mountains/tunnels are really vulnerable ...

 

One can learn from recent history: The LA Riots (Rodney King edition)


The military and the LA riots.
http://fmso.leavenworth.army.mil/documents/rio.htm"

No apple polishing in this document

". . . politics and egos had a significant impact on various important decisions made during the riots . . . Sometimes senior officials merely wanted to appear fully "in charge," or posture themselves to take maximum advantage of the incredible numbers of media personnel in the area. At other times, decisions were made to help justify more questionable decisions made previously."26

The bickering that attended the LA riots contributed to the difficulties that bedeviled CNG and Regular Army commanders operating in the politically charged interagency environment.27 The decision to federalize the CNG caused great anxiety among the Guard troops.

The Guardview
The 1992 Los Angeles Riots: Military Operations in Los Angeles, 1992"

A bit of apple polishing here and there, but a lot of good stuff as well. The opening is sobering:
Parts of Los Angeles can be extremely dangerous. The county had over 100,000 gang members and there were 771 gang-related homicides reported in 1991. It is not surprising that many police officers admit they "lost the streets" some years ago, with many neighborhoods in the city dominated by rival gangs. "
(I added the boldface)

I would note that:A divisional unit in the United States Army typically consists of 17,000 to 21,000 soldiers commanded by a major general. Two Division and some aux units equals a Corps. These numbers were deployed in LA County alone and in 1991.

The US currently has 10 active duty Division units. The US Army Guard has 8 Divisions. The USMC has four Divisions and a single Reserve Division. The state of training and experience today is far different than in 1991. Many active duty have multiple deployments to an active combat zone, something lacking in 1990s.

I also believe that experience would play against any deployment for political reason inside of the US.

Another factor is gangs. Gang membership in the United States was conservatively estimated at 1 million members as of September 2008, based on analysis of federal, state, and local law enforcement reporting--an increase from an estimated 800,000 members in 2005. Current estimates include approximately 900,000 gang members residing within local communities across the country and more than 147,000 documented gang members incarcerated in federal, state, and local correctional facilities, according to state and federal corrections data.

For a fun weekend read, try the
DoD Directive 3025.12 Titled "Military Assistance for Civil Disturbances." (No, you can look it up if *you* are serious about reading it. Really. Otherwise, sleep well at night.)

Martial law simply will not work in the US as it is too big (physically) and has too large a set of diverse populations.

It would be worth remembering the mus-quote of Adm Yamamoto:
"You cannot invade mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind each blade of grass."? Or, rather, a rifleman.

There were 6.8 million American veterans who served during the Vietnam era and 7.1 million who served in the Gulf War era, which, for these numbers, spans from August 1990 through 2017. The Viet vets are now mostly old farts - dangerous old farts to be sure. The vets from SWA are a different lot, having fought a different war. Both are groups that any political calculation must account for.....

 

Martial Law in the cities .. Gigantic problem for the residents
Martial Law in the suburbs .. big problem for the residents.
Martial Law in the rural areas .. minor problem
Martial Law way out in the bush .. what problem

 

I live in NW Alabama and it would be damn hard to "lock down" this area, as there a dirt roads leading into Tennessee and the Tennessee River is only a mile wide. The best bet in a martial law situation is to remain in your home and do what you are told to do. Don't openly display arms, try to be a gray-man (blend in with the sheeple), and don't cause trouble. I know that a lot of people will want to join in or defend their rights, but confronting a platoon of infantry mounted in Bradleys or Strikers is just stupid. The goal is to survive.

 

Those drones will make for good skeet shooting!

 

not sure why some of you think marshal law wouldn't effect the rural areas - long time standard is just to wipe everything and everyone out - during the Balkans there wasn't a farm or small village left standing and the only survivors were the ones that made out of the country or to an urban area ....

 

IMHO, Too many of us, spread out too far .. too few of them.
100K a pop missiles on a small band of hold outs … they are going to run out of missiles and quite possibly money/persons to assemble said missiles.

A predator/reaper only holds just so many weapons. If they go smaller .. less range .. meaning the controller is no longer in a comfy bunker behind barbed wire miles from population .. he/she will need to be in the shit with us and screw the drone .. go for the squishy thing running it. They cost more to train and are quite fragile.

Not like they are going to nuke the population way too much fallout and blowback (at home and abroad)

They'll have to go house to house and the cost will be high no matter the location (urban, rural) for all involved.

