What Happens When Good People Turn Bad

The killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer is one more tragic stain on our nation’s history.

That such things can happen at the hands of someone working for a government agency is something we should all be concerned about and saddened by. When government agents start killing people, there’s no saying where it will stop. What starts as a single horrific act by one man against another can quickly engulf society.

No, this isn’t the first time this has happened. We all know of other times, each of them a tragedy. I will never condone one person killing another unless it is in an act of self-defense. Even then, we should use no more than minimal necessary force to protect ourselves. Killing is not necessary if you can drive the killer away.

Floyd’s murder was clearly not an act of self-defense. The man was on the ground, shackled, and crying out for his life. There is no way that anyone could say that he was a threat. There was also a medical professional there, who was telling the officer with his knee of Floyd’s neck to check Floyd’s pulse and make sure that he was okay. The officer chose to ignore her. That video has gone viral too.

First, the four officers involved in this crime were fired. Then the officer who killed Floyd was arrested for third-degree murder. Finally, his wife filed for divorce. Apparently she doesn’t agree with what he did either. So hopefully justice will be done. It needs to be, not only for George Floyd’s sake but for the country’s sake.

But those actions aren’t the only thing going on. Since the murder came to light, it has sparked demonstrations, many of which have turned into riots, in dozens of cities. Those who are protesting and rioting are angry about this needless death and reacting out of that anger.

Why are they angry?

There’s clearly a racial element to that anger, as the police officer was white and the man he killed was black. But I don’t think that’s enough to explain away the anger that I’m seeing right now. There’s a chance, and I’d say it’s a pretty good chance, that the anger is magnified from what it would normally be because people are already angry over the lockdowns.

This growing anger is something that has been largely ignored by the media, but that doesn’t make it any less true. We’re seeing more and more protests of the lockdowns, which are destroying families and small businesses. People have lost their livelihoods and many won’t be getting them back anytime soon.

When people are already angry about one thing, it’s considerably easier for them to get angry about something else. So, while the death of George Floyd is enough to anger many people, the reaction we’re seeing is much bigger than we might otherwise see.

Part of that isn’t raging though; or at least not the normal sort of rage that people feel. It’s the rage that’s being paid for by someone. For the last several years, whenever something like this has happened, “protestors” have been imported into the cities to spark violence. These people are paid and trained, getting things stated and then slipping out before they can get arrested.

One has to understand a bit about mob psychology to understand what is happening in these cities. What may very well have started out to be a peaceful protest, turned into mob violence. It has happened over and over again. All it takes is a few agitators, feeding on people’s anger to get things going, and then “show the way” by getting violent, and many, perhaps even most, people will follow. Once the violence starts, it feeds on itself, growing and becoming worse. The agitators slip away.

People in that mob lose their capability of thinking for themselves. They follow the mob, doing what the mob is doing. If the mob is rolling over someone’s car, they help push. If the mob breaks a glass storefront and starts looting, they see what they can grab. If the mob beats up an old lady in a wheelchair, just because she’s in their way, they join in.

Once that anger is kindled and bursts into flame, it’s hard to put it out. Any attempt to put it out is seen as an attempt to control them, treating them like children. That just infuriates them even more. One basically has to allow the anger to burn out or catch them and lock them up.

Now, here’s the rub; most of the people in that mob would never do the things they’re doing if they weren’t in the mob in the first place. They are basically law-abiding citizens. Oh, they might speed or not stop fully for a red light; but they’re not criminals. They were just caught up in the moment.

I’ve talked about these sorts of people before, as being those who live on the edge of the law. They really don’t do anything wrong most of the time, because they are afraid of the consequences. But when a crisis happens, they are likely to slip over onto the dark side, because of their desperation. This is the same thing; people are rioting because someone played upon their emotions, making them feel desperate.

Don’t Get Dragged In

The people who organize these protests, and they are always organized, are planning on people showing up and taking part. They’re not just looking for any people though; they want people who are already mad about the situation, even though their anger is under control. They want those people because it is easier to manipulate the emotions of someone who is already mad than to do so with someone who is thinking rationally.

That should be enough of a reason to keep you and me away. Since we know how they want to use people in that situation, it seems rather clear that the best place that any of us can be is anywhere else. It’s pretty hard to get dragged into it if you’re not there, but it’s also hard to stay out of it if you are.

Actually, being present and staying out of the mob violence is dangerous, as the mob will see you as an enemy and might very well attack you. Should that happen, no gun, no amount of ammunition can protect you. There’s no way you can shoot them all before they can beat you to death.

This is not the time for curiosity, nor for going to try and speak reasonably to someone. As I just said, if you’re not part of the mob, you’re an enemy. Standing on the edge or even some distance off, just trying to see what’s going on isn’t safe, because there is no way of telling which way the mob might turn and what or who they will decide to attack.

If you have an all-news radio station in your city, that can be a great asset in trying to find out what’s going on with any mobs or riots. The other option is using a police scanner to keep track of what the police are saying. Knowing what is happening can help you to avoid it.

If Violence Erupts Around You

Of course, we don’t always have a choice of staying away. There’s the possibility of violence erupting around us, even if we don’t have any part of it. I’m sure that’s what happened to many of the business owners in Minneapolis and other cities where the riots have ensued. Those business owners can’t just pick up their businesses and move them elsewhere. They either arm themselves to protect their businesses or they turn tail and run, getting out of the way until the mob disperses.

Surprisingly, there have been a number of business owners who have succeeded in defending their businesses and scaring off the mob, not only in these riots but in previous ones too. But in every case I’ve seen, that wasn’t just one man defending his business by himself, with a handgun, but rather several men in tactical gear and long guns standing guard, usually on the roof. So, while that is possible, it’s a risky action to take. Should the mob attack that business and the guards retaliate, they would most likely go to jail for mass murder.

