The pandemic continues to cause shipping problems

The container shipping industry remains in the doldrums thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic.  It hammered shipments earlier, as we noted in these pages:  and its ongoing effects are creating long-term problems for shippers and their customers.  GCaptain reports:

From sportswear maker Puma to mall stalwart Gap , many retailers have been forced to reduce or slow down shipments of new merchandise. Civil unrest in the United States has compounded their problems by further clouding the prospect for a recovery in the world’s biggest retail sales market.

Puma’s Chief Executive Bjorn Gulden, for example, said it was managing some of its excess inventory by stowing it on slow-going ships as stores in the United States and Europe tentatively reopen.

However, at the same time, the shipping slowdown has created headaches for those retailers, from Walmart and Amazon to shoe seller Rothy’s, who have never stopped selling products to homebound consumers, ranging from books and shoes to exercise equipment, much of it sold online.

Now those retailers are fighting for space on the fewer, faster-moving ships on the high seas.

. . .

Slower shipping times also means importers can delay payments made on delivery . . . Shereen Zarkani, Maersk’s global head of sales, told Reuters: “One customer told us: If you make my container go around the world a couple of times that would be good.”

. . .

There does not appear to be any let-up in sight for container shipping companies as their retail clients could still be feeling acute financial pain in July, when they begin placing orders for holiday and winter merchandise.

There's more at the link.

I've noticed the effects of shipping disruptions in a number of areas.  For example, there was a particular part I needed in my ongoing efforts to rebuild some older rifles for friends.  I ordered it in mid-April, but found it was out of stock at the time.  The manufacturer was waiting on a couple of injection-molded plastic components from an overseas supplier, which they would then build into the finished product.  Their supplier had the parts, but couldn't find shipping space to send them.  I was notified just this morning that the part I needed is finally in stock, and my order is in the process of being fulfilled.  That's a seven-week wait, for a part that's normally available 24/7/365!  I know I wasn't their only frustrated customer.  It's yet another example of how "just-in-time" manufacturing can grind to a halt if supplies of parts and components don't reach the factory on a regular basis.

The after-effects of the coronavirus pandemic are going to be with us for at least the rest of this year, and probably well into 2022.  Be prepared for that.

Peter

What's next? Rainbow-farting unicorns to replace police?

I have no problem accepting that this country's law enforcement functions have overstepped the mark on many occasions.  I've written about some of them in these pages, as regular readers will know, and I support holding officers and agencies accountable when they cross the line.  It's also undeniable that American policing has often been about a one-sided enforcement of laws that were designed to benefit some parts of society, but not others.  As Matt Taibbi points out:

Basically we have two systems of enforcement in America, a minimalist one for people with political clout, and an intrusive one for everyone else. In the same way our army in Vietnam got in trouble when it started searching for ways to quantify the success of its occupation, choosing sociopathic metrics like “body counts” and “truck kills,” modern big-city policing has been corrupted by its lust for summonses, stops, and arrests. It’s made monsters where none needed to exist.

Because they’re constantly throwing those people against walls, writing them nuisance tickets, and violating their space with humiliating searches (New York in 2010 paid $33 million to a staggering 100,000 people strip-searched after misdemeanor charges), modern cops correctly perceive that they’re hated. As a result, many embrace a “warrior” ethos that teaches them to view themselves as under constant threat.

This is why you see so many knees on heads and necks, guns drawn on unarmed motorists, chokeholds by the thousand, and patterns of massive overkill everywhere ... Police are trained to behave like occupiers, which is why they increasingly dress like they’ve been sent to clear houses in Mosul and treat random motorists like potential car-bombers ... senior officers value police who make numbers more than they fear outrage from residents in their districts. The incentives in this system are wrong in every direction.

The current protests are likely to inspire politicians to think the other way, but it’s probably time to reconsider what we’re trying to accomplish with this kind of policing. In upscale white America drug use is effectively decriminalized, and Terry stops, strip searches, and “quality of life” arrests are unknowns. The country isn’t going to heal as long as everyone else gets a knee in the neck.

There's more at the link.

Despite Taibbi's undeniable points, anyone with even the most basic understanding of human nature and human interaction will realize that police are necessary.  There's a not insignificant proportion of humanity that prefers a criminal lifestyle, and lives it out of choice, not out of necessity.  No amount of wishful thinking will change that.  Therefore, current calls to abolish or de-fund police are beyond stupid.  They ignore reality.

