Archive for the 'War & Warfare' Category

I’ve already written extensively on the Kenosha event, here (“What Started The Event?), here (“No, I Absolutely Do Not Stipulate That Kyle Rittenhouse Shouldn’t Have Been In Kenosha”), here (“What Does It Take To Be A Writer For Slate?”), here (“Three Criminals Shot In Kenosha, WI, Identified”), here (“Candid Observations At Reddit Concerning Kenosha, WI, Gun Battle”) and here (“One Rioter Gets Half His Arm Blown Off With Rifle Fire”).

But I can barely keep up with the breathtaking speed and dizzying accuracy of the analyses at both AR-15.com and Reddit/Firearms.

AR-15.com has comprehensive analyses at both this link and this one (the first being first in the sequence, the second being updated but different).

Reddit/Firearms also had a good analysis up, which has been taken down by the awful moderators, but which I lifted here (for the most part, although the loss of comments is regrettable).

The best video I’ve seen to date is a time-spliced video built and posted by a Redditor and dropped out as an MP4 file.  Here is the link (if the link gets taken down, I downloaded the full video and will repost).  Allow me to explain why I’m lifting some of the prose and explanation.  This is “fair use,” as I do not make a penny off of this web site.

Second, I’ve seen far too many valuable, creative, informative discussion threads removed by awful moderators to trust that it will be there in the future.  They could send me a certified letter signed by an attorney declaring that it will never be removed, and I’d still not trust them.  With that said, I will be lifting only parts of the explanation by the author, and I encourage you to go to the balance of the explanation and the comments (which are equally informative).

The Reddit/Firearms thread is here.

The entire thing is a single synced shot, with the exception of the part after the shooting where the entire clip from Regg’s stream of the shooting is played again, and a few seconds at the beginning showing CJ’s shot of Kyle leaving the gas station. Other than that, everything can be considered sequential, synced within about .05 seconds.

The first clip is mostly in there for irony’s sake, and to show that he was wearing his shirt properly earlier, but it’s part of a larger confrontation which started when rioters got angry at the gas station defenders for putting out a dumpster fire.
https://www.facebook.com/114093096999408/videos/581113739251513/?t=10740 (first shot fired at 3:49)
https://twitter.com/livesmattershow/status/1299058504813035520
https://www.reddit.com/r/ActualPublicFreakouts/comments/igsx41/
Joseph was there, and he was very angry at people.
https://instagram.com/p/CEcdMXcpN1a/
That may have been what prompted him to start chasing Kyle (long time after this incident happened) when he spotted him 50ft outside the gas station parking lot, or Kyle may have started running on his own, drawing people to chase him. Either way, he appears to start running with the extinguisher about a second before “burn inside” is yelled”, dropping it a few seconds later.

[ … ]

Highest quality video of the chase and initial shooting: https://twitter.com/livesmattershow/status/1298558424213594118
Second set of shootings: https://twitter.com/BGOnTheScene/status/1298502384654651392
Another shot of the shootings, plus a thread with aftermath (unused): https://twitter.com/Julio_Rosas11/status/1298484633143775234
Kyle leaving the station: https://twitter.com/ShelbyTalcott/status/1298487753718534144
CJ’s stream, the guy who provided first aid (7:30 for first shots): https://archive.is/J8wrx
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ss-G-FX3Nys&t=3h58m
https://www.facebook.com/229855298387888/videos/726145031563748/?t=450
https://www.gettyimages.com/photos/clashes-between-protesters-and-armed-civilians-who-protect-the-streets-kenosha?
https://www.instagram.com/p/CEWCtCGFgc_/ (this is the libertarian who went viral the night before, he has a few statements about the situation in other posts)

Auxiliary footage (there’s more video from earlier in the night on their FB pages):
Aftermath Gore: https://twitter.com/Julio_Rosas11/status/1298501886987898880
Lakota’s footage, since he was following CJ: https://www.facebook.com/109372927557855/videos/619168862361016/
Therundownlive: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iz2jZ3TQzuk
RT footage, relevant bit at T minus 6 where Kyle asks the cops to go north to his workplace: https://www.facebook.com/552738918075145/videos/356037318743204/
Gaige’s POV (if anyone has his entire stream, let me know): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Auz1jUo1jp8
Compilation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MH4heiCYZQ

That’s all I’ll lift.  There’s a lot more at the link, and as I said, I encourage you to visit the link and watch the entire video (linked above), multiple times if you have to.  I have.

