How effective would medieval weapons, swords, spears, maces etc. be in a modern riot situation, against police in riot gear (assuming they won't just start shooting)?
Obviously, they wouldn't do much against modern body armor, but even back then, combat was mostly about finding holes in your opponents armor. And riot gear leaves a lot of body parts exposed.
Also, what weapons and tactics would be the most effective against them?
>Note to NSA: I'm totally not planning to organize a revolt, just courious.
>assuming they won't just start shooting
Yeaa.... They will.
>>977868
>>977906
Riot police have a very strict order of operations regarding the escalation of foce. They are not immediately gonna switch to live ammo and start massacreing civvies. At least, that's from what I understand.
But let's humor OP for a moment. Which weapons are you gonna select and from what time period?
If we're talking generically, crushing weapons like maces and warhammers are useful if your riot cop is wearing hard armor. As are swords from the era of heavy plate armor.
You do have to realize that being proficient with a medieval melee weapon takes a long time. Time you don't have.
Which means crossbows and pikes. Lots of them. And if your mob has a bunch of crossbows, well...
Yeah, I think if you're gonna hit them with fucking crossbow bolts, they'e most likely gonna spray the mob with gunfire. And not rubber bullets.
>>977928
Efficient use of pikes and crossbows is still going to entail a week of mild practice though.
If we got like a three week period following muster you can probably train a somewhat efficient force.
Sligs.
>>977861
Problem is, if you start going at them with hand weapons, they'll just throw gas at you and that's it. If you get close, they have usually a massive shields to protect themselves, and then more gas.
That is without talking about rubber grenades of all sorts.
you could probably go at them with long weighted poles to smack them, if you start bringing spears or swords, they'll just shoot live ammo.
But gas, this is a game changer really. If you don't have a proper protection against it, you are fucked.
Besides, protests are really the worst time to attack the police as they'll come in numbers, force and full of gear.
You are a riot policeman and you see these guys coming at you, what do?
>>977950
Shoot them of course
>>977928
You mean to tell me that if you run towards a police barricade with a sword they won't shoot you?
Even outside the US police is not that lenient.
>>977950
Throw my pila
Erm, gas grenade
For example, as OP's pic shows, staves and polearms have an obvious, self-evident range advantage over batons.
I contend that, for the purposes of a rioteer that doesn't want to get shot dead, your best option is an adequately long staff.
Though it's basically the only option to attack when you're completely sorrounded by your buddies in a tight formation, whacking the folks in blue from the top should be avoided if possible.
Even the best riot armors have gaps. It is difficult, yes, but try thrusting the least protected areas like the neck, and the armpits when they raise their arms, smash them just above the knee, swing upwards towards the groin...
Additionally, multiple "stavemen" can hit the same target, poke the guy's ankles when they have shields up front while the others attack him from other sides.
>>977940
Training spearmen is the least time consuming.
>>977950
Gas grenade, if they're still coming, draw automatic weapons and point them at the cunts, if they still don't relent, open fire and see how tough their armor, or lack thereof, really is.
Skip to opening fire if I see a spear flying.
>>977986
>Training spearmen is the least time consuming.
probably, though polearms might be more instinctive to some.
>>977986
so, something like a phalanx would work against riot police? at least until they can flank it, like the Romans did to Greek ones.
>>978025
The riot police is using phalanx tactics itself when they align behind their shields. But they're not equipped with "spears."
When they're on the offensive, the rioteers shouldn't use a phalanx formation themselves, because behind the cop frontline, the defenders will be throwing smoke grenades and tear gas. The more compact they are, the more rioteers can be hit by the same grenade. Spread out and attack from multiple angles.
It is when the cops are the ones doing the charging, that the rioteers should consider a compact formation more seriously.
>>977961
Depends on country. There have been people who were armed with less going up to a riot police wall and not getting shot.
In some cases, the riot policeman would club the fuckface with a baton.
If they aren't shooting at rock-flinging rioters, it's a safe assumption they won't use lethal means to take out some nutjob with a sword.
Won't deny the possibility of lethal force, though.
(I'm mostly drawing this knowledge from Thailand and Malaysia.)
>>977861
my understanding is some of the protests in early post WWII Japan got pretty violent. The police at that time actually used the short staff to deal with this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgLOcbj7U1g
Here is a demonstration by the man who taught the riot police at the time