 

The question is," why would the government want to destroy the country?". NO food, production, workers, consumers, tax revenue, etc.. Also TPTB would lose power and authority, no one to push around or lord it over. That is why there was NEVER and is NEVER going to be a nuclear war between the major powers...the leaders on both sides have too much to lose. Who would want to be the absolute ruler of a fall-out shelter? The Balkans were entirely different, there the Serbs, Croatians, Slavonians, Slovenes, and Montenegrins all hated one another...always have and always will. Only the Austria-Hungarian Empire, Yugoslavian government and Tito were able to keep the peace. After Tito died all bets were off. The different factions all wanted to expand their territory and to drive out anyone that was different ( language, religion, ethnic group, etc.), and to do that they killed the people on the farm next door, in the village or town down the road, in the next valley over, etc.. They did this to create a Greater Serbia, or an independent Slovenia, sometimes it was because they wanted the farm, or a nicer house, sometimes it was for hate, loot, rape, revenge, or boredom. I really don't see that happening here. No matter how bad we might think things are here, this is not the Balkans...not yet anyway!

 

I find this is a really interesting topic... Martial Law in the USA.

There is truly not enough military and law enforcement to lock down the USA. Hell, they will have hard enough time just enforcing it in the cities and I would suspect there would be parts of the cities that they wouldn't even try. I think they would simply issue Martial Law and then instead of locking things down tight enforce it as best as they were able which is all they can do anyway.

Drones...and when I say drones I am not talking about Predators or large, Hellfire missile carrying drones. No. I am talking about small, mass produced drones, unmanned, can carry a small payload be it explosives or a camera or a comms repeater or... These are the future. I think we're going to see drones used more and more in attacks, for surveillance and reconnaissance, for communications, etc. Think how deadly a swarm of a hundred or a thousand, hand size drones with optics (perhaps thermals?) and software that recognize a face or just a warm body and is armed with a bit of explosives. They could police the streets and immediately react to violators. There is a very good video put out by a Computer Science Professor of a major university demonstrating this. Deadly and very cost effective.

@Wildbilly "why would the government want to destroy the country?".
LOL! I ask myself this every time I read the news or hear Rep. Omar open her mouth or AOC or Nancy Pelosi or... The only thing I can think of is they're traitors playing the long game, working for either foreign governments, deep state, or some other powerful group but it is pretty clear they truly want to bring down the house of cards which is getting closer and closer... I do wonder sometimes what they will do when it falls? Will they leave? Do they suppose there will not be reprisals? More likely they will simply retreat to some Island in the Caribbean with white sandy beaches and pat themselves on the back for the great job they did and never be seen again.

 

"Why would the government want to destroy the country?"
Why did Stalin kill 20-40 million Russians?
What makes people in the US believe their government is any different from the Stalinist regime in Russia?
The present clown show in DC should be enough to expose that we exist in a WROL situation, with rules being manufactured as they are needed to achieve the goals that are being sought.
Why are certain former top politicians, known to be guilty of near treason or actual treasonous activities not now locked away for life in a cold dank prison cell they deserve, but instead are enjoying freedom of life in the bright sun of publicity, while true Patriots who risked life and limb to expose the government for what it really is, and are now wasting away in exile, or suffering bondage in the worlds largest prison system.
What makes people think they are exempt from history - which repeats closely to past events?
Cost - the government doesn't care what anything costs. It now costs .03c to produce and ship a .01c coin, every year over 80 million dollars are spent by the government to pay for the extra .02c to produce these near worthless coins. They don't care, just doing their jobs, following orders, cost is immaterial, and the need to keep up the appearance of sound money . So it goes with everything else they do that produces economic waste.
The money supply has been inflated since it left the constraints of precious metals and since silver coinage was removed in 1965, inflation is on paper at presently 17x the 1965 dollars value-purchasing power, and probably much worse that that in actuality since the price of silver is suppressed by the central banks. They will just keep inflating the money supply to pay for whatever they want - it doesn't matter to them in the least what a missile cost, or what inflation does to any money you might try and save for the future.
Any ordnance costs will be immaterial also, and they will be being built by slave labor, and probably are now if the truth were known and you actually understand what constitutes slavery - control of the mind and thought processes. There are millions of government slaves occupying our society, then you throw in the corporate slaves, and the majority of our society is composed of slaves, and I'm thinking around 95% slaves in America. The 5% that are not enslaved are definitely slated for termination, and if you think you are a part of this elite group and you desire to survive in this country then you need a reality shock dose to wake yourself up from the mental slumber that seems to afflict so many who dream the illusion that they are safe because of their remote location or gear they possess.
The government would not blink at spending 100 million dollars, or more, to get video of a small group of "resistors" in a remote location being destroyed by their expensive missiles so they could use it for propaganda to show to the sheeple to keep them in line and on the page the government wants them on. How much was spent in money and lives at Ruby Ridge and Waco?
"It can't happen here" is a pipe dream that comes from a full bowl of hashish. Pull it in deep and hold it in your lungs as long as possible, got to keep those SHTF fantasies alive as the reality of the present and future is just too harsh to face.
It is happening now - on any American Indian Reservation - and has been going on there for over a century. Ask any black person you know, or Hispanic, or Jew from Europe who survived the reign of the Nazis. It's in your home now, you are being watched and catalogued in their system, your day of judgement from them is at hand.
You have to ask - who actually controls our government, who pulls the strings, who is behind the curtain, who is the actual Controller?
As more machinery comes online to replace the need for human workers, and as these former workers become what the controllers view as worthless eaters, what do you think will happen? Will they be allowed to survive to procreate even more worthless eaters, or will the controllers eliminate them?
Stay fluid, think, use their power to strengthen yourself, and don't lose your humanity.
All this from an old man who lives frugally in a remote location, growing much of my own food along with foraging, hunting, and fishing. My SHTF plan includes fleeing to near or in a city for refuge when that time comes - play the enemy for all they are worth...

