![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2025/06/16/7.jpg\")
A shield wall in Myanmar.
\nThis guide explores how to construct reinforced banners that can function as a mobile shield wall during demonstrations.
\n\nTo be clear, we do not encourage anyone to engage in illegal activity with banners or shields. We only offer these designs to satisfy the curiosity of historians.
\n\nIn our city, anarchists have spent several months improving a design for reinforced banners. We use these banners to protect ourselves from police violence. Often, in large actions in which dozens of people arrive with a plan, these banners play a role in both offensive and defensive activities.
\n\nInitially, we used a wooden frame for our banners. This involved light but solid pieces of wood, metal handles for a firm grip, and a tarp across a wooden frame. The frame was solid and a team of three could carry it. However, even though the wood was light and we made several experiments with different kinds of lighter and lighter wood, the design was still too heavy. In addition, a comrade from another country observed that the banner attracted too much attention going in and out of actions. Where he came from, you could fold banners. Another issue was that it was not especially difficult for a kick or police baton to pierce the tarp that covered the frame.
\n\nOur new design, which we have tested with satisfactory results, has four core advantages: it is 1) light 2) cheap 3) foldable 4) dense.
\n\nWe prepared this guide after comrades from many different cities responded enthusiastically to our new design.
\n\nYou can use shields and reinforced banners to accomplish many different things:
\n\nCompared to reinforced banners, shields have the benefits of being lighter and easier to make; they allow whoever is holding them more agility and spontaneity. When you have a shield, you can easily ditch it, run around, and make your own decisions. In a context in which agility is needed, shields may be best.
\n\n A shield wall in Myanmar.
\nWhat reinforced banners bring to the table is their size and their physical and organizational power. Because these banners are held by several people, they are harder to tear away, offering more protection. A police officer cannot simply tackle a person on the other side of a reinforced banner. For the same reasons, it is harder for opponents to withstand pushes from these tools. Reinforced banners can stop not just one but several officers from entering a crowd. In this way, they can enable a crowd to assert a balance of power with the police, establishing distinct areas of control.
\n\nIn our city, we have seen more than a dozen comrades pushing forward a single reinforced banner as a dozen cops push against the other side,1 in a contest of strength as the police tried to attack the crowd while paint, rocks, and fireworks rained upon them from behind the banner. Organizationally, seeing several people holding a banner seems to encourage crowd unity around them, creating a focal point for defense and action. This has the benefit of impeding police from using intimidation to break up a group, especially when they simply do not have the numbers to do so by other means.
\n\nIn the end, the choice between shields and reinforced banners depends on whether you aim to employ a symmetrical or asymmetrical approach to conflict. Is your goal to engage in a direct contest of strength in order to gain or maintain terrain, or is it more important to prioritize agility and ability to separate from a crowd as needed? How long do you need to be able to sustain frontal clashes after losing the element of surprise? Reinforced banners can offer more protection from many police actions, but defending a fixed position can quickly open up other vulnerabilities. The answer to these questions likely depends on the nature and location of the action. If it is a general riot, the shield may be better, but if it is a focused offensive or an effort to defend a large crowd, a reinforced banner may be better.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2025/06/16/3.jpg\")
Diagram I.
\nIn Diagram I., you can see another group’s design for a shield that uses some cardboard for cushioning, cut up pieces of a trash can, and rope, hose, or bike tube. We are a little confused over the function of the second layer of plastic (the trash can lid), and would recommend using the cardboard as the cushion that your arm rests on—otherwise, a strong impact such as a baton could break the plastic, severely injuring your hand. Plastic is generally not a forgiving surface for you to be directly touching during any kind of impact.
\n\nSimilarly, it is probably advisable to make sure that any sharp edges are covered with duct tape in case you fall on your shield or hit yourself with it. In our city, we made some shields with a trash bin part and wrapped them thickly in duct tape so that the cardboard stuck on firmly, and made handles using duct tape as well. Basically, shields are easy to make with items you can find lying around.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2025/06/16/10.jpg\")
Improvised shields in a demonstration against US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement assaults in June 2025.
\n\n\n\nDifferent shield designs are better for different situations. Like umbrellas and leaf blowers, shields can do things in large numbers that they cannot do alone. If you want to form a shield wall, ideally your shield should be big enough to cover your body. But the bigger your shield is, the heavier, bulkier, and more difficult to transport it will be. Smaller shields can be lighter and easier to sneak into a protest area. Many people have been carrying smaller shields with them while playing other roles besides maintaining the shield wall. Having even just a little bit of protection has saved people from serious injury and provided the confidence to hold territory they might not otherwise have been able to.
\n\nA common Portland shield design involves cutting a plastic barrel vertically into three or four curved rectangles, leaving the circles from the top and bottom of the barrel for making smaller shields.
\n\nTo form a shield wall, it is best to be able to line up shields so that they overlap slightly, as even slight breaks in the wall can present a vulnerability. Consequently, plywood may be preferable to barrels for that particular application.
\n\n \n
July 2020, day 58 of Oakland participating in the George Floyd Uprising: a shield wall at an event expressing solidarity with those in Portland resisting federal attacks. Footage by Sarah Belle Lin.
\nImportant: The visual in Diagram II. shows just two segments of reinforced banner, though we recommend reinforced banners with three segments, as they provide more coverage. Each segment is held by one person; as you can see in Diagram II., each has two handles, one for the left hand and one for the right. Each piece is connected by zip ties all along their connecting edges so that they can fold in on each other. We recommend making banners with three pieces so that they can be held by three people.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2025/06/16/2.jpg\")
Diagram II.
\nFingerprints: We recommend that you use gloves while interacting with the materials that you use to make the banner and while handling the banner itself. It’s not illegal to make a reinforced banner, but nonetheless, for a variety of reasons, you might not want to be connected with one.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2025/06/16/4.jpg\")
Diagram III.
\nThe following legend elucidates the seven elements of Diagram III.
\n\n1.) Metal: We get our metal frame by cutting out a piece of temporary construction fencing. You can use bolt cutters. The kind of metal you want is firm and light—not flimsy or bendy like chain-link fencing. The size you want to cut out is roughly 3.5 feet in height by 2.5 feet in length. In measuring, our aim to make sure that when crouching low, we can cover our bodies with the metal, and when standing up straight, we can duck our heads behind the metal while still covering some of our legs.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2025/06/16/8.jpg\")
This is the kind of metal fencing you want.
\n2.) Corrugated Plastic: We use a sturdy but shock-absorbent corrugated plastic, the sort that is often used in yard signs. Sturdy cardboard could fulfill the same purpose. In any case, you want this to be larger, in length and height, than the metal part. This will protect you from hitting yourself with the metal once you connect the cardboard behind the metal.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2025/06/16/9.jpg\")
Corrugated plastic.
\n3.) Zip Ties: Use zip ties to connect the corrugated plastic or cardboard to the metal. Make sure the second layer is completely firm against the metal.
\n\n4.) Handles: As depicted in Diagram IV., the handles require three components: 1) sponges 2) zip ties 3) duct tape. The sponges should be fat and shock resistant. Your hand should rest comfortably on the sponges, shielded from impact. Cut a hole through the plastic or cardboard layer so that the sponge can be zip-tied all the way through to the metal. Create another hole in the cardboard above and below the sponge so that you can lace duct tape through the metal. Lace the duct tape many times over until it forms a durable handle. Make sure your hand fits in between the duct tape handle and the sponge.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2025/06/16/5.jpg\")
Diagram IV.
\nMake two handles: one higher, another directly beneath the other, both centered horizontally. You should now be able to lift the banner.
\n\n5.) Cover the Edges: Cover the edges of the metal with several layers of duct tape so that it is softer, in case the banner strikes you or someone else.
\n\nRepeat the above steps three times so as to create three segments for your banner.
\n\n6.) Zip Ties to Connect the Segments: Connect the three segments to each other by adding zip ties along their adjoining edges. So, for instance, in the graphic showing a two-person banner, the left and right pieces are connected by zip ties running through the middle. These will function as hinges, enabling you to fold the banner.
\n\n7.) Painted Tarp: Attach a long tarp across the front of all three pieces, wrapping the edges around onto the back of the banner and zip-tying them tightly into place. The tarp is the banner component of the reinforced banner. Paint something on the tarp such as a slogan or sign. If you use spray paint to make your job easier, consider using stencils for better results.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2025/06/16/6.jpg\")
Diagram V.
\nForm a crew that will carry the banner. Because they will be taking up positions at the front line of any conflict, they should be equipped with helmets, goggles, masks, and gloves. They should discuss their goals and plans in advance, including their specific shared commitments to each other and their backup plans for various scenarios.
\n\nIt’s important to develop a shorthand to communicate and make decisions rapidly, so as to be able to move swiftly when necessary. Go over this ahead of the action.
\n\nOrganize a support team for those carrying the banner. These people can be equipped with a variety of tools to defend the banner carriers, including umbrellas. We have seen crowds use laser pointers, projectiles, paint-filled fire extinguishers, and other tools from behind banners.
\n\nThe greatest points of vulnerability are at the edges of the banner. You can address this by flanking the banner with a crowd bearing shields and umbrellas, or perhaps by keeping a wall to one side of you. Be careful not to risk being surrounded—the chief source of security for those carrying the banner is the crowd controlling the area behind them, which can back them up or pull them to safety if need be. If they can get close enough, police may also try to grab the top or bottom of the banner in order to pull it down or up. Stay mobile and make sure that they are discouraged from doing so.
\n\nYou could coordinate discreetly in advance with other crews you trust so that they know that you are bringing a reinforced banner. Discuss how your plans might interact with theirs.
\n\nYou should identify your goals in advance and discuss when and where to deploy the banner. It may be necessary to smuggle it into the area where the action will take place folded up—for example, disguised as a pile of protest signs—in order to maintain the element of surprise.
\n\nPolice will not necessarily let you enter a potential conflict zone with a reinforced banner if they can identify it in advance. In especially challenging conditions, you could bring it into the area ahead of time and leave it somewhere relatively safe (for example, hidden on an inactive construction site), or wait for a march to get started and then join it with the banner while police are scrambling to keep up with events. This banner design is light enough that it could be delivered by bicycle.
\n\nOther strategic questions include figuring out which area of the action to position the banner in, especially if you intend to employ it for both distraction and defense.
\n\nDo not hesitate to abandon the banner if necessary. We usually drop ours once an action is over and it is time to disperse. The banner is a tool, not property to retain. The banner is not a person. Protect people over banners. It is ideal if police cannot recover your banner in order to learn its construction and perform forensic tests on it, but it’s not worth risking arrest or identification for that purpose.
\n\nPeople elsewhere in the world have experimented with rolling floats built on metal shopping carts or other devices, which can serve as mobile barricades or even as rams.
\n\nWe don’t see reinforced banners as a substitute for building stationary barricades, which can provide equivalent protection to a larger group of people in a given location.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2025/06/16/1.jpg\")
\nWe have seen shields deployed in uprisings in Chile and Hong Kong in 2019, and in cities like Portland during the George Floyd rebellion of 2020, and have witnessed reinforced banners in struggles such as the fight to defend Weelaunee Forest in Atlanta.
\n\nRight now, unrest is deepening. Here are some words of encouragement for uprisings.
\n\nRevolt: A revolt is comprised of combative direct action against the forces of authority. If this kind of street activity is an option for you, focus on it. In our city, we have sometimes been caught up focusing on writing projects, social media, and big meetings during moments of unrest when we could have been making immediate plans for street action or targeting infrastructure. Uprisings are the time to put everything aside. These are the moments we have been waiting our whole lives for. Let’s plan actions that aren’t ritualized resistance, that show just how far we can take things and how seriously we take this moment.
\nAffinity: Focus on working with the small group of people you already deeply trust. These should be people you are aligned with, with whom you share ideas, values, and a comparable degree of risk tolerance. Meet to form plans and to prepare so that you can arrive confident and coordinated, especially at events that are likely to become unpredictable. At the minimum, this could look like a quick meeting in the morning, preparing tools together midday, and going to a protest at night. Stick together and look out for each other. Do what it takes to protect your comrades. Show them how much you care about them during, before, and after.
\nSelf-Organization: To become real revolutions, revolts require anarchist ideas and social organization. Make a clear list of short-term priorities to make the best of these fleeting moments of insurrection. Do not become overambitious. If you have time outside of street activity, pick a project and do a good job of it. This could mean creating shields or other tools, engaging in social media work, distributing flyers, organizing small-group invitational actions away from big crowds, or planning actions in larger groups and coalitions. You could call for neighborhood assemblies through word of mouth, flyers, or social media in order to create an opportunity to discuss ideas and strategies. It is necessary to cultivate opportunities for people to meet, spaces where our perspectives can be shared, readings can be spread, and we can build confidence that we can arrange our whole lives via self-organization without need of governments, hierarchy, or capitalism.
\nAnd, for extra credit:
\n\nFor an example of this, see the cover of the first issue of Rolling Thunder. ↩
\nA work of speculative fiction.
\n\nIn November 1919, United States President Woodrow Wilson launched mass raids against the entire anarchist movement in the United States. Police simultaneously arrested thousands of anarchists in many different parts of the country, shutting down their newspapers, organizations, and meeting halls.
\n\nIf similar raids were to take place today, they would occur in a technological landscape involving mass surveillance and targeted electronic attacks. Those who survive would also have to adopt different tools.
\n\nWhen the police battering ram hits his door at 4:11 am, Jake is in his boxers on the floor, playing an emulated sidescroller. The adrenaline hits and within seconds he has jammed his bedroom window open, sliding down into the backyard and off in a run, his socks instantly soaked in the grass. He hears shouting but doesn’t look back to check if there are pigs looking out his window or chasing him from the side of the house, he jumps the back fence more awkwardly than he imagined, getting a splinter deep in his left hand, but he ignores it and dashes over the roof of the neighbor’s shed, trying to remember every detail of the surrounding blocks.
\n\nIn what feels like an instant, he’s two blocks away, hiding behind some bushes as a squad car drives by. His breath sounds to him like the loudest thing in the world and his mind spins as he imagines a neighbor coming out behind him. He’s in nothing but boxers and muddy socks and his hand is dripping blood. Nothing happens. The squad car crawls down another block. Time to move.
\n\nVera is almost home from work, listening to music in her earphones, when she comes around a bend and sees the corner of a SWAT van outside her punk house. She pivots immediately down another street, casually continuing her walk while pulling out her phone, she knows she should immediately turn it off but first she texts a group chat “House being raided” and then turns it off. Maybe that warning will help someone. Many phone batteries remain active even when the device is off, she knows; right now, some lazy junior officer could be noticing the GPS or her network connection triangulating her as she moves away. Should she throw it? Should she abruptly stomp on her phone out here on the street? There’s a drainage vent coming up, she could toss it in and keep walking. Vera hesitates. Her phone is “encrypted,” but against everyone’s advice she uses a short password. If they dig it out of the drain… she doesn’t know how to pry out the SD card, stomping on the whole device might draw attention and not even destroy the main memory… time is of the essence, so she makes a hard choice quickly and just tosses the whole thing in the drain. She’s just a normal person on a walk.
\n\nAs she keeps walking away, Vera hears a car rolling up behind her slowly, it takes every ounce of willpower to keep walking normally, not to look back in terror. Maybe she should? Maybe she should just run for it? The car parks behind her and there are sounds of a mom unloading young kids. She’s not being followed. Where to now?
\n\nJulie and Maggie sit at their dining room table, struggling not to reflect panic at each other. Only one news outlet is even reporting the nationwide raids and there’s almost nothing there. Messages saying “Leave and then delete this group chat” keep popping up for both of them. Little spatters of reports on raids and then silence; a friend who is always too frantic is spamming everyone asking for updates, then suddenly she’s silent.
\n\nThere’s an hour of nothing.
\n\nThey trade terse updates with a friend who lives far away. Someone local suddenly appears online, but only to post a meme in a dead channel and then disappear.
\n\nThe same music plays on the same radio stations. The wind blows through the trees. A cousin asks for advice with a preschool situation, totally oblivious. The local news does a puff piece about a local business. The neighbors get a pizza delivery.
\n\n“They’re probably not going to come for us. We haven’t done anything.”
\n\nTheir confused dog is whining with shared nerves. Maggie keeps eyeing the go-bag by the door they packed together months ago. That afternoon, Julie had made a show of being a good sport, humoring her need to prep; now all Maggie can think about is everything they’re missing. Julie’s passport has just expired. Can they get across the border? If only they had done a dry run.\nThey take the dog out on a walk, leaving all devices home, whispering potential plans to one another, trying not to draw attention as a jogger passes them by.
\n\nWhen they get home, there’s a private message on Instagram from a friend saying they’re putting together a legal defense committee, first meeting will be public, at a public park, they’re inviting some local liberal journalists as shields. Someone at the local alt-weekly says she’s writing a story. There’s a lawyer coming from a big-name liberal thing.
\n\nThe internet keeps being really slow. Signal doesn’t deliver messages and then suddenly delivers three all at once. Loading a lot of websites just returns errors. They’re so sleep-deprived with stress that when they finally crash together on the couch, they sleep right through the defense committee meeting. A friend knocks loudly on their door and they nearly die of heart attacks, assuming it’s the cops. His report back is terse: almost no journalists showed. Most of the folks who went have been grabbed. One was driven down off her bike on her way home. An old liberal lawyer went to the county jail with a court order and the cops just laughed and arrested her. He’s going underground and suggests they do too.
\n\nBut Julie and Maggie have a life, they have jobs—at least for now, as they’ve both called out sick—and they have a house. They’re normal now, even law-abiding. Burn a few posters, donate a few books to the neighborhood little libraries, delete a few accounts, maybe they can pass as upstanding citizens.
\n\n“If we leave our shit here and stop paying, we’ll lose everything we’ve built since poverty, plus have to pay some ridiculous fine.”
\n\nIf they do get raided, maybe it’ll be just a few days in lock up, in and out, just a performance of a crackdown. The libs will get mad about the lawyers, surely.
\n\nNeither of them has been able to cook since the raids first started, so they drive out together to grab pickup. Waiting for a light, Maggie stares at something on the side of the street and then leaps out the truck passenger’s side door without a word. Julie is frightened at first, then furious, but when she pulls the truck over and heads back to Maggie, she sees her partner kneeling next to a homeless man lying at an odd angle.