If you're not convinced of that, try working for a few days inside one of America's prisons.  Deprived of their opportunity to prey on other citizens, what do the incarcerated criminals do?  They prey on each other, and on the officers tasked with keeping them behind bars.  There's a lot more crime inside prison walls than outside them, because when criminals are brought together in a small, concentrated space like that, they influence and exacerbate each others' worst tendencies.  You could call it a "pressure-cooker" environment.  I should know.  I spent years as a chaplain, both part-time and full-time, trying to help prison inmates.  I've written about it at some length.

In the process, I learned the hard way what works, and what doesn't.  I'm here to tell you that appeasement, kind words and wishful thinking don't help as long as those incarcerated aren't willing to change.

There's a group in Minneapolis calling themselves MPD 150.  They advocate for the replacement of that city's police force with what one could describe as "community self-policing".  See for yourself.  (Click the image for a larger view.)

Their agenda, their manifesto, is utterly ridiculous to anyone who has any real-world understanding and experience of criminals.  I quote:

The transition to a police-free Minneapolis will require immediate measures to limit the harm routinely inflicted by the police in their normal functioning and steps to address the underlying causes of distress. First responder responsibility and on-site authority in crisis situations, public spaces and schools will be transferred to parties prepared to interact sympathetically and respectfully with the people. Social service functions will be relocated in community-based settings. Military equipment will be sequestered. The police are tasked with enforcing austerity – the extraction of resources and resilience from communities for the benefit of the rich – and controlling people’s attempts to survive, resist or self-medicate under its impact. Dismantling the police will require reallocating their budget and assets to support real solutions to community desperation: good, well-paying jobs, affordable housing, healthy food, empowering education, accessible health care, removal of toxins, etc. Ending the brutal police system is, by necessity, a program for a more just and resilient city.

That's so daft as to be laughable, if it weren't so serious.

• "First responder responsibility and on-site authority in crisis situations, public spaces and schools will be transferred to parties prepared to interact sympathetically and respectfully with the people."  Oh, yeah?  You're a first responder, confronted with a couple of muggers armed with knives.  They want to get away with their loot.  Kindly explain how you're going to "interact sympathetically and respectfully" with them.  While you're telling us, I'll be selling tickets to watch your "interaction".  I reckon it'll be a smash hit (literally) on pay-per-view TV.
• "The police are tasked with enforcing austerity – the extraction of resources and resilience from communities for the benefit of the rich – and controlling people’s attempts to survive, resist or self-medicate under its impact."  Tell that to the average police officer and watch them fall over laughing.  "Extract resources and resilience"?  "Benefit the rich"?  No, not in the least.  They're there to stop criminals making themselves rich at your expense!  As for "self-medication" . . . great excuse for being a drug addict, isn't it?  And when you drive under the influence of those drugs, and kill someone in your zonked-out state, you should be treated with sympathy, instead of as the criminal you are . . . right?
• "real solutions to community desperation: good, well-paying jobs, affordable housing, healthy food, empowering education, accessible health care, removal of toxins, etc."  I seem to recall that Minneapolis, like most cities of its ilk, had a lot more of those when the city was governed by people who understood the reality of where money comes from.  It comes from businesses and individuals offering something to sell that people want to buy.  From those sales comes salaries and wages for employees, taxes for the city, state and country, and all the other means needed for a community to sustain and develop itself.  Take away those sales and all the economic activity that flows from them, and all you have left is wishful thinking.  That's not economically sustainable, no matter how much you might prefer otherwise.

I won't bother going into more examples.  These people have no idea about reality - or, rather, they've painted a mental picture of their own rainbows-and-unicorn-farts mental reality, and they're trying to superimpose it upon a physical reality that doesn't in any way match their delusions.  I'll leave you to read MPD 150's "10 Action Ideas for Building a Police-Free Future" for yourself - if you can stomach it.  It's not worth your time.

Yes, American law enforcement agencies are all too often flawed, with policies and procedures that frequently ignore Sir Robert Peel's fundamental principles for policing.  They were the foundation for British law enforcement in the 19th century, and I think offer a perspective that would deal with most of the problems we encounter today.  Sadly, even in Britain, their birthplace, they are today honored far more in the breach than in the observance.

