Little late but that's because I was busy (sort of related to that)... We got issued no "prewarning" but the minute that verdict went down we were told to keep the armor handy. Nothing happened yet and weekend was uneverntful besides a lot of "sick" personel who didnt come to work so I was stuck covering shifts.

I found that 1010 wins has always the best coverage of NYC related problems (radio is fast, web site updates are slow, text alerts are fast as well)... If you dont have a minature radio get the text alerts from them (sign up on their website)... As far as for the future reference: not much you can do to prepare for such a thing except to have plan for alternate routes home, staying informed maybe extra bottle of water, some extra snacks, comfortable shoes and less flashy clothes/jewerly. I don't belive city wide rioting would take place so isolated incidents confided to certain neighborhoods is what we would get. Random acts of violence and spontanious protests can't be predicted so short of staying at home there is not much you can do to avoid that. If you are asking how to defend yourself? That's hard since defense against mob is a strength in numbers and organization. Crowd offers feeling of anonimity/security and crimes commited in crowd usually go unpunished. Got few close calls during Caribbean/Indian day parade (day with the highest number of stabbings and shots) with mob trying to storm ambulances and pd cars when you working people.