Without Rule of Law: How to Survive a Real Life Purge Like the One in Brazil

By Daisy Luther

In southeastern Brazil, a real-life version of the movie The Purge is going on.

Police officers in the state of Espirito Santo went on strike Friday. Their families have barricaded the exits of eleven law enforcement barracks, preventing any officers from performing their jobs.

And the state has descended into a kind of anarchy usually reserved for post-apocalyptic movies.

The Brazilian website Globo.com reported on the dire situation.

Murders have increased by a thousand percent, with 62 people being killed over the course of three days.  While that sounds like a normal weekend in Chicago here, the state only had four murders in the entire month of January. There are so many dead that they’ve exceeded the capacity of the morgue to hold them all, and corpses are lying on the ground.

Stores have been vandalized and looted, some of them utterly destroyed. Many merchants have boarded up their windows and will remain closed for the duration of the crisis.

Banks, schools, parks, public hospitals, and public transit have all closed.

Gangs have taken over the cities, and the military has been dispatched to regain order.

This has been pretty much blacked out by the media but I was able to find one video showing what it really looks like down there.

Without Rule of Law

This is a classic example of what can happen when society is Without Rule of Law (WROL), a common term that preppers use to describe a complete breakdown of society and the rules that maintain order. (Here is the best book you can buy for surviving this type of scenario.)

Now, look at the situation here in American cities right now. Thankfully, we haven’t devolved to this point yet, but the protests about the Trump administration just keep escalating. We have cities, even states, that are willfully refusing to comply with executive orders regarding changes in immigration policies.

But what’s worse is that we have outraged Leftists who are talking about escalating the situation. There is much discussion over whether or not violence is justified to silence Trump and his supporters.

At the very least, a lot of people seem totally unbothered at the thought of politically motivated attacks against people they think of as Nazis — a group that’s so extreme and evil from the perspective of everyday Americans that it merits extreme action to fight. In this way, that an explicitly racist person’s safety is considered a non-concern sends a message about how unacceptable bigoted views like Spencer’s are in America.

There is a political strategy to this. A key part of the anti-fascist movement — often called “antifa” — is that fascists can’t be allowed to have a platform at any cost. Under this view, the punch isn’t about simply feeling good about beating up a “Nazi” (even if it does feel good to some) but about robbing people like [Richard] Spencer of a voice.

Antifa protesters are clear that this is a strategy explicitly to deal with fascism, not just any political view that you disagree with. Neo-Nazi, fascist, and racist views, the argument goes, are so extreme that they justify extreme tactics. The worry: If these views aren’t completely robbed of any kind of platform, they could gain legitimacy — and take advantage of liberal ideals like free speech to, ironically, promote their very illiberal messages. (source)

Take a moment to guffaw at the irony in the above quote of free speech being a liberal ideal, as the entire premise of punching the person is to silence his unpopular free speech. And these people aren’t alone. After the recent riot in Berkley, California, a student published this Op-Ed explaining how they had to get violent in self-defense because people were saying stuff they didn’t like. I wish I was making this up.

Anyway, I digress.

What I’m saying is that the insanity in Brazil is not so far-fetched. We’re currently going down a road in America in which we are being programmed to be at each other’s throats. We’ve been set up to turn on each other and to fear each other. We’re being set up for Civil War.

Watch this quick video about how we’re all being brainwashed. (Note: you may not like it, but if you watch with an open mind, you’ll see that it’s the truth.)

How do you prepare before the violence reaches the streets of America?

Now, whether or not you believe this is a deliberate attempt to cause a crisis, the fact remains that we are right on the cusp of our own version of the Brazilian Purge. Most of us prefer peace, and that’s why I’m recommending a defensive strategy in the event things go south.

You need to plan to hunker down in your home. If there is unchecked violence on the streets, you don’t want to be there. Right now in Brazil, going to the corner store (assuming it’s even open) to pick up a gallon of milk is to risk your very life.

Many of you reading this will already be well-prepared to face a week or two in lockdown. If you’re not, you must realize that when violence erupts, there will not be time for a last minute run to the store.

The vital first step

It is absolutely essential to stay on top of the news. The earlier you realize something major is occurring, the sooner you can get your family locked down safely. (Go here to sign up for daily email tips and alerts.)

Here’s a quick stock up list:

Food. Get at least one bucket of emergency food for each member of your family. Each bucket is a one month supply for one person.  It is shelf stable (in case the power is affected) and only requires the ability to boil water. (Gluten-free buckets are also available as are options with larger quantities.)

Have a way to boil water. This inexpensive stove can be used indoors. Be sure to stock up on butane canisters to use with it.

Stock up on dry milk. The very first thing that most families run out of in an emergency is milk, so be sure that you have a shelf-stable option. A case of hormone-free dry milk is an excellent investment.

Medicine. Make sure you have at least a one month supply of any necessary prescription medications.

Store an emergency water supply. Consider the possibility that a municipal water supply could become tainted. (Go here to learn more about emergency water.)

Also be certain to have these items on hand:

• Pet food/supplies
• Personal hygiene supplies
• Toilet paper
• Basic OTC medications
• A diverse survival guide
• A very thorough preparedness book
• A first aid manual

How to stay safe

Below, find an excerpt from my article “Are You Prepared for Lockdown?” with further security measures you should be prepared to take in the event of extreme civil unrest.

