by Loki » Mon 06 Oct 2008, 11:58:05
At the risk of sounding politically incorrect, the US urban riots of the last 40 years or so have one thing in common: They were started by blacks and hispanics. 87% of those arrested during the LA riot of 1992 were black or Mexican, despite these two groups making up <60% of the city's population. 11% of those arrested were white (47% of the city's population). Here in the US I'd put my money on LA, NYC, and Chicago, pretty much in that order. Seattle??? Pfff. Yah, you might get a couple dozen "anarchist" juveniles throwing bricks through Starbucks' windows, but that hardly constitutes a riot.
As for riots "proving" that cities aren't the place to be, 53 people died in the 1992 LA riot. That's 0.0015% of the 1990 population of the city (not including suburbs). And the problems were concentrated in the areas where the above mentioned ethnic groups live and thus were easily avoided unless you lived or worked in those areas. I'll take my chances, thanks very much. And what exactly is supposed to be starting these riots? Once I see Walmart grocery aisles empty, then maybe I'll start prepping for riots. But I don't see that happening anytime soon. I suppose 25%+ unemployment might do it, but a lot of black and Mexican ghettos/barrios already have this level of unemployment.
A garden will make your rations go further.