I was talking about what too have in a car in case you are overwhelmed by a mob. Not saying you should, or if you did should pull it out even then, you realy shouldn't, last ditch thing to do, crowd is larger than the magazine, so you know it is there and hope it never comes to that. Very non-ideal. Beats being for sure maimed or dying with no recourse, if it came to being actually attacked though, on the off chance hearing the gunshots would make the rest scatter. It very well might not. But, it is more that I think people will start to do this, be armed, not that I think it will solve your problems of being caught in a mob.

It is easier to get out of a situation as a pedestrian than when in a car and blocked, although if someone is bashing in your windows you are then in justifiable fear of your life and can hit the gas, except that it doesnt take that many people to just pick up and flip your car, so escalation is not what you want to do. Very scary situation to be in, just not where you want to be. People need to be protected realy, because there are no good answers to this situation. Try and stay away, if you know about it, and police/national guard need to step in much quicker to protect citizens from this mass violence.

I am not worried about the police in any case, it is generally pretty easy to avoid that interaction. Leave, turn around and walk or run the other way if you see a crowd, do not be in it. Unless it is night time, and possibly even then, the heavy flashlight would be seen as preparing for violence, the legal carry would not, if that is legal in your area, in other words, people who carry, carry every day, and the police know and expect it. No -one just carries around a 4 D cell flashlight downtown. People do normally carry pepper spray too, I carry it everyday on a caribeener hanging off the outside of my purse where I can get to it. People do not normally walk around carrying wasp spray, do not do that, like other out of place items ( frozen single use full water bottles, baseball bats, etc...) that could be weapons, it will be seen as preparing to use it, and it is not rated for use on humans ( unlike pepper spray) so then you realy have an issue.

I would not be worried about being hit with beanbag shot or rubber bullets, as you would need to be in the crowd and not dispersing. Disperse. Now, tear gas drifts, and that may catch up with you. People right now are stupid, they think they are only observers, with their phones out filming, and that the phone is some kind of magic shield that shows they are not of the mob.... all they had to do was disperse to a safer distance

SO amny people, including the people in the car in that clip, are hindering the catching of the people still looting -- when so many people are sight seeing the looting ! Yeah, we have a surreal situation alright. That situation is impossible for the police, if you dont do anything or if you do something but then the looky-loos are caught up too --

If we are wanting to keep safe -- stay out of those areas !

As far as the other report of the freeway stoppages being "effective" How is that ? Lucky you were only inconveninced. We have had ambulences caught up in such in my area, people suffer and die due to this. And, you were lucky, only 40 minutes and no one attacked your car. You werent actually bothered by it -- you werent on the way to the hospital with your wife in labor -- you werent on the way to pick up your 6 year old from school, were they would be left standing on the sidewalk alone -- you werent on the way to your elderly parents house were you need to make your dad breakfast, give him his meds and help him to the bathroom -- I could go one
And, they are Effective, effective for what ? getting on TV ?

There are opportunists doing alot of looting -- but saying there are counter portesters isnt accurate overall, there may be a few. There are just alot of people who have different ideas of what they want to do. Many, most, say they are non-violent, ( but do know that impeding people is violent, forcefully stopping someone from leaving is what it is, they are not "incidentally" in the way, as older marches, they will purposefully jump in front or to block, the purpose is not to protest and march it is clearly to forcefully keep people imprisoned in that spot in their cars ) others absolutely want to cause disruption and destruction, some instigate others to that path who might not have done it otherwise, that is how mobs work.

" False imprisonment is an act punishable under criminal law as well as under tort law. Under tort law, it is classified as an intentional tort. A a person commits false imprisonment when he commits an act of restraint on another person which confines that person in a bounded area.
Prima Facie Case

The defendant willfully acts . . .
. . . intending to confine the plaintiff without the plaintiff's consent and without authority of law
the defendant's act causes the plaintiff's confinement
the plaintiff is aware of his/her own confinement

Bounded Area

An act of restraint can be a physical barrier (such as a locked door), the use of physical force to restrain, a failure to release, or an invalid use of legal authority. An area is only bounded if freedom of movement is limited in all directions. If there is a reasonable means of escape from the area, the area is not bounded. However, if the means of escaping will result in the risk of physical harm to the detainee, then the area is bounded. "

https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/false_imprisonment

If the point is to keep people from leaving, then it is not a protest, it is illegal. Imprisoning others, even if for "only" 40 minutes is wrong and illegal, and very different from incidentally having a street full of people ( as in a March that overflows the sidewalk onto the street due to shear numbers of people, but many parallel and side exits exist) Even surface streets should not be intentionally blocked, as in if that is the purpose, that is also immoral and illegal.