Schlicter: Be A Rooftop Korean

Also today, Kurt Schlichter has a piece at Townhall.com entitled Be A Rooftop Korean that urges everyone who can to begin practicing self defense. Schlichter relates that as a young law school student in L.A., and just back from the Gulf War, the L. A. Riots broke out in 1992. He relates how the police were unable to keep order, and the National Guard, and eventually Federal troops were called in to restore peace and order.

The Koreans were small shop keepers and business owners who were being blamed, incorrectly, for many of the troubles then plaguing the city, and thus had a target on their back.  But what the rioters did not know was that most of the Koreans were veterans of the Republic of Korea army, and had training in tactics, weapons use, and the mental will to defend themselves and their property.  When the rioters came to Korea town, saw the riflemen lined up on the rooftops, they opted for softer targets.

Schlichter is right that when the law breaks down, you must be willing and able to defend yourself. He provides some interesting statistics:

But I had a M16A1 – a real assault rifle – and I had a bunch of buddies with M16A1s. The regular folks … not so much. The decent people of LA were terrified, and with good reason. See, the dirty little secret of civilization is that it’s designed to maintain order when 99.9% of folks are orderly. But, say, if just 2% of folks stop playing by the rules…uh oh. Say LA’s population was 15 million in 1992…that’s 300,000 bad guys. There were maybe 20,000 cops in all the area agencies then, plus 20,000 National Guard soldiers and airman, plus another 10,000 active soldiers and Marines the feds brought in. Law enforcement is based on the concept that most people will behave and that the crooks will be overwhelmed by sheer numbers of officers.

But in the LA riots, law enforcement was massively outnumbered. Imposing order took time. And until then, our citizens were on their own, at the mercy of the mob. Betting that the cavalry was going to come save you was a losing bet.

 In the end, it is your and my civic duty to prepare to be our own first responder.  Then it is our duty to pray that we will not need to perform our civic duty.