 

JMHO here, the Gov declares martial law. We the people go on a nation wide strike. I'm talking about everything, transportation, power, water, communication, hospitals, you get the picture. Government can only stash so much to last a certain amount of time. By then the government will be so overwhelmed by the sheep looking for help they won't have time or resources to bother with us. Eventually they will have to come out of their bunkers looking to resupply their dwindling stocks. We the people can make the government fall if we are willing to do so.

 

@Oltymer "What makes people in the US believe their government is any different from the Stalinist regime in Russia?"
You hit the nail on the head, almost. The problem is the US government was different at its conception, but slowly and surely they have changed into the monster they are now. People, to include myself, are indoctrinated starting in the first grade with the fairy tale that 'We the People' still exists, that every person has a voice and vote, and with smoke and mirrors they keep that fairy tale alive. Why? Simply, to keep us all in line and it is much more effective than say Stalin's method of terror and besides it could be messy since they haven't got our guns yet but as soon as they do then you will see more and more direct action terror just like Ruby Ridge and Waco.

"the government doesn't care what anything costs."
No they don't. Which is why the National Debt continues to grow and grow knowing full well what will happen in the end, but they'll be safe and fed and warm, well provided for so...Why should they care? And they don't.

"majority of our society is composed of slaves, and I'm thinking around 95% slaves in America."
This is very obvious to me since I spent most my life outside the country and upon return - WOW - what a rude awaking. Everyone I know is truly burdened under with debt, most are simply surviving, not gaining ground, and certainly their following generation are not going to be better. No, they will be worse...

""It can't happen here" is a pipe dream that comes from a full bowl of hashish."
So said the largest empire ever on the planet. The problem isn't much different to the Soviet Union if you boil it down, economics being the key ingredient.

"what the controllers view as worthless eaters, what do you think will happen?"
The will be killed. The only question is how to kill 6+ Billion people (world pop is ~7.5 Billion) without killing the entire specie. Pandemic is rather hard to control and kills without exception, the good, bad and ugly. Maybe some form of genetic virus? I cannot see it being war... How to kill billions efficiently while leaving the infrastructure intact, that is the 6+billion people question?

"who actually controls our government"
That we will never actually know...we might guess but the truth we will never know...

 

One thing that must be borne in mind is that dot mil has leadership. If the fielded martial law troops are not leaning toward mutiny to say that they are more motivated by mercenary thinking, they will pick off rebellious concentrations one at a time. Eventually, even a hardened hillbilly living in the tullies will be found and dealt with. Now, if the "rebellious" portions of the population can find leaders, the sit will be WAY different.

Take a squint at Hong Kong today, the "rebels" are persisting. How long that will last is subject to a lot of debate, but mainland China is not to be written off. Right now, the "rebels" out number the "cops" (actually para military) and might prevail at the end, especially if the mainland really doesn't care if one small province gets away.

 

With the constant stink mainland China is making over small islands and Taiwan, they aren't gonna give up Hongkong.

 

Cost-- You mentioned that pennies cost more to make than they are worth, but coins remain in circulation for decades ( you would be surprised at the number of Wheaties, and nickels from the 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s you can find in a change drawer). Also, without pennies all prices would have to be rounded up ( you never round down) to the next nickel, especially if you are using cash.
As for going to a nearby city for refuge in a SHTF situation, unless you have a residence and/or job you might get kicked out. Worthless eaters will be expelled.