Is law enforcement so absent or so converged into the system of lawlessness that neighborhoods need to start literally policing their own neighborhood?
Is it really time for non trained, non professionals to start policing neighborhoods, openly bearing arms?
Is there no political recourse left?
This isn't really new. Other riots have erupted and business owners have overtly protected their livelihoods by openly bearing arms. Since rioters decided to bypass them and nobody got shot, the news media soft pedaled it. (Although one woman made a YouTube video condemning a cell phone store for doing that - she apparently wanted to loot them.)
Think back to the Rodney King riots - the cops in LA didn't really become involved until the news media reported that the merchants of Koreatown had armed up and were protecting their own businesses from the mob. (Years afterwards you could still find humorous pictures on the web about "Rooftop Koreans" available for riot protection.)
Some people wanted the cops to come down hard on the Koreans . . . but at that point the constabulary would have been seen to be actually working in concert with the rioters, becoming legitimate targets themselves, and things would have gotten very,
very bad.