\n\n“We don’t have our phones, we can’t call a paramedic,” she reminds Maggie. But then recognition dawns on her. It’s one of their friends. Under the mess of blisters and swollen bruises, his eyes are open, staring at nothing.
\n\nHe lived in one of the first punk houses that was raided, he never went to anything besides some hardcore shows, he was just a baker.
\n\nThey don’t pick up their meal. They head home. Dog. Go-bag. Some last-minute additional ideas. Camping gear. Encrypted backup drives. Medicine. Dry food. Clothes. Blankets.
\n\nPhones and leftover devices smashed. House key hidden somewhere in the yard for a friend. Maggie looks at her cheap Casio watch. “That’s time; we need to go.”
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2025/03/21/1.jpg\")
\nJake has been tagging and dumpster-diving for years, so he knows his neighborhood pretty well. Just as he’s noticed what gets cleaned and what does not, he’s noticed what gets moved and what does not. What gets paid attention to and what does not.
\n\nThere’s a moss-covered rock in a local park that never gets moved. No one even goes near it. There’s a roof of an abandoned building littered with garbage.
\n\nLong ago, Jake took two plastic bottles and sealed inside each a ziplock bag with a small amount of cash and two USBs each. Then he buried one bottle in the dirt underneath the rock and taped another bottle underneath a non-functioning vent on the roof of an abandoned building.
\n\nIn each bottle, one USB contains an encrypted KeepassX database with the distinct login information of every online account he has, as well as a VeraCrypt encrypted folder with various files he wanted to make sure he never lost (scans of his IDs, photos of friends) including a GPG key pair. He has encrypted both with a passphrase of five randomly chosen dictionary words committed to memory. “Veritable Sasquatch Humdinger Locality Peeps.” He has practiced this every night for weeks, building all kinds of associations and mnemonics. Unencrypted on the drives are executable files to install KeepassX, Veracrypt, and GPG on any new computer. On the other USB is a full install of the Tails operating system.
\n\nJake knows he looks a mess in his boxers and muddy socks, but he gets to the park and digs up the bottle without a squad car seeing him or some vigilante neighbor raising a fuss. The twenty and two tens inside will have to be enough. Luckily, there’s a small houseless encampment nearby and an old lady is willing to part with a sweater for ten. A free box happens to have a (too large) pair of sneakers. He desperately tries to make his boxers look like shorts and walks to a thrift store, quickly emerging with a backpack, a t-shirt, a baseball cap, and a pair of pants.
\n\nA visit to a corner-store bathroom with a razor and hair dye, and his appearance is at least a little different. He buys a cheap first aid kit for the splinter in his hand.
\n\nWith his cash broken into change, he can catch a bus across town.
\n\nWhen Jake gets near the first house of comrades, not only are the cops there, but his friends are still in their underwear and hogtied on the lawn. A cop is violently molesting a friend of his under the pretense of a search while the others laugh. Jake keeps moving.
\n\nAt the second house, there are no squad cars, but the front door is visibly missing. Jake notices someone sitting in an unmarked car across the street. He keeps walking.
\n\nThe third house he tries belongs to a largely apolitical friend. It’s a struggle to try to get him not to proclaim surprise loudly on the front porch and not to talk near devices. “I just need to borrow a couple hundred, man, then I’ll be out of your hair. I never saw you, you never saw me. Please.”
\n\nJake leaves with a hundred, a filled water bottle, a better hoodie, a better pair of shoes with dry socks, and a dusty old laptop.
\n\nIt’s not enough bus fare to get to the border. He needs a sleeping bag, but REI has been implementing stronger anti-theft policies and the longer he fucks around town, the more likely he is to get stopped. He’s terrified of facial recognition/tracking software on the buses, and his thrift store baseball cap isn’t going to protect him forever.
\n\nHe scopes out the city bus terminal from some distance, but it looks like this one checks ID and there’s a cop wandering around. Instead, he catches a city bus out to a distant suburb on the edge of rural two-lane roads, trying to hitch. Hopefully, the cops out here aren’t actively looking for him and won’t harass a hitchhiker. A state patrol car passes him without incident.\nHe has no success for hours and it starts to grow dark, so it’s back to the city.
\n\nWorried about cash, in the middle of the night, he climbs the roof of his second stash, but it’s missing. Probably the tape eroded months ago and it fell off. Hope the person who found it could use the cash. If they opened one of the USBs, it would just prove cryptic, no way to even learn what was encrypted.
\n\nIt’s a cold night, sleeping rough without a sleeping bag, and in the morning, Jake takes refuge in the back of a café, where he still has enough cash for a warm drink. He takes out the dusty old laptop from his friend and the Tails USB, booting it and accessing the internet over Tor. The connection to the Tor network has trouble, so he chooses “Configure Connection” and selects different bridges until he finds one that works.
\n\nA few anarchist counterinfo sites are reporting the raids, but a surprising number of sites are down entirely. Local news says almost nothing besides statist blather. Social media is trash with speculation from those least informed. Foreign noblogs and indymedia sites have the most relevant reporting.
\n\nSignal is down, something about centralized architecture, comments speculate about international law, but it doesn’t matter right now. Riseup allegedly melted their servers with thermite during a raid and were all arrested. Protonmail has apparently been collaborating, injecting spyware onto user’s devices, and some people are surprised by this? Wire is “temporarily unavailable.” A few people leave links urging people to use various apps or tools Jake’s never heard of. Other people debate the technical merits, but he has a hard time understanding. One new app is blowing up pretty quickly, lots of people attest to it being good, but this seems mostly based on them finding it easy to use. One person says they are still trying to use a smartphone but then goes quiet. One account that was quiet for a while starts speaking differently.
\n\nIn the comments section on a formerly obscure site, someone says, “This is Big C, I’m free, a group of us are forming up at a secure location, contact me through a secure channel.” Jake knows this is Cookie, a local organizer.
\n\nAfter a little struggle, Jake manages to get the most popular new “encrypted communication” apps temporarily installed on his Tails instance. He joins one of the public channels that some comments encouraged using. It’s basically like Telegram or Discord: a flood of posting and arguing. Folks who’ve survived the raids using these new accounts try to imply who they are without saying it openly. It’s an amateur hour shitshow of oblique flailing: “Remember that one time when we did that one thing, I was the one who wore green.” Turns out one of the worst assholes in the scene is still free and he’s using the opportunity to crow.
\n\nEven when the crude “only you would know X” games imply an account is a given comrade, Jake knows that such details could simply be copy-pasted from a compromised device via some man-in-the-middle attack where the cops sit between two parties relaying their messages back and forth as if they’re the other person.
\n\nThis is not enough to trust an internet post enough to meet up.
\n\nVera walks immediately to the house of her old friend Cat. She scopes the front from down the street, notices Cat’s Subaru is missing, and makes her way in through the backyard. Vera has held on to a spare key for years, but their friendship is almost entirely offline. They don’t even bring devices when they hang out. As far as the outside world knows, Cat is just another park ranger doing ecological restoration.
\n\nTen years ago, they burned down a condo together.
\n\nVera cries and trembles the second she closes the back door behind her, falling into a fetal position. Cat’s house is pristine, beautiful, safe.
\n\nVera rocks back and forth, trying to remember breathing exercises. Has her heart always been this loud? Is she dying?
\n\nAfter an eternity, she gets up and starts doing stretches and exercises. She pictures herself punching through the faces of the cops back at her house. She knows she needs to work out the adrenaline. She needs to—oh god she needs to drink water.
\n\nCat’s house is like a warm security blanket. Everything is just right.
\n\nVera lies on the floor of the living room for hours, not moving. Listening way too attentively to the sounds of cars going by. Is Cat even in town? Should she make something from her food in the pantry?
\n\nThe slow crunching sound of Cat’s Subaru coming to rest in the driveway is an immense relief.\nCat is surprised about the raids, but she grasps the severity, hugs Vera, and tries to throws lentils and veggies in an Instapot while listening and asking questions. While dinner cooks, Cat brings out an old laptop she rarely uses and they check the major news sites together, careful not to enter search terms or anything that might flag.
\n\nIn some sense, it’s a relief to learn the raids were beyond just Vera’s house. They’re not targeted at Vera specifically. But no one seems to have been released yet, so it’s clearly not safe to leave.\nCat makes up a futon for Vera in the basement. “Of course you can stay the night. You can stay as long as you need.”
\n\nVera takes off her earrings and places them carefully beside her work bag. In each earring is a tiny sliver of a USB stick. Each of them is just like Jake’s: encrypted KeepassX database, encrypted file system, GPG keys, installation executables for Veracrypt and KeepassX.
\n\nIn the morning, Vera will investigate what can be done with Cat’s laptop.
\n\nJulie and Maggie make three stops before heading out of town, first at Julie’s bank, where she successfully empties most of her account into five thousand in cash. But at Maggie’s bank, the teller disappears for a long while and doesn’t come back. “You know what, never mind, I’ll go to a different bank,” Maggie says to another teller, using her best imitation Karen voice. They drive off, heads on a swivel for cop cars. Finally, they slip a note into a friend’s mailbox explaining where to find their house key and some instructions for their lease.
\n\nThey collect every credit or debit card they have and tape them together under a seat, never to be used again.
\n\nThey take off quickly. Back roads to avoid license plate readers, then long country roads. It’s hard to navigate without their phones. Each of them picks a personality type and fashion style that signals no political or subcultural allegiance. They make up a backstory about how they’re friends and try to bicker in convenience stores to avoid looking queer. They pick up a bumper sticker they’d otherwise be livid at and slap it on.
\n\nAt a campsite two hundred miles away, they go through all their remaining belongings. They have a tarp, a tent, two sleeping bags, a gallon jug of water, a Sawyer microfiltration water purifier, a five-gallon bucket of rice and beans, a camp stove, a couple pads, trashy books for boredom.
\n\nThey end up buying basic comforts like folding chairs with their cash reserves.
\n\n“It’s just a camping trip, until it isn’t.”
\n\nThey go on a hike with their dog and talk about communities they can flee to. A land defense occupation that became permanent. A log cabin squat built deep off any path on federal land. A friend’s organic farm with some partially abandoned yurts.
\n\nThey discuss the pros and cons of various cults they know.
\n\nIn the end they drive to the furthest option, the organic farm.
\n\nThe drive is long.
\n\nOn a thin winding back road, they stack up behind a long line of cars. Local vigilantes are performing an inspection to check for “ANTIFA.” A middle-aged white lady with an AR waves them through cheerily. “Stay safe out there!”
\n\nThe next town has a small “rally for democracy” along the central drag, besides an Arby’s. A couple dozen liberals in folding chairs hold cardboard placards making puns about the suspension of a cable news channel.
\n\nAt a gas station, Julie overhears two men confidently talking about the investment opportunities in real estate being opened up as all the “cockroaches” are removed.
\n\nOne night, they sleep in their car in a Walmart parking lot on the advice of a friendly night auditor at a cheap motel. “New regulations, I can’t take a cash deposit. And there’s this thing I gotta enter your IDs into that wires them nationally.”
\n\nWhen they finally arrive at the farm and are allowed past the gate, there are already fifteen other people there: extended family of the owning couple, a couple of WWOOFer hippies, and two coteries of obvious radicals who are cagey and cold to anyone they don’t know.
\n\nEveryone is antsy.
\n\nDifferent groups cook different food. Panicked envy flickers in some eyes.
\n\nTwo weeks in and Julie keeps to herself. Maggie spends her time trying to suck up to the owners and befriends an autistic nerd with one of the other radical groups.
\n\nAn old balding white dude in a black hoodie keeps snapping at their dog. A trip into town for bulk food goes badly after the nerd insists on wearing a mask and a confrontation breaks out with a local. A backed-up toilet in the farm house makes the owners dour for a couple days.
\n\nOne night, the situation boils over and folks start openly talking about the raids. There’s fury over who has a device and who can be trusted to have a device. Who is putting everyone else in danger. Who has a right to be here. Who has a right to anything. After someone brings up “Land back,” someone else screams, “Who do you think you’re fooling?! Who are your people exactly?! You’re not Indigenous, you’re as white as me!” and an awkward physical fight breaks out.
\n\nThe next morning, there are immigration police visible in the distance at the neighboring farm. One of the hippies finds three young girls hiding down by the river and rushes them into one of the plastic yurts everyone else is hiding in.
\n\nDogs bark in the distance. Julie joins the couple that owns the farm in meeting the immigration agents. Her dog barks at theirs and they put them away. The immigration agents are some of the newly deputized conspiracy heads that have barely any training, and Julie is able to find common cultural ground with them, ranting about how genetically modified organisms are poisoning the land, leaning hard into the persona she’s studiously built on the road. The wannabe genocidaires laugh at her jokes and leave, waving back to her.
\n\nThe girls’ white uncle was allowed to remain, a nasty gash across his forehead. The rest of the family is being taken to one of the deportation camps where people die of dehydration. He’s profoundly grateful for the rescue of his nieces.
\n\nOver the next month, the adjacent farms begin to merge. A dugout hiding spot becomes a tunnel network. Maybe it’ll suffice to hide folks if cops return.
\n\nSome new folks arrive, fleeing other things.
\n\nTensions break down, relationships begin to form across the groups.
\n\nOne of the quieter members starts opening up, giving lectures on syntropic agriculture, and an array of projects rapidly consume all the spare land across the farms. As people get busy developing personal domains and projects to be invested in, the overall vibe improves dramatically.
\n\nFood gets pooled. People become more open about what devices they held onto, but it doesn’t matter as much, because all of the old internet is gone. A few specific corporate sites remain accessible, whitelisted by telecoms for the sake of commerce, but almost everything else is gone. You can get Amazon deliveries and send Gmail, but it’s impossible to reach Wikipedia, much less Athens Indymedia or any Noblogs.
\n\nThe farm establishes a consensus on how devices are to be used. The owners maintain all their devices in the farm house, air-gapped from everyone else. News stories and everything else are downloaded to a USB by one person for an hour every day, then passed around the three laptops everyone else shares.
\n\nThere’s one burner cell phone for the whole farm, bought with cash at one of the last Walmarts where that is possible. It’s kept turned off and wrapped in plastic bags under a rock five miles away along the side of a road. It’s for emergencies and strictly overseen usage. No one will put its SIM card in or turn it on near the farm or its stash location.
\n\nHaving swapped out plates and tags, Julie and Maggie occasionally drive into the local town. They sit behind a café in their truck while it’s closed at night and tap into the still-active Wi-Fi with their laptop running Tails. Signal is long gone. Tor is totally inaccessible, even using the latest smuggled bridges. On the plain internet, they have managed to register two Gmail accounts using the farm’s collective burner phone. How can they find other comrades? How can they talk with them?
\n\n\nJake doesn’t have to trust the new app everyone’s using while Signal’s down. Long ago, everyone in his affinity group created GPG key pairs, then verified each other’s keys and signed them. They also created private backup email accounts on other platforms only to be used in emergencies.
\n\nJake’s Riseup email account may be down, but his GPG keys were in the encrypted folder on his cached USB along with a list of the backup email accounts of his comrades. He goes through each one, encrypting a message to that person’s public key and sending it to their backup email.
\n\nAfter a couple hours at the café, one of them sends a message back to him. Ethan is still free!\nJake asks if he knows anything about Big C’s supposed posts. Ethan says he’ll check with someone in Big C’s crew he’s also in contact with, Ash.
\n\nAsh emails back with a public key for Big C. She signs his key with her own. Ethan checks it and sees that it matches the public key for Ash that he’s signed. Then he signs Big C’s key and sends it to Jake.
\n\nJake messages Big C on the new app everyone is using. Instead of sending anything in cleartext, he encrypts a message to the key he has for Big C. He adds his own public key.
\n\nOn that same app, in the general channel they’re all using, someone’s screaming that another account is a honeypot. People stop posting. If they move to a different channel or a different app, they never send Jake anything about it.
\n\nBut that doesn’t matter, because Big C responds, his message likewise encrypted using GPG and then pasted within this new app.
\n\nJake decrypts and checks that it was signed by the same key for Big C that his friend Ethan certified.
\n\nThere’s a time and location. Back room of a donut shop a couple punks work at, 11 pm.
\n\nJake spends most of the day at the café, trying not to attract attention. Then he scarfs down some fast food and gets a bus across town to the donut shop. He gets off a couple stops early and circles around it on back streets, looking for any car or person that could be staking things out. He decides to wait a little longer in an alley. But the alley isn’t empty. Ethan’s there, smoking a cigarette and also scoping things out.
\n\nThey hug. “You’re the first person I’ve seen in like two days, man.”
\n\nEthan’s heard a rumor about some kind of legal defense committee being set up, but he can’t stand one of the people he thinks is in it.
\n\nJake quietly regales him with the saga of his nearly-nude escape.
\n\nThey look at the donut shop down the street.
\n\n“If it’s a trap, maybe only one of us should go.”
\n\n“I’ll go. If it’s chill, I’ll come back out and get you?”
\n\n“Maybe they raid us only once we’re all inside.”
\n\n“Do you wanna wait out here all night?”
\n\n“Fuck, man. I dunno.”
\n\nJake goes in.
\n\nA punk he doesn’t know ushers him in through the employee side door. It’s just three. Big C, usually known as Cookie, the unknown punk, and Ash.
\n\nAsh is chowing down on donuts nervously.
\n\nCookie gets up and extends out a hand and then turns it into an awkward hug. They don’t really know each other like that, but Jake accepts, surprisingly eager for physical touch.
\n\n“Are we waiting for anybody else? Who’d you share this with?”
\n\n“I don’t fucking know, I told Ash and Sydney and Sydney said she told her band, but like I don’t trust them to—”
\n\n“Hey! Mitch is cool.”
\n\n“Yeah, sure, Mitch is cool, I’m just saying I don’t trust them to not tell someone random, you know.”
\n\n“Jesus,” says the punk Jake doesn’t know, looking out the cracked open employee door.
\n\n“What?!”
\n\n“It’s Zoe. She’s down the street but she’s coming this way.”
\n\nSome shared glances. No one wants to let Zoe in.
\n\n“Well, let her in.”
\n\nHalf an hour later, the tiny donut store backroom is swampy with seven nervous anarchists, Ethan included.
\n\n“What are we fucking doing?”
\n\n“Besides running and hiding?”
