# Tactics to employ in an urban environment...



## Kauboy (May 12, 2014)

*This thread is part of the "Coming Civil War" group of threads.
Please see the Primer/Premise thread --> HERE <-- for context and links to other related topics.*

(*Disclaimer:* This is not a call to action, nor a place to make threats against individuals/groups/etc. This is to discuss tactics that have been employed, or could be employed, during wartime by civilians to resist and respond to tyranny in any form. We don't need to end up on some list, or get mentioned in the next debate.)

In a future where the worst comes to pass, where lawlessness has grown out of control, where good and decent people need to fight to survive, what tactics can be employed at a small and localized level to push back against unjust criminal violence committed against innocent civilians?
In this thread, specifically within an urban setting.

The landscape is grid-patterned roads and tall buildings. Lines of sight can be significant in length, but narrow in width. Infrastructure is fragile. Structures are enormous and can offer good cover for all sides to utilize. Rooftops offer unparalleled visibility but a high exposure risk. Depending on the size of the urban sprawl, distances could be considerable. Subterranean systems will be good for movement, but will also provide deadly choke-points.
Urban environments are major population hubs and the potential for collateral damage is exceedingly high. For good people, such a risk must ALWAYS be accounted for. A positive gain at the expense of passive innocent life is immoral and unjust. Exceptional pains should be taken to avoid it.
(Pausing for a moment of clarification: 
A "passive innocent life" would refer to bystanders or those who want no part of the fight. As opposed to "active innocent life" being those who participate in the fight for good but do not commit acts of violence for personal gain. Thus, if "active innocent life" is willing to die for the greater good, thus be the cost of freedom. A "guilty life" should get out of the way or it will be removed.)
A group fighting for good, but ending bystander's lives with little care, will soon find themselves surrounded by new enemies who will no longer stand by. These are your countrymen.

The enemy must sleep. Assuming they go to any lengths to conceal their bases of operation, rooting out makeshift "barracks" in these large areas will be difficult without help from informants. What methods are best employed for seeking out such people and convincing them to risk their lives to gain tide-shifting information?

The enemy must eat and drink. How can resources be rerouted so that their reserves will be drained dry? Why bother fighting if you can end the battle without a shot fired and just drag out the anemic and dehydrated bodies once they've grown too weak to resist.

The enemy must "eliminate". If they are relying on modern facilities, what's a good method for stopping up sewage service to a building or block? Raw sewage leads to sickness. Such conditions can provide a swift end to barricaded or entrenched adversaries.

The reverse is also true...
You must sleep.
You must eat/drink.
You must take care of your waste.
What positions would serve you better for doing such things? We can see the buildings burning on the nightly news. They all have characteristics in common. Large glass windows and flammable contents. What buildings have they failed to burn down? Monolithic stone structures with limited entry points and windows (police precincts/courthouses/etc...).
Choose your position wisely. It should be capable of fortification. It should be capable of allowing security patrols. You should be able to control your resource inflow, as well as your "outflow" (think natural drainage, like close to a river). Will it still function as needed when they cut your power?

We can all imagine the methods of stopping an individual, or a small group. Various means of perforation, dismemberment, incineration, and other nasty concoctions of the human mind to bring pain and suffering to a deserving foe... But what else? What can be done when half of a city is against you? This won't be a war of advanced armies. *IF* the military shows up to your city to help, consider yourselves lucky. But for the rest, it will be guerrilla war.
You need to be able to cause enough havoc to make your opposition quit or die, and keep your side alive at the same time.

Get creative. Not all wars are won with bullets.


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