Try to stay under the radar.

Your best defense is avoiding the fight altogether. You want to stay under the radar and not draw attention to yourself.  The extent to which you strive to do this should be based on the severity of the unrest in your area. Some of the following recommendations are not necessary for an everyday grid-down scenario but could save your life in a more extreme civil unrest situation.

• Keep all the doors and windows locked.  Secure sliding doors with a metal bar.  Consider installing decorative gridwork over a door with a large window so that it becomes difficult for someone to smash the glass and reach in to unlock the door.
• Put dark plastic over the windows. (Heavy duty garbage bags work well.)  If it’s safe to do so, go outside and check to see if any light escapes from the windows. If your home is the only one on the block that is well-lit, it is a beacon to others.
• Keep pets indoors. Sometimes criminals use an animal in distress to get a homeowner to open the door for them. Sometimes people are just mean and hurt animals for “fun.”  Either way, it’s safer for your furry friends to be inside with you.
• Don’t answer the door.  Many home invasions start with an innocent-seeming knock at the door to gain access to your house.
• Keep cooking smells to a minimum.  The goal here is not to draw attention. The meat on your grill will draw people like moths to a flame.
• Keep the family together.  It’s really best to hang out in one room. Make it a movie night, go into a darkened room at the back of the house, and stay together. This way, if someone does try to breach your door, you know where everyone is who is supposed to be there. As well, you don’t risk one of the kids unknowingly causing a vulnerability with a brightly lit room or an open window.
• Remember that first responders may be tied up.  If the disorder is widespread, don’t depend on a call to 911 to save you – you must be prepared to save yourself.  Also keep in mind, as mentioned earlier in the article – the cops are not always your friends in these situations.

Be prepared to defend your family.

If despite your best efforts, your property draws the attention of people with ill intent, you must be ready to defend your family. Sometimes despite our best intentions, the fight comes to us.

Many preppers stockpile weapons and ammunition for just such an event.  I know that I certainly do. Firearms are an equalizer. A small woman can defend herself from multiple large intruders with a firearm if she’s had some training and knows how to use it properly. But put a kitchen knife in her hand against those same intruders, and her odds decrease exponentially.

• Don’t rely on 911. If the disorder is widespread, don’t depend on a call to 911 to save you – you must be prepared to save yourself.  First responders may be tied up, and in some cases, the cops are not always your friends.  In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, some officers joined in the crime sprees, and others stomped all over the 2nd Amendment and confiscated people’s legal firearms at a time when they needed them the most.
• Be armed and keep your firearm on your person.  When the door of your home is breached, you can be pretty sure the people coming in are not there to make friendly conversation over a nice cup of tea.  Make a plan to greet them with a deterring amount of force. Be sure to keep your firearm on your person during this type of situation, because there won’t be time to get it from your gun safe. Don’t even go to the kitchen to get a snack without it. Home invasions go down in seconds, and you have to be constantly ready.
• Know how to use your firearm. Whatever your choice of weapon, practice, practice, practice. A weapon you don’t know how to use is more dangerous than having no weapon at all. Here’s some advice from someone who knows a lot more about weapons than I do.
• Make sure your children are familiar with the rules of gun safety. Of course, it should go without saying that you will have pre-emptively taught your kids the rules of gun safety so that no horrifying accidents occur. In fact, it’s my fervent hope that any child old enough to do so has been taught to safely and effectively use a firearm themselves. Knowledge is safety.
• Be ready for the potential of fire.  Fire is a cowardly attack that doesn’t require any interaction on the part of the arsonist. It flushes out the family inside, leaving you vulnerable to physical assaults. Have fire extinguishers mounted throughout your home. You can buy them in 6 packs from Amazon. Be sure to test them frequently and maintain them properly. (Allstate has a page about fire extinguisher maintenance.) Have fire escape ladders that can be attached to a windowsill in all upper story rooms.  Drill with them so that your kids know how to use them if necessary.
• Have a safe room established for children or other vulnerable family members. If the worst happens and your home is breached, you need to have a room into which family members can escape.  This room needs to have a heavy exterior door instead of a regular hollow core interior door. There should be communications devices in the room so that the person can call for help, as well as a reliable weapon to be used in the unlikely event that the safe room is breached. The family members should be instructed not to come out of that room FOR ANY REASON until you give them the all clear or help has arrived. You can learn more about building a safe room HERE.  Focus the tips for creating a safe room in an apartment to put it together more quickly.

Even if your plan is to bug in, you must be ready to change that plan in the blink of an eye. Plan an escape route.  If the odds are against you, if your house catches on fire, if thugs are kicking in your front door… devise a way to get your family to safety.  Your property is not worth your life. Be wise enough to accept that the situation has changed and move rapidly to Plan B.

Stay home.

If trouble comes to your neighborhood and you decide to stick around, stay home.

It’s the number one way to keep yourself safer from during a civil unrest situation. If you find yourself in an area under siege, the odds will be further on your side for every interaction in which you avoid taking part. Every single time you leave the house, you increase your chances of an unpleasant encounter.  Nothing will be accomplished by going out during a chaotic situation.

Be ready for this.

There will be no last-minute runs to the store. If a WROL situation goes down, you will have to stay home and make the best of what you have on hand. The steps that you take now to prepare can determine how well that goes for you. You don’t want to look back and wish you’d done more to protect your family.