Partypup: Well written, cogent post. The problem here is the readers go from “complete normalcy” to “Mad Max” in one sudden movement. I agree with your assessment as to the unlikelihood of that situation and I would point readers to the LA Riots of 1992 or Hurricane Katrina in terms of how quickly the wheels can come off the wagon.
I was here during the Fallbrook/Rice Canyon Fire and chose to stay rather than evacuate. I recall having a Marine Humvee patrolling my neighborhood with a gunner up top behind a loaded .50cal. I can also recall having coffee at the nearly deserted Starbucks with a CHP officer and a SD Sheriff, both of whom told me to shoot first and ask questions later as far as encountering anyone I didn’t know in my neighborhood. I live in a quiet cul-de-sac near downtown Fallbrook and I’m not out in the sticks. The Sheriff was blunt in terms of local law enforcement being “stretched thin” and having to ask Camp Pendleton for help in maintaining order and preventing looters. Their handling of the evac was exemplary and the locals were orderly and well behaved and it still stretched their resources to the limit.
I remember watching news footage of LAPD’s handling of South Central during the LA Riots in 1992 and realizing that they had completely ceded control to the mob. It doesn’t take much to get there. The idea that the police and the National Guard are capable of handling widespread civil unrest and rioting is simply not true.
I hope things don’t get sideways, but it seems prudent to be prepared for them if they do.
