Civil unrest: how to stay safe

Civil unrest can erupt unpredictably when peaceful gatherings, political rallies, sporting celebrations, or neighborhood protests deteriorate into widespread violence, looting, arson, and confrontations with security forces. Rapidly expanding crowds can trap bystanders, motorists, and residents in dense choke points where dangerous crowd crushes, kinetic projectiles, and chemical irritants present severe life-safety hazards.

Your highest priority during any civil disturbance is early detection, rapid disengagement, and self-preservation. Surviving unrest requires maintaining strict situational awareness, knowing how to maneuver safely out of high-density crowds without triggering compressive asphyxiation, hardening your living space against flying debris, and decontaminating chemical control agents safely.

flowchart TD
    Step1["<b>CIVIL UNREST ESCAPE AND SURVIVAL MATRIX</b>"]
    Step2["<b>DISTURBANCE DETECTED (Loud Chanting, Sirens, Smoke, Glass Breaking)</b>"]
    Step3["<b>PHASE 1</b><br/>IMMEDIATE PERIMETER EVASION"]
    Step4["<b>Turn away from crowd momentum, police skirmish lines, and smoke</b>"]
    Step5["<b>Walk calmly and deliberately; never run unless avoiding direct fire</b>"]
    Step6["<b>Slip into side streets, open alleys, or transit stations moving away</b>"]
    Step7["<b>Conceal visible cameras, valuables, and political emblems</b>"]
    Step8["<b>PHASE 2</b><br/>CROWD SURGE AND CRUSH DEFENSE"]
    Step9["<b>If trapped in dense crowd, adopt the defensive boxer stance</b>"]
    Step10["<b>Keep elbows tucked to ribs, rigid forearms guarding chest and lungs</b>"]
    Step11["<b>Move diagonally with crowd shockwaves toward the outer perimeter</b>"]
    Step12["<b>Stay on your feet; never bend down to retrieve dropped belongings</b>"]
    Step13["<b>PHASE 3</b><br/>SHELTER HARDENING AND CURFEW COMPLIANCE"]
    Step14["<b>If indoors, retreat to interior windowless rooms</b>"]
    Step15["<b>Close heavy drapes to catch shattered glass; extinguish street lights</b>"]
    Step16["<b>Stage ABC fire extinguishers and fill bathtubs with emergency water</b>"]
    Step17["<b>Verify municipal curfew hours and keep government ID ready</b>"]
    Step18["<b>PHASE 4</b><br/>CHEMICAL AGENT DECONTAMINATION"]
    Step19["<b>Move upwind and seek elevated, well-ventilated open ground</b>"]
    Step20["<b>Flush eyes with copious plain cold water or saline (no milk)</b>"]
    Step21["<b>Cut off outer garments instead of pulling them over your head</b>"]
    Step22["<b>Wash skin with cold soapy water to prevent pore absorption</b>"]
    Step1 --> Step2
    Step2 --> Step3
    Step3 --> Step4
    Step4 --> Step5
    Step5 --> Step6
    Step6 --> Step7
    Step7 --> Step8
    Step8 --> Step9
    Step9 --> Step10
    Step10 --> Step11
    Step11 --> Step12
    Step12 --> Step13
    Step13 --> Step14
    Step14 --> Step15
    Step15 --> Step16
    Step16 --> Step17
    Step17 --> Step18
    Step18 --> Step19
    Step19 --> Step20
    Step20 --> Step21
    Step21 --> Step22

Do this now: immediate emergency actions (first 60 seconds)

If you find yourself unexpectedly in the vicinity of an escalating riot, aggressive crowd, or violent demonstration:

1. Walk away from the epicenter calmly and deliberately:
   • Turn your back to the center of noise, sirens, chanting, and smoke.
   • Walk with purpose. Do not run unless you are actively fleeing lethal violence. Running draws immediate attention from police tactical teams, marks you as a fleeing suspect, and can trigger a panic stampede among nearby pedestrians.
2. Seek immediate structural shelter:
   • Enter a solid, multi-story commercial building, hotel lobby, or department store that possesses reinforced entryways or roll-down security gates.
   • Avoid sheltering directly behind large plate-glass display windows, which can shatter under the impact of thrown bricks, rocks, or chemical canisters.
3. Establish communications via text messaging:
   • Cellular voice networks rapidly collapse or become throttled during major public disturbances due to severe channel congestion.
   • Send an SMS text message to your family emergency contact containing your exact coordinates, your current condition, and your destination direction.
4. Conceal identifying features and recording equipment:
   • Put away high-visibility smartphones, cameras, and press badges if hostile crowd members begin targeting observers.
   • Zip up jackets to cover bright or politically expressive clothing, and keep both hands free to balance yourself or defend your personal space.
5. Call emergency services if lives are in imminent danger:
   • Dial your national emergency dispatch number (911 in the United States and Canada, 999 in the United Kingdom, 112 in the European Union, or 000 in Australia).
   • Report specific life-threatening incidents, such as occupied structure fires, serious traumatic injuries, or armed assaults, providing clear cross-street markers.

