Forum Post: Strategy for "disarming" the police [worth the read]

OCCUPY MOVEMENT: HOW TO WIN AN EVICTION:

"Attack the weakness. Groups are strong, individuals are week"

One day if things get bad, and boil over you might find the police just say, "I'm not doing this anymore", and walk away. Here's an insight to how that might happen.

First of all: You are being evicted and will leave, walking, dragged, carried, in cuffs, or dead... But you will leave

Remember first that the occupy movement will benefit the individual police officers as much as everyone else, they are the 99% too and many of them; if they are thinking about whats going on are hoping for the same outcome as us, but they also have a job to do

Remember that if things like this eviction continue and escalate they are the arms and legs of the body that you are fighting, without them the body is vulnerable

The message contained herein will arm you with the power to plant a seed into the mind of the INDIVIDUALS of the, "arms and legs". A SEED that grows to convince the individual to stand down, and not take things to far if a situation gets out of control

First understand:

"Empathize with your enemy"

In the eyes of a riot officer they are a member in a team, a lancer in a phalanx if you will. Its them vs the crowd. They're not acting as individuals therefore they will be able to do some pretty brutal shit. its why soldiers all look the same. But a phalanx is made up of individuals

You cannot convince the police, as an organized entity that they are unjust in their actions. The riot squad stands for order and lawfulness. When a riot officer looks at a protest all they see is a potential riot and savage beating perhaps death if they lose control of the situation.

The police have already justified their presence, they've hardened their minds against physical and verbal attack. The lines have already been drawn, its us vs them. In their own right they're just in using their tools, their just in their arrests and they can't be convinced otherwise

Second:

"Attack the weakness, not the strength"

The individuals that make up the group of police shooting tear gas at you, in their daily lives, have likely numbed them selves to the occupy movement. At worst the officers see it as, "bleeding heart liberal hippy shit". At best the officers understand and support it, likely they don't know or understand the issues.

Your interactions with police individuals in this eviction/protest environment is crucial. Do not reinforce the lines in the sand. A, "fuck the police" attitude will reinforce the us vs. them, any physical resistance will confirm it.

A logical approach of questioning their right to evict will be met with legal justifications, you cannot change their mind, its already made up. A logical arguement against the use of their tools won't work, they've already justified it as necessary.

What will work is humanizing your self, get them to empathize with you. Approach them calmly, they will expect you not to be. Inform them of the effect of their tools, "The tear gas is really hurting these people, they're suffering because they want a better future". Inform them as individuals, make up names, "Officer Mike your presence here is scaring these people, they're protesting for your friends who've suffered from the current system"

Show the individuals you're really not that different, "Things are bad all over, that's why you're here and thats why I'm here. I don't like this, nobody does, all I want is a better future for our kids to inherit"

Conclusion:

"lower their morale, and dissention will sow through their ranks"

The best tactic when taken hostage is to humanize your self with your captors, this will make them reluctant to kill you because they won't see you as to different from them, and we humans naturally are reluctant to harm one another.

By dawning uniforms and looking the same we can blend in and our actions become the groups. Soldiers dehumanize their enemy with racial names like, "Japs, gooks, hadjis" to help them make a clear distinction between us vs. them.

I've been party to wars and I've dawned a uniform, dehumanized my opponent, drawn lines in the sand all to help me act violently against humans. I was aggressive only when I was numb to their humanity, occasionally I'd be forced to empathize with people I suspected enemy and I found it hard to be aggressive towards them. If I could be disarmed by the humanity of people trying to kill me, then the individual poilce would certainly be disarmed by the plight of the citizens they justify they are protecting...