Following up on this post, this last week has been horrible in many respects. You not only had Bondi Beach, but what increasingly appears to have been a targeted assassination at Brown (which increasingly it appears the leadership there is all-in on the side of the assassin). Nor is this alone. Are you aware of the machete attack in Pennsylvania? The acid attack in Savannah? There appear to be multiple attacks against Jews in New York. You also have lunatics assaulting those who oppose males in women’s sports (again, seem to think more than one such). Loons having vile meltdowns against ICE, National Guard, etc. Oh, and don’t forget the mom stabbed in a Macy’s bathroom while changing her child.
For my Jewish friends in New York, be extra careful right now. For Jews in England and Australia, I’m going to tell you what I recommended to the Jews in France months ago: get out. It’s not going to get better. For anyone who believes in the ideals of Western Civilization, individual freedom and liberty, get out of the Commonwealth.
Be careful out there my friends, and let’s see a New Year in together.
Getting hit by lightning is not fun! If you would like to help me in my recovery efforts, and to start a truly new life, feel free to hit the fundraiser at A New Life on GiveSendGo, use the options in the Tip Jar in the upper right, or drop me a line to discuss other methods. If you want to know some of what it is going for, read here. There is also the Amazon Wish List in the Bard’s Jar. It is thanks to your gifts and prayers that I am still going. Thank you.
For Jews who choose to leave England, Canada or Australia, etc, I suggest moving to either Israel or the Southern US. You will need to make a threat assessment of the possibility of attacks in either place, as well as your ability to fight back.
I think you and Andrew have it right on the Southern U.S. I would recommend it over Israel at this point, as Israel still has not rescinded the ridiculous gun laws that made far too many unarmed targets and allowed Hamass to run up the kill.
I second the Southern US. I live in Arkansas, a constitutional-carry state. It is far from paradise, but we have proactive law enforcement, friendly neighbors and the right to defend ourselves. I work with some lovely, devout, kind, older ladies…and most of them pack heat. I am NOT afraid of an active shooter when I’m at work.
Southern conservative evangelicals are the strongest supporters of Jews anywhere in the world. Even more than in Israel.
Ever heard of a “designated driver”? That’s the person who, on a night out with friends, refrains from consuming alcohol and thereby assumes the responsibility for operating the vehicle and, by extension, assumes some small amount of the responsibility for the general safety of his or her imbibing cohorts.
It’s well past time for that capability to be extended to non-alcoholic excursions in the form of “designated armed overwatch,” especially for some groups. At least one – although two would better – individuals equipped with appropriate weaponry and a reasonably high skill level with it – remain detached from the group, assuming a position allowing surveillance of the group, the surroundings, and the movements of individuals not associated with the group (the reason for two individuals in such capacity allows each of them to include the other in their surveillance; “lone wolves die early” is not just a storybook phrase).
How the Designated Armed Overwatch is conducted, who will perform it, how they instruct the group, etc. will vary between groups, and should be disscussed in detail among group members, including communication procedures, how alternate plans are activated, how venues for group – or family – are selected and surveyed, who assumes what responsibility in the event conditions change suddenly, what default plans need to exist *, etc.
There are some people to whom the need for all this will be obvious; others may consider it ridiculous or superfluous; to each their own. (It should be noted that ad hoc instructions are almost always guaranteed to fail; commanded actions must be reviewed and practiced to be consistently effective.)
* “Default Plans” are pre-arranged actions; for example, a shouted command from a group leader or designated overwatch individual may direct group members to leave the venue individually as rapidly as possible and re-assemble at a pre-designated rally point. Pro Tip: A coded command, can be used to control instructions; a perpetrator may use the command “SCATTER” deliberately to get everyone, including members of your group, to take a particular action beneficial to the perpetrator(s), but the shouted command “BLUE FIVE” (or a series of short blasts from a whistle, or an air horn) will be known to your group members as first, the “SCATTER !” command and second, coming from a leader of your group. It pays to keep the commands very simple, the command terms easy to enunciate and hard to misunderstand in the midst of high noise levels, and, of course, very well rehearsed and never, ever abused or used casually.
All this may sound paranoid, or like “children playing army,” but think about Bondi Beach – at the first indication of trouble had a leader of the Tuesday Noon Chess Club shouted a scatter command (or used a series of short blasts from a whistle or air horn) members of the TNCC would – or should – instantly know that “something is wrong – I don’t know what, but it’s something, and I have to immediately take a designated action” and done so. Might some, or all, of the TNCC died anyway? Certainly, but had some members done something as simple as diving into the surf and swimming away from the beach they would have taken themselves farther from the threat (and non-shooters absolutely won’t understand this, but putting 250-500 yards between you and an armed threat reduces the possibility of harm exponentially – the standard-issue terrorist is not a trained USMC Scout-Sniper, nor is he similarly equipped).