It’s obvious to me that Mr. Rittenhouse attempted to put out a fire caused by Rosenbaum, Rosenbaum didn’t like it (because he was trying to expand the fire to nearby buildings and police vehicles), and went after Rittenhouse.

Kyle Rittenhouse defended his life, and then others gave chase.  Kyle was on the ground when the rest of the shooting occurred, in one instance defending his life against an attack with a skateboard (which could be lethal in an attack to the head or spine), and in another instance against a convicted felon with a pistol who was advancing towards him (and who unapologetic and later claimed that his only regret is in not emptying his magazine into Kyle).

If you still don’t understand how this went down, I encourage you to go view the video again.  In the exchange, he killed a convicted sex offender (and also convicted arsonist), a wife beater, and wounded (and took out of the fight) another felon.

There’s another aspect that hasn’t been discussed at all, and that is the police interactions with the militia before this event went down.  Watch one of those present explain it to you.

pic.twitter.com/e1mfQcWtly

— Ryan (@EstaVivo) August 30, 2020

Let’s be clear.  The founders were deeply opposed to a standing army, and the police have become that standing army in many instances, especially with militarized tactics like SWAT teams and no-knock raids.

I’m not opposed to the use of militia to aid “peace officers.”  That’s how the founders intended it to work.  I’m also not opposed to what the Kenosha police told the militia, nor their intended use of the militia (assuming this report is true).

What I am opposed to is the arrest of Kyle Rittenhouse in this instance given that he was doing what was expected of him (and also acted only in self defense), and the office of the DA filing charges of murder against Rittenhouse.  The DA (Michael Graveley) will now use his office to conduct lawfare against the very people with whom the police made a bargain that very day.

But you can be sure of one thing.  Graveley’s office will make sure that the U.S. Department of Justice investigates the shooting of Jacob Blake.

It’s easy to say that St. Jacob Blake was the start, but he was only the pretext for the violence in Kenosha.

Most of this comes from good friend Len Savage, via AR-15.com.  As it turns out, Kyle Rittenhouse attempted to do what he came for, i.e., protect property.

“Kyle apparently ran up at the gas station and provided a fire extinguisher that put out Pedo Boy’s dumpster fire that he was pushing into the gas station … It pissed pedo boy off and they attempted to ambush and set the kid on fire to teach him a lesson…”

Then came screams of “get him.”  They wanted to burn things, Kyle tried to stop it, and for that they chased him down.

This was all in self defense, as his lawyers are pointing out.  Oh, and they’re not done yet.  They want to know where he is.

If he goes to a cell and anyone gets a lock on his location — email it to us https://t.co/f83kxUho4c

— Jailhouse Lawyers Speak — #August21 ⚔️ (@JailLawSpeak) August 26, 2020

If this Twitter post gets taken down, here is an archive of it.  I wonder if some DA will take this case up?

Before all of that, the very start of another video shows the cops telling people to go home since “they are civilians.”  Nothing pisses me off more than hearing that.  Cops are civilians too.

Any questions on the sort of people you’re dealing with?  Three convicted criminals got shot, one a wife-beater, another a pedophile, and finally one who came after Kyle with a pistol in his hand (who could not legally own that weapon), who were chasing Kyle down after he tried to stop burning of businesses, something the cops wouldn’t do themselves.

This may be one of the most videographed CQB events in history.  Kyle won.  That makes them angry.  It makes Antifa/BLM angry, and it makes the Kenosha DA angry.

Via reader JJ, this analysis of the engagement at Kenosha, WI, at AR-15.com, seems very detailed with a lot of pictures, analysis and background.

I continue to believe that despite becoming separated from his group, if he even had one to begin with (there is good discussion on this at the thread), Kyle handled himself and his carbine very adroitly.

I wouldn’t expect too many details on the case to come from him, but these are worth noting.

When you start manufacturing facts to support false accusations, you get into trouble under the law of defamation. Kyle did not carry a gun across state lines. The gun belonged to his friend, a Wisconsin resident. The gun never left the State of Wisconsin.

