Why do people think cops will swing on people smashing windows over people sitting on the ground? It's a fundamental (willful?) misunderstanding and disregard of what happens at protests, especially large ones. Lying down and being "peaceful" will not protect you -- and if you think it will, you haven't been paying attention.

ETA: "No, *we're* the Good Ones" stops working at some point. Ignoring that is dangerous.

I have also seen other ways to be pro-active against these A-holes.

I disagree with you. It came up organically in a conversation (I was having with some of my friends at a Memorial Day gathering) about what to do regarding possible disruptors.

I live in L.A. and saw with my own eyes (at a Black Lives Matter protest) a guy who was masked up taking a bat to shop windows. He then took off his mask (he was white) when he got to his car, took off his mask, then took off in is car.

to act if they see something that goes sideways or against their own personal values. I'm saying that sitting down on the ground is a terrible thing to do in that moment.

Thank you!

Can anyone summarize?


Edit, nevermind, thanks to the poster above.

circulating around the last DC demo.

Common sense is enough. The organizers know what to do.

I'm not saying "be very afraid". IMHO, we need to have strategies.

BS that the "organizers know what to do." I won't necessarily be marching with "organizers."

I will be with a couple of buddies and if we see someone criming, we are going to detain them for the cops.

The strategy is to let possible plants know that they will be dealt with, not by lying down.

Sure there may be plants, point them out to the cops.

We need to overshadow the dear leader parade with our own protests.

No Fucking Kings Protests Baby.

Take down the name of the cop and turn his ass in.

Decades after the 1965 Watts riots in LA, met a guy at a party who'd lived in Watts as a young kid. He told us that on the day the riots started, he was coming home from the park with his Dad and they saw what he described as a stream of men coming towards them. They were smashing windows with baseball bats. The men smashing windows were not Black.

Stirring up trouble and blaming others has worked for a long time. Hoping that in our modern cell-phone camera days, people will be able to better document any agents provocateurs.

They play so dirty. I just want folks to be ready (and I'm saying that for myself as well).

I'll be at one of the smaller protests in Santa Monica (as opposed to a larger one in L.A. at Pershing Square).

appropriate. Thank you for sharing this story....

Could be a long day.