To repeat myself, in most cases, the best thing you can do is to get out. But that might not be easy to do. It’s usually not possible to just walk out of a mob situation, without attracting attention to yourself. Rather, you’ve got to work your way out gradually, first getting to the edge of the mob and then finding an opportune time to slip off down an alley or through a store.

If the mob is moving, it offers an ideal opportunity to escape. All you need to do is walk slower than the mob is moving so that they move away from you. Once you are outside the perimeter, you can move off in another direction, perpendicular to where the mob is going.

While you are in that mob, you need to act like you’re part of it. If they’re yelling, then yell with them. If everyone is shaking their fists, then shake yours. Don’t let them get the idea that you’re not one of them, or they might turn on you.

Expect More

With everything going on in the country right now; the pandemic lockdowns, the high unemployment, and financial problems, and now with this atrocity, I’d expect a lot more violence in the next few months.

As a nation, we’re at a point right now where people’s blood is already boiling. So it won’t take much for people to go over the tipping point. We’ve already seen it happen with this situation. We don’t need to see it happen with any others. Watch out for what the media is saying and the message they are putting out. In many cases, it’s not there to inform but to stir the pot. Well, this is a time when we really don’t need the pot stirred anymore.

Written by

Bill White is the author of Conquering the Coming Collapse, and a former Army officer, manufacturing engineer and business manager. More recently, he left the business world to work as a cross-cultural missionary on the Mexico border. Bill has been a survivalist since the 1970s, when the nation was in the latter days of the Cold War. He had determined to head into the Colorado Rockies, should Washington ever decide to push the button. While those days have passed, the knowledge Bill gained during that time hasn’t. He now works to educate others on the risks that exist in our society and how to prepare to meet them. You can send Bill a message at editor [at] survivopedia.com.

Latest comments
  • Enough of this N. Pelosi and her followers have caused enough . Arrest this TREASONOUS person now before she actually tries another COUP.

  • Wow, still this should be essential information.

  • Why are people angry? Because we have been in a “shelter in place” situation? Or because it is a white man destroying a black man? Neither, really. These are just band-aids on a seething and very smelly wound.
    The original US Constitution was a total of 4 pages.,then 12 Amendments were added to it. Anybody could read and understand them. Anybody knew they could stand on The Highest Law of the Land in whatever situation they found themselves in. Now in 2020 how many laws are there? No one knows exactly. Every Judge seems to be a law to themselves and makes up rules as they proceed through each case. If you try to stand on Case Law, you get some offhanded statement about that case law was an affirmative in one case, but negatively impacted the victim in another case, even when both cases are practically identical. You can sit in any court room and here portions of this law and portions of that law and portions of some other law, and portions of case law all thrown into the pot, and the Constitution is not allowed to be brought up, and it fans the flames of anger. Anger and distrust that “Justice” will not be served up today.
    Do cops get the same treatment in court? NO
    Do federal agents get the same treatment when they are caught doing something wrong and end up in court? NO
    Do judges get the same treatment when a citizen has the fortitude and the finances to be able to get one in the court system? NO
    What law will this cop be following today? Will it be same law that was followed yesterday? Will it be the same law as tomorrow? A most resounding NO.
    America has become a nation of individual laws. The “Free” nation has more people sitting behind bars than any other nation on this entire planet.
    People are regularly put into jail today based on laws that did not exist 10 years ago.
    Almost daily we hear about some new rule that is going to affect our Rights.
    We are Angry at the constant bombardment against our Rights.
    Members of Congress do not live under the same laws as the rest of the nation. They make laws for themselves, and they make different laws for us citizens. One quick example is social security. No member of congress pays into that system, yet they constantly make new laws that everyone else is supposed to abide by.
    The American govt is more corrupt now than the English rulers where before the Revolutionary War..
    Why are we angry about George Floyd’s death? Because the cop made up his own laws ignoring all the other laws on the books. Blaming it all on race is a band-aid.
    Why are we upset about the covid 19? Several reasons. Because there were existing laws on the books on how to deal with contagious diseases. Those who are contagious are isolated, not the whole country side. Every governor who created their laws on how to deal with covid ignored the existing laws and they each created their own laws, and some of them are now being sued. Because suddenly many, many people were told their job does not matter to the govt. We were told that same lie under one of the ex-presidents when he declared the “low-paying” jobs can be given to the illegals because in his opinion Americans didn’t want those jobs. Because a majority of us were suddenly put into martial law, house arrest, when other parts of the country were not. Not a single govt worker lost their job due to covid. And we are angry because we know we have been scammed with this covid thing. A group of Washington state university students ( the IHME ) working on their degrees in computer programming put a bunch of numbers into their program that only they know how to use, and spit out a bunch of lies about some false disease that was going to kill of 2.5 million of us within a few weeks, And based on those lies, the citizenry were put into martial law, when govt personnel were not.
    Yes, people are very Angry right now.
    Angry about the lack of Justice. Justice that we can still read about in our history books but in reality can no longer be found..

  • It’s just the point of big changes in the world. Pretty crazy, everyone gets lost, uncertain of the future, disenchanted by yrs and yrs of deceptions and lies and politics. When the bread & circus ends, the masses roar.
    Up until now this cauldron of everything has been slowly heating up, but there’s always a point when it reaches boiling point and people start taking notice. This is typical reaction.
    The masses are nervous right now and this – all this really, the economy, the protests, everything – is just the visible side of discontent. And it’ll grow, it’ll come in waves until things start to really improve.
    We’re in for about 2 very interesting yrs ahead, lots of volatility everywhere. Eventually we’ll be back to good times,. If history has anything to show us then take a seat because it’ll take decades to settle this for good and it’ll be a very, very different world for sure.

  • All very well said, thank you

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