Situational awareness and crowd typology matrix

Understanding how crowds evolve helps you anticipate dangerous thresholds before exits become blocked:

Surviving a crowd surge and avoiding human crush

When crowd density exceeds 5 to 6 persons per square meter (approx 10 square feet), the crowd stops behaving as individual humans and begins behaving as a continuous fluid. Shockwaves ripple through the mass, lifting people off their feet and propelling them into barriers:

flowchart TD
    Step1["<b>| ( O ) <-- Head centered, chin tucked |</b>"]
    Step2["<b>| Hands balled| [FIST] | |</b>"]
    Step3["<b>| protecting | [FIST] | <-- Forearms rigid across chest |</b>"]
    Step1 --> Step2
    Step2 --> Step3

The defensive boxer stance

1. Protect your thoracic breathing space:
   • Bring your arms up to your chest immediately. Tuck your elbows tightly against your ribs, hold your forearms rigid across your sternum, and ball your hands into fists.
   • This posture creates an artificial protective cage around your ribcage, maintaining 10 to 15 centimeters (4 to 6 inches) of breathing clearance even when pressed tightly by hundreds of bodies.
   • Compressive asphyxiation occurs when external pressure prevents the diaphragm and lungs from expanding; preserving this chest space keeps you alive.
2. Establish a staggered, shock-absorbing base:
   • Position one foot forward and one foot back, with knees slightly bent. Keep your feet roughly shoulder-width apart.
   • Never lock your knees. Absorb physical surges through your legs like a boxer or skier absorbing impact.

Maneuvering out of the surge

• Move diagonally with the flow: Never attempt to push directly against the direction of the crowd surge, which will exhaust your strength within seconds and cause you to fall. Move sideways and diagonally across the current, working your way gradually toward the outer perimeter or side alleys where density is lowest.
• Avoid hard structural barriers: Steer clear of brick walls, metal barricades, locked gates, and narrow doorway choke points. The fatal pressure of a crowd surge accumulates directly against immovable obstacles.
• If you fall to the ground:
  • Get back on your feet immediately by grabbing clothing, belts, or legs of individuals around you to pull yourself up.
  • If you cannot stand, curl into a tight fetal position on your left side to protect your heart, lungs, and liver. Clasp your hands tightly behind your neck to shield your cervical spine and brainstem.

Chemical agent exposure: tear gas and pepper spray decontamination

Security forces managing civil unrest frequently deploy riot control chemical agents, primarily tear gas (CS or CN gas) and pepper spray (OC, oleoresin capsicum). These substances cause intense burning sensations, involuntary eyelid spasms (blepharospasm), respiratory constriction, and coughing:

flowchart TD
    Step1["<b>Root[&quot;<b>+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+</b>&quot;</b>"]
    Step2["<b>YesNode[&quot;<b>| Rubbing drives microscopic crystall</b><br/>| creating corneal abrasions. Blink r<br/>| STEP 3</b><br/>FLUSH EYES WITH COPIOUS WAT<br/>| Flush eyes continuously for 15 minu<br/>| saline from the inner corner (near&quot;"]
    Step3["<b>NoNode[&quot;<b>ine irritants into the cornea, |</b><br/>apidly to activate natural tears. |<br/>|<br/>v<br/>ER OR SALINE |&quot;</b>"]
    Step1 --> Step2
    Step2 --> Step3

Critical medical guidelines for chemical exposure

• Discard contact lenses immediately: Soft and rigid contact lenses absorb gaseous chemical particles, trapping toxic residues directly against your corneal tissue. Remove contact lenses with clean hands and throw them away immediately; do not attempt to clean or reinsert them.
• Why milk should never be used in eyes: Popular urban myth suggests pouring milk into eyes to neutralize tear gas. Modern medical authorities, including the American College of Emergency Physicians and the UK National Health Service (NHS), strictly warn against using milk in the eyes. Milk is not sterile, provides a fertile bacterial culture medium that can trigger severe bacterial keratitis, and provides no superior neutralizing benefit over sterile water or saline.
• Respiratory distress management: If an individual exposed to chemical agents has known asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), or develops persistent wheezing and stridor, administer prescribed albuterol rescue inhalers and seek emergency medical care immediately.

