Urban Survival Planning - Reader Question: People at Your Door, Post Collapse

UrbanSurvivalSkills.com received the following comment on a post about Emergency Planning,...."Leon said,..... Good info! How about a story on dealing with the people who will come to your door, essentially begging, because they have made no preparations at all?"

UrbanMan replies: Leon, if you have that answer please share it with the rest of us as that is a question we may all have ideas on, but none of us really know what we will do. It's kind of like combat,...you hope you'll react in a certain manner, but don't know until people are shooting at you.

I hope to use good judgement assessing people,....using my 34 years of experience in interacting with indigenous people in third world countries and with law breakers. I hope to have a kind heart as well, extending what help I can, when I can. I have to balance that with not putting an undue burden on my family or place the overall Survival Group at risk.

Another consideration is the peace within your Survival Group. If helping people means putting people in the Survival Group at odds with each other, then you certainly have to consider that. I can see it now where some people may say "If you want to give those stragglers a day's ration, a butane lighter, and a blanket, then go ahead but that's coming out of your stocks,...not mine."

You'll have to have a chain of command or decision making process within your Group. I am the primary decision authority in my Group, but will take the advice of all in my Group. You need to establish this in order to exist and function, working as a team.

I think we are on this earth to evolve as humans,..but to also survive as a species. Sometimes that may mean moving people along. Sometimes that may mean helping people. If I moved people along, I would be prone to tell them "The next time I see them on my street (urban location) or at my gate (my rural safe location), then I'll have to assume that you mean us harm and I will take pre-emptive, lethal action - do I make myself clear?"

Safeguard information as well (OPSEC), do not be discussing your six months of food or whatever in front of people. Next thing you know they band together with 30 mutts and are at your door.

Having said all that, I'll hope to provide alittle bit to anyone who needs it. I would be interviewing people during this process and make a determination if they would be an assets to our Survival Group. If I took them into our Group, I would have had to make "probationary" arrangements to include having someone from the main group watch them all the time. You would have to err on the side of caution and expell anyone who threatened the Group. When you do this, you are going to create an enemy, and an enemy that has inside information on your set up to include weaknesses.

I know this doesn't answer your question very well, but ask me again, six months post collapse and I may have some operational history from which to draw better conclusions.