Governmental role during a zombie attack?

[MissJacksonCA]

Lets say... suddenly there's zombies... what, if any action would the government take? I felt Resident Evil did a good job showing the reaction of a government officer (though it was an employee of umbrella) when Rain asked the zombie doc to stand down... and when she refused and attacked her she kicked her off and it was only when the zombie came to attack her again that they then threatened to shoot her and when that didn't work was when they killed her. The employees kinda acting like doctors and first doing no harm until of course they realize the veracity of people warning them that these folks are consuming live people. I see that happening once the zombie infection begins and starts to spread. *I refer to it as an infection because whatever 'it' is its highly contagious... like an (anyone? anyone?) ...infection* In Dawn the station guy telling the viewers watching that the government insists everyone evacuate their homes in order to go to a rescue station suggests that they're going to eventually sweep the streets and kill first asking questions later. From the rescue stations establish some kind of perimiter around the area deemed to be infested and at the 'border' of the perimiter they'll be admitting the people who haven't been infected. Those who have been will be quarantined for a period of time while they investigate possible solutions to cure the infection. Of course such blockades would be dangerous because if someone turns guess what? Lunch can be found in every direction. I dont know what our stance would be on using chemical weapons because at some point we will want to re-establish life in this country, no? But hey look on the bright side Canada, and Mexico... if we ever build that wall to keep evil-doers out of the states it will save your lives when zombies attack!

[acealive1]

goverment here wouldnt have that much of a role. they'd disappear til it was over.

[MissJacksonCA]

thanks for making me look optimistic

[rightwing401]

The biggest factor that matters in governmental response is what kind of outbreak are we dealing with here. If it is a virus like off of Resident Evil, then government countermeasures would most likely be able to bring it under control. But if we are talking about the unexplained pandemic that Romero used, then not a chance. I'm not saying that the government wouldn't give it their all, it's just that it just wouldn't have the manpower or resources to bring things under control. Two good examples: L.A. and New Orleans---it took the local state government days to organize up enough National Guard and police to bring order back into the cities. Now try and picture something like that happening in every city, every town, in the country all at once. And factor in that the dead are returning to life and attacking everything living. All forms of emergency services and hospitals would be swarmed over with the sheer number of injured. Every interstate and highway would be clogged with people madly trying to flee the carnage and find safe places. The whole social structure would simply collapse in on itself with a few days to a few weeks as food and fuel become unable to deliver their goods to their regular places. And many people would naturally jump on this opportunity to do whatever they wanted. I know we all like to think of ourselves as a higher society, but only two things keep it that way. The laws we have made to govern ourselves, and the means to enforce them. Once those two factors go out the window, people become barbarians. So factoring all of that in, there's simply no way that the government would be able to organize any kind of effective countermeasure with hundreds of cities and thousands of towns becoming literal war zones within a few days. The military, comprised of perhaps no more than a million personnel with all branches combined, will have to keep a population of over two hundred million in order. While trying to counter the rapidly increasing numbers of the living dead, the military will have to be entrusted with protecting civilians and keeping the general fabric of society from falling apart, and no doubt engaging in thousands of tiny battles against rioters/gangs/anti-government people. Quite simply put, there would be no big battles, just tens of thousands of small unit actions as the military attempts to stem the tide of the collapse. Then of course, you have to figure how many of the soldiers will actually stay at their posts while their own families are in danger. And then we come the ethical question, will they be able to utilize their heavy ordnance to counter the rising dead? Will they be able to use 155mm and MLR missile bombardments on U.S. cities? And if that fails, atomics? Sadly, I don't see how the government could even have a prayer of being able to put a stop to a rise of the dead.

[darth los]

The "important" people who were vital to the continuation of the gov't would disappear in their fancy underground bunkers until it blew over, if at all. The rest of us would most likely be zombie food.

[Cody]

well it wouldnt take long for all the weird storys come out of a town since we have internet. i think the govt would send troops in and ofcourse lock the city down. if that fails nuke it. no virus left.

[darth los]

Sounds eerily like the Umbrella "sanitization" scenario.

[flyboy]

The "important" people who were vital to the continuation of the gov't would disappear in their fancy underground bunkers until it blew over, if at all. The rest of us would most likely be zombie food. @agree! @agree! my government in england, wouid probly anounce tax rises knowing the twat we have in power.

[darth los]

@agree! @agree! my government in england, wouid probly anounce tax rises knowing the twat we have in power. I thought blair was gone.

[MissJacksonCA]

I think if the zombie outbreak began anywhere the government wouldn't know how to initially respond and even when they do understand it would be hard for them to isolate all of the government figures in any given area because they'd all have to go via helicopter and the **** would be hitting the fan everywhere by then they'd prolly encounter people trying to buy their way onto the helicopter or airplanes and then of course the people who give their lives protecting government figures may not be willing to leave their families behind and leaving their post to go be with their families... oh this is so great i'm getting a vision of bush and his lady laura being left on the white house chopper while everyone flees and a horde of zombies circling them and tearing them apart... ahhhh

[darth los]

I think if the zombie outbreak began anywhere the government wouldn't know how to initially respond and even when they do understand it would be hard for them to isolate all of the government figures in any given area because they'd all have to go via helicopter and the **** would be hitting the fan everywhere by then they'd prolly encounter people trying to buy their way onto the helicopter or airplanes and then of course the people who give their lives protecting government figures may not be willing to leave their families behind and leaving their post to go be with their families... oh this is so great i'm getting a vision of bush and his lady laura being left on the white house chopper while everyone flees and a horde of zombies circling them and tearing them apart... ahhhh You have to understand that there wouldn't be just one place where the countries leaders would congregate. There are a bunch of them. Also, they wouldn't be taking helicopters. They have underground networks they use in order to get to all that stuff. You don't really think that the gov't pays $100 dollars each for hammers do you? They buy a $10 hammer and use the difference for their secret projects.

[sgrosse]

One important thing to consider is, when was the last time our government had to contain and fight a global pandemic? I just dont think that there is procedure here. First off, it would take at least a few weeks to mobilize the troops. That is becuase of having to research what is going on, and giving the spread a grace period of that many weeks.

[darth los]

One important thing to consider is, when was the last time our government had to contain and fight a global pandemic? I just dont think that there is procedure here. First off, it would take at least a few weeks to mobilize the troops. That is becuase of having to research what is going on, and giving the spread a grace period of that many weeks. They can't even handle a hurrican let alone the walking dead. Katrina really destroyed the idea that you can count on the gov't in the event of a catastrophe of that scope.

[sgrosse]

They can't even handle a hurrican let alone the walking dead. Katrina really destroyed the idea that you can count on the gov't in the event of a catastrophe of that scope. Oh, the government destroyed that notion long before Katrina, they just confirmed it with Katrina.

[darth los]

Oh, the government destroyed that notion long before Katrina, they just confirmed it with Katrina. It's why people don't even come out and vote anymore. They prove themselves inept every chance they get.