Police kettling tactics need to be banned.

[backscatter712]

That's what's been happening in Pittsburgh right now, and it happened at other G20 summits, and the WTO summit in Seattle.

Understand one thing.

Kettling is a tactic designed to increase violence. Not decrease violence, not calm things down. But to intentionally force people to riot so they have an excuse to crack skulls.

After all, the corporatists have some discrediting to do, and how better to do it than to trap thousands of peaceful demonstrators and innocent bystanders in a tiny space, refuse to let them leave peacefully, don't let them have food or drink, don't let them go to the bathroom, don't let the hurt among them get medical treatment, attack them periodically for no reason, dump pepper spray and other chemical "non-lethal" weapons into the tiny space and force them to stew, and then beat the hell out of everyone when they're sick of the abuse.

What do you think's going to happen?

After all, the media's gotta have its footage of riots to broadcast everywhere so they can make it look like it's the protester's fault.

The subhuman pigs who approve of and engage in these tactics need to go to prison.

[G_j]

1. no green ribbons for these citizens

nor the sympathy and outrage shown for the protests in Iran.

these Americans tear the curtain of our "civilized" society, to reveal the brutal face of crowd control experiments in weapons and tactics.
You know you're close to something, when they bring out Darth Vader's stormtroopers.

[drm604]

2. K&R

:kick:

[imdjh]

3. I don't understand why the protestors didn't have anything to answer with.

Sure, peaceful protest, but shouldn't you be prepared to return fire?

[Rick Myers]

5. Return fire???

Are you nuts???

[imdjh]

8. Alcohol balloons maybe.

[Luminous Animal]

12. What a remarkabley stupid suggestion.

[imdjh]

17. I agree, but probably not for the same reasoning you do. nt

[Lagomorph]

24. Never Bluff

The Corporate-Statists are in it to win.

They're willing to accept casualties and even death.

They won't turn an eye or ear to anything less than a real threat to their control or safety.

While I will not endorse such activities, nothing else will succeed, unless it's something they wanted in the first place.

[clear eye]

4. K&R

[thunder rising]

6. How did the mayor and governor think this was a good idea? Hell, hold the confernce in Montana

[PM Martin]

7. The subhuman pigs who approve of and engage in these tactics need to go to prison

[izquierdista]

9. Anti-cop tactics

The problem for the peaceful protesters is that they have no countermeasures at their disposal. Police departments are like kids in the candy store when the salesman from Fascist Police Supply Company comes calling. He has tasers, rubber bullets, flex-ties, pepper sprays in various different flavors, batons and has to keep handing out catalogs because the cops keep having problems with the pages getting stuck together.

Protesters need to learn from successful tactics used all over the world in countering "subhuman pigs". There is the ball bearing (or gumballs) trick from 'Animal House'; there is picking up tear gas grenades and throwing them back along with improvising your own gas mask; milk shakes are a great antidote for pepper spray. Mass quantities of lubricants in the street make it impossible for anyone to get any traction and can shut down all activity (which may be the protesters' goal). A bunch of protesters with dog whistles can turn any K9 or equine unit that shows up into a rowdy circus act.

Maybe all protesters need to be as organized as the ones at the Seattle WTO meeting a few years ago. They didn't just show up with signs, but seemed to be ready for the measures the cops would use. How very UN-anarchist of them!

[imdjh]

10. I was thinking balloons filled with vodka.

A cop covered in an otherwise benign but somewhat flammable liquid (though it doesn't stay flamable nearly as long as the odor lasts) might feel rather vulnerable going into a crowd.

[G_j]

15. you can't do shit like that

they will only answer back ten fold. That will always be is a lose/lose game.


:argh:

[izquierdista]

16. Which can also be countered

As post #11 has pointed out. Cops are warriors for the entrenched interests, who buy them all the sadistic toys they want, and they get to use them on protesters. Once you realize this is war, you need to use Sun Tzu and Clausewitz and all the other thinking on strategy and tactics. For every tactic, there is a counter-measure. Cops are always outnumbered, so their fall back is technology and "crowd control". Demonstrators always have numbers on their side, so sacrificing one demonstrator to tie up one cop will ALWAYS work.

Cops will always resort to violence, as it is the easiest quick fix tactic. Demonstrators who want to remain non-violent will be severely tested, but they needn't suffer too much if they are prepared for the violence the cops intend to dish out. Cops are basically lazy and only want to exert the minimal amount of effort to "regain control". They can't go as far as a military junta and saturate an area with troops, because they aren't prepared for that level of engagement with the populace. What works in that situation are rolling protests (again using Sun Tzu) which hit the enemy where he is weak and disappears where he is strong.

It is not a lose/lose game. The side that is prepared for the long haul will prevail.

[G_j]

18. balloons

is what I was responding to.
I've been there, blockaded the World Bank etc. was a member of, and did lot's of training w/ DAN, and some w/ Earth First! I've trained people myself.

I don't want be around ppl. w/ combustible balloons, than you very much...

[izquierdista]

20. OK, pheromones then

It would be hilarious to see the cops swarmed by all the insects in a 2 mile radius.

[G_j]

21. ok

now that's creative!

[imdjh]

23. aerosol Psilocybin

[Luminous Animal]

13. One person on a bike, with good aim and a sparkplug on a lanion

can take out the windshields of an entire block of police cars.

[backscatter712]

25. Some of the well-organized protests keep their crowds in one huge mass.

There's the rolling-protest methods as well.

It's hard to kettle crowds in the order of hundreds of thousands or millions - the pigs would rather break such crowds into pieces and kettle them individually.

[Luminous Animal]

11. One tactic that we used in San Francisco to combat kettling

is to be well-organized enough to have back-up protesters that would surround the police. It is good to have a pretty good activist network that, when the call goes out, several hundred people can be there in minutes to occupy both sides of the police line.

[imdjh]

22. I"ve watched several YT vids and the Pitt protesters seem unorgannized.

That fucking noise truck for example, the protesters could have swung some of the parked cars out into that narrow street and blocked the tank.

I realize that we're only seeing one angle, but I have yet to see a video which shows how the police could possibly be justified in ordering an evacuation of Pittsburgh and then enforcing it.

[Agony]

14. The Miami Model - FTAA

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7557174318773212602#

John F. Timoney Chief of Police of Miami should be on your prison roster.

A judge presiding over the cases of the free trade protesters, Judge Richard Margolius, said in court that he saw no less than 20 felonies committed by police officers during the November demonstrations, adding to a chorus of complaints about police conduct.

[Kievan Rus]

19. Silly rabbit...how else can we punish those that protest hypercapitalism?

:sarcasm:

[Treo]

26. It's only a matter of time before somebody shoots back NT