\n\n“I say we make distractions, make them feel like they got the wrong folks. They’re not the threat.”
\n\n“So what? They’ve already grabbed everyone. It’s not like they’re gonna let them go to get us instead. They’ll just keep them detained and then use all their resources on the few of us. Naw, last thing we need to do right now is remind them they didn’t get all of us.”
\n\n“To what fucking end. Solidarity means attack.”
\n\n“Look, if you can think of some way to bust people out, I’m all for it, but like, right now we can’t even keep ourselves safe. We bust people out, we have no way to house them. They’re raiding random totally apolitical squats, they just cleared the last houseless encampment near the airport.”
\n\n“Look, you can run and hide if you want, honestly, I mean that, I don’t judge, but I know if I was captured right now, the number one thing I’d want to see in the world would be cop cars on fire in the county jail parking lot.”
\n\nThe meeting ends a couple hours later. They have sorted into two groups and a lone individual. One group will focus on risky active strikes. The other group will try to build an underground capable of keeping people safe.
\n\nAsh is going to run a clearinghouse email account to take submissions and push out notifications. Only people within the signed network of GPG keys. If they shut down her email, she’ll just pivot to a different one, using the same keys and sending to the same recipients. “They can’t shut down email wholesale, too much of capitalism runs on it.” She’ll try to maintain a public counterinfo site for certain announcements marked to be public, but no promises. Two of the punks present are going to be showed how to use GPG.
\n\nJake and Ethan head out into the night. Ethan’s got a van they can sleep in.
\n\nCat said Vera could stay as long as she needed, but they’ve never actually lived together before, and as the weeks go by, little frictions keep coming up. Vera forgot that she sided with the bandmate of Cat’s old boyfriend that one time, but Cat hasn’t. Cat doesn’t approve of the lengthy showers Vera takes. Vera had no idea Cat was such a morning person.
\n\nNormally, these would be nothing, but the isolation and background stress is taking a toll. Vera feels like it’s hard to keep her head together. Hard to be her.
\n\nWithout the reference points of her normal life, she feels unmoored and frazzled. Always a step behind. Saying things she should have thought through more. Cat doesn’t have a Netflix account and Vera has nothing to do all day but pace around Cat’s basement and read Cat’s books.
\n\nCat doesn’t use the internet much and Vera is trying not to suddenly flood Cat’s router with a ton of activity. Every morning, around the time Cat said she sometimes checks her work email, Vera takes the new laptop Cat bought for her and connects to the internet.
\n\nInsofar as the raids are getting attention, it seems to be mostly because some prominent journalist got detained too. It joins the background shrieking about journalists’ rights being under attack, but the news outlets mostly want to use that narrative to bolster their subscriptions.
\n\nWith social media effectively gone, there’s little coverage of the mass detentions of anarchists, save some conservatives chortling that it was about time, and “See, the old establishment was deliberately choosing not to fight terrorism the whole time.”
\n\nShe’s careful to build a profile of internet activity that doesn’t match her prior use. She chooses different websites for news, even to check weather reports. She doesn’t want to deviate too far from Cat’s previous activity. If Cat used Bing for searching about mushroom harvests, so will she. If Cat didn’t use an ad-blocker, she won’t add one. The goal is to slowly build up Cat’s internet usage so she can use it more frequently while stuck at home. She holds herself back from checking radical websites.
\n\nIn the last three weeks, Vera has almost never left Cat’s house. One afternoon, there was an unusual car parked all day within view of the front door. Even Cat was convinced it was sketchy. Cat’s home cooking is very cumin-and-vegetables oriented, but she picks up the Thai food Vera loves a couple times with cash, not card.
\n\nVera is hesitant about booting Tails off the USB she had on hand and connecting on the home network because she’s worried that will draw attention.
\n\nInstead, she gets Cat to go to a nearby café during the day and write down the Wi-Fi password. Then, in the middle of the night, she goes out with Cat’s crusty old laptop, sits behind the café’s dumpster, boots Tails, and connects to the open internet.
\n\nA lot of anarchist websites are gone, and the foreign ones are thin on substantive report-backs. Meaningful news or how-to guides are overshadowed by essays that triumphantly advocate one or another grotesque alliance and declare the time of principles to be over. This provokes, in turn, angry evocative screeds that fetishize death. To survive is a betrayal of our fallen, says one, it’s our duty to die beautifully together. Someone else is aggressively promoting a Patreon.
\n\nIn her backup email account, there’s an encrypted message to her, signed by her old comrade Matthew. He survived the raids that got every other anarchist in their town and has taken formal sanctuary in the basement of a Quaker house. The cops seem to know he’s there, though, or at least suspect it. They keep a squad car parked out front at all hours and have followed the two old Quakers who come and go.
\n\nHe’s heard from a friend who escaped the raids in another city and has been riding the rails. Matthew has a normie friend, a former movement lawyer who has fallen off the radar doing corporate work for a decade, but who he is certain would put his other friend up. It’s just that he’s got no way to contact him.
\n\nHe has another friend who made it down across the southern border, but is penniless, needs a money transfer to get an apartment and look for a job. It could be cryptocurrency, even a mailed check… is it possible to get an anonymous money transfer?
\n\nWhen Cat gets home, Vera is ready with questions.
\n\nIn the middle of the night, Julie and Maggie have to leave the farm. They drive out with six of their friends lying flat in the back of their truck, supplies and blankets packed on top of them. Every time they swerve around a bend on a back road and see headlights, they flinch, waiting to see if it is the cops or the local militia who promised to kill all of them.
\n\nThe sudden collapse of two major cities from back-to-back environmental disasters has killed thousands, but it has also resulted in the establishment of an immense internal refugee camp in the south. The rumor is that the authorities can’t demand ID there because so many people have lost theirs.
\n\nThere are enough white people in the vast camp, with enough friends and family outside, that it looks unlikely they will be purged, like so many immigrants had been, if they just keep their stories straight and avoid speaking with an accent. They should be safer there than at the farm where they have lived for the last year.
\n\nThe roads are too chaotic, the internal border checkpoints too overwhelmed. The eight of them make it south intact. They buy Taco Bell and donuts along the way.
\n\nWhen they get to the camp, the armed guards shake them down, pilfering whatever they think might be of value.
\n\nFrom the shoddy posters everywhere, they quickly discover there are out “leftists” in the sprawling camp—the kind that want to be an armed gang and won’t countenance any “organizing” that isn’t under their umbrella. Every few weeks, one of them ends up dead, and it’s rarely from the guards or conservatives.
\n\nThe better relief organizations are all fatigued and thin on resources. They keep getting squeezed out by Christian groups and political organizations looking to gain contracts or legitimacy. It’s unclear to what extent this is the ruler’s acolytes cannibalizing a Federal project in an orgy of corruption and to what extent the powers that be are deliberately inflicting pressure on the refugees. Buses with corporate branding on the sides promise quick work contracts to those in the camps. People come back bone-weary, but they do come back through the security cordons and fencing that surrounds the camp. The ruler brags that this program is finally providing jobs for real citizens.
\n\nIt’s said that Amazon is restructuring its national supply chain to center around the concentrated cheap labor that the refugee camp provides.
\n\nJulie and Maggie keep their heads down, forming a tight circle with their friends from the farm. When administrators try to split them up into separate tracts of tin sheds, they find a way to meet up again.
\n\nWhen the guards took their jewelry and cash, they left them their bulk filtration system, chemical water purifying tabs, and beaten laptop. These turn out to be worth more than gems within the camp. Being able to purify gallons of water every day makes their crew self-sufficient.
\n\nWhat remains of the internet in the rest of the nation isn’t much to speak of, but there’s almost nothing in the camp besides a single app that takes over your phone, charges you dearly, and pronounces news headlines from a single source.
\n\nJulie and Maggie ignore phones entirely, sticking to Maggie’s Casio watch and their laptop. They disable the Wi-Fi on it and pretend it is just for showing pirated shows. Electrical power is available in the camp for a hefty charge, but folks rig up DIY tin-can and magnet turbines in the river that can recharge batteries if you wait long enough.
\n\nOnce you’re in the camp, you can’t leave, but smugglers promise to get letters or even packages to and from the outside world. Rumor has it that many of them steal whatever you entrust to them and turn anything incriminating over to the cops for rewards.
\n\nJulie and Maggie have signed GPG keys with everyone they lived with at the farm, and those who didn’t flee with them to the camps are now vital relays to a wider network. The uncle of the three girls they saved has left the adjoining farm to join up with family further east. His white father’s name and address is above suspicion, so far.
\n\nThey operate a rudimentary onion network, mailing USBs out with the smugglers. First they encrypt a message to the final recipient, then they encrypt that encrypted message plus a note about how to relay it to them to a friend, like the uncle. This encrypted file they hide as a malformed gif file among other memes and similar junk of the sort that is passed around the internal refugee camp. If the smugglers or anyone else inspect the USB on its way to the uncle, they just see some memes and a broken gif. It’s crude, and not every message makes it, but enough do.
\n\nSoon enough, Julie and Maggie are writing reports on the camps that are getting to anarchist journalists and infosites in other countries.
\n\nOne of the companies that oversees the camp’s most hated enforcement drones gets its supply lines attacked in the Mediterranean. The CTO is assassinated at a gala.
\n\nWhen news reaches the camp, even conservative grannies who are always on about racist conspiracy theories are suddenly praising “those anarchists.”
\n\nA communiqué from distant comrades makes its way back through a laborious series of USB exchange. Solidarity, it reads, means attack.
\n\n\nIt’s actually pretty hard to live in the forest. Jake and Ethan knew it would be when they drove their van far off an abandoned logging road and began burying it with dirt and branches to avoid detection by overhead drones.
\n\nBut they couldn’t live in the city anymore. Not after the attack on city hall.
\n\nEvery night, they laugh about the video of the supposedly “progressive” mayor—the one who had approved the executions of so many of their friends in black sites or ditches screaming as he emerged from the burning ruins.
\n\n“Every night we are still alive to cherish this is a gift,” they tell each other. It makes freezing on a punctured air mattress and throwing centipedes out of their bedding a little more tolerable.
\n\nBefore they had escaped the city in their increasingly suspect van, stencils had started appearing of the dying mayor’s face on the news reel. Printed underneath was NO PITY.
\n\nFood is a problem, though. They rapidly pick the surrounding valleys clean of dandelions, miners’ lettuce, chickweed, and blackberries. After they almost get caught raiding a dumpster for something with calories in it, they realize they need a better system.
\n\nOnce a month, they make their way through the forest to the outer suburbs of the city. Cookie leaves two plastic bags of food and stove gas canisters for them to pick up in a forested nook just outside an army graveyard. Peanut butter, chocolate, granola, olive oil, instant rice, chili. Sometimes, there’s also a book or a boardgame. There’s never any T for Ethan, though; it’s impossible to get hormones for anyone these days.
\n\nBack at the buried van, they carefully ration their laptop use, laboriously rebuilding battery charge from a damaged solar panel. They only hook up to the Baofeng radio at specific times. With email effectively banned, Ash is now running communication bursts in the region via radio. About once a week, she bikes out to random locations around the edge of the city and fires off a blast of noise over ham radio before taking off. A few drones now circle the city taking pictures, triangulating her signal each time she sends it. She’s in a race against time with them.
\n\nThis noise is encrypted, of course, and decrypted via private keys now shared by a wider set of anarchist survivors. Each communication burst includes the time of the next burst, though not the place. Jake and Ethan connect their radio to a program on their laptop each time, waiting to read and decrypt.
\n\nMost nights, it’s just news from the wider world, ferried in via underground networks. Warnings of systematic sweeps planned for certain neighborhoods or local highways being closed by militias.
\n\nBut one night, it’s something new.
\n\nThe ruler of the new regime is coming for a photo op. They’re going to drag out one of the comrades kept alive from the original raids and execute her as the mastermind of the attack on City Hall.
\n\nThere will be a ton of security.
\n\nBut maybe not enough for six different shooters.
\n\nIt’s dangerous to keep connecting to the Wi-Fi in the middle of the night at the same café, so Vera rotates cafés, making sure that Cat doesn’t get the Wi-Fi password on the same days and doesn’t bring a phone or device when she does go.
\n\nWith Tor blocked, Vera knows that every time she uses the internet at a café to check sketchy websites it’s a signal to the authorities there’s a radical still running around her town. She tries not to check sketchy websites the same nights at the same cafés where she checks the backup email account she’s been using to message with Matthew. She writes most of her emails ahead of time to minimize time on the ground. No more than three minutes connected, then back into the night. The cops could catch her if they really put resources into it, but she’s banking on their laziness.
\n\nThen one day her emails are blocked. All email seems to be blocked. There’s new ID legislation that’s gone into place?
\n\nThis is the last night Vera goes out to a café.
\n\nBut by that point, she’s already helped build a relay network across town.
\n\nEvery Monday, Matthew hands a USB to one of his Quaker hosts, who slips it down the side of a bench while sipping coffee in a park. Cat checks the side of the same bench a couple hours later and brings it home to Vera, who decrypts it. Relay points and drop spots now exist across town because Matthew’s efforts to rope in the former movement lawyer have succeeded. Now there are two anarchists hiding out on the lam from other cities in his house. One lives in the attic. The other has changed her hair color, removed some piercings, added a full face of makeup, and is working a job under the table.
\n\nA month ago, they helped relay the complete archives of a major anarchist collection that had supposedly been purged from a university. It went south with an anarchist backpacking a long mountain trail. Hard drives with copies of the collection are now squirreled away in various places.
\n\nAnother anarchist that their new network loosely knows has set up a hidden camp on an island in the river, taking a little hidden canoe back and forth into a national park in the wee hours once a week and getting supplies. Cat and the lawyer are finding ways to slip an extra hundred a month to him.
\n\nConservatives have been screaming about demolishing the Little Libraries on people’s lawns because liberals stuck a few banned books in them. They have no idea that Vera’s network uses them as flags to notify couriers about drops. A pulp sci-fi book with spine turned inward placed on top in a certain Little Library means to surreptitiously pick up a USB from a Burger King bag in a trash can down the street. They’re getting a whole system going.
\n\nVera doesn’t need to know the network beyond her immediate circles. With her preexisting GPG public keys for certain distant comrades, she can just send encrypted messages with a distant city as a public destination and wait for couriers and swaps to copy and circulate it until her recipient can decrypt it. Messages get lost, but some get through. Through the network, distant strangers trade tips and tricks they have learned keeping their own local networks up.
\n\nWith so much of the internet down, normies have started engaging in wider swap networks for saved files. “It’s almost like the libs are making their own little really really free markets.” It doesn’t matter that Cat doesn’t have a Netflix account, because now Vera has access to every show once torrented by local nerds. She keeps the new laptop that accepts such USBs air-gapped from everything else. Even if it’s not the shows she’d prefer, Vera can watch TV again.
\n\nHaving something to do—knowing they can make a difference helping other anarchists—has Cat and Vera in a much better mood. Their city is a locus point in an emerging national underground railroad. That friend of Matthew’s south of the border that Cat sent cash to? He has a job now, and his apartment is packed with anarchists who have survived the dangerous trek across the border.
\n\nThey still have the internet down there!
\n\nAs Vera’s little sneaker net develops, folks begin to loop in around the edges—certain liberals from the pirate networks who have proven they can be trusted, at least with some things, at least to help relay GPG messages. One of the liberals in the network finds a way to tap into the credit card reader communications network and sneak packages of information back and forth with a programmer friend in another country.
\n\nWhen the Quaker house is raided and Matthew is summarily shot inside, it hardly breaks anyone’s stride.
\n\nAnd soon enough the network of safehouses and dead drop couriers is so well established that a subsection of it can risk moving not just people and money but guns.
\n\nJulie holds the wound closed while Maggie applies the glue, a contraband gift slipped into the camp via their smuggler friends. The fallen striker is cursing up a storm, but at least he’s not fainting.
\n\nWhere’s that blasted Red Cross worker?
\n\nThe crowd around them isn’t howling or chanting, they’re just jumping up and down in waves, a tactic somehow revived from decades ago in Apartheid South Africa. It makes the earth seem to shiver and shift—an avalanche of people, a force of nature. The usually sandy ground of the camp is already muddy with the rains of the flash flood. All the jumping makes it squelch in a way that adds up to something like the roar of the ocean.
\n\nThis is it. More bullets are going to fly. But the guards don’t have enough and the camp knows it.
\n\nThe gangs have disappeared. The leftists who talked endlessly about a mass strike are nowhere to be seen. The rune-tattooed fascists who work hand in hand with the guards are magically gone, too. A scrawny white boy who usually proudly hawks black market items is beating his chest wildly as he jumps alongside the grizzled Latina dyke who drives the aid workers around.
\n\nMaggie’s Casio watch is beeping with some irrelevant reminder. Their mud-soaked dog is jumping excitedly too, deciding the vast crowd is playing a game with her. Maybe the three of them will survive this, too.
\n\nIf that video of the ruler’s photo-op that was smuggled in is to be believed, anything is possible.
\n\n\nThe publishers endorse Signal as the most secure widely-used option for encrypted messaging.
\n\n" }, { "id": "https://crimethinc.com/2024/05/27/the-sunbird-how-to-start-an-announcements-only-thread-on-signal-and-how-organizers-in-austin-used-one-to-coordinate-solidarity-with-palestine", "url": "https://crimethinc.com/2024/05/27/the-sunbird-how-to-start-an-announcements-only-thread-on-signal-and-how-organizers-in-austin-used-one-to-coordinate-solidarity-with-palestine", "title": "The Sunbird: How to Start an Announcements-Only Thread on Signal : And How Organizers in Austin Used One to Coordinate Solidarity with Palestine", "summary": "Organizers describe how they established an announcements-only Signal thread for the Palestine solidarity movement to share news and coordinate.", "image": "https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2024/05/27/header.jpg", "banner_image": "https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2024/05/27/header.jpg", "date_published": "2024-05-27T20:36:48Z", "date_modified": "2024-09-10T03:56:00Z", "tags": [ "signal", "encryption", "austin", "texas", "palestine", "gaza", "student movement" ], "content_html": "As billionaires have clamped down on social media, secure group messaging platforms like Signal have moved to the fore as spaces for discussion and organizing. In this interview, organizers in Austin, Texas describe how they established Sunbird, a Signal account that runs an announcements-only thread to enable participants in the Palestine solidarity movement to share news and coordinate horizontally.
