Recently I watched a documentary about the aftermath of hurricane Katrina. If some of you may recall, while Katrina response was going on, there were widespread reports of murder, rape, robberies and break-ins. What I understood from that program, is that in the aftermath of Katrina, crime, such as murder rate, actually went down, not up. To top it all off, media was reporting rumors, not news.

Emergency medical personnel at the scene later reported that they treated lots of cases of dehydration, exposure and people missing their medications, but NO injuries related to physical/sexual violence. To put this in perspective, one of the reports at the time, mentioned that the pharmacy of Charity hospital was robbed by a gang of armed marauders who stole narcotics. Chief medical doctor of Charity hospital in New Orleans who was interviewed on this program, mentioned that he first heard about the pharmacy robbery on the radio while he was talking to the pharmacist at the hospital pharmacy!

To get back to the article about Death squads and Jericho. I think that "medium"-term disasters (weeks to month), will not last long enough to produce Jericho-like or Iraq-like scenarios. Am I worried about Death squads in the long run? Yes. But for them to be formed there needs to be a relatively long-term disaster (month to years), something like a nuclear war, a sudden global warming, or a "revolution" of some sort. An all-out nuclear war is highly unlikely in our days. A nuclear terrorist attack on one of the cities may happen, but not a Cold War style total annihilation.
Now global warming and "revolution" are different stories...

I guess what I am trying to say is that people, me included, tend to exagerate and imagine things. We should learn from history and facts:

"Some maintain that after an atomic attack America would degenerate into anarchy an every- man-for-himself struggle for existence. They forget the history of great human catastrophes and the self- sacrificing strengths most human beings are capable of displaying. After a massive nuclear attack starvation would afflict some areas, but America's grain-producing regions still would have an abundance of uncontaminated food. History indicates that Americans in the food-rich areas would help the starving. Like the heroic Russians who drove food trucks to starving Leningrad through bursting Nazi bombs and shells.7 many Americans would risk radiation and other dangers to bring truckloads of grain and other necessities to their starving countrymen. Surely, an essential part of psychological preparations for surviving a modern war is a well- founded assurance that many citizens of a strong society will struggle to help each other and will work together with little regard for danger and loss."
Above quote taken from Nuclear War Survival skills