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Following FEMA's Zombie Preparedness Plan Could Land You On Terrorist List
colinneagle writes "As if warning a zombie apocalypse is imminent, FEMA hosted a webinar for its Citizen Corps encouraging emergency planners 'to use the threat of zombies — the flesh-hungry, walking dead — to encourage citizens to prepare for disasters.' The problem is many of those recommendations would have you do things that would flag you as a possible terrorist according to The DOJ's controversial 'Potential Indicators of Terrorist Activities' guidelines. From the article: 'Don't be silly by thinking you must actually break the law before cops deem you a potential threat and report you. Paying with cash comes under numerous "you might be a terrorist if" lists. Whatever you do, stocking up on non-perishable food as the feds advise should not include buying "meals ready to eat" since that, too, is potentially suspicious and means you might be a terrorist. "Suspicious activity" at military surplus stores includes making "bulk purchases" of "weatherproofed ammunition or match containers and meals ready to eat, as does suspicious purchasing of "night vision devices include night flashlights and gas masks."'"
Best advice I can give: Never talk to cops. Sounds like your wife got first hand experience on why.
For future reference, if you ever have anyone claiming to be with law enforcement come to your door claiming they want to talk/look around, you tell them you want to see a warrant first. If they fail to produce a warrant, you can be assured that either A) they have no case and are on a phishing expedition, of which you are not required to hold the net, or B) they aren't really LEO's, but rather con artists trying to work you over.
Either way, if they fail to produce a warrant ("we just want to talk" is a popular diversionary tactic to trick you into volunteering information you have no legal obligation to give), politely inform them they are trespassing and request they remove themselves from the property before you call the real cops.
Oh, and this should all be done through a mail slot or chain-locked door - many LEO's are under the impression that if their entry into your home isn't physically barricaded, they can just waltz right in without explicit permission (they can't, unless you've got some blatantly illegal shit sitting out where they can see it).
Better safe than sodomized.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
How soon we forget:
-War of 1812
-Mexican American War
-First World Trade Center
-Oklahoma City
-More bombings, assassinations, and other acts of terrorism too numerous to list.
Even in Israel the chances of dying to a terrorist attack are 1-2 orders of magnitude smaller than the chances of dying by, say, car crash.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Terrorism/victims.html
125 dead since December 2005.
this is around 19 deaths/year average for this period.
car crashes kill around ~400/year average for this period.
Israel's population is ~7M.
and just like in the US, people are more afraid of terrorism than car crashes.
Disclaimer: I live in Israel.
By my count from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorism_in_the_United_States#2000s there were about 23 terrorism related deaths from 2000-2009, excluding 9/11 (which can be safely considered an outlier). That's 2.3 deaths/yr. If we do include 9/11, it's 302deaths/yr.
From http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr60/nvsr60_03.pdf (I know it's only one year, I don't have time to compile a decade of statistics - but removal of any single outlier statistic shouldn't impact the overall message) page 89+.
Things that have killed ~2-3 people a year include:
-Measles (2)
-Malaria (3)
-Shigellosis (shingles) and amebiasis (4)
-Scarlet fever and erysipelas (5)
Things that have killed ~300 people/yr or more:
-Bronchitis and Bronchiolitis or other acute unspecified lower respirator infection (272)
-Diseases of appendix (426)
-Hyperplasia of prostate (446)
-Tuberculosis (529)
-Infections of kidney (604)
-Bronchitis, chronic and unspecified (639)
-Meningitis (649)
-Pregnancy, childbirth and the puerperium (6-weeks postnatal) (960)
-Malnutrition (2,680)
Even if you play mad-scientist with the statistics and assume that there will be a 9/11 every single year (~3000 deaths), these still kill about as many or more people a year
-Influenza (2,918)
-Cholelithiasis and other disorders of gallbladder (3,300)
-Asthma (3,388)
-Accidental drowning and submersion (3,517)
-Other and unspecified events of undetermined intent and their sequelae (4,773)
-Atherosclerosis (7,377)
-Viral hepatitis (7,694)
-HIV disease (9,406)
Things that GP mentioned:
Obesity (no single statistic, but assume a fraction of the 600,000 death by cardiac diseases are from obesity)
Cancer (Malignant neoplasms - 567,628)
Car accident (Motor vehicle accident - 36,216)
Non-terrorism based plane crash (Water/air/space/unspecified accident - 1,782)
Somebody elses gun (Homicide by firearm - 11,493)
Their own gun (Accidental discharge of firearms - 554)
Alcohol (24,518)
Stress (again, no single stat - assume a portion of Hypertensive heart disease (high blood pressure) with 33,157 death/yr)
I couldn't find stats for Dogs/Cats, Lack of healthcare (too vague) or Peanuts (although I did read several times an approximate rate of 150-200 deaths/yr from food allergens, a significant portion of which are from peanuts).
I know you weren't disagreeing with GP, but there you go.