Truth always prevails. https://t.co/iDbsykaVvY

— Lin Wood (@LLinWood) August 28, 2020

“Video eye” does not lie. Kyle Rittenhouse acted in self-defense. Murder charges are factually unsupportable. An egregious miscarriage of justice is occurring with respect to this 17-year old boy. I love truth & justice. I deplore lies & injustice. Had those feelings ALL my life.

— Lin Wood (@LLinWood) August 28, 2020

I will not take one thin dime from #FightBack Foundation donations for my time or expenses. I have security team of Navy SEALS to provide security for me, my family, my employees, & my neighbors. I will pay those costs. I will not be intimidated by leftist tactics or threats. https://t.co/haYQEXyDfx

— Lin Wood (@LLinWood) August 28, 2020

It has become all the rage.  That is, to partially defend Kyle’s actions as probable self defense, but then to raise the following stipulations.  First up, Leon Wolf writing at The Blaze.

Kyle Rittenhouse should not have been patrolling the streets of Kenosha, Wisconsin, Tuesday night. Whatever failures might have existed on the part of state and local government (and there appear to have been many), the idea of a 17-year-old with a loaded rifle being dropped into that powder keg can only happen when some horribly bad judgment has occurred.

We’ll get to that in a minute.  Next up, Steven Hayward writing at Powerline.

Let’s stipulate starting out that Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year-old from Antioch, Illinois, who has been arrested and charged with murder for shooting two people during the Kenosha riots two nights ago, should not have been present at the scene with a semi-auto rifle. That’s no place for a 17-year-old, even if he is a regular at the gun range. And resorting to vigilantism is a sure path to a breakdown in the rule of law and perhaps even open civil war.

Steven is massively naive.  He raises two points – his age, and the resort to “vigilantism.”  Let’s hold in abatement the issue of age for a moment.  As for vigilantism, surely he isn’t thinking clearly or perhaps hasn’t admitted the truth to himself.

We’ve discussed this many times before, but the police are committed to their salary and benefits.  They are under absolutely no legal obligation to defend life or property, or provide protection or safety for anyone.  We know this from Castle Rock v. Gonzales and Warren v. D.C.  They could wait until a murder has been fully and completely committed, while watching and eating doughnuts, and as long as they effect the arrest after the fact, most of them will have fully followed their department protocol.

The police are under the full control of the politicians, and the politicians are mostly Marxists.  Thus, holding the police back redounds to the destruction of property, unsafe environment for residents, and even the loss of family wealth when entire businesses have been burned to the ground.  Many families are not in a position to take a loss like that, regardless of the money Steven makes.

When left with no alternative, it’s obscene for Hayward to advocate the unrighteousness of defense of life and property.  Furthermore, to imply that the “breakdown in the rule of law” is the fault of hopeless and hapless residents lacks compassion, understanding, and good analysis.  And to say that this is what may lead to civil war is more ludicrous still.  Hayward must surely know that we are in an escalating civil war as we speak.  If he doesn’t, I would never hire him as my attorney.  He lacks even the basic skills to understand the current milieu or the signs of the times.

As for Leon Wolf, his appeal to the youthful age as a reason that Kyle shouldn’t have been there is equally ridiculous and even bigoted.  We send 18 year old men to fight our wars for us, and with approval, 17 year old men can do the same.

Let’s go one step further.  In the battle of King’s Mountain, the British forces were essentially all loyalist fighters with the exception of the commander.  This was to be General Cornwallis’ going-forward strategy for winning the campaign in the South.

Upon learning of the coming destruction, the “over-mountain men” left their homes in the area and also neighboring states to travel overnight, many nights, on horseback, to gather and fight the loyalists.

At the time of the battle, crops were being harvested and families couldn’t send the fathers.  Men had to be in the fields in order to prepare for the coming winter.  They did the only thing they could do, and entire families gathered in streets and sang hymns to their young fighters as they sent their sons riding off to war.

They won a decisive victory, destroying Cornwallis’ strategic plan.  What most people do not know about the “over-mountain men” is that the vast majority of them were under the age of 18.  You too can learn this if you study history, or perhaps come to the King’s Mountain military park and tour it, read the placards, and study the area.

But rather than hold older men accountable for their actions, like politicians and police, pundits are satisfied with turning on Kyle for being young and deciding to make a stand.

