Paul Revere
New member
Last night I stopped buy a local army-navy surplus store to browse around. I was the only one in the store, so the owner and I got to talking. I asked how the Y2K issue had affected his business, and he said it hadn't. He explained that he was an upstanding businessman in the community and didn't think it was prudent to create panic buying to increase business as many of his competitors had done.
But he said, in the middle of summer people had basically taken a "wait til later" approach to Y2K preparedness. He also mentioned that just last week a couple came in the store to get a second opinion on a purchase of MRE's (she was crying and the man was shaking). Apparently, someone had just told the couple that after the first of the year food would not be available at the local grocery stores and their kids would most likely starve as a result. So they went to another MRE supplier and plunked down a deposit for $5,000 worth of MRE's! The surplus store owner told them to go get their money back. I guessed this advice made the surplus store owner feel like a humanitarian of sorts.
He also told me that much of his business is with the local police departments who have been buying up "riot gear" in anticipation of Y2K. He said that the departments have told all of their officers (police and fire) that they cannot take any vacation during the Y2K period, that police officers will be "four to a car". He also said the hottest thing selling right now is "razor wire" (the kind around prisons yards), and its being bought up by local home owners. He said they fear marshall law and door-to-door searches (for what he didn't say), and would be stringing the razor wire around their properties before Y2K.
I played dumb, saying that was all crazy, that nothing like that could happen here. But the more I hear of FBI, BATF, police, FEMA, National Guard, and other government agencies going on high alert (no vacation or time off) for the New Year, along with stories like these and those of "Marshall Law" signs being delivered to police departments, I am now beginning to get a bit concerned (more than I already had been of course).
Could the presence of all of this potential law enforcement on the streets be to keep looters out of businesses should the power fail, or are they to be used for road blocks, searches, or general enforcement of "Marshall Law"? To think of what something like a power outage or food shortage could create, and then have things escalate with the National Guard and such on the streets seems pretty scarey.
Seems like a means to justify enacting Marshall Law to me. What do you folks think?
But he said, in the middle of summer people had basically taken a "wait til later" approach to Y2K preparedness. He also mentioned that just last week a couple came in the store to get a second opinion on a purchase of MRE's (she was crying and the man was shaking). Apparently, someone had just told the couple that after the first of the year food would not be available at the local grocery stores and their kids would most likely starve as a result. So they went to another MRE supplier and plunked down a deposit for $5,000 worth of MRE's! The surplus store owner told them to go get their money back. I guessed this advice made the surplus store owner feel like a humanitarian of sorts.
He also told me that much of his business is with the local police departments who have been buying up "riot gear" in anticipation of Y2K. He said that the departments have told all of their officers (police and fire) that they cannot take any vacation during the Y2K period, that police officers will be "four to a car". He also said the hottest thing selling right now is "razor wire" (the kind around prisons yards), and its being bought up by local home owners. He said they fear marshall law and door-to-door searches (for what he didn't say), and would be stringing the razor wire around their properties before Y2K.
I played dumb, saying that was all crazy, that nothing like that could happen here. But the more I hear of FBI, BATF, police, FEMA, National Guard, and other government agencies going on high alert (no vacation or time off) for the New Year, along with stories like these and those of "Marshall Law" signs being delivered to police departments, I am now beginning to get a bit concerned (more than I already had been of course).
Could the presence of all of this potential law enforcement on the streets be to keep looters out of businesses should the power fail, or are they to be used for road blocks, searches, or general enforcement of "Marshall Law"? To think of what something like a power outage or food shortage could create, and then have things escalate with the National Guard and such on the streets seems pretty scarey.
Seems like a means to justify enacting Marshall Law to me. What do you folks think?