The nine principles were as follows:

1. To prevent crime and disorder, as an alternative to their repression by military force and severity of legal punishment.
2. To recognise always that the power of the police to fulfill their functions and duties is dependent on public approval of their existence, actions and behaviour, and on their ability to secure and maintain public respect.
3. To recognise always that to secure and maintain the respect and approval of the public means also the securing of the willing co-operation of the public in the task of securing observance of laws.
4. To recognise always that the extent to which the co-operation of the public can be secured diminishes proportionately the necessity of the use of physical force and compulsion for achieving police objectives.
5. To seek and preserve public favour, not by pandering to public opinion, but by constantly demonstrating absolutely impartial service to law, in complete independence of policy, and without regard to the justice or injustice of the substance of individual laws, by ready offering of individual service and friendship to all members of the public without regard to their wealth or social standing, by ready exercise of courtesy and friendly good humour, and by ready offering of individual sacrifice in protecting and preserving life.
6. To use physical force only when the exercise of persuasion, advice and warning is found to be insufficient to obtain public co-operation to an extent necessary to secure observance of law or to restore order, and to use only the minimum degree of physical force which is necessary on any particular occasion for achieving a police objective.
7. To maintain at all times a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and that the public are the police, the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence.
8. To recognise always the need for strict adherence to police-executive functions, and to refrain from even seeming to usurp the powers of the judiciary, of avenging individuals or the State, and of authoritatively judging guilt and punishing the guilty.
9. To recognise always that the test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, and not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with them.

I think we'd be far better advised to reintroduce and inculcate the Peelian Principles into American policing, rather than seek to abolish it.  Yes, that includes "demilitarizing" our police.  That should never have happened, and it remains a very serious problem.  Take away the weapons of war from law enforcement.  That's not their job.  If things are bad enough, criminally speaking, that they have to have them, then we don't need police to deal with them - we need the military.  The two functions are distinct from each other, with completely different mindsets and approaches, and should not overlap.  If they do, we end up with police who behave like armed occupiers rather than peace officers - and that will put us straight back into the mess we're in right now.

Peter

Memes that made me laugh 10

There's quite a haul from the past week.

I love the pun in this next one.

More next week.




Peter

Sunday morning music

I'm obliged to reader Andrew S. from Brisbane, Australia, for sending me the link to this morning's music.  He wrote:

"... this guy normally films real estate videos but had some COVID 'spare time' on his hands and decided to see if he could still play the guitar or not.  I think he can, and it’s well worth a few minutes of your time if I may suggest so."

He also provided a link to a discussion of this music video on an online forum, which I'll let you read for yourselves.

In the video blurb on YouTube, the composer, Duane Adam, writes:  "Filmed on Kings River in Kingsburg CA during the pandemic because there was nothing else to do."  I'm very glad he did!  Judge his composition and playing for yourselves.

Andrew, you were right.  Definitely worth taking the time to listen!  Readers, if you agree, let's see if we can persuade Duane to compose and play more.  There's real talent there.  Leave your comments at the music video on YouTube, or on the forum discussion (and here as well, of course!).

Peter

Saturday Snippet: what you believe is what you do, not what you say

I've said for years (to the discomfort of many of my listeners) that I'm not interested in hearing what you believe.  Words are cheap.  One can profess almost anything, but be lying.  No, I want to see what you believe:  and that means I want to see what you do, how you live, how you behave.  The old truism that "actions speak louder than words" remains as valid today as it ever was.

Rudyard Kipling wrote a long poem about that sort of thing.  It speaks volumes to our society today, where faith is honored far more in the breach than in the observance, but those breaching it will still argue hotly that they belong to this, or that, or the other faith, because they say they do.  The reality is, their actions (or, sometimes, the lack thereof) demonstrate clearly that they have no faith at all.

Here's "Tomlinson", from 1892.