Back to Mr. Wolf.  The thing that has gone wrong in America for Kyle Rittenhouse to have to do this is that men are no longer men, that they have allowed a Marxist revolution to steal the country, and that no one has the stomach left for having and keeping liberty.  What has happened to the effete, cloistered, foppish, dainty men in America?  Good Lord.

Reddit/Firearms.

As you will certainly see on Twitter today, a feral mob of rioters decided to pick a fight with armed militia in Kenosha last night, and two of the scum ended up in body bags.

A brief overview of the events: rioters antagonized militia as they stood defending local businesses (note, the guy in this video in the red shirt is the one who is later shot in the head) from looting and burning. Somehow this escalated into rioters chasing a militia member through a parking lot. He turns and fires, striking a rioter in the head (identified by same belt, shorts, and moustache from prior video; he seems semi conscious but I strongly suspect he was the one who died this morning). The mob then chases the wrong guy (see 14:15) through the streets. He stumbles, the mob converges on him, and shots ring out. One rioter is struck in the stomach, collapses, and dies on the spot. Another rioter, Glock in hand and probably not more than seconds (edit: fractions of a second, see below, holy shit) from killing this guy, gets his upper arm blown off. As is very clear in this clip the guy initially fake surrenders, then as soon as the militia member lowers the gun, he tries to draw the Glock to shoot him. Militia member gets up and runs away.

This is the most complete collection of video Ive managed to find of the events.

Lessons learned:

• PRACTICE F****** OPSEC. The Twitter doxxing machine fired up immediately and already has the second militia member’s name, Facebook, and family information. I’m not posting it here because Im not contributing to the cycle, especially when Reddit – and unfortunately, a non-zero proportion of this sub – is full of communist subhumans. Hes only 17 years old. No one is out of bounds for them. Cover your fucking face. Wear indistinct clothing (this is a pointer that we can actually take from Antifa; the black bloc works; coordinate this with others, if possible). Do not talk to the camera. The guy filming might be nice, but the Twitter lynch mob will use it to kill you and your entire family after it’s posted there. The second militia member identifies himself by name on a stream.

• For the first time, someone has proved that for all the buildings its burned, all the statues its toppled, and all the people it has beaten, the mob is actually composed of a bunch of f****** pussies. If it’s not 10:1 odds in their favor against an unarmed victim, they want no part of it. The second gunfire starts, they scatter like roaches. Not a single person sticks around to start a protracted fight. It tickles my ears to hear the one rioter go from tough guy who is going to beat up or shoot that kid to big, crying baby once he gets his arm blown off. Fuck these people.

• Do not undertake these things alone. The militia were hanging together in a group, but somehow this second guy got separated. As stated before, the Antifa/BLM slime are not looking for a fair fight. They want to surround and overwhelm you. If you allow yourself to be isolated, your odds of being targeted and having to shed blood in self-defense go up exponentially.

• If you’re going to come and expose yourself to the possibility of getting in a gunfight, that means actually be prepared to be in a gunfight. Your fighting capabilities are the sum of your equipment, your body, and your mind. Water, medical equipment (especially tourniquets, chest seals, and gauze), ammunition, hearing protection (especially electronic protection a la Peltors), a good pair of shoes, pants (ideally with knee pads), plates if you can afford them. You should be in good physical shape and well-versed in your craft. If you can’t run 2 miles in under 15 minutes, you’re too slow. You do not want an attacker, imminently about to kill you and parade your body through the street, to be the first thing you ever fire a gun at. I also highly recommend training in combat sports. In addition to the skills this gives you in close combat, it trains a mindset. In a fight, the person who is less afraid of their opponent has a massive advantage. Go watch a street fight. Watch how stiff they are and how quickly they both want it to be over. Most people are terrified to be in a fight. You can very quickly overwhelm someone is in that “stiff” stage of experience with decisive, violent action. This is as true in a fist fight as it is in a gun fight. “Violence has a purpose, and aggression is a perfectly healthy emotion” is a phrase that was beaten into me in my career. It’s good advice that has stuck with me for years.

• credit u/ohtheyearwas1775 in comments. Slings are good pieces of equipment. Your weapon is literally your life. If the guy had fallen down and dropped his rifle, he would probably be in a coffin right now.