\n\nThis model represents an alternative to centralized, top-down leadership models, showing how a movement can scale up without losing its decentralized, egalitarian character.
\n\nTo skip directly to a step-by-step guide to establishing your own announcements-only Signal thread, click here.
\n\nTell us about Sunbird.
\n\nSunbird was started on April 24 by a group of unaffiliated students and community members in Austin, Texas. Our intention is to serve as an anonymous, real-time announcement and coordination platform to foster greater participation and activity from everyone who is involved in the struggle for the liberation of Palestine.
\n\nA principle that we hold dear is diversity of tactics. Everyone should be able to plan and promote events and share announcements while retaining their anonymity. In the current climate of repression, in which public organizers are being targeted all around the country, this is especially important. Here in Texas specifically, the 5th circuit ruling in McKesson v. Doe criminalizes organizing protest-related activities.
\n\nSunbird is a creative technological solution to this problem. We draw inspiration from decades of movement infrastructure going back to Indymedia, the origins of Twitter as TXTmob, and the work of the Riseup collective, not to mention anonymous partisans in Ukraine, Hong Kong, and elsewhere who have creatively used Telegram groups to similar effects.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2024/05/27/2.jpg\")
An announcement on Sunbird.
\nWhy did you establish Sunbird?
\n\nSunbird was created in the wake of the internationally coordinated economic blockades of April 15. When students established encampments at Columbia and then elsewhere, it became clear that in order to ensure the longevity and widest possible ownership of the movement locally, there was a need for an anonymous switchboard to potentiate fearless and confident participation.
\n\nThe best way to combat the repression of social movements and to empower ourselves to act is to eliminate the distinction between organizer and organized. We believe that no individual or organization in Austin speaks for the entirety of the Palestinian resistance; consequently, we wanted to create a space that could empower everyone who feels ethically called to respond to the ongoing genocide to take action, announce events, and share live updates.
\n\nWho are you? Are you students?
\n\nWe are an all-volunteer collective. Some of us are students at the University of Texas at Austin, others are community members. We are not affiliated with any organization, student or otherwise.
\n\nWhat scale is Sunbird operating on?
\n\nSunbird is a platform for the Pro-Palestine, anti-genocide movement in Austin, Texas specifically. The need for platforms for anonymous coordination of diverse and creative movements exists wherever hearts yearn for liberation and freedom. We are inspired by similar projects elsewhere, but Sunbird is a special and unique solution deep in the heart of Texas. The power of Sunbird lies in our attention to and participation in our local context; rather than seeking to scale up this project, we encourage people to establish similar experiments with switchboard-style announcement threads elsewhere. We have heard that movements around the country are exploring creating platforms inspired by Sunbird.
\n\nWe grew rapidly during our first few days, quickly hitting the 1000-person limit for Signal groups. To address this, we initially started a Telegram channel, as Telegram has better support for larger groups, but we ended up returning to Signal, establishing a second announcement channel that mirrors the content on the first. Downloading Signal in order to keep up to date with Sunbird was the first time many movement participants had installed an encrypted messaging application on their phones; Signal threads already existed for supply coordination, jail support, and other core functions, so sticking with Signal was easier than changing platforms. Though numbers fluctuate, there are currently approximately 1200 people across both announcement groups, a number that represents a sizable percentage of the most active and committed participants in the local pro-Palestine, anti-genocide movement.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2024/05/27/6.jpg\")
State troopers and other violent mercenaries prepare to attack students on the University of Texas campus on April 29, 2024.
\nWhy did you choose Signal?
\n\nThere are two major benefits to using Signal. First, the messages are end-to-end encrypted, which means that Signal (the company) does not have access to them. Only you and the person on the other end can access the messages. This makes Signal different from texting and social media. Second, while you need a phone number to make an account, following a recent update, it is now possible to withhold your phone number from the people you message. This is very important for those who prefer to remain anonymous, because your phone number can be used to connect your messages to you.
\n\nWe live in the age of surveillance capitalism. Big tech is actively working with governments and private security companies to monitor and undermine individual activists and entire movements. We see this in the shadow bans on Instagram and Twitter, the firing of pro-Palestine employees from Google, and the well-documented collaboration between law enforcement and tech companies.
\n\nWe are normal people who live normal lives, but we take digital security very seriously. We are not technological or cryptography experts. We don’t have specialized skills. What we have set up is something anyone can do.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2024/05/27/8.jpg\")
Anonymity is an important part of the Sunbird model.
\nHow does Sunbird work?
\n\nWe use Signal to coordinate, as well as encrypted documents in Riseup and Cryptpad. We work in shifts, since we receive up to hundreds of messages a day from different individuals, organizations, and journalists. To make sure that we all understand what is happening while any one person is away, we keep detailed notes, message drafts, and the text of frequently sent messages in a cryptpad.
\n\nWe set up our Signal groups to only allow admins to post messages. This way, users can keep up with important developments and event information without being bogged down by chatter. All of the announcements in the group are aggregations of group member submissions. Though we edit for clarity—and we would have weeded out content by those opposed to Palestinian liberation had we ever received it—we welcome shared resources and announcements that movement participants believe would benefit others.
\n\nWe don’t forward everything we receive. We avoid posts that would sow fear and disinformation; these can function as a form of self-repression, doing the work of the state. We work to verify all information that we send. We happily forward messages from many organizations in our role as a sort of “switchboard,” but we are not affiliated with any one organization. Our focus is on hyper-local announcements rather than nationally- or internationally-focused graphics, news, and content, though we do include some virtual events that movement participants submit.
\n\nHow does Sunbird interface with larger established organizations?
\n\nIn many movements, there are large, well-funded organizations that, despite their good intentions, undermine movements when they try to establish a central role as the single or authoritative voice of the movement. Just as resistance movements in Palestine collaborate to enable diverse forms of political action to take place alongside each other, we see Sunbird as encouraging a plural and diverse movement not monopolized by any one group. In places where a single organization has been able to establish itself as the “authoritative” voice of the Palestinian movement, this often undermines independent initiatives. These organizations can limit the bravery, ferocity, or creativity of movements, as the organizers are too cautious, unprepared, or incapable of directing those initiatives.
\n\nBy using an anonymous switchboard-style model instead of the centralized model we have seen in the past from groups like the ANSWER [Act Now to Stop War and End Racism] coalition or PSL [Party for Socialism and Liberation], we protect all organizers—regardless of organization—from being held responsible for the activity of the movement as a whole. This is especially important in Texas in the wake of McKesson vs. Doe.
\n\nWhat has Sunbird enabled people to do?
\n\nDuring the first violent crackdown on students and community members, on April 24, Sunbird sent out live announcements to help keep students safe as state troopers called in from Houston violently attacked a planned rally. Sunbird facilitated the distribution of a jail support hotline phone number and circulated updates on police movements and other developments, helping students to remain calm amid the worst state violence seen on campus in decades.
\n\nThe original organizers of the rally tried to work with police to disperse the crowd when the police declared it an unlawful assembly. After the police arrested the student organizers who were trying to de-escalate the situation and end the protest, the crowd became significantly bolder, leading to a several-hour standoff in which the state troopers were eventually forced to withdraw from campus. After the students successfully expelled the police from the campus, they declared the South Lawn a “Liberated Zone.”
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2024/05/27/1.jpg\")
A student paints a sign at the South Mall on April 25, 2024.
\nThe courage and intelligence of the crowd in these moments—as well as the care, commitment, and initiative of ordinary students who were transformed by their experiences—represent an important corrective to the inertia one often finds in larger organizations.
\n\nOver the following days, Sunbird became a crucial element of infrastructure for students and others who wanted to organize events in the Liberated Zone. We invited everyone to submit event announcements, which we circulated on their behalf. We ourselves organized no events in the Liberated Zone, but we received event submissions from dozens of people and organizations, including a Popular University organized by the student organization that had planned the original protest on April 24, a talk from a doctor who had recently returned from medical mission in Gaza, and a call for musicians to participate in a jam session—not to mention reading groups, live call-ins with other student encampments, art makes, meetings for various newly-formed groups, and workshops on direct action, protest first aid, digital security, and the legal system for protesters.
\n\nWe helped coordinate large supply runs for the Liberated Zone, helping off-campus supporters figure out the on-the-ground needs for food, water, art supplies, literature, and shade. We also helped put people in touch who took on the responsibility of storing these materials every night and bringing them back to the Liberated Zone each morning.
\n\nMany people told us that they would not have felt comfortable planning things without the anonymity, support, and encouragment that Sunbird provided. It often occurred that people would message Sunbird with an idea, saying something like “I think students/alumni/artists should…” In response, we encouraged people to organize events themselves and to use Sunbird to promote them. This approach to political organizing contrasts with the narrow vision of political change that is common among non-profit organizations and authoritarian political groups, which seek to maintain tight control on who participates in a movement and how. For our part, we believe that movements are stronger when people are able to determine for themselves how to contribute their particular talents, experiences, capacities, and specialized knowledge; the role of organizers should be to encourage autonomous initiatives.
\n\nThrough Sunbird, University Baptist Church, which is located just off campus, declared itself a sanctuary space. Intitially imagined as a police-free space for student protestors fleeing violence, over the course of a few weeks the UBC space became a robust movement space with nightly dinners, workshops including media and legal trainings for those who had been banned from campus, and a place to store materials that could not be kept on campus overnight. The church held a nightly dinner for almost three weeks before switching to a weekly dinner. Arrestees from April 24 and 29 have used this space as a place to heal and plan as they face legal charges and pending disciplinary action. Here, Sunbird helped not by seeking to impose any one vision of organization, but by encouraging and promoting different local iniatives, in this case helping to put the pastor of the University Baptist Church in touch with people who had been contacting Sunbird looking for a space to hold workshops.
\n\nThe first meeting of graduate students concerned about Palestine was announced via a message through Sunbird and took place in the Liberated Zone. No one there acknowledged being the person who posted the call, but within an hour, over 30 graduate students had formed a new robust organization with plans to coordinate graduation day actions and to draft a letter from the grad students to UT Austin president Jay Hartzell. As of today, the letter has well over 1000 signatures and graduate students are continuing to talk into the summer about how to use or withhold their labor to continue to pressure the university in the fall.
\n\nOn April 29, we were contacted by students who were planning to set up an encampment. We were able to send out live updates during a second violent crackdown by Texas state troopers on UT campus, which led to the largest mass arrest in Austin since the anti-apartheid movement and the largest mass arrest with charges in this city’s entire history. Receiving live updates from people on the ground, Sunbird was able to help many people quickly mobilize to join and defend the students. We also shared announcements about post-arrest support logistics, including a jail support vigil that ran for nearly 48 hours as the arrestees were released.
\n\nOn Commencement Day, several student walkouts took place at graduation ceremonies while other actions occurred around campus. All of these were announced on our Signal channels or described in live updates we received from students in attendance.
\n\nThese are just a few examples of the events that Sunbird facilitated over the past month. Some of them were organized by established groups, but a large number of the events submitted to Sunbird were organized by individuals or informal groups that had just met, many of them new to organizing.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2024/05/27/4.jpg\")
Demonstrators stand with linked arms to protect a solidarity encampment at the University of Texas, calling attention to the university’s relationship with defense companies on April 29, 2024.
\nHave there been any similar efforts in Austin since Sunbird got started? How have those fared? Can those efforts show us anything about how best to use this model, or what it is best for?
\n\nYes. Both larger organizations and autonomous initiatives have started announcement-only Signal groups clearly inspired by Sunbird or attempting to compete with it.
\n\nIn the group started by a larger organization, several admins were using their legal names, a practice we would caution against as it can allow the state to target organizers. Furthermore, a group like this can easily become limited in perspective, since it is not informed by submissions from other participants in the movement.
\n\nIn general, it appears that the groups set up to compete with Sunbird were not able to last as long or experience as much success as we did because they did not adopt the principles we used to run Sunbird. The messages they posted were often poorly formatted, included conflicting or alarmist information, and did not foster the same sense that users could directly participate and interact with the admins. This was acceptable if you only wanted to receive announcements from organizers telling you what to do, but many found this a disempowering experience.
\n\nOn the other hand, when smaller autonomous initiatives such as the church canteen or the organized arrestees have started announcement threads, it has been clear that the announcements are specific to those entities. In these cases, the model that Sunbird provided as an announcement-only thread was adopted, becoming part of a more broadly shared strategic intelligence across social movements in Austin.
\n\nHow do you anticipate that the model you are employing might be repressed or coopted? Do you have any ideas for how people like you might deal with such challenges in the future?
\n\nThis model cuts against the impulse to manage or consolidate. Our commitment to the principles outlined above sets Sunbird apart from established organizations. We have gained much of our influence by being calm and faithful cheerleaders of initiatives of all kinds. We sincerely want the movement to win. Established organizations want a megaphone for themselves, not a switchboard for everyone, so a model like this would probably feel like a waste of time compared to the larger reach available via social media. Our wager is that the movement itself requires a reliable switchboard that platforms many kinds of initiatives and trusts the creativity and intelligence of the participants. Without this advantage, we suspect that competing sectarian announcement threads would quickly fade into irrelevance or be eclipsed by better models.
\n\nBecause of their centrality to movements, announcement platforms of all kinds receive a lot of attention. Since October, we have seen state and non-state actors go to great lengths to identify organizers in the movement for Palestine. Though it remains to be seen exactly what forms of repression will emerge in response to this cycle of movement activity, we want to reiterate that anyone employing this model should take precautions to do so anonymously, following good digital security practices and only working with a small number of trusted comrades.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2024/05/27/7.jpg\")
Packing up signs after a protest at the University of Texas campus on April 25, 2024.
\n1) Obtain a burner phone and set up Signal on the burner. Use Signal settings to hide the phone number and set up a Signal username. To assist people in contacting you, post your Signal username in your profile byline.
\n\n2) Assemble a few trustworthy friends who are willing to take turns as admins. This is the hardest part. These individuals must be reliable, good writers, and willing to sit in front of a screen during entire shifts. The group of admins must be large enough that everyone can take breaks so as not to burn out, while being available to offer second opinions or review message drafts; but it should be small enough that everyone can trust each other and the identities of the admins won’t be widely known. Because of state repression, maintaining the admins’ anyonymity is of utmost importance. This is not something to discuss freely or in public organizing spaces; the admins’ identities should only be revealed on a need-to-know basis.
\n\n3) Install Signal desktop on the admins’ laptops (this is currently limited to five devices). Have each admin send the QR code from their Signal desktop to the person holding the burner phone to link their device to the same Signal account. If you already use Signal desktop, you can download Signal Desktop Beta to use for your own personal device and link your shared admin account to the more secure and stable Signal Desktop app.
\n\n4) Set up shifts. Shorter shifts are better during high-activity periods when admins must be monitoring messages constantly. During lulls, day-long shifts are feasible.
\n\n5) Set up a separate Signal group for admins. This is a good place to discuss message framing, workshop tricky submissions, and generally figure out how to stay on the same page. Determine a setting for disappearing messages that is long enough for consistency and short enough for security (we set our timer to one day). Utilize riseup pads as secure ways to draft messages, keep track of important contacts, paste old messages for reference, and keep lists such as supplies offered/supplies needed.
\n\n6) Set up the announcement thread with your burner number as the group admin and adjust the settings so that only admins can send messages to the group. Put a description of the function of the group and instructions for sending submissions (including your admin account’s Signal username) in the description of the group.
\n\n7) Advertise your group! We created small flyers with a description of the group’s function on one side and a QR code on the other. Friends of ours passed these out at large rallies and marches, explaining what Sunbird is and actively guiding people in downloading the app and setting up a Signal account. Our group’s growth started slowly, then snowballed as more people added their friends. Eventually, we reached the 1000-person Signal group maximum capacity and started a second mirror group to which we forwarded all the messages posted to the first group. If you do this, be sure to link successive groups in the initial group’s description so folks can easily send it to their friends.
\n\n8) Start sending messages! There are a few that we would send at least once a day: “What is Sunbird?” “How to hide your phone number and create a username,” and “How make an announcement or submit an event to Sunbird.” We sent out daily schedules comprised of submitted events, supplies needed at the encampment, and requests from people wanting to connect with others to get organized.
\n\n9) Dispatch trusted friends to actions and events to send you live updates via text, photo, and video.
\n\n10) Don’t burn out! Add admins as needed, take breaks sometimes, and be transparent with the group about posting hours, response times, and the like. It’s OK to match your posting frequency to upticks and lulls in movement activity.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2024/05/27/5.jpg\")
Police use chemical weapons to attack protesters at the University of Texas on April 29, 2024.
\nShare some tips for writing Signal announcements.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2024/05/27/3.jpg\")
An example of an announcement on Sunbird.
\nWhat principles can make a switchboard service like Sunbird successful?
\n\nNo one way works. Our movements are powerful when everyone takes initiative. This means that we post events and messages from everyone in the movement, seeking not to monopolize or centralize control but to proliferate a sense of empowerment and participation. While the power of running a platform might make sectarian decisions to exclude certain groups seem appealing, over the long run, this sort of control and exclusion runs contrary to the goal of the platform and could undermine trust in it.
\nTell no lies, claim no easy victories. We work hard to verify all the information we send out. In some cases, this has meant following up to verify that jail support forms calling for confidential information or fundraisers for medical support were being hosted by trusted groups—that they were not honeypots or scams. Overwhelming people with poorly written, factually dubious messages is a surefire way to lose the respect and attention of movement participants.
\nDon’t Panic, Stay Tight, We’re Gonna Be Alright. In high-stakes protest scenarios, fear and panic can rapidly sap a crowd of confidence and undermine the bravery, determination, and resolve necessary to keep everyone safe and accomplish goals. While Sunbird played a crucial role providing live updates, we made an effort to keep our announcements factual. At some points, we held off on posting information (like confirmed gatherings of police far away from campus) that might instill panic rather than equipping people to act.
\nNo Police Orders. The police have megaphones, guns, chemical weapons, and the backing of the courts and the prison system. They can announce their own orders and to enforce them. While other announcement threads reposted police dispersal orders or the ever-shifting rules of university bureaucrats, we chose to not amplify the messages of our enemies.