Now Tomlinson gave up the ghost in his house in Berkeley Square,
And a Spirit came to his bedside and gripped him by the hair -
A Spirit gripped him by the hair and carried him far away,
Till he heard as the roar of a rain-fed ford the roar of the Milky Way:
Till he heard the roar of the Milky Way die down and drone and cease,
And they came to the Gate within the Wall where Peter holds the keys.
"Stand up, stand up now, Tomlinson, and answer loud and high
The good that ye did for the sake of men or ever ye came to die -
The good that ye did for the sake of men in little earth so lone!"
And the naked soul of Tomlinson grew white as a rain-washed bone.
"O I have a friend on earth," he said, "that was my priest and guide,
And well would he answer all for me if he were by my side."
"For that ye strove in neighbour-love it shall be written fair,
But now ye wait at Heaven's Gate and not in Berkeley Square:
Though we called your friend from his bed this night, he could not speak for you,
For the race is run by one and one and never by two and two."
Then Tomlinson looked up and down, and little gain was there,
For the naked stars grinned overhead, and he saw that his soul was bare:
The Wind that blows between the worlds, it cut him like a knife,
And Tomlinson took up his tale and spoke of his good in life.
"This I have read in a book," he said, "and that was told to me,
And this I have thought that another man thought of a Prince in Muscovy."
The good souls flocked like homing doves and bade him clear the path,
And Peter twirled the jangling keys in weariness and wrath.
"Ye have read, ye have heard, ye have thought," he said, "and the tale is yet to run:
By the worth of the body that once ye had, give answer - what ha' ye done?"
Then Tomlinson looked back and forth, and little good it bore,
For the Darkness stayed at his shoulder-blade and Heaven's Gate before:
"O this I have felt, and this I have guessed, and this I have heard men say,
And this they wrote that another man wrote of a carl in Norroway."
- "Ye have read, ye have felt, ye have guessed, good lack! Ye have hampered Heaven's Gate;
There's little room between the stars in idleness to prate!
O none may reach by hired speech of neighbour, priest, and kin
Through borrowed deed to God's good meed that lies so fair within;
Get hence, get hence to the Lord of Wrong, for doom has yet to run,
And...the faith that ye share with Berkeley Square uphold you, Tomlinson!"

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

The Spirit gripped him by the hair, and sun by sun they fell
Till they came to the belt of Naughty Stars that rim the mouth of Hell:
The first are red with pride and wrath, the next are white with pain,
But the third are black with clinkered sin that cannot burn again:
They may hold their path, they may leave their path, with never a soul to mark,
They may burn or freeze, but they must not cease in the Scorn of the Outer Dark.
The Wind that blows between the worlds, it nipped him to the bone,
And he yearned to the flare of Hell-Gate there as the light of his own hearth-stone.
The Devil he sat behind the bars, where the desperate legions drew,
But he caught the hasting Tomlinson and would not let him through.
"Wot ye the price of good pit-coal that I must pay?" said he,
"That ye rank yoursel' so fit for Hell and ask no leave of me?
I am all o'er-sib to Adam's breed that ye should give me scorn,
For I strove with God for your First Father the day that he was born.
Sit down, sit down upon the slag, and answer loud and high
The harm that ye did to the Sons of Men or ever you came to die."
And Tomlinson looked up and up, and saw against the night
The belly of a tortured star blood-red in Hell-Mouth light;
And Tomlinson looked down and down, and saw beneath his feet
The frontlet of a tortured star milk-white in Hell-Mouth heat.
"O I had a love on earth," said he, "that kissed me to my fall,
And if ye would call my love to me I know she would answer all."
- "All that ye did in love forbid it shall be written fair,
But now ye wait at Hell-Mouth Gate and not in Berkeley Square:
Though we whistled your love from her bed to-night, I trow she would not run,
For the sin ye do by two and two ye must pay for one by one!"
The Wind that blows between the worlds, it cut him like a knife,
And Tomlinson took up the tale and spoke of his sin in life:
"Once I ha' laughed at the power of Love and twice at the grip of the Grave,
And thrice I ha' patted my God on the head that men might call me brave."
The Devil he blew on a brandered soul and set it aside to cool:
"Do ye think I would waste my good pit-coal on the hide of a brain-sick fool?
I see no worth in the hobnailed mirth or the jolthead jest ye did
That I should waken my gentlemen that are sleeping three on a grid."
Then Tomlinson looked back and forth, and there was little grace,
For Hell-Gate filled the houseless Soul with the Fear of Naked Space.
"Nay, this I ha' heard," quo' Tomlinson, "and this was noised abroad,
And this I ha' got from a Belgian book on the word of a dead French lord."
- "Ye ha' heard, ye ha' read, ye ha' got, good lack! and the tale begins afresh -
Have ye sinned one sin for the pride o' the eye or the sinful lust of the flesh?"
Then Tomlinson he gripped the bars and yammered, "Let me in -
For I mind that I borrowed my neighbour's wife to sin the deadly sin."
The Devil he grinned behind the bars, and banked the fires high:
"Did ye read of that sin in a book?" said he; and Tomlinson said, "Ay!"
The Devil he blew upon his nails, and the little devils ran,
And he said: "Go husk this whimpering thief that comes in the guise of a man:
Winnow him out 'twixt star and star, and sieve his proper worth:
There's sore decline in Adam's line if this be spawn of earth."
Empusa's crew, so naked-new they may not face the fire,
But weep that they bin too small to sin to the height of their desire,
Over the coal they chased the Soul, and racked it all abroad,
As children rifle a caddis-case or the raven's foolish hoard.
And back they came with the tattered Thing, as children after play,
And they said: "The soul that he got from God he has bartered clean away.
We have threshed a stook of print and book, and winnowed a chattering wind
And many a soul wherefrom he stole, but his we cannot find:
We have handled him, we have dandled him, we have seared him to the bone,
And sure if tooth and nail show truth he has no soul of his own."
The Devil he bowed his head on his breast and rumbled deep and low:
"I'm all o'er-sib to Adam's breed that I should bid him go.
Yet close we lie, and deep we lie, and if I gave him place,
My gentlemen that are so proud would flout me to my face;
They'd call my house a common stews and me a careless host,
And - I would not anger my gentlemen for the sake of a shiftless ghost."
The Devil he looked at the mangled Soul that prayed to feel the flame,
And he thought of Holy Charity, but he thought of his own good name:
"Now ye could haste my coal to waste, and sit ye down to fry:
Did ye think of that theft for yourself?" said he; and Tomlinson said, "Ay!"
The Devil he blew an outward breath, for his heart was free from care: -
"Ye have scarce the soul of a louse," he said, "but the roots of sin are there,
And for that sin should ye come in were I the lord alone.
But sinful pride has rule inside - and mightier than my own.
Honour and Wit, fore-damned they sit, to each his priest and whore:
Nay, scarce I dare myself go there, and you they'd torture sore.
Ye are neither spirit nor spirk," he said; "ye are neither book nor brute -
Go, get ye back to the flesh again for the sake of Man's repute.
I'm all o'er-sib to Adam's breed that I should mock your pain,
But look that ye win to worthier sin ere ye come back again.
Get hence, the hearse is at your door - the grim black stallions wait -
They bear your clay to place to-day. Speed, lest ye come too late!
Go back to Earth with a lip unsealed - go back with an open eye,
And carry my word to the Sons of Men or ever ye come to die:
That the sin they do by two and two they must pay for one by one -
And. . .the God that you took from a printed book be with you, Tomlinson!"