• credit u/8064hatch. Organization and planning matters. The second militia member was probably isolated because there was no firm plan in place and no distinct leader around. Communications are a big help. Signal is a free, end-to-end encrypted messaging app. If you’re defending a building, overlapping sectors of fire are important, as is a proper evacuation plan (your opponents are extremely fond of fire, that should enter your calculus before you barricade yourself inside).

• credit u/TehRoot. If you’re going to have medical equipment, you should probably… you know… know how to use it lol. That guy gets shot in the head and the immediate action plan was to put pressure on it. Pressure stops blood flow. All the bleeding was happening inside of that guy’s skull. Pressing skull fragments into his brain is not a winning strategy. Tourniquet limbs (with an actual fucking tourniquet, not your wound up T shirt), pack the junctions (armpits, groin), seal the (breathing) box. Don’t put a tourniquet on someone’s neck like a dumbass. Don’t pack shit in someone’s sucking chest wound unless you want to watch it get violently sucked into their diaphragm and kill them as they try to take a giant panic breath. If you’re carrying a piece of gear, you need to have rehearsed with it so you can engage with the actual realities of when and how to employ it.

• Realize that the government is not a strong ally. Probably doesn’t need to be said here, but I’ll say it anyway. Your local/state governments basically determine whether or not law enforcement exists in your area. Don’t believe even 1 second of the bullshit about how “they’re doing everything they can to stop the violence.” If this were white supremacists, tea partiers, or whatever demographic the left has chosen not to like that day who were out doing exactly what the BLM insurrectionists are out doing every night, there would be a full activation of your state’s National Guard and you would have an entire infantry battalion on your doorstep right now. Notice how – with zero exceptions – every single place that is having problems with violence is a democrat shithole. Convince me otherwise.

Those are not my observations and I cannot claim credit for them.  I am reposting them here.

So to append what this astute commenter said, let me add the following.  I too noticed not only with this event but the “proud boys” who confronted the Black Bloc in Portland that they became easily separated from the group.

It may be due to lack of planning, lack of training, no real leadership, no time in grade, or whatever.  The Black Bloc is like the Taliban.  They like attack only with a mass of force, i.e., in Afghanistan, they usually attacked COPs and outposts with battalion size forces or almost that size.  See the following posts: here, here, here, and here.

They don’t like the odds when they’re outnumbered.  They tend to scatter with any real resistance.  Don’t be found alone in direct confrontations.

Doxxing is a favorite tactic of the left.  The notion that someone would carry a weapon into the city of Kenosha and directly confront the Black Bloc is, to me, ridiculous.  Law enforcement is not on the side of those who would shut down the destruction and lawlessness.  The police follow the orders of the politicians, and the pols don’t want the destruction to be stopped.  They cannot arrest their voting constituency.

I suspect that the future of these sorts of confrontations will involve face and head cover, the use of cover and concealment, and the use of cover of night, as well as the use of “stand-off” tactics.

As always, these points are discussed merely as an academic exercise, for educational benefit, and for use for those who study warfare (specifically in TTP, or tactics, techniques and procedures).

Michael Yon patreon page.

More Shootouts, and some Advice on firefights — this one just happened: Multiple casualties and a couple fatalities

Pro-tip: I’ve been in the middle of or very close to hundreds of firefights. Mostly Iraq, Afghanistan, Thailand. Hong Kong was mostly rubber bullets, teargas, that sort of thing. Not full on firefights like Thailand and the wars.

I will say this: beware of these little shootouts. They often start very small like this with just a few casualties and a few shots.

Then…right when you think it’s over…that’s when it explodes.

Often they go something like this:

1) Sniper shoots someone. Lots of people return fire, or not, and firefight is over.

2) Light contact, potshots. A few dozen or few hundred rounds are fired. All finished in a few minutes, or in any case the contact is very light even if it goes for hours in running battles.

3) A situation like this one: light contact. A few casualties. Done.

ALTERNATE ENDING: Light contact, zero or a few casualties, and there is a lull, or nothing else happens and it’s over, OR — it takes time for everyone who wants to fight to get into position and start trigger time. So you can get this bang bang bang bang…and then thirty seconds or even minutues of quiet, and then shit hits the fan.

Folks who followed my years in Iraq and Afghanistan, and others in Thailand, will remember many such firefights. Light contact. Quiet. Huge firefight starts.

