Steve K. owned Minnehaha Lake Wine and Spirits in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
He had built it from the ground up over three decades.
On the night of May 27, 2020, rioters moved through his neighborhood on Minnehaha Avenue.
They hit his store.
The next morning, Steve stood in the doorway and took in what was left.
Shelves torn down. Glass strewn across the floor. Walls scorched.
Thirty-two years gone overnight.
He had no plan for that.
No way to secure the property. No early warning system. No route out and no strategy for holding his ground.
But Steve was not alone.
More than 1,500 businesses across Minneapolis and St. Paul were damaged or destroyed during those same weeks.
It was the second most destructive period of civil unrest in American history outside the 1992 Los Angeles riots.
This demonstrates why having a civil unrest plan before the first window shatters is the difference between losing everything and walking away intact.
What Is Civil Unrest Preparedness?
Civil unrest preparedness means planning for riots, protests, and street violence before they reach your block.
It means knowing in advance whether to hold your ground or go and having what you need for either choice.
Armed protests and riots can erupt in any city, any state.
The people who come through them with their property and family intact are the ones who thought ahead.
Benefits of Civil Unrest Preparedness:
First, you need to decide when to go and what to do ahead of time.
If you wait until rioters are on your block, you have lost control of the situation.
Monitor scanner apps and community alert systems from the first sign of unrest.
Understand your exit routes before you need to use them.
Identify at least two alternate roads that bypass major corridors.
Keep your vehicle fueled above half a tank at any given time.
Second, you can hold your ground effectively.
A properly secured property is far harder to breach than one that is unprepared.
Lock and reinforce entry points before trouble arrives.
Many people have protected their property by simply standing with a shotgun on their porch and looters realize there’s probably other places they should go.
Keep a 72-hour supply of water, food, and a trauma kit inside the residence year-round.
If you own a firearm, make sure it is clean, loaded, and accessible.
Third, you sidestep the most dangerous windows.
The two most dangerous periods in any civil unrest event are the first 30 minutes and the transition to curfew.
In the first 30 minutes, crowds are unpredictable and moving quickly.
At curfew enforcement, tensions escalate rapidly.
A prepared person is already indoors before either of those windows arrives.
Drawbacks of Civil Unrest Preparedness:
For one, you cannot predict where it will spread.
Unrest does not stay in one part of a city.
It can move block by block in a matter of hours.
A neighborhood that was calm at noon can be chaos by dark.
Monitor conditions in real time rather than assuming your area is untouched.
And holding your ground can become a trap.
Staying put works well when unrest passes in hours.
If it stretches into days or infrastructure breaks down, staying put grows harder.
Set a clear trigger point in advance: if X happens, we go – and commit to that plan.
Plus, fear and panic inside the house is its own threat.
Family members who are unprepared for a lockdown will make poor decisions under pressure.
Walk everyone through the plan before an event ever unfolds.
Assign roles. Keep communication calm and steady.
What To Keep Ready:
– 72-hour water and food inside the residence
– A trauma kit
– Battery or crank-powered radio for local emergency broadcasts
– A firearm, properly stored and accessible
– Paper road maps with two alternate evacuation routes marked
– Charged portable power unit for essential devices
– Currency in small bills for situations when card systems go down
Riots in American cities will happen again.