\nTake yourselves seriously. We are doing this because we want to stop the genocide in Gaza and because we are revolutionaries who believe in the liberation of Palestine and all oppressed peoples. The least you can do is take your historic task seriously: spend the extra time it takes to format things nicely, write clearly, treat every communication with the respect it deserves. The political culture in the US that treats “activism” as an unserious hobby undermines our movements and often results in people treating the political projects they value deeply with less care than the work they do for the careers they hate or the degrees they don’t really care about.
\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2024/05/27/9.jpg\")
Professors, students, and supporters demonstrating at the University of Texas Austin campus on April 25, 2024
\nIn the following narrative, our correspondent casts light on a little-understood episode of history.
\n\n\n\n\n“In fact, almost all the major breakthroughs are unexpected. It used to be we’d get bright people and just let them do whatever they want, and then suddenly, we’ve got the light bulb.”
\n\n-David Graeber, interviewed by PBS
\n
Fiat lux. In the beginning, there were three of us—the communist, the insurrectionist, and I, your humble narrator. It was the turn of the century and we were wandering in darkness.
\n\nIn a vacuum, light moves at a velocity of 299,792 km per second. We were moving considerably slower, not only on account of our ignorance of the metric system but also because we couldn’t see two feet in front of us in the abandoned warehouse. We had been forced to abandon our headlamps with our backpacks when we fled the train yard.
\n\nSome people abandon warehouses, other people abandon backpacks. That’s how it is under capitalism.
\n\nThe Hungarian feminist filmmaker Ildiko Enyedi completed her masterpiece My Twentieth Century in 1989, a pivotal moment in history. The film opens in Menlo Park, New Jersey, as Thomas Edison demonstrates his new invention, the electric light bulb. To the rapture of an enchanted crowd, a display of light bulbs arranged throughout the branches of the trees glows like a scale model of the heavens. Enyedi affords the viewer a glimpse of a man with a visage not unlike Errico Malatesta—who did indeed greet the opening of the 20th century in New Jersey—contemplating one of these miraculous inventions.
\n\nThen the scene shifts and we see the stars of the true heavens. The cosmos always exceeds our clumsy imitations.
\n\nWe found a stairwell and ascended through the gloom. The communist was grumpy. He always attributed our misfortunes to a lack of proper discipline. The insurrectionist was peevish. As she saw it, when things went wrong, it showed that we weren’t being brave enough. Myself, I was just thanking my lucky stars that we had gotten away from yard security.
\n\nVisible light is a kind of electromagnetic radiation—specifically, it is comprised of the wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation that fall within the range that the human retina can perceive. White light consists of a roughly equal mixture of all visible wavelengths. But there was no light of any sort in the hallway at the top of the stairs. We crept into the murk, hands before our faces, a single step at a time. Tenebrosity, that’s the literary term for what we were experiencing. Total darkness.
\n\nI was in the front. Space changes when you lose your ability to visually map it from a distance. When you have to feel every inch of it by hand, it expands. In the few tentative steps from the stairwell to the first door, it felt as though I covered as much ground as we had on the freight train over the past three days.
\n\nI fumbled through the door and made my way around the room. It was roughly square, without any doors other than the one I had entered, and apparently windowless.
\n\n“Even if there is a security guard outside the building, they won’t be able to see us in here,” I argued.
\n\n“Let’s post up here, then,” said the insurrectionist. “We can sleep until shift change, then go try to recover our packs.”
\n\n“I wish we had a light to read by,” said the communist. Every night, to catch up on the day’s news, he read a few pages of Das Kapital. Apparently, he’d brought it with him when he abandoned his pack.
\n\nI resumed my blind groping along the walls of the room. Eventually, I found a light switch and flipped it. No luck.
\n\n“What if the light bulb is just burned out, though? We don’t know for sure that the electricity is off.”
\n\n“Are you just walking around with a spare light bulb on you?” I demanded.
\n\n“There could be a utility closet,” answered the insurrectionist.
\n\n“That’s a good idea,” agreed the communist. “Where do you think that would be?”
\n\n“Do I look like a motherfucking theorist?” asked the insurrectionist from the darkness.
\n\nThe insurrectionist and I stumbled back out into the hallway. I took one side of the hallway, she took the other, and we traced our fingers along the walls until she reached another door. She swung it open. “I feel shelves.” She had found the utility closet. “I found something! I think it’s a light bulb!”
\n\nWe groped our way back to our room. But in the darkness, we couldn’t reach the ceiling to find the light fixture.
\n\n“How many anarchists does it take to change a light bulb?” I asked.
\n\n“We’re not here to change things for people,” said the insurrectionist. “The light bulb has to change itself.”
\n\n“‘Communism is not a state of affairs which is to be established, an ideal to which reality has to adjust itself,’” quoted the communist. “It is ‘the real movement that abolishes the present state of things,’ which is to say, the darkness.”
\n\n“So if we change the light bulb, it was communism that did it?” objected the insurrectionist. “Talk about gaslighting.”
\n\n“Lenin says ‘Communism is Soviet power plus the electrocution of the whole country,’” the communist answered.
\n\nI crept back into the hallway and resumed my search. Past the closet, I found another door. It, too, was unlocked. I stepped through it and immediately stubbed my toe on something in the murk. I reached out and felt something at hip level. A swivel chair.
\n\nI rolled the chair back down the hall into our room. The insurrectionist held it still while I stood on it, flailing my arms over my head in slow motion. And sure enough, there it was—the light fixture. I unscrewed the glass hemisphere that concealed it and lowered the glass to the insurrectionist, who passed me the light bulb from the hall closet in return. There was already a light bulb in the socket above me. I unscrewed it and handed it down to her.
\n\n“You know you can fill these with paint and throw them at police officers,” she informed me.
\n\nGingerly rotating the new light bulb into the socket, I held my breath, hoping against hope. What were the odds that the power was still on in this abandoned building?
\n\nLight consists of energy quanta called photons that behave like particles in some cases and like waves in other cases. Sometimes we are atomized individuals, doing our lonely part to contribute to the collective struggle. Other times, we become something that transcends the sum of our parts. We become a wave of change.
\n\nAnd suddenly, everything was illuminated. In a flash, I could see the ceiling over me, I could see the room around us, I could see the dumbfounded faces of my comrades squinting up at me from below. I was Prometheus, stealing fire from our corporate overlords to light our dismal way. We had accomplished the unthinkable. Let there be light!
\n\nThe communist got out his book. The insurrectionist started looking for things to steal. Flushed with success, I went back out into the hall.
\n\nNavigating by the ray of light from our room, I returned to the stairwell. I could see, now, that the stairs continued up. I ascended them two at a time, landing after landing. At the top, there was a ladder reaching up to a trap door.
\n\nThe view from the top of the building was breathtaking. The whole city was laid out before us in all its excess. A hundred thousand households sleeping side by side, oblivious to their collective potential. Capitalism had left this building dead, but we had brought it back to life. If three of us could accomplish that, what could all of us accomplish, together?
\n\nSuddenly, the insurrectionist was at my side. We stood there, looking out across the city. We were not powerless individuals. We were the froth on the edge of a wave of change, about to crash across an unsuspecting society. Raising our eyes from the electric lights of the sleeping city to the canopy of stars above, we knew in our hearts that our story had only just begun. If we could change a light bulb, we could change the world.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2024/04/01/1.jpg\")
\n\n\n\n" }, { "id": "https://crimethinc.com/2023/05/24/recipes-for-disaster-asphalt-mosaics-a-hot-weather-activity-for-lonely-asphalt-near-you", "url": "https://crimethinc.com/2023/05/24/recipes-for-disaster-asphalt-mosaics-a-hot-weather-activity-for-lonely-asphalt-near-you", "title": "Recipes for Disaster: Asphalt Mosaics : A Hot Weather Activity for Lonely Asphalt Near You", "summary": "A guide to installing unsanctioned mosaics in asphalt streets and parking lots.", "image": "https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2023/05/24/header.jpg", "banner_image": "https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2023/05/24/header.jpg", "date_published": "2023-05-24T20:00:14Z", "date_modified": "2024-09-10T03:55:57Z", "tags": [ "asphalt mosaics", "recipes for disaster" ], "content_html": "“A light bulb came on.”
\n\n-“Performing Folk Punk: Agonistic Performances of Intersectionality,” Benjamin D. Haas
\n
We’ve just reprinted our classic manual for direct action, Recipes for Disaster. You can order a copy here. To celebrate, here’s one of the first chapters, a guide to installing unsanctioned mosaics in asphalt streets and parking lots.
\n\nIn the course of the years of research that went into the book, our contributors experimented with a wide array of tactics—some drawn from protest movements, others from outsider art. Some of the most inspired participants in Recipes for Disaster reverse-engineered the process by which a mysterious street artist in their region had installed cryptic tiles in the streets. At the time, almost no one had heard of these “Toynbee tiles.” In the years since, they have become legendary, inspiring an entire mythology.
\n\nAfter we publicized the method in 2004, other tiles began to appear around the country. Others eventually made their own pop-culture guides to the art form; in 2011, a film appeared about the original artist. Yet we have yet to see asphalt mosaics themselves become widespread.
\n\nSo just in time for summer—which softens up the asphalt, the better to receive your mosaics—we offer the following how-to guide. We’ve also added an account that postdates the book. Carry out these instructions and send us photographs of your work!
\n\nThis is a method for making colorful, permanent mosaic installations in asphalt roads and lots. Like glass, asphalt is amorphous, somewhere between a liquid and a solid; this means that a design affixed to it with more asphalt will eventually settle in and become a part of it. We owe our awareness of this technique to a nameless mystic we have never encountered in person.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2023/05/24/12.jpg\")
“You must make and glue tiles!! You!!!! As media!”
\nWe saw the first one in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. We were walking along a downtown street when we spotted a colorful patch of text embedded in the asphalt of a crosswalk. It was clearly made of vinyl floor tile—but how was it attached? We found the pictured on the left at the corner of Smithfield Street and Oliver Avenue.\nAs we walked we saw more versions of the same design. While befuddled by the message, we were amazed by the technique, and avidly discussed how it might be reproduced. But a few blocks later, miraculously, we came upon the Rosetta Stone, a similar piece of the same material and text… except that this one featured an additional block of smaller text: instructions! The words were old and badly damaged, but we could just make out the crucial sentence: “…I USE ASPHALT CRACK FILLER…” We got right to work.
\n\nThe next time we came through Pittsburgh we were on tour. Part of our program was a skill share on asphalt décor, and we had already left a respectable trail of color across the country. After our workshop, we ventured downtown to visit the original pieces. When we got there, we found most of them—but the crucial piece, the one with the instructions, were gone. It had been buried under a fresh slab of asphalt. We had discovered it in the nick of time.
\n\nIn a subsequent internet search, we found that the same text has been spotted all over the world, though mostly in North and South America. There even seems to be a fan club. According to one posting, a piece in New York starts with the same Toynbee text, then adds, “Murder every journalist, I beg you.” Well, we would never be so impolite, but between that and the kindly instructions provided in Pittsburgh, it’s clear where the artist stands on do-it-yourself media.
\n\nSo, in the spirit of the inventor who was thoughtful enough to declassify his or her technique, we present the findings of our attempts to reverse-engineer it. Now, go make and glue tiles!! You!!! As media!!!
\n\nThe so-called “Toynbee Tiles” are made out of two kinds of floor covering material: Vinyl Composition Tile and true Linoleum.
\n\nVCT is cheap, even brand new. It sells for less than sixty cents a square foot at hardware marts. The problem is that color selection is generally limited to a few bland options when you’re only buying single tiles. They do come in exciting colors, though, and if you want to order a case you can get almost any color you want; however, a case is expensive, and it’s unlikely that you will ever need forty-five square feet of any one color, so we have some other recommendations.
\n\nA lot of cites these days have salvage building-supply warehouses. They are often non-profit and community-run. These are a good place to start, as they usually have partial cases in a variety of colors. We have also had luck calling and stopping by floor covering stores and/or installation contractors. We ask if they have any partial cases in their storage area that we could have for an art project. Sometimes they are generous, sometimes they ask for a little money. Another method that has worked well with other materials is a classified “want ad” in the local paper. If someone has redone their own kitchen floor, they may have a partial box that they couldn’t bring themselves to toss but don’t really need. People love to donate these kinds of materials to starving artists.
\n\nYou have two options for creating your design. You can make mosaics, or you can make what we’ll call Toynbee-style pieces, in which your text or image is set into a solid background.
\n\nThe advantage of the mosaic approach is that they can be made with VCT alone. You may find VCT to be easier to obtain than linoleum. Because of its brittleness, VCT is hard to cut into precise shapes such as small letters, and large pieces of it can crack apart as the road shifts with temperature and pressure. Mosaics circumvent these problems, by piecing together small, randomly cut pieces of tiles to form a design.
\n\nFirst, you have to make whole tiles into pieces. We’ve developed a method for producing durable pieces of irregular shapes. Using a utility knife and straightedge, score a line 1/2 to 3/4 inch from the edge of a tile (figure 1.1). Now Gently work from one end of the line to another, bending the strip away from the score line. The crack will become deeper and deeper, until it finally breaks. Once you have removed the strip, score it cross-ways to make smaller bits (figure 1.2). It is best to make a wide variety of shapes: squares, rectangles, rhombi, triangles. The more variety you have, the easier it will be to put your image together.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2023/05/24/1.1.jpg\")
Figure 1.1.
\nNext, you need a flat surface. It is best to work on a flat piece of plywood or thick cardboard, so you can move your piece as necessary. Cut out a piece of tarpaper that is larger than your design, and tape or staple it to your work surface. The tarpaper needs to be flat and smooth; tears or wrinkles will mess things up.
\n\nSmear the surface of the tarpaper with an even coat of waterproof wood glue. The glue-cover area should extend one or two inches beyond the edge of your design on all sides. Let the glue dry thoroughly.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2023/05/24/1.2.jpg\")
Figure 1.2.
\nPrepare the surface for layout. With a cloth, spread a thin layer of glue on the dry glue. This will cause the\nletters to stick to the glue surface.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2023/05/24/1.3.jpg\")
Figure 1.3.
\nLay out your design on the glue-coated tarpaper (figure 1.3). If the glue dries before you get all the tile down, add a thin layer of fresh glue. Laying out the tile pieces will appeal to your compulsive side. Put them down like a puzzle, custom-shaping pieces if need be. Aim to maintain consistent 1/8-inch gaps between tiles; as the tile itself is 1/8-inch thick, you can use a piece of tile as a guide (figure 1.4). If the tiles are too close to one another, the tar will have trouble flowing between pieces; if they are too far apart, the tar will span the gap, but it will be a weak spot. A consistent layout will also make your design more readable.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2023/05/24/1.4.jpg\")
Figure 1.4.
\nKeep your design at least one inch away from the edge of your plastic, staples, or tape.
\n\nIf you are using text, lay it out backwards. This is easy to forget! What you see when you are laying out\nyour image will actually be the underside when it is installed.
\n\nAllow the second layer of glue to dry thoroughly. Before you move on to adding tar make sure no tile bits are loose. If one is loose, glue it back down.
\n\nShake the jug of asphalt crack filler thoroughly and pour it over your design (figure 1.5). The ideal consistency of the crack filler is like honey. If the brand you are using is too thick, place the jug in the sun so it will flow better; you can also try adding a little water. The important part of this step is to get the tar between the tiles. The surfaces of the tiles need not be tar-free, but you should be able to see the shapes and some of the colors of the tiles. When the entire design is covered, add a 1/2-inch border of tar beyond the edge of the tiles.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2023/05/24/1.5.jpg\")
Figure 1.5.
\nCut a piece of tarpaper in the shape of your design and, while the tar is still wet, press the tarpaper into the tar. If the paper starts to curl at the edges do something to hold it down. Once the tarpaper is stuck flat, spread another layer of tar on the back of the tarpaper, so it is completely coated with tar. This second layer of tar should be no more than 1/16-inch thick.
\n\nRefer to “Finishing and Installing” below to complete your project.
\n\nThe Toynbee method is laborious, but it looks fantastic, and produces installations that are, by some indications, more durable than mosaics. For our example, we will assume you are using text, although you can use an image instead.
\n\nFirst, cut your text out of either VCT or linoleum (figure 1.6). It is worth your while to use a very sharp utility blade for this. Both linoleum and VCT become soft and easier to cut if left in the sun; if you are doing anything intricate, a heat gun makes the stuff cut like butter. If need be, you can make difficult letters on more than one piece.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2023/05/24/1.6.jpg\")
Figure 1.6.
\nNext, trace the text (figure 1.7). Lay out a piece of linoleum (not VCT) and arrange your text on it. Using\na fine-point permanent marker or dark pencil, make a close tracing of each letter, or place the entire text\non the linoleum at once and use a light dusting of spray paint to transfer the letters precisely onto the\nbackground. If you use the spray paint method, lay out the text backwards, so the paint will be on the\nback side of your tiles.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2023/05/24/1.7.jpg\")
Figure 1.7.
\nNow, cut out the negative space. Use a sharp blade, and make sure your linoleum is warm. Cut out the traced letters as precisely as possible (figure 1.8). Save the spaces in the letters, such as “O” and “B” to put back in. Save the letters you cut out; you can use them with a background of a different color for your next design. Toynbee-style pieces do not require an 1/8-inch gap between pieces—in fact, the tighter the fit, the better.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2023/05/24/1.8.jpg\")
Figure 1.8.
\nStaple or tape a piece of tarpaper on a flat portable surface—cardboard and plywood both work well.\nCover the tarpaper with a thin, even layer of waterproof wood glue. Spread the glue so it covers an area\nlarger than your design by at least two inches on all sides.\nNext, place the design. Lay the linoleum background onto the wet glue so that the readable side is stuck to the tarpaper. Fit each letter into place (figure 1.9). Thoroughly remove any glue that has made its way into the side of the tiles not facing the tarpaper. When everything is in place, weigh the piece down with a board, and allow twelve or more hours for the glue to dry completely; it takes much longer than usual because there is hardly any airflow.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2023/05/24/1.9.jpg\")
Figure 1.9.
\nAfter the glue is dry, apply the tar. Squeeze some tar onto the center of the design, and use a piece of card\nto spread it to a 1/16-inch thickness. Add a 1/2-inch perimeter of tar around the edge of the entire design.