[ … ]

Stay calm. Practice in advance in your head how you will be calm. You hear all these people screaming like they are on fire. They are not helping just being panick monkeys.

Beware of speeding vehicles during firefights.  Get off the roads, and beware of sidewalks.  Saw this often in Iraq and Thailand.

If you are going to combat like this, you MUST bring tourniquets and learn to use them. I used to have four tourniquets sewed into my ‘uniforms,’ and I carried others. In other words, there were already tourniquets on my arms and legs and all I had to do was tighten.

You will bleed out super fast with some wounds even to the leg. Ambulances are not going to rush into a firefight. When you have a real Black Hawk Down, ain’t gonna be no back up. You are it.

As we steam deeper into insurgency, events like this will become too many to count.  The dark white noise of war.

There are many videos of the attack.  I watched about fifteen.  https://twitter.com/Michael_Yon/status/1298500370268749825

Michael brings a wealth of knowledge on this subject.

As for tourniquets, everybody who knows anything recommends a good med kit.  I don’t have one and need one, including good tourniquets.

Warning: This video is graphic for weak of stomach folks.

EXTREMELY GRAPHIC: @Julio_Rosas11 recorded up-close footage of one of the men who tried to attack a man who was on the ground but armed with a semi-auto rifle. Half of his upper arm was blown off. #KenoshaRiots pic.twitter.com/81bFbBl7Dw

— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) August 26, 2020

I’m an analyst.  Permit me some free-form analysis, very early, in which the details are not exactly nailed down.

First, I take this to be a shot from a long gun.  Pistol rounds don’t cause that much damage.  It could be from an AK pattern rifle, but I doubt it.  I recall a Navy Corpsman in my son’s Battalion who told me his story (confirmed by others in the Battalion) where he took a 7.62×39 round to the thigh, it ricocheted up his thigh and exited near his buttocks.  Clean entry wound, clean exit wound.  He then tended to other wounded in the gun battle before attending his own wound.  7.62×39 rounds don’t explode like this upon impact.  It’s likely to be a 5.56×45 round.  This is what a little 5.56mm pill going 3000 FPS does.  He now has half an arm.  He will never have a complete arm again.  His bicep is now non-existent and his elbow likely shattered.  In fact, it was probably a glancing shot, not well aimed.

Second, I don’t know anything about the details, but apparently the shooter (who may have been defending himself) hasn’t been identified.  Someone (perhaps their Marxist professors) has convinced the black bloc and BLM that after buying hundreds of millions of guns and trillions of rounds of ammunition, Americans will sit idle and be overrun.  This is dangerous teaching.  It will get people killed.

Third, this was bound to happen.  It only escalates from here.  The sides don’t sit back, ponder what’s happened, and then suddenly decide that this might have been a misadventure and badly conceived project.  Anger builds.  Memories are made.  This all redounds to increasing levels of violence.  Once this spigot has been opened, it’s extremely difficult to close it.

Fourth, I interviewed and cataloged the experiences of my son’s squad (and mostly his fire team) when they returned from Iraq over several days.  This is exactly how it went down. Shots fired.  No one knows who did it or where it came from, car tags were removed, shooters were wearing hoods, and shooters were rarely identified unless killed.

It’s not like in Afghanistan where men wearing pajamas sit in the hills for three days and engaged long distance fire in a dedicated and disciplined manner.  This is urban / suburban warfare.  The darkness rules.  There aren’t enough police to stop the violence, much less conduct formal investigations.  There were some protracted gun battles in which my son engaged, but the bulk of the fighting was shoot from cover or concealment, move, maneuver, disappear to do it again later.

I’ll say it again.  These reports are eerily similar to the ones I received from my son’s fire team.  If this progresses, think in terms of Iraq × 100 (or worse).  As always, this isn’t an encouragement to participate, merely for educational and analysis purposes.  I am an analyst, and analysis you receive here is better than anything you’ll get from the CIA or DHS.

EDIT: Update via WiscoDave.

GRAPHIC: I missed this in the video. The man who had his arm shot ran in with a pistol. He was still holding it for some time after he was hit: pic.twitter.com/dHx37kaDTk

— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) August 26, 2020

[I have just begun to include these posts in the category “War & Warfare,” previously opting to place them in “Politics.”]