According to the Kipling Society:

On his arrival in England in October 1889 Kipling took an instant dislike to the followers of the so-called Aesthetic Movement, who tended to go in for long hair, affectation of speech and manner, and eccentricity of dress. In a poem ("In Partibus") which he sent to the Civil and Military Gazette in the following month he wrote -

"But I consort with long-haired things
In velvet collar-rolls
Who talk about the Aims of Art
And 'theories' and 'goals',
And moo and coo with womenfolk
About their blessed souls."

Tomlinson is one of these.

I'm obliged to the New Zealand blogger at Bright Darkness for reminding me of this poem.  Food for thought, isn't it?

Peter

Flushed with (varying) success

Following my question a couple of days ago, a reader e-mailed me the link to this video clip.  It's kinda fun.

I'm not going to test our new toilet (whatever it turns out to be) quite as thoroughly, but it's nice to know what will (and won't) work (sometimes).




Peter

The frightening fragility of our cities

In urging readers to be prepared for emergencies, whether it be in terms of supplies, preparations to get out in a crisis, ability to defend themselves, etc., I've sometimes been accused of over-reacting.  There are those who say I'm fear-mongering, trying to worry people unnecessarily.  "It won't ever get that bad!"

Sadly, I've seen enough violence, unrest and social instability in my time to be very well aware that it can get that bad.  I've seen it in many parts of Africa, and in some US cities too.  Others who've "been there and done that" (for example, Selco in Bosnia) can confirm what I say.  The reality can be almost infinitely worse than anything I can say in these pages.

The residents of Minneapolis had a relatively mild introduction to that reality a few days ago.  Imagine if the destruction pictured below had extended to entire residential neighborhoods.  It can all too easily do so.  I've seen it.

What's worrying me more and more is that I'm seeing signs, in the growing tension in our society, that there are those who want to create such instability:  who see it as the only "solution" to the problems they perceive.  Of course, those problems will vary depending on the perspective of the individual, but they all add up to big trouble for the residents of our cities, who are going to be caught up in them if they come to pass.  (That's a big part of why, a few years ago, Miss D. and I moved from where we were, in Nashville, to where we are, in north Texas.  We've insulated ourselves against many of the problems of big cities by doing so, and we now live in an environment where people are much better prepared to handle such problems if they should arise.)