\n\nCut a piece of tarpaper in the shape of your design, and press the tarpaper into the wet tar, just as you would in preparing a mosaic design. Once the tarpaper is stuck flat, spread another layer of tar on the back of the tarpaper so it is completely coated with tar. The second layer of tar should be no more than 1/16-inch thick.
\n\nLet your piece dry. In warm sunlight, most crack fillers will dry sufficiently in eight hours; in the shade of indoors, it could take up to twenty-four hours. When you think it is safe to handle your piece, detach it from the board. The side that has been facing the board is the top of your mosaic. Trim the tarpaper on the top side so that it is a half-inch bigger than the tar-coated tarpaper on the bottom side. The layer of tarpaper on top of your piece will remain until it is washed or worn away.
\n\nPrepare the bottom surface of your piece. Different tar products dry to different consistencies. If your tar has dried like a tire rubber—flexible, yet dry to touch—use a paper towel to spread a very thin layer of fresh tar to the bottom side. The goal here is to create a sticky surface, not to make a layer of wet tar! If your tar has dried to be flexible and sticky, it is not necessary to add fresh tar.
\n\nFind a spot. Asphalt crack filler sticks only to asphalt such as is used to make roads, sidewalks, and paths. It does not work on concrete, brick, or cobblestone. Find a high visibility location. We recommend crosswalks, as your piece is probably scaled for pedestrian viewing: pedestrians will be able to enjoy your work as they cross the road, and the passing cars, will help mash the piece into the asphalt. Also, in their capacity as dumb and dangerous moving objects, cars will faithfully deter someone from kneeling down to pick at your piece. Yes, just this once, cars are working for you!
\n\nDon’t let your masterpiece be covered up in the prime of its life just because the road needed repair. Your tile can last for ten year, possibly longer than its asphalt host. Apply your piece on the freshest asphalt you can find that is also a good location. Also, new asphalt is softer and stickier, and thus more receptive to your decorations.
\n\nInstall your artwork. You should install your design during warm weather, when the asphalt is warm, soft, and dry. If the forecast calls for significant rains in the next few days, wait until they have passed. Bring a small brush to remove sand or debris from the road. Place your piece by simply setting it down, tar side to the road. Now walk, skip, jump, and run all over it to make sure it is firmly planted. The top layer of the tarpaper will serve to camouflage and stabilize your piece for the first few weeks, when it is most vulnerable, while it begins to join with the road. Eventually, the top layer will wear through or wash away, unveiling your masterpiece.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2023/05/24/11.jpg\")
\nYou can give your tile more time to set into the asphalt by adding extra layers of tarpaper on top of the design. Before you go out, cut two pieces of tarpaper a few inches bigger than your tile all around. Smear the pieces of tarpaper with a generous amount of glue, and stick them together glue side to glue side. This will keep them from drying out or sticking to things on the way to the installation site. Once you have laid the tile down and walked on it a bit, peel the two pieces of tarpaper apart and paste them—one on top of another—over the tile.
\n\nBrightly colored tiles look the best on asphalt; colors like dark green tend to be invisible unless they are used effectively with other colors. Make sure there is plenty of color or tone contrast between your figure and its background, especially if your design includes text.
\n\nExperiment with other materials! You have probably seen pennies, fasteners, and bits of brake light embedded in asphalt at intersections; thin bits of metal, mirror, or plastic will work too.
\n\nTo make cutting easier, heat your VCT or linoleum with a heat gun or in an over set on warm; make sure the area in which you do this is well ventilated.
\n\nAs with stickers and stencils, pizza boxes are great for transporting pieces to their designated sites (figure 1.10).
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2023/05/24/1.10.jpg\")
Figure 1.10.
\nThis technique has a lot to recommend it over standard graffiti and wheat pasting: it can be more permanent, it makes use of a medium not yet often utilized creatively, it is still virtually unknown to the authorities and so can be remarkably easy to get away with.
\n\nHere’s a dare: make asphalt mosaics as popular—and unpopular—tomorrow as spray paint murals are today!
\n\nThe following is excerpted from the report on the 2007 CrimethInc. convergence.
\n\n\n\n\nIn August 2003, after participating in the CrimethInc. convergence described in “Under the Helicopters,” my barnstorming group made one more tour stop—in Athens, Ohio. By that time, following an unplanned parade-turned-riot and subsequent media feeding frenzy, there was an APB out and police officers were waiting for us everywhere we went.
\n\nOur final evening of performances and workshops went smoothly enough until the conclusion. We’d been ending each event by teaching people how to make the asphalt tile mosaics described in Recipes for Disaster, then affixing one in a street as a token of our passing. We debated briefly as to whether we should attempt this act of unorthodox vandalism under the watchful eyes of the police, and finally concluded—as we always do—that we had to go for it and let the consequences sort themselves out. A slapstick scene ensued such as one might see in a European comedy: imagine us running around the campus pursued by police and audience members, attempting to elude the former and put down our tile mosaic in front of the latter. In the end, we succeeded in deploying the mosaic, but were followed by police to the house we’d intended to stay at and had to escape through the back alley to sleep somewhere else.
\n\nMonths later, unbeknownst to us and against all odds, the mosaic remained in the parking lot—somehow the police never bothered to have it removed. Long before we ever met, the person who is now my lover and partner walked past a colorful heart set into the asphalt on her way to class every day, wondering how it came to be there.
\n\nFast-forward nearly four years, to the end of July 2007. The tile mosaics our barnstorming tour put down have been paved over and the passionate friendships that bound our group together have cooled. All of us are now involved in new projects and friendships—for example, I’m back in Athens, in an unpermitted parade at the conclusion of the sixth CrimethInc. convergence, surrounded by hundreds of costumed maniacs. Some of them are spinning fire; others are beating improvised percussion instruments, including one enormous drum pushed on a shopping cart; still others have just dislodged an enormous road blockade reading “ROAD CLOSED” from a construction site and are carrying it to the front. Among the whirling dancers and masked faces, through the haze of enthusiasm and good cheer, I can make out a couple people who were with me here four years earlier. We’ve covered a lot of ground in that time.
\n\nMy partner calls me over to a spot in the road. There, set in the asphalt, as fresh and bright as the day we put it there, is a colorful tile heart.
\n\nWhen experiments like these work, they connect us to spaces and to each other in a magical way, giving our lives back the narrative meaning that capitalism drains from everything. They may not immediately overthrow the government or abolish private ownership of capital, but they give us the networks, experience, and sense of our own power necessary for tilting at such monstrous windmills. Separated from our ongoing struggle for liberation they are senseless, but they aren’t only useful as incremental steps towards liberation—they also are that liberation, as we recapture our lives, moment by moment, from routine and obedience.
\n
“Resurrect Dead - The mystery of the Toynbee Tiles (2011).” You can also learn more at Steve Weinik’s website.
\nThis guide describes how a small collective produced and distributed transdermal estrogen using reproducible do-it-yourself methods.
\n\nWhat follows here is not medical advice; it is a report on an experiment in process, providing proof of concept. Generally speaking, if you want to take estrogen and you have the option to acquire it through the prevailing medical institutions, we encourage you to consider taking that route. At the same time, it is already difficult for some people who need estrogen to access it that way, and those difficulties may only increase in the future—so we believe that information like this should be distributed widely. Taking a hands-on approach to healthcare can give you a more direct relationship to your agency, which can give you more control over your safety in the long run, provided you learn about the risks and reflect properly on them.
\n\nAbove all, we believe in gender self-determination: the idea that everyone should be free to position themselves as they see fit within the matrix of gender. Neither governments, religions, patriarchal authorities, nor anyone else should be able to confine us within their narrow visions of who we should be or who we can become.
\n\nThis guide was adapted from a zine by the Fairy Wings Collective, available here along with related resources.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2022/12/15/8.jpg\")
\nWe made our own transdermal estrogen and started giving it out to people. Transdermal means you just rub it on your skin and that’s it: no needles, no adhesives, no eating it. When we tell other anarchists about this, they’re usually like, “Oh yeah, I talked to some friends about that once, but we didn’t know how to do it.” We got together with about four people and scrounged up a few thousand bucks and decided to figure it out. This article describes what we did, some of the risks involved, and how you can do it yourself.
\n\nWith access to transgender health care becoming increasingly politicized and restricted, especially in certain parts of the country, being able to make our own hormones is a necessary step towards ensuring that people in our communities have access to the care they need. Doing this project ourselves instead of relying on doctors, prescriptions, and the established medical supply chain offers more privacy, autonomy, and ease of access for individuals who might find it difficult to access hormones through traditional methods. Our primary audience includes young people, people who are transient or without an established address, people who are uninsured or underinsured, and those living in rural or politically conservative areas. We don’t think we can reach all of those people via our little distribution network—that’s why we are proposing that anarchists in other areas start making DIY estrogen in a decentralized way. We encourage anyone who wants to participate in this project to read this guide and start producing their own supply.
\n\nFirst, some good news: it works! Several individuals started using the transdermal estrogen we made without taking any other exogenous hormones. After several weeks, they had successfully raised their estrogen levels. They were able to adjust the dose by taking more or changing the administration site, as different places on your body offer a higher or lower efficacy of absorption. Below, we’ll offer a more detailed report on their experiences.
\n\nEstradiol suppresses your body’s production of other sex hormones through a negative feedback loop; an estradiol level of 150 pg/ml is usually enough to suppress your body’s production of testosterone into the female range. However, current standards of care and some individuals’ body chemistry may require an anti-androgen to achieve these levels. Since the dose is flexible and site of administration can be changed to suit your needs, some of this depends on your body and the results you want.
\n\nFor more information, check out TransFemScience.org—specifically this article.
\n\nThe process of producing a usable form of estradiol is pretty straightforward: buy ingredients, mix them together in set ratios, apply. Based on our experiences, the hardest parts were researching how exactly to turn estradiol powder into something usable and attempting to find a lab to analyze the estradiol we bought. Now that we’ve done those things, you can copy our steps and end up with about the same result.
\n\nWe encourage you to do your own research and learn as much as you can on this topic. None of us are experts and we would all benefit from learning from each other. The way we chose to approach this is not the only way. We could have bought a pill press and a binding agent and cranked out estradiol pills. We could have produced injectable estradiol. However, based on our limited knowledge of chemistry and medicine and our cleanliness standards (reasonable, but not a clean room and not sterile), we felt that producing transdermal estrogen was the safest and easiest approach. Contamination risk is very real and injectable products must meet a much higher standard to be safe for use.
\n\nYou will need:
\n\nRather than setting up a formal organization, we favor a more decentralized approach. This is why we called our project Boobs not Bombs—an homage to Food not Bombs, a call to action for people in any community to feed their neighbors. Anyone with a small set of supplies can make enough do-it-yourself estrogen to serve hundreds of people. We intentionally chose reproducible methods. Our goal is to equip others to make do-it-yourself hormones as well. You know your community and its needs better than we do. Via direct action, we can secure the autonomy of queer and trans folks, even in the face of an increasingly oppressive and surveilled future.
\n\nIf you are starting a Boobs Not Bombs, email us!
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2022/12/15/13.jpg\")
\nDisclaimer: Neither the vials we produced nor this text are intended to diagnose, treat, prevent, or cure any medical illness. None of these statements has been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. They are NOT medical advice.
\n\nBoobs Not Bombs is a reference to Food Not Bombs, an anarchist food distribution project dating back decades. Boobs Not Bombs is our name for the idea of distributing estrogen cheaply or for free; Fairy Wings Mutual Aid is the name of our specific chapter. This chapter was created as an explicitly anarchist project and we have sought to organize it around anarchist principles. If anything in here is unclear or confusing don’t hesitate to send us an email at fairywingsma@protonmail.com. We’d love to hear from you!
\n\nA standard dose is 0.57 ml—about a quarter of a dropper—applied to the scrotum or neolabia once per day. Based on the bloodwork we have done so far, this should be enough to fully suppress testosterone into the female range and induce feminization.
\n\nFor lower levels, switch to a less efficient application site or reduce the dosage. You can choose from the following application sites, listed from least absorbent to most absorbent: the soles of the feet or palms, abdomen, forearm, armpit, scrotum/neolabia.
\n\nIf your levels aren’t high enough, you could increase the dosage or apply a dose twice per day. It’s worth noting that once testosterone has been suppressed, higher levels of estradiol have not been shown to produce any benefit and carry additional risk.
\n\nApplying lotion afterwards at the site of application will slightly increase absorption. Using sunscreen will decrease absorption. For one hour afterwards, make sure not to make skin-to-skin contact between the site of application and anyone who doesn’t want additional estrogen in their body.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2022/12/15/6.jpg\")
\nAs in many do-it-yourself projects (and most activities), there are risks to making or using this product.
\n\nSome risks have to do with the supply chain. For example, we tested the estradiol we bought as raw powder and found it to be 97.2% estradiol. The test also showed that it contained no heavy metals. That being said, we weren’t able to figure out what the remaining 3% was. Is there something dangerous in that 3%? We don’t know.
\n\nThe same is probably true for grocery store supplements as well. If a company is accused of putting dangerous chemicals in its supplements, it might be investigated, but otherwise, supplements are not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. In our opinion, this estrogen is probably about as dangerous as a standard over-the-counter supplement. If you are able to get estradiol prescribed by a doctor and you can afford it, it will undoubtedly be higher quality, and we recommend you do so.
\n\nNevertheless, that isn’t possible for many people. That’s where this guide comes in.
\n\nThere are inherent risks to taking estradiol, as well. The following is written for AMAB (Assigned Male at Birth) people. For AFAB people, the risks are greater and the rewards are very different.
\n\nFor all people, estradiol is associated with blood coagulation. This can lead to a number of adverse events including heart attacks, strokes, and blood clots, also known as thrombosis. Of particular concern are venous thromboembolisms, or VTE events—blood clots in veins moving blood towards the heart. For AMAB people that take estradiol, the increased risk depends on the dose and the means of administration. The risks are greater with higher levels; some ways of taking estradiol are more associated with VTE events than others. The exact risks are not precisely known, as research on trans people is poorly funded. However, based on the available data, it seems that transdermal estradiol levels within 100-200 pg/ml (and perhaps as high as 300 pg/ml) produce little or no additional risk of clotting events. For a fuller overview of the research, read this.
\n\nAnother risk to consider is breast cancer. Like blood clots, there seems to be a causal link between exposure to estrogens and breast cancer. This also seems to be dose dependent, so higher doses of estradiol will result in an increased risk of breast cancer. As with blood clots, the exact degree of risk isn’t precisely known; for AMAB people taking estradiol, the risk level is likely to be somewhere between the risk levels for cis men and cis women.
\n\nLastly, the primary effects of estradiol itself—feminization and suppression of your body’s reproductive processes—could be considered risks, depending on your perspective. For better or worse, the vast majority of effects from estradiol, like smoother skin and fat distribution, are reversible. However, some effects are permanent, including breast development and, possibly, infertility. Anyone who might use this product should be made aware of the risks so they can make an informed decision.
\n\nEstrogen is not a scheduled substance. It is legal to import it. The other ingredients you need are all legal to purchase. As long as an item is not labelled for medicinal use, it is legal to sell or give away even if it contains potentially bioactive ingredients—think of herbal medicines sold in stores. In many places, you can buy estrogen over the counter to alleviate symptoms of menopause. All in all, we think that the present legal risk is very low.
\n\nHowever, this could change at any time: several states have passed laws against mailing or importing misoprostol and some have introduced new laws restricting access to gender-affirming medical care for youth or even adults. It’s probably better to stay a bit below the radar in case this becomes illegal later. Currently, our chief security concern is publicity from hostile far-right groups: we’re more concerned about showing up on Fox News than FBI raids.
\n\nUnlike estrogen, testosterone is a scheduled drug—it is generally illegal to access it without a prescription. Producing and distributing testosterone would involve a different set of legal risks.
\n\nAs there is insufficient research on trans health, the long-term health consequences of starting and stopping hormone treatment are unknown. Hormones affect many body systems in ways Western medicine still doesn’t understand, and there is little data available on the long-term effects of intermittent hormone use.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2022/12/15/2.jpg\")
\nSo far, the Fairy Wings chapter of Boobs not Bombs has distributed approximately 200 bottles of transdermal estrogen. Early on, we invited several volunteers to switch to Boobs not Bombs estrogen and to test their estrogen and testosterone levels. As more bottles were distributed, people who were starting hormones for the first time also provided lab results. We asked volunteers to wait until they had been taking Boobs not Bombs estrogen for three to four weeks before they tested, in order to avoid lingering effects from other preparations of estradiol they may have been on previously. The results we collected do not meet the rigorous standards of a scientific study, especially considering the wide variety of possible administration sites, dosing, and individual variables including other medical conditions, concurrent medications (hormone-related and otherwise), lifestyle, and the like. However, we can provide the information we received from volunteers.
\n\nSince the beginning of the project, five people have taken or switched to Boobs not Bombs estrogen and provided numerical lab results. While we asked a standard set of questions of each person, some people were unable to have their testosterone levels checked and some provided incomplete information. At least one individual never took any lab tests, but did experience breast development and sensory changes.
\n\nOne person reported applying a quarter of a dropper daily to the scrotum/neolabia, which resulted in estrogen levels of 250 pg/ml and testosterone 200 ng/dl. Two people applied the estrogen to their forearms: one used a half dropper per day and measured estrogen 94 pg/ml, while the other used one full dropper daily for estrogen levels of 125 pg/ml. The two people who administered this estrogen to their armpits were also both taking anti-androgens. Both applied a half dropper per day; one had estrogen levels of 200 pg/ml and the other 842 pg/ml (and testosterone of 33.3 ng/dl).
\n\nAccording to transfemscience,
\n\n\n\n\nCommonly recommended ranges for transfeminine people in the literature are 100 to 200 pg/mL (367–734 pmol/L) for estradiol levels and less than 50 ng/dL (1.7 nmol/L) for testosterone levels (Table). However, higher estradiol levels of more than 200 pg/mL (734 pmol/L) can be useful in transfeminine hormone therapy to help suppress testosterone levels. Lower estradiol levels (≤50–60 pg/mL [≤180–220 pmol/L]) are recommended and more appropriate for pubertal and adolescent transfeminine individuals.
\n
If you want to share your own results, email us and tell us how long you’ve been taking this estrogen, any other hormone-related medications, your dose, administration site, and lab results (estrogen and testosterone levels).