CFSP.

By this point the scouting line often detected the flanking lines of riot police and a riot was formally been declared. Blocs armed with shields deployed defensively to allow time for the rest of the rioters to disengage. These “shield walls” provided a tempting target for a police “bull rush”, video of which can then be used for propaganda purposes. Behind the shield wall other bloc members threw commercial fireworks, frozen water bottles, and paint-filled balloons. The paint balloons are often mixed with sand or abrasive material that scratches clear shields and visors when cleaning is attempted damaging expensive riot suppression equipment. Meanwhile the main element of the antifa black bloc continued to retreat into bordering residential areas.

Antifa chooses the residential areas for specific reasons. As the police deploy flashbangs, tear gas, and assorted non-lethal munitions in order to control the ongoing riot, the disruptive effects are experienced by the local residents. Additionally, as the action moved further into the poorly-lit neighborhoods, small groups of rioters and black bloc would break off to either escape, or engage in vandalism against the original PPB target (if left unguarded) or other nearby targets of opportunity.

In other words, you home, with your family inside.

I judge the actions of the residents in this neighborhood to be unwise.  As Antifa/BLM continues to encroach into neighborhoods, endangering the lives of residents with their actions, I expect there to be an increased occurrence of this sort of thing.

But I don’t expect it will all be out in the open.  There will be an increased occurrence of shooters in cover and concealment, under Ghillie suits, and so forth, looking for their own “targets of opportunity.”

I expect the coming months to be increasingly dangerous for rioters as they encroach into residential areas.

David Codrea has some coverage on this.  This is raw video of the goings-on, albeit shaky at times.

So as best as I can figure, a dude associated with the New Mexico Civil Guard tried to defend a monument along with his fellow members, and ended up retreating from rioters and eventually having to shoot an assailant.

The governor of New Mexico is livid.

One man was shot in Old Town as a protest over the “La Jornada” sculpture in front of the Albuquerque Museum erupted into violence Monday evening.

The shooting occurred during a clash following a peaceful protest to remove the controversial sculpture, a monument that features conquistador Juan de Oñate. The FBI is assisting in the investigation, according to an APD spokesman. U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, meanwhile, called on the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the shooting.

The night began with peaceful protest and prayer but tensions began to escalate when protesters took a pickaxe to the statue and members of the heavily armed New Mexico Civil Guard, a civilian group, tried to protect the monument.

Before the night was over Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and other officials condemned the violence and those who instigated it.

“Although we are still learning more about the situation, I am horrified and disgusted beyond words by the reports of violence at a protest Monday night in Albuquerque,” Lujan Grisham said late Monday in a statement. “The heavily armed individuals who flaunted themselves at the protest, calling themselves a ‘civil guard,’ were there for one reason: To menace protesters, to present an unsanctioned show of unregulated force. To menace the people of New Mexico with weaponry — with an implicit threat of violence — is on its face unacceptable; that violence did indeed occur is unspeakable.”

Mayor Tim Keller reacted swiftly following the shooting, tweeting that the city would be “removing the statue until the appropriate civic institutions can determine next steps” in order to contain the public safety risk.

“The shooting tonight was a tragic, outrageous and unacceptable act of violence and it has no place in our city,” the mayor wrote in a statement. “Our diverse community will not be deterred by acts meant to divide or silence us. Our hearts go out the victim, his family and witnesses whose lives were needlessly threatened tonight.”

It didn’t look peaceful to me.  So the rioters got their way, the members of the militia were face down in the street and are currently under arrest (I presume), the state wanted to allow the destruction of public property under diversity, and refuses to support the only people who attempted to stop it.

This is humiliating for the militia.

I don’t have many comments, except: [a] don’t go into crowds, [b] don’t carry weapons if you don’t intend to use them, [c] if you intend to retreat, then retreat, don’t waste time, [d] know when your battle will be a losing battle.  Without vastly superior projection of force to both the rioters and police, it was always going to end this way.

The rioters were … well, rioters.  The police were there in greater numbers and were organized, and were there to protect the rioters anyway, not the militia or state property.  The individual cops were there to protect their rank and pensions.  By the way, take a look at the armored vehicle in the background.

If you cannot or do not intend to engage in force projection, then operate discretely.  As it is, the militia has done damage to their cause, whatever that was.