Hardening residential and business structures during unrest

If civil disturbances break out in your immediate residential neighborhood or around your commercial facility:

• [ ] Lock all exterior solid-core doors and engage secondary deadbolts
• [ ] Close heavy window blinds, drapes, or shutters against glass shards
• [ ] Extinguish exterior facade and front window interior lighting
• [ ] Move family members and domestic pets into an interior windowless room
• [ ] Clear porches, yards, and stoops of loose bricks, stones, or chairs
• [ ] Place multi-purpose ABC dry chemical fire extinguishers on each floor
• [ ] Fill bathtubs and clean buckets with water for emergency sanitation

• [ ] Keep fully charged emergency power banks, flashlights, and radios

• Establish strict light discipline: Turn off all lights visible from street level. A darkened residence does not attract the attention of passing looters, vandals, or aggressive groups looking for opportunistic targets.

• Glass fracture mitigation: Stay completely away from exterior-facing windows and balconies. If a brick, projectile, or chemical canister penetrates a window, closed heavy drapes or curtains will catch flying glass fragments and prevent severe lacerations.
• Interior staging: Gather emergency supplies (medical trauma kit, portable battery packs, drinking water, and footwear) in an interior room, such as a hallway, bathroom, or basement, that has no direct line of sight to exterior street avenues.

Navigating municipal curfews and emergency travel restrictions

During widespread civil unrest, municipal mayors, governors, or national authorities frequently issue emergency curfew orders to clear city streets:

• Understand curfew legal authority: A curfew is a legally enforceable emergency order that makes unauthorized presence on public streets, sidewalks, and parks a punishable misdemeanor or arrestable offense during designated hours.
• Confirm official curfew hours: Rely exclusively on municipal emergency alert systems, official city government websites, or verified police department channels. Do not rely on rumors circulating across social media platforms.
• Exemptions and documentation: Most curfew decrees exempt credentialed emergency medical personnel, first responders, credentialed journalists, and individuals traveling directly to and from essential employment or seeking urgent medical care. Always carry official employee credentials, a government-issued photo ID, and a signed letter from your employer verifying your shift hours.
• Interactions at law enforcement checkpoints:
  • If stopped while driving during curfew hours, bring your vehicle to a smooth stop, turn on your interior dome light, roll down your driver window, and place both hands flat on top of the steering wheel.
  • Calmly inform the officer of your essential status and destination before moving your hands to retrieve your driver license and documentation.

Frequently asked questions

What is compressive asphyxiation during a crowd surge and how can I prevent it?

Compressive asphyxiation is a life-threatening condition that occurs when the physical pressure of a dense crowd prevents the lungs and chest wall from expanding, causing unconsciousness and suffocation within minutes while standing upright. You can prevent it by adopting the defensive boxer stance: tuck your elbows against your ribs, hold your forearms rigidly across your chest with balled fists, and stagger your feet to preserve at least 10 to 15 centimeters (4 to 6 inches) of breathing space around your ribcage.

Can I use milk or baking soda solutions to neutralize tear gas in my eyes?

No, medical and emergency health agencies advise against using milk or homemade baking soda solutions in your eyes. Milk is non-sterile, spoils rapidly at room temperature, and introduces dangerous bacterial contamination into damaged corneal tissue. The safest and most effective treatment is flushing the eyes continuously with copious amounts of clean, cold water or sterile normal saline from the inner corner toward the outer temple for at least 15 minutes.

What should I do if caught in a vehicle when an unruly crowd surrounds the car?

Keep your vehicle in gear, lock all doors, roll up windows fully, and keep your seatbelt fastened. Do not rev your engine or accelerate aggressively into the crowd, which can provoke an armed attack or lethal retaliation. Sound your horn in short bursts to encourage people to move, keep your vehicle creeping forward at a slow, steady walking pace of 3 to 5 km/h (2 to 3 mph) if an opening exists, and call emergency dispatchers (such as 911, 999, or 112) immediately to report that your vehicle is surrounded.

What should I do if a riot control chemical canister lands near me?

Do not attempt to pick up or throw back the canister. Riot control canisters discharge burning pyrotechnic chemical compounds and reach surface temperatures exceeding 200 degrees Celsius (400 degrees Fahrenheit), which can cause third-degree hand burns or explode in your grasp. Turn immediately, cover your mouth and nose with a damp cloth or your clothing sleeve, and walk rapidly upwind and toward higher ground away from the settling smoke plume.

How do I distinguish between rubber bullets, tear gas canisters, and live ammunition?

Tear gas canisters produce a loud pop or hiss followed immediately by a dense billowing cloud of white or grey smoke and an acrid, peppery chemical smell. Kinetic impact projectiles (rubber bullets or beanbag rounds) produce a sharp crack upon firing and strike with heavy, localized blunt force impact against walls, shields, or individuals without smoke. Live firearms produce loud, sharp supersonic cracks often accompanied by bullet impacts, ricochet whines, or automatic burst fire. Whenever any gunfire or projectile discharge occurs, drop immediately to the ground behind solid engine blocks, concrete planters, or brick structures.

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