Hypothetical situation. WROL roadblock

I have a completely hypothetical situation I was thinking about while mowing the lawn yesterday.

Imagine everything goes to hell and suddenly we find ourselves in a "without rule of law" societal breakdown scenario. Ya know a typical major grid down event we think about where we are stuck in our own bubble with no outside communication and have no idea what is going on with the outside world.  

For what ever reason you are moving about on foot/bike etc... Going somewhere and you notice a roadblock up ahead before the next town and there are a few people manning it and they are armed. While you sit there and ponder the situation no one else is coming or going. So you have no one else to watch observe or question

They could be good people just like us trying to set up security for their town and maybe even offer you assistance, or they could be bandits who will kill and Rob you.

What do you do?

How do you find out if they are good or bad?

The more I thought about how do you approach this situation with making contact with others the trickier I thought it was to have a good answer.


How do you go about setting up contact with other people in this type of environment?  What if as you are walking down the road, coming in your direction is another person
Who (like yourself is armed). Do you immediately try to avoid them? Do you try to make contact? Etc...

Drinkthekoolaid, I've read your post a dozen times and everytime I read it, I flash back to my Marine Corps Recon days and for me, the answer is simple, avoid contact, period. Unless they are friendlies.

Sit and observe, for how long, depends how much time you have to spare. You then either go around, backtrack and then go around or you make contact with them (if they are friendlies).

If you are a stranger to the area, they will not be friendlies.

rick1 wrote:Drinkthekoolaid, I've read your post a dozen times and everytime I read it, I flash back to my Marine Corps Recon days and for me, the answer is simple, avoid contact, period. Unless they are friendlies.

Sit and observe, for how long, depends how much time you have to spare. You then either go around, backtrack and then go around or you make contact with them (if they are friendlies).

If you are a stranger to the area, they will not be friendlies.

I agree. And these are very difficult scenarios to ponder.

Today a normal interaction you wouldn't think twice about it. But next week in a without rule of law societal collapse scenario that exact same situation is now infinitely more complex and dangerous.

I agree that the best course of action is avoidence.  But, by avoiding, you may be missing out on critical information or intel, building possible alliances, trading partners, valuable resources like medicine etc..  who knows

I think there are more questions than answers.

ReadyMom wrote:By myself: Turn around.

With others: Maybe approach?

What if you NEED to go through. You don't have another route?

ReadyMom, there's always another route, that's when you backtrack and find another route. It may take time and energy to find one, but you can.

Now, if you are caught in a crossfire, say your prayers.

This thread brings to mind some rules of thumb I expect to live by, should things go off the rails.

1. Never travel alone, outside of your secured area.
2. Never go outside, unarmed.
3. Always watch, then move. Repeat until done.
4. Approaching "unknowns," put someone with a rifle on over-watch.
5. If living in a tribal or community area, set up patrols outside your secured area on a regular basis.
6. When traveling outside of your secured area, do not try to cover too much distance each day. (For us, civilians, any more than 10 miles is too much.) Leave plenty of time to find and treat water along the route, and to secure a place to rest.
7. Patrols and traveling groups should have radios, if possible. And if possible, never key the mic. They should also know hand signals.

TRex2 wrote:This thread brings to mind some rules of thumb I expect to live by, should things go off the rails.

1. Never travel alone, outside of your secured area.
2. Never go outside, unarmed.
3. Always watch, then move. Repeat until done.
4. Approaching "unknowns," put someone with a rifle on over-watch.
5. If living in a tribal or community area, set up patrols outside your secured area on a regular basis.
6. When traveling outside of your secured area, do not try to cover too much distance each day. (For us, civilians, any more than 10 miles is too much.) Leave plenty of time to find and treat water along the route, and to secure a place to rest.
7. Patrols and traveling groups should have radios, if possible. And if possible, never key the mic. They should also know hand signals.

These are great guidelines.

The entire point of this conversation is because I usually read something or some guy on YouTube typically says something to the effect of " that's what I plan to use my AR10 OR .308 for. To take out threats or roadblocks at a distance.

I started thinking that rationale doesn't make sense unless your an evil psychopath. How do you know those people are a threat? How do you know that they aren't good honest people just trying to secure their town no different from what you are doing yourself. How do you determine this? How do you make contact with other good people?

There is this idea that everything will instantly turn into tribal warfare or something. Where everyone is out to get you. I don't buy that. Sure there will be people out there preying upon others. But there will also be good people too. I think it's harder to realize what a without rule of law world will look like that I originally thought.