I was teargassed in Paris last year. I had a rubber bullet gun pointed at me. Rubber bullet guns kill in a small percentage of hits. Jesus was a rebel. He stood up against wrongdoing. He stood up against an unjust government and its heavy handed agents. You will be doing the same. This is advice from and ‘Occupy Wall Street’ branch wishing to remain anonymous.
If You PLAN to PROTEST:
- Water makes pepper spray worse. Use milk or liquid antacid & water mixed. Don’t wear contacts. (Take a tiny squirt or drip bottle to help yourself and others.)
- If you get tear gassed, when you get home, put the contaminated clothes in a plastic bag for later decontamination and shower with cold water to avoid opening your pores.
- Come with friends and don’t get separated. Avoid leaving the crowd and watch out for police snatch squads.
- Beware under-cover police, but beware snitch jacketing and collaborator ‘peace police’ even more. (They can often be spotted because they have clean jeans, black jacket, and a clean small knapsack. Protesters tend to look a bit disheveled like they have been sleeping out.)
- Mask up! Two in one protection from doxxing and covid. (The most common definition of doxing (or doxxing) is “a practice of searching and broadcasting of private authentic information about specific person or organization against their will, based on the internet technologies, evil-minded as a general rule”.)
- Write any necessary phone numbers you may need directly on your skin in sharpie. ACLU/Lawyer etc.
- Have an offsite plan for emergencies if you have not been heard from by X time coordinated with someone offsite.
- Make sure all mobile devices are charged!!
- If you plan on going to jail, Really plan it: bail, lawyer, time off from work, witnesses i.e.: a cadre. Don’t just go to jail without training!
- Beware folks inciting violence. Most of them are police feds. Watch out for hook-ups for the same reason. Get to know the crowd. They will set you up.
- Hats to cover hair and help hold on mask and glasses/googles.
- Deactivate “touch id” on your iPhone — they cannot legally force you to open your locked phone via your passcode.
Make sure you go to the bathroom before you riot.
Cops are just paid gang members. They don’t play fair. They try to inflict as much pain as possible. They know that the person being arrested will try to resist because it’s simply a natural reaction to pull away from the pain. That becomes the excuse to shout “stop resisting”, whence they inflict more pain. Do not expect ‘common decency’. You will consider their behaviour to be psychotic, vile, and disgusting. I pre-warn you. There are good cops and bad cops. In a city where the police are respected, good candidates apply to become police officers. In a city with trouble and strife where there is little respect for the police, only thugs and assholes apply to become police. In a society, we need to encourage good people to apply to become police.
The best overall tactic is to get the police to fall inline with the ideals of the people rather than the demands of an out of control government.
Be aware of the tactics of police. Here is one interesting comment from Hien:
The African Hyena goes out looking for his prey. When it finds a defenseless animal, it circles around to the rear and attacks from behind. The other Hyenas join in and circle the Prey, as they are most effective when hunting and attacking in packs. All of the Hyenas attack at the same time, and bring down the animal. Once down on the ground, it stands no chance as there are far too many of them to fight off, or escape from. All of the pack move in to devour the prey, and eat it alive. This is a very effective hunting tactic, and so it is used many many times to accomplish their goals.
Don’t be drawn into the ‘race’ issue. It is used to divide society against itself. Police brutality is not just a race issue. Black – white, white – black, black – black, white – white, black – Hispanic and so on.
“If you wish to keep slaves, you must have all kinds of guards. The cheapest way to have guards is to have the slaves pay taxes to finance their own guards. To fool the slaves, you tell them that they are not slaves and that they have Freedom. You tell them they need Law and Order to protect them against bad slaves. Then you tell them to elect a Government. Give them Freedom to vote and they will vote for their own guards and pay their salary. They will then believe they are Free persons. Then give them money to earn, count and spend and they will be too busy to notice the slavery they are in.”
Alexander Warbucks