Don't take my word for it.  Read the following articles, and consider the urban reality they describe or foresee.  They're all important.  Don't just read one or two.  Read them all, to get the full picture.

• There's a lot of material out there on defending yourself in an urban environment.  Read my earlier article on the subject, and follow the links it contains.  You'll learn a lot.
• "Occupied".  Quote: "The more you can immobilize, slow down, or simply destroy vehicle infrastructure, the more you can handicap their movements, the faster you will get the change you want in the world."  I can testify from personal experience that the techniques described here really work.  I'm informed that rioters are already deploying them.
• Want an even simpler method of disrupting vehicle traffic?  Try "Caltrops and Systems Disruption".  Anyone can make a caltrop, very easily.  If you had a few vans or pickups scattering them on major highways and transport arteries, pretty soon your urban road network would be clogged for hours, if not days.
• Three recent articles from Greg Ellifritz:  "Surviving Mob Attacks on Your Vehicle", "Dealing with Molotov Cocktails and Fire Bombs", and "Playing with Fire".  You're watching those play out on our streets right now.  Pay attention, and learn.
• How easily can violence disrupt normal policing?  How about one man disrupting an entire major city's police department?  Read about "The Manhunt for Christopher Dorner".  Note how the entire Los Angeles-area law enforcement establishment was essentially paralyzed.  If one man could do that, what could half a dozen or a dozen do?  A score?  A hundred?
• What about the electricity supply?  Without it, a modern city basically shuts down.  Read about a 2013 "sniper" attack on an electrical sub-station in California, and the millions of dollars in damage it caused.  The electricity supplier was able to route around that damage, because it was only one sub-station.  What if it had been five, or ten, or twenty?  Fifty?  A hundred?  That could take out an entire city's electrical infrastructure, and it wouldn't be hard to do.
• Do you think the threats I've described so far are unlikely, beyond the capacity of today's rioters?  Think again after you read "Bricks, fires, frozen bottle projectiles: the organized tactics of America’s violent rioters".  Quote: "Police say the current riots are the most sophisticated and coordinated in years with supply lines, medics and communications."  Read the whole thing.  Another point:  if rioters are that organized, what makes you think anti-riot or counter-riot efforts won't rapidly become just as well organized?
• You don't need assault rifles and artillery to disrupt a riot.  The humble .22 rifle (available by the tens of millions in homes across America) and a few home-made devices will do just as well, in the hands of those who know how to use them.  Read Aesop's fictional scenario "Tomorrow".  I'll guaran-damn-tee you there are those planning something like that, right now.  (It's not far-fetched, either:  real-world riot control in Israel uses precisely the same .22 rifles.  It's already a proven technique.)
• If you step up to centerfire rifles, the carnage can be that much greater.  I've previously referenced Matt Bracken's semi-fictional "When The Music Stops:  How America's Cities May Explode In Violence".  If you haven't read it before, read it now.  I'm as sure as I can be that there are those already planning such a response to the current riots.  Let's hope and pray it doesn't happen.
• For a real-world illustration of the use of modern rifles in riot control, read "42 Knees in One Day: Israeli Snipers Open Up About Shooting Gaza Protesters".  That's current operational reality.  It could very easily be employed by civilians, on both sides of a riot.  What if they weren't only aiming at knees?
• You may think you can rely on first responders to come to your help if things get out of hand - but what happens if the rioters prevent that help from arriving?  It happened, just a few days ago.  That's just one incident.  What if there are a bunch of them?  What if there are so many that all ambulances, fire engines, etc. are tied up responding to earlier calls, and you have to wait for them until they have time to get to you?  You can't wait inside a burning building - but if you go outside, you may be targeted by rioters.  What are you going to do?

I'm not trying to make you panic with those articles and links.  I'm trying to show you what may happen, what can happen, and - in some cases - what already is happening.  Unless and until we realize how fragile is the cocoon of our everyday urban existence, we won't be prepared to deal with threats to it, and we won't have our own response planned and ready to deploy if necessary.

We live in dangerous times.  Be as prepared for them as possible.  Have a basic stockpile of emergency supplies, have a gun (preferably guns) for each adult in your family, and be prepared to get out in a hurry (if possible, before trouble arrives) rather than defend what's basically an indefensible position.  No matter how emotionally attached you may be to your home, mere property is not worth dying for.

Peter