That Splinter Group that Starts Looting/Violence/Provoking Police at Every Protest

[PeacefulIntention]

76. Possible tactics to disrupt Black Block actions

I happened to be on the periphery last night, as I left a performance on campus about 10:30pm. Due to where my car was parked, I had to snake back toward Telegraph, a few blocks from where police had just unleashed tear gas and sound grenades. Students were running away southbound on Telegraph, and as the crowd thinned, I saw 3 young white males dressed in black bloc attire, faces covered, also walking southbound on Telegraph. Two were together talking, the other was across the street texting on his phone. They reminded me of the exact same types of young people who caused all the vandalism and acts of violence during Occupy Oakland demonstrations. I did not attempt to photograph these three, as they were not causing any violence at the time, and I didn't want to risk my safety (these guys do not like to be photographed).

While I have no evidence of who these young men were last night (and I'm very familiar with the subversive tactics of COINTELPRO), my sense is that these young adults are coming from the same group of like-minded agitators who were so disruptive to Occupy Oakland. Sadly during OO, there was also a larger group of activists who either directly supported the Black Bloc tactics, or who refused to denounce vandalism and other acts of violence, because they believed the system was inherently violent and therefore warranted being addressed as such, or at minimum left that option open should it be deemed appropriate. There were heated debates and panel discussions about it, but these folks were very firm in their beliefs (which appear to be a distortion of anarchism) and also very controlling when it came to dominating the open mike discussion around calling for an end of violence. This issue proved one of the main reason that many long time political activists (myself included) chose to distance ourselves from the local OO movement, even though we felt strongly that the message of Occupy Wall Street was so crucial to bring to a larger forum.

From my perspective, these folks - and it doesn't take many of them – will insert themselves into any demonstration or movement that gives them an opportunity to cause a disturbance, because that's what they like to do. They are cowards and bullies. I've wanted to ask them directly, "if you believe what you are doing is so important and justifiable, why are you hiding behind the mask of anonymity and hijacking a demonstration with goals other than your own? Why not do your own action publicly and take full responsibility for it?"

Addressing the question of how to respond to black bloc and similar acts of provocation, vandalism and violence, since currently so much protest activism is driven my social media - it's both how people find out about protests to attend, and also get in-the-moment information of what's happening, which brings more people out whether to participate or act as witness – what I'd suggest is using that forum to develop a simple protocol for peaceful activists to use in any type of protest demonstration where a splinter group engages in violence.

One idea might be to adopt a simple chant, the moment that any vandalism or violent action occurs along the lines of: "Peaceful protest, turn around, sit down. Violence out!". Then act on that chant by turning around and sitting down in place. If the protest is large, it would take a bit of time to ripple out, also time for folks to stop in place.

What this action would do: 1) send a clear message to police and public which demonstrators supports peaceful action and who supports violent action; 2) it would separate out violent black bloc type protestors – they would either become visible (and arrestable), or dissipate into the surrounding observer crowd rendering them less disruptive; and 3) it would hopefully diffuse tension with police as seated protestors are generally not considered threatening or harmful.

Once the protest has calmed down, if protesters chose to continue a march – and it's important that protestors have the democratic right to exercise their free speech – they might actually do so with police escort ensuring safety for all present. A very different type of engagement than being behind a line of police in riot gear. Granted this kind of action would only work in communities like ours in Oakland, Berkeley, and SF, where there's generally government support for public protest and respect for first amendment rights.

Remember, yesterday's protest started as a 5pm die-in at an intersection near downtown Berkeley where police had shut down traffic to enable the protest to take place, safely I might add. Once the protestors decided to get up and walk/march, Berkeley police followed on bicycle patrol. It was only after protestors walked to Berkeley Police Station and became confrontational that things escalated. While there is no way to evaluate yet whether there was any excessive use of force used during the course of the demonstration, it was hardly not a case of riot-wielding police tactics from the get-go attempting to shut down free speech.

While I agree there have been and continue to be egregious actions by individual police officers as well as some police departments (Cleveland PD was just placed under federal decree) that definitely need to be addressed, it behooves us to work toward engaging police in a positive manner. They are community members too. (Along those lines I had some very positive and illustrative moments engaging with SF police while getting arrested in civil disobedience immediate following the start of the Iraq war.) We build community and public support when our actions clearly follow our principles.