\n\nFor some people, there can be risks associated with not taking hormones, as well, and these can also be life-threatening. Those who want to restrict access to hormones often speak about the “irreversible changes” that are associated with taking hormones. In fact, our bodies are always changing in irreversible ways. Taking exogenous hormones can be a way of intentionally participating in that change in order to move it in a direction that feels more aligned with how you want to be.
\n\nWhile there are numerous barriers that prevent people (especially trans people) from accessing hormones like estradiol, there are comparatively few mechanisms to ensure that everyone who wants hormones has access to them. Furthermore, even when the medical establishment is able to meet our needs, this only occurs on the terms of insurance corporations, medical review boards, the state, the family, and other institutions that have historically served to oppress, exploit, and exclude people. These institutions restrict access to hormones and other resources in order to reinforce cis-heteronormativity (the idea that being cis and straight is the only “correct” or “natural” way to be). They aim to reinforce these ideas and gate-keeping structures in order to diminish our bodily autonomy because that helps them to maintain control of all the other aspects of our lives. Rather than trying to work within and validate the existence of those institutions, we can deliberately choose to work outside of them. We believe everyone should be free of the coercive power of the state and should have access to the tools they need to shape their bodies however they want.
\n\nSome people believe that only massive institutions can meet people’s needs and that those institutions have to adopt repressive practices in order to do so. By making estradiol widely and easily available at little or no cost, we can help people access a greater degree of bodily autonomy and give people cause to question the necessity of centralization and control.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2022/12/15/1.jpg\")
\nThe following instructions have been calculated for a batch that starts with 100 grams of estradiol. This number was chosen because it’s relatively affordable and makes the math a little bit easier.
\n\nThe formula that we used is based on a patent (technically two patents) we found for a transdermal birth control product. The patent describes a product that is 0.24% active ingredient, which is split between a progestin (0.18%) and estradiol (0.06%). We modified this recipe to include only estradiol at 0.24%. We recommend that you look over these patents to get an idea of what we’re doing and to make sure we’re not missing anything. Copies of these patents, the spreadsheets we used to calculate the amounts of each ingredient, and other helpful information are available here.
\n\nBefore embarking on your own Boobs Not Bombs adventure, think carefully about the risks involved and whether you’re willing to take them. Because Estradiol is not a controlled substance, what we are doing is legal—as far as we can tell—given that what we are offering is not intended to diagnose, treat, prevent, or cure any medical illness. Nevertheless, the fact that something is legal has never stopped the state from harassing people. This is especially true because trans people have unfortunately become a target for many conservative politicians. The prospect of people handing out estrogen on the street is ripe to get blown out of proportion by the right-wing media and politicians looking to score points by attacking trans people. If you aren’t comfortable with these risks, consider helping existing BnB efforts by donating to or contacting the authors of this text.
\n\nIf you decide you are willing to take these risks, watch this video discussing why you should never speak to the police. You can also read this text about security culture.
\n\nAs a rule, don’t discuss your involvement in this project with people that you don’t trust. Only tell people what they need to know. If you need to discuss the project with others via electronic means, always use open-source encrypted software like Signal, ProtonMail, and Cryptpad. Of course, every approach has limitations and there is nothing you can do to guarantee that you haven’t left a trace. The guidelines we have set out here should be regarded as a solid baseline to add to, rather than a security guarantee. For more information about digital security, read this.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2022/12/15/3.jpg\")
\nThe first step in this project is to get together with your friends and comrades and see who would like to help make it a reality. If you don’t have a network of trusted friends who are interested in helping, try going to the closest anarchist community center or mutual aid project and see what you can help out with. Hopefully, you will develop friendships with people in the course of working together. If all goes well, eventually Boobs Not Bombs can be one of the projects you can add to your shared repertoire!
\n\nIf you are going to work on this project on your computer, we recommend that you get a Tails stick. This is a USB flash drive with the Tails operating system installed on it. Tails is a secure operating system that only connects to the internet via the Tor network and saves absolutely nothing to your hard disk. To obtain a copy of Tails, have a friend that already has a Tails stick clone it. If you don’t know anyone with Tails, you can download it and read a full set of instructions here. If this process seems overwhelming, find a computer-savvy friend to help you.
\n\nNext, start your computer running Tails and create an email account with which to contact vendors. It is strongly recommended that you only sign in to this email from within Tails. Remember, Tails and Tor are not magic. If you sign in to your personal email account at the same time as you sign in to the email you are using for this project, you will have associated the two. Only work on one project at a time when using Tails.
\n\nTo prepare for ordering and receiving shipments, get together with your friends and figure out how to receive the packages anonymously. The easiest way is to get a friend who isn’t directly involved in the project to receive the package for you. Ship it to them under their own name and then pick it up from them. Receiving packages is a good way people can aid the project while limiting their involvement. Other possibilities include getting packages shipped to a friendly community center or an abandoned house, or dividing up the ingredients and shipping them sporadically to your own houses. For example, one person could order and receive the propylene glycol, another the diethylene glycol monoethyl ether, a third person the alcohol. Doing it in this way reduces the chances that an investigation could determine the pattern of purchases and deliveries.
\n\nIf someone is receiving a package, it’s usually best that they pay for the package themselves using their own payment methods and then you reimburse them in cash. You can probably send multiple packages to some people if the things they’re receiving are not sketchy, such as scales and glass jars. At the same time, you should seek to minimize your online purchases. Wherever possible, buy things in person with cash. Do you need to buy glass overflow jars online, or can you get them from a thrift store?
\n\nYou will need a certain amount of resources to get started. If need be, raise funds discreetly among your friends. You should be able to fund the entire project with about $2000. If you can, set aside more than this to allow for unexpected problems. Store these funds as cash in a secure location. Keep track of how much money comes in and how much has been spent on each item so you can see how much money you have left and identify ways to reduce expenses.
\n\nYour operation will need a physical location. An empty bedroom is big enough, though we don’t recommend a bedroom that anyone lives in, as it would be difficult to store everything you need in a room along with someone’s personal possessions. You should also think about security here. You could find a friendly community space that is willing to rent a room to a member of the project, come up with a persuasive cover story, and rent it as a personal room. Draft a lease that stipulates that the room is not to be entered without your permission and put a lock on the door. This both protects you and those you are renting from: in the event of trouble, they will have a lease to provide legal cover, confirming that as landlords, they are not responsible for what their tenants do.
\n\nYou could use cryptpad to create a spreadsheet to keep track of your finances. This includes managing your money and keeping track of prepaid cards—where they are, how much is on them, what they’ve been used for so far, and the billing information attached to them. For example, if a website requires you to put in a billing address for the card, make sure you note which billing address has been used for which cards. This way, you won’t have the card get rejected due to using contradictory information.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2022/12/15/4.jpg\")
\n1. Purchase and Test Estradiol
\n\nCost: $800 ($300 for estradiol, $500 for the test)
\n\nRaw estradiol can be purchased directly from manufacturers listed on the Estradiol PubChem page. The prices they quote are prohibitively expensive, and many manufacturers will only ship to businesses or research institutions. That may not be an insurmountable hurdle—it might suffice to find a friend with a .edu email address and an address to receive packages.
\n\nAlternatively, you can message gray market vendors from China, such as Hanzhong Han Traceability Biological Technology Co. Ltd. To find more vendors, try searching “estradiol suppliers china” on duckduckgo. They usually sell bulk amounts of estradiol; however, the quality may be lower as a result. When communicating with a vendor, only email them from your secure email account. See if you can pay via money order. If you can, purchase a money order with cash and mail it to them. If that is not an option, use cash to purchase a pre-paid debit card from Walmart or another big box store. You might be able to pay with bitcoin, but make sure that the bitcoin itself was purchased in a manner that can’t be traced (e.g., with cash).
\n\nPurchase 100 grams of pure estradiol, CAS number 50-28-2. Have it shipped to you using one of the methods outlined above. If you used a prepaid debit card, make note of it in your spreadsheet.
\n\nIf you bought your estradiol from a gray market supplier, you will need to test it when it arrives. Go to toxassociates.com. Order a comprehensive drug analysis: tell them you want a quantitative analysis of estradiol and a test for heavy metals. Pay for the test with a money order purchased with cash and await your results. If the test doesn’t come back clean (e.g., they sold you a bunch of baking soda), go back and start over.
\n\nIf you can go in on this step with other groups like yours, you could save a lot of money. Assuming multiple chapters place an order of estradiol together, you’ll only need a single test for everyone.
\n\nYou’re looking for the results to say >99% estradiol and no heavy metals or anything else detected. Ours was 97%. We would love to know what the other 3% is—but after extensive research, it appeared that we’d need thousands of dollars and corporate or academic credentials to find out. If you know of another way to identify impurities in a sample, please contact us!
\n\n1. Purchase 6 gallons of 95% alcohol.
\n\nCost: $650
\n\nYou can buy alcohol in bulk online from Laballey.com and organicalcohol.com. Laballey often offers good sales. Depending on the vendor, alcohol may be referred to as ethanol. Ethanol is the name for the kind of alcohol that you can drink. You could also use isopropyl alcohol, which is much cheaper—but not for internal consumption, as it causes organ damage and blindness. We went with ethanol because we wanted to stick as close to the patent as possible. The patent mentions that you can use isopropyl alcohol, but they imply that ethanol is preferred.
\n\nIf you order from Laballey, bear in mind that they will automatically cancel any order that has a different shipping and billing address. To get around this, have a friend buy alcohol from them legitimately, paying with their own card and shipping it to their legal name. You will need to have alcohol shipped to someone older than 21 and they must sign for the package when it arrives.
\n\nYou could also get around this step by buying Everclear from liquor stores. This has the advantage of being faster and available in return for cash, but it is also much more expensive—we calculated that it would be roughly three times more expensive to use Everclear.
\n\nAlcohol is extremely flammable. Six gallons of it should be considered a major hazard. Do not open the container it comes in until you’re ready to make a batch. Store the alcohol far away from any fire hazards. Never smoke while working with alcohol; make sure there are no open flames anywhere nearby.
\n\n2. Purchase two gallons of propylene glycol USP.
\n\nCost: $150
\n\nPropylene glycol is a very common chemical. You can obtain it via a number of websites, including the aforementioned Laballey. Wherever you get it, make sure that it’s pure propylene glycol, not propylene glycol mixed with something else.
\n\nUSP (United States Pharmacopoeia) refers to a standard of purity for chemicals. All chemicals should be sold to you as USP. If you can afford it, you should send all of your reagents off for testing in addition to the estradiol.
\n\n3. Purchase two liters of diethylene glycol monoethyl ether USP.
\n\nCost: $200
\n\nFollow the same steps as for propylene glycol to obtain diethylene glycol monoethyl ether. We could not find other vendors for diethylene glycol monoethyl ether besides Laballey.com.
\n\n4. Purchase a large wide mouth glass container for mixing.
\n\nCost: $30
\n\nThroughout the manufacturing process, we use glass because it’s nonreactive.
\n\nRealistically, it’s hard to find wide-mouth glass containers larger than two or two and a half gallons. You can find five-gallon glass carboys (the kind of bottles used in water coolers), but it is difficult to mix liquids in them owing to their narrow mouths. You might be able to find a workaround involving a long, narrow stirring stick, a magnetic stirrer, or something else.
\n\nWe used a wide-mouth glass container of approximately two-gallon capacity. Generally bigger is better, provided that you can find a way to stir it.
\n\nYou might be able to find a large enough glass container at a store. If you can, use cash to buy it. If you can’t find one in a store, there are plenty of options on Amazon.com.
\n\n5. Purchase an even larger glass container for storing the finished product.
\n\nCost: $60
\n\nThe size of this container doesn’t matter so long as it is bigger than the mixing container and it is made of glass. It’s unlikely you’ll be able to purchase this item in person at a store. You can get a five-gallon glass carboy for $60 on Amazon.com.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2022/12/15/12.jpg\")
\n6. Purchase seven wide-mouth glass containers of medium size.
\n\nCost: $100
\n\nThe size of these containers doesn’t matter as much. Perhaps half a gallon. These should absolutely be purchased with cash at a store. Walmart and ACE Hardware offer six-packs of half gallon mason jars for something like $20. You can likely spend far less than $100 for all of these if you go to a thrift shop.
\n\n7. Purchase scales.
\n\nCost: $75
\n\nOne scale will need to be a higher capacity kitchen scale accurate to within .1 g. The other must be accurate down to 0.01 g. Make sure that the higher capacity scale can handle the weight of the mixing jar and water or alcohol. For the batch size we’re talking about here, the scale should have a capacity of at least 15 pounds, preferably 20.
\n\n8. Purchase bottles and tincture droppers.
\n\nCost: $600
\n\nThere are several websites where you can buy bottles and droppers in bulk, including thebottlestore.com and containerandpackaging.com.
\n\nBuy at least 350 four-ounce amber Boston round bottles and an equal number of 1 ml tincture droppers. Make sure that the bottles and droppers have matching neck sizes. In our case, we used the neck finish 24-400.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2022/12/15/11.jpg\")
\n9. Purchase miscellaneous lab equipment.
\n\nCost: $100
\n\nFor this step, we’re mostly thinking about gloves, goggles, a table if you need one, and any other small items.
\n\n10. Buy water.
\n\nCost: $20
\n\nBuy four gallons of distilled water from any grocery store. It must be distilled water, not spring water, “purified” water, or anything else.
\n\nOverview
\n\nThe basics of making transdermal estrogen are as follows: measure out all of the raw materials by mass, add them to a mixing container, mix vigorously, pour into a larger container, and bottle it from there. To bottle it, just pour the mixture out of the large carboy into a smaller wide-mouth container, then scoop it out and pour it into bottles. The point of using the carboy is to enable one team to continue to make two-gallon batches while another team bottles. Based on our experience, the bottleneck in this process, ironically, is bottling. Because we bottled by hand, that part took much longer than preparing the batch itself. Using the carboy is a way to speed up the process. Otherwise, the team making each batch will have to stop and wait until all of the transdermal estrogen has been bottled before they can start making the next batch.
\n\nYou’ll be making about five batches of two gallons each. The process is actually pretty straightforward—it just takes a while to bottle. You should set aside about four hours for the whole process. Keep in mind that this will likely be messy, involving alcohol spilling over your work environment. You should pick a place where that won’t be an issue and clean up as you go. Don’t work by open windows where passersby can see what you’re doing—they might think you’re making drugs.
\n\n1. Label all of your containers.
\n\nOnce you’re ready to get started, clean your work surface, lay out all of the materials, and label your containers. You should have a weighing container and an overflow container for every ingredient except estradiol. You should also have a two-gallon mixing container, a five-gallon (or more) glass carboy, and a bottling jar.
\n\nIf you ordered more than one bottle of something, keep only one out on your work surface. This will help keep the space less cluttered. You can also have the bottling station set up separately to keep things organized.
\n\n2. Put on PPE
\n\nThis means long sleeves, gloves, and goggles. If you have long hair, put it up before beginning.
\n\n3. Add 16.4 grams of estradiol in the two-gallon mixing container.
\n\nPlace your estradiol weighing container on the scale and tare it. Then add 16.4 grams of estradiol using a spoon. If you add too much, scoop some back into the container that the estradiol came in. Then pour the estradiol into the two-gallon glass jar. Some estradiol will likely remain in the cup. We will deal with that in a second.
\n\n4. Measure out 2872.9 grams of alcohol to the mixing container and mix vigorously.
\n\nPlace the alcohol weighing container on the larger scale and tare it. Then add 2872.9 grams of alcohol. If you add too much, pour some out into the alcohol overflow jar until you’ve got the number right. When you are weighing out alcohol for the next batch, add this overflow into the alcohol weighing container first. As you pour alcohol into the mixing container, have someone hold the estradiol weighing container in the mixing jar and pour in the alcohol such that it washes it out. Once the alcohol has been poured in, mix vigorously it for one minute using a glass stirring rod. If you don’t have one, use a large metal serving spoon.
\n\n5. Add 2585.7 grams of distilled water to the mixing container and stir.
\n\nUse the large scale to measure out 2585.7 grams of distilled water. Use the water overflow jar to pour out any overflow. When you’ve got the amount right, add it to the mixing container and mix it vigorously for one minute.
\n\n6. Add 1026.6 grams of propylene glycol and stir.
\n\nFollow these steps for propylene glycol (PG). PG overflow goes into the PG overflow jar; add it to the next batch. If you want to be especially precise, make sure to weigh the weighing container after you’ve poured the propylene glycol into the mixing container, so you can tell exactly how much remains in the container. Write this amount down and add slightly more than that amount to the PG weighing container. Add this to the mixing jar, then check the weight to see how much actually ended up in the mixing jar. Repeat until you’re satisfied that you’re close enough. Once you are done adding PG, mix vigorously for one minute.
\n\n7. Add 342.2 grams of diethylene glycol monoethyl ether and stir.
\n\nFollow this same procedure for diethylene glycol monoethyl ether and mix vigorously for one minute.
\n\n8. Pour the mixing container into the carboy; begin bottling; start the next batch.
\n\nWhen you have finished steps 1-7, you have completed a two-gallon batch. Using a large clean funnel, pour all of the contents of the mixing container into the glass carboy. The bottling team can then pour the transdermal estrogen out of the carboy and into another wide-mouth container. From there, they can scoop out the transdermal estrogen using a ½ or ¾ measuring cup and a funnel to pour it into bottles. Leave a little room at the top when you fill the bottles—otherwise, when you add the dropper lid, it will overflow. After filling a bottle, dry it with a towel and then add a label. Store the bottle in whatever box or container you’re keeping the transdermal estrogen in before distributing it.
\n\nWhile one group of people is bottling, another group should repeat steps 1-7. Continue to do so until you no longer have enough raw materials to make another batch. At that point, you can either stop and help with bottling or measure out the last of whatever ingredient you don’t have enough of, and then calculate new amounts for all the other ingredients using the ratios provided. For example, if you only have 1500 grams of alcohol, you can’t make a full batch. But since you know that alcohol is 42% of the batch by weight, you can work out what the total weight of the last (smaller) batch should be and make one more batch before you reorder supplies.
\n\n9. Clean up your workspace.
\n\nWhen you’re done, clean up your work area. Tear off all of the labels of the packages you received and burn them (somewhere far away from the alcohol). This is to prevent you from putting a bunch of incriminating evidence into the same dumpster. Once all of the labels are disposed of, you can discard the boxes as regular recycling. If you peel the labels off the chemicals you bought (the propylene glycol and diethylene glycol monoethyl ether), you can also dispose of them as normal recycling. If not, dispose of each one in a separate dumpster that cannot be connected to you.
\n\nEmpty any remaining overflow containers back into their original bottles. Wash all non-disposable lab equipment thoroughly. Return all of your supplies to storage. You should have about 300 bottles filled, though you might have less, depending on whether you worked until you ran out of an ingredient or just stopped when you didn’t have enough for a full batch.
\n\n10. Print zines
\n\nWe made a zine explaining our process and goals to distribute along with the transdermal estrogen. We designed it from scratch because we didn’t have a model to work from. You’re welcome to take the one we made, change out the contact information and any other details, and print your own edition. Make sure to change the title of the zine to “Boobs Not Bombs—[Your chapter’s name]” or something other than the title of our zine, so as to not confuse people. If you’d like an electronic copy of our zine for editing, email us.
\n\nGiving the length of this zine, printing will be expensive. We recommend finding someone with a printing hook up.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2022/12/15/5.jpg\")
\n1. Create a distribution network.
\n\nFor a clandestine arrangement, keep the bottles yourself and distribute them through word of mouth only. If you’re comfortable with a more public arrangement, you could advertise online and mail the bottles out. If you want to go this route, you could contact hrt.cafe and see if your small operation can be listed on the website. You could also set up a BnB station somewhere presenting the bottles and zines alongside a donation jar. Periodically check the sites to keep them stocked.
\n\nYou could also offer your wares at Really Really Free Markets, Food Not Bombs servings, drag shows, art spaces, and any other location frequented by people who might like to have access to estrogen. Of particular interest are places (such as Republican-controlled states) that are making it increasingly difficult to access hormones.
\n\nThe more decentralized the network that is producing estrogen, the more difficult it will be to suppress it.
\n\n2. Distribute bottles.
\n\nOnce you know where to take the bottles/zines, physically transport them to all of the various locations. You could mail them, but that would be expensive, as the bottles are heavy. If you ship bottles, package them so they don’t shatter in transit.
\n\nIf you’re distributing at physical locations, you could set up a station with bottles, zines, and a donation jar. This might necessitate a folding table or rack for each location. For a donation jar, you could cut an opening in the lid of an old coffee container and write “donations” in large visible letters on it.
\n\nOnce you have run out of bottles and zines, collect a final round of donations, conduct any additional fundraising necessary, and then repeat the process from the beginning.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2022/12/15/7.jpg\")
\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2022/12/15/9.jpg\")
\nA note about email security. The only way to ensure the security of an email server is to run it yourself, and running email servers is not easy. The way that email functions involves a lot of information being transferred in the clear in order to allow for the routing of messages. In this sort of structure, the best we can do is encrypt the message content. Protonmail provides encryption without the users having to do any work, as long as they are messaging other users of the service or have someone’s keys loaded into their account’s keychain. Protonmail does have access to your registration details and the times that certain IPs accessed accounts, and they have provided that information to governments before. If you sign up with information that does not lead back to you and always use a VPN or Tor to check your inbox, this information should not be compromising. ↩
\nAs everyone knows, we have been suspended from Twitter at the same time that Elon Musk is welcoming notorious neo-Nazis back to the platform. On a platform like Twitter, a project like ours is like a canary in a coal mine: when things change, we are the first to go, and that means the clock is ticking for everyone.
\n\nToday, we speak to you from the other side of the great divide. Banned on Facebook, Instagram, and now Twitter, we nonetheless exist and organize. If you can still hear us—if you are reading these words—then there is life after social media. That goes for entire social movements as well as individuals and publishers.
\n\nLooking at this situation in a broader historical context, Twitter itself is like a canary in a coal mine. Elon Musk’s acquisition of the platform confirms the end of social media as we have known it, at least for the purposes of positive social change. All the major platforms that played roles in the movements of the past decade have been brought under the direct control of reactionaries determined to make sure that they cannot be used to coordinate resistance.
\n\nThe question is what comes next. Will reactionary billionaires determine what we can do and think and dream? Or will we establish other channels via which to communicate, other forms of connection, other means of coordination?
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2022/12/08/1.jpg\")
Twitter is just the proverbial canary in the coal mine.
\nWhen Donald Trump was booted off of Twitter after January 6, it became inevitable that someone from his faction of the ruling class would seek to take over the company.1 Twitter became a symbol of everything that remained beyond their control.
\n\nRelative to the size of its user base and its ability to turn a profit, Twitter has been disproportionately influential. This is precisely because it has been moderated differently from Facebook and other such platforms, which have consistently suppressed dissident voices while offering echo chambers for the far right. Twitter has been difficult to monetize, but—perhaps for precisely that reason—it has retained a certain credibility.
\n\nUnfortunately, all this made it irresistible to Elon Musk. And thanks to the capitalist market, a billionaire can waltz in and purchase just about anything.
\n\nThis is especially true today, as wealth inequalities reach new extremes.2 In 2003, Bill Gates was considered the world’s wealthiest man with roughly $40 billion to his name; in January 2022, Elon Musk was valued at over $300 billion. Not long ago, if rich people wanted to take over a major corporation, they had to form a corporation to buy it; today, a single power-crazy billionaire can do it alone.
\n\nNow that most of the world’s financial capital has accumulated in a few hands, we are also forced to compete for attention as a new currency so that the capitalist market can go on expanding. This is not just a metaphor: cryptocurrency, for example, derives its entire worth from the fact that people perceive it to possess financial value. It has never been so obvious that the supposedly essential truths on which capitalism is based are simply arbitrary social constructs.
\n\nThis explains why, having accumulated the most financial capital in the world, Elon Musk set out to gain control of one of the platforms on which attention is distributed.
\n\nWe should not trust Musk to disclose his true intentions any more than we take Donald Trump at his word. Musk spoke about securing Twitter for “free speech”; by now, it is clear that he meant the opposite. Musk’s acquisition of Twitter lines up with his desire to be the tastemaker-in-chief and to suppress the voices of those critical of himself and other capitalists. The impact of his acquisition of the platform will likely hit hardest in parts of the Global South where Musk is trying to get a foothold for his various business interests at the same time that authoritarian governments are cracking down on social media in order to secure their rule.
\n\nWhen Musk purchased Twitter, it had approximately 7500 employees. He fired half the workforce, prompting many other employees to resign. By Thursday, November 17, less than 3000 remained—a disproportionate number of them dependent on their work visas for their residency of the United States, and therefore at the mercy of Musk’s agenda. In retrospect, this probably was not a question of bad management on Musk’s part, nor a deliberate effort to destroy Twitter itself, but rather a strategy to oust everyone who was not supportive of Musk’s program.
\n\nThis wave of downsizing created a considerable buzz on the platform, with alarmists suggesting that without those employees, the platform would quickly collapse or suffer a severe security breach. As often occurs, however, the real danger was not that Twitter would come to an end, but that business would continue as usual.
\n\nUsers crowed about how Musk had declared that “comedy is now legal on Twitter,” then threatened parody accounts with permanent suspension; others went on the offensive with fake accounts, ruining Musk’s initial attempt to roll out $8 credentials and temporarily undermining market confidence in certain profiteering corporations. We saw straitlaced New York Times columnists urging people to follow them on Mastodon as if they were reclusive German hackers. For a moment, it appeared that Musk had unwittingly cast himself in a real-life morality play about the risks of absolute power.
\n\nYet we are not witnessing the demise of a specific platform so much as the end of an era. Once Elon Musk bought it, Twitter collapsing was the best case scenario. Instead, we are in the midst of a boiling frog situation, in which every day, things get a little worse on the platform, but not quite bad enough for most people to quit. Bit by bit, Twitter users are becoming inured to algorithms that promote racist and anti-Semitic material, to the suspension of anti-fascists, to the appearance of neo-Nazis in the center of public discourse.
\n\nNo conspiracy theories are necessary here. Musk did not to set out to destroy Twitter at the cost of $44 billion dollars and his own reputation as a good manager. He simply wants to control the platform and believes that in the long term, doing so could pay dividends in a currency more valuable than mere money. Since taking charge of Twitter, Musk has sought to employ the same tactics by which he bullied workers into giving him an edge in the aerospace and electric car industries.3 On a platform like Twitter, however, the user base itself is effectively both product and producer—so it is the users as well as the employees who are the target of his tactics.
\n\nIf Musk’s takeover of Twitter works out and the platform survives, the whole fiasco will set a precedent for similar behavior from other billionaires. In any case, the damage is already done. The old Twitter workforce and culture—not radical by any measure, but arguably less reactionary than the equivalents at comparable social media platforms—is gone. And without the previous Twitter administration as a competitor, other social media corporations will have no incentive to include the voices of those already suppressed on Facebook.
\n\nIf the New York Times columnists stay on Twitter rather than migrating to Mastodon, they will effectively grant a far-right billionaire the role of moderator in every discussion. But what is happening is not the result of the whim of a single malevolent individual. Relying on market-based means of communication made it inevitable that sooner or later, the ruling class would get to determine who can speak and how.
\n\nLet’s go back to the metaphor of the canary in the coal mine. When the canary dies, it’s time to get out of the mine. Now, we’re not necessarily urging you to quit Twitter; it would be better to get permanently suspended for raising a fuss. The point is that it’s not good to have to be in a coal mine in the first place. Even if it doesn’t kill you outright, it diminishes your quality of life. Corporate social media and the social relations it fosters cut us off from other ways of understanding and experiencing the world—and if we maintain the coal mine metaphor, the target of extraction is our sociality itself.
\n\n\n\n\nThe networks offered by Facebook aren’t new; what’s new is that they seem external to us. We’ve always had social networks, but no one could use them to sell advertisements—nor were they so easy to map. Now they reappear as something we have to consult. People corresponded with old friends, taught themselves skills, and heard about public events long before email, Google, and Twitter. Of course, these technologies are extremely helpful in a world in which few of us are close with our neighbors or spend more than a few years in any location.
\n\n \n
\n\n\nThe network, which had previously been used to establish and maintain relationships, becomes reinterpreted as a channel through which to broadcast.
\n\n \n
In a digitally interconnected world, whoever has the most robust networks, the right relationship between visible and opaque channels, and the most persuasive narrative will triumph. Communication and coordination trump brute force when any clash can draw in a potentially infinite number of participants on either side. This is why the EZLN (Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional, Zapatista Army of National Liberation) was able to stand down the Mexican state; it’s why the global uprisings of 2019-2020 spiraled out of control in over a dozen countries.
\n\nThe authorities know this. The challenge for them has been that the same digital networks that maximize economic productivity by keeping all potential workers, trends, and ideas available to the market at all times can also serve as a space to coordinate resistance. Over the past two decades, they have scrambled to establish controlled networks that can fulfill the same economic function without facilitating unrest—Facebook and WeChat being among the chief examples of this.
\n\nEarly on in this era, the RAND corporation theorized this kind of connectivity-based conflict as Netwar, seeing early examples of it in the Zapatista uprising and the shutting down of the summit of the World Trade Organization in 1999.
\n\nBut the Zapatistas were not using Indymedia. Likewise, demonstrators were not using Twitter or even TXTmob at the protests against the WTO, the International Monetary Fund, or the Free Trade Area of the Americas. Most of the participants didn’t even have cell phones. The communications platforms that were in play when the concept of Netwar emerged were mostly 20th-century unidirectional technologies, like printing newspapers and pressing vinyl LPs, that had been repurposed to create grassroots movements.
\n\nSo the most determinant factor in the victories of the anti-capitalist movement of the turn of the century was not digital connectivity, per se—it was robust networks that exceeded the control of the authorities, such as those that had emerged in Indigenous organizing, punk, environmental movements, and other cultural spaces. The intensity of the connections that people formed, and the fact that they were so difficult for the authorities to monitor, were as important as the extent to which they spread.
\n\nIn the next wave of revolt, between 2008 and 2013, participants took advantage of mobile phones and emerging digital networks to gain the initiative. After Greek police officers murdered Alexandros Grigoropoulos in Athens in 2008, for example, police around Greece were taken by surprise by activists who had received the news before them. At the same time, mobile phone records enabled British police to convict a large number of participants in the riots of August 2011. The Egyptian revolution picked up momentum precisely when Hosni Mubarak shut down the internet, forcing everyone to go into the street to learn what was happening. Occupy spread digitally, including on Facebook, but drew its power from the shared physical presence of the participants. Once again, it wasn’t digital connectivity, per se, that gave these movements their strength.
\n\nThe wave of movements of 2018-2020 (say, from the Yellow Vest Movement to the end of Donald Trump’s administration) did indeed draw on Twitter, Telegram, and similar platforms for coordination. Still, it’s worth noting that the specific platforms that have been essential to each of these waves of activity have changed from one wave to the next.
\n\nExtrapolating from these examples, it seems likely that the next wave of social movements will emerge as a consequence of people forging new connections on new platforms. Those platforms will necessarily develop beyond the control of people like Elon Musk. It would be simplest if those fired from Twitter would establish their own platform on a self-organized, decentralized, horizontal basis—something like Mastodon, say, but better organized. What will actually come next is hard to anticipate, but one thing is certain under capitalism: things will continue to change.
\n\nIn the meantime, there are two layers to digital communication—a public layer and a private layer. The public layer serves movements as a means of informing and coordinating on a large scale; the private, of connecting and planning on a personal scale. As it becomes more difficult to utilize the public layer of corporate social media platforms, people will shift their focus to the private layer—to encrypted platforms like Signal and Matrix—and this will hopefully produce stronger and deeper connections than platforms like Instagram and Twitter could.
\n\n\n\n\nA contradiction: the self-regulating and self-organizing qualities of emergent networked phenomena appear to engender and supplement the very thing that makes us human, yet one’s ability to superimpose top-down control on that emergent structure evaporates in the blossoming of the network form, itself bent on eradicating the importance of any distinct or isolated node. This dissonance is most evident in network accidents or networks that appear to spiral out of control—Internet worms [sic] and disease epidemics, for instance. But calling such instances “accidents” or networks “out of control” is a misnomer. They are not networks that are somehow broken but networks that work too well.
\n\n-The Exploit, Alexander R. Galloway and Eugene Thacker
\n
In the 1980s and 1990s, anarchism made a comeback by rooting within subcultural spaces including punk, the rave scene, and various protest movements. Starting in the early 2000s, some young people treated anarchism as a subcultural milieu unto itself comprised of interlocking cliques and institutions. Most of those models began to reach their limits by the early 2010s, as scenes that had been based in tight-knit groups of friends succumbed to attrition and communities fractured over conflicts about privilege and accountability. At the same time, gentrification was rendering it more difficult to hold on to physical spaces such as social centers and collective housing projects.
\n\nBy the beginning of the Trump era, many of the communities that had preceded social media had disintegrated, replaced by networks based in online connection. Coordinating through social media allowed for a more atomized social body to nonetheless respond rapidly and flexibly to unfolding events—without necessarily emerging from those experiences with stronger social ties.
\n\nThe pandemic created unprecedented isolation and reliance upon digital technology. Internet use skyrocketed alongside alienation. Some of us hoped that the end of the pandemic would bring a renaissance of in-person organizing. But there was no conclusion, properly speaking, just a tapering off of security measures, with the consequence that intimate social relationships have continued to erode throughout our society.
\n\nThe reactionary takeover of social media, which culminated with Elon Musk buying Twitter, will force us to renew other forms of connection. Otherwise, what we can create together will indeed be limited by the algorithms of the ruling class.
\n\nThis situation is an opportunity as well as a setback. It reminds us to root our relationships in deep connection, to build affinity offline. If we are successful in fostering nourishing communities, other people will want to share these with us, as alienation and isolation have become widespread. There is life after social media.
\n\n\n\n\n“At a cultural level, we didn’t stop smoking just because the habit was unpleasant or uncool or even because it might kill us. We did so slowly and over time, by forcing social life to suffocate the practice. That process must now begin in earnest for social media.”
\n\n \n
![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2022/12/08/2.jpg\")
Let’s go offline together.
\nSpending time physically together—or at least in direct contact—is the bedrock of our relationships. If we don’t begin from strong personal connections and an ability to gather, there is nothing to network.
\n\nPrint out some zines, acquire a few books, and set up a literature table. For the previous generation of anarchists, the classic in-person educational event was the book fair, at which a variety of publishers and distributors would hawk their wares. But you could set up a table at other events, too—protests, speaking events, punk shows, dance parties, art shows, even holiday markets. Maybe you don’t need an event at all, just a high-traffic location on a campus or at a public park or skate park.
\nGo out at night and decorate your community with stickers and posters. You can buy wallpaper paste or make wheatpaste at home yourself. You can also use stencils or other forms of graffiti to spread a message widely. You can obtain a variety of posters and stickers from us or make your own.
\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2022/12/08/4.jpg\")
One of our stickers in action.
\nOrganize mutual aid events, projects, and networks. The classic mutual aid project is Food Not Bombs—cooking and eating together is a time-honored way to solidify bonds. Another longstanding model is the Really Really Free Market, in which the participants establish a temporary commons based in a gift economy. The pandemic and the George Floyd Rebellion offered a range of newer frameworks for mutual aid projects. The solidarity network model offers a blueprint for how people can help each other confront typical problems with landlords and bosses. For a more informal model drawing on traditional barn raising, a group could form to assist with group projects on a rotating basis.
\nOrganize dance parties! All the better if you can occupy some exciting or unusual venue to host them.
\nOrganize reading groups around particular texts, discussions about ideas or public events, movie screenings, presentations, speaking tours, conferences.
\nOrganize a social center to host events and provide a point of entry for curious people in your community. Maintaining a gathering space will help you meet new people and enable your community to form deeper connections. If it’s impossible to rent a space, you could establish a common gathering area in a public locatioin, or make a practice of gathering at a regular time and place. The Atlanta forest offers one example of how forest defenders have made an embattled public space into a sort of revolutionary commons.
\nHost a knitting circle, art night, or work party so you benefit from each other’s company while you tinker.
\nOrganize a theater group—traditional theater, shadow puppetry, sock puppetry—or just gather to read a play aloud, the way people did in the 19th century. If you don’t have a better idea, try the works of Dario Fo.
\nHost parlor games. The surrealists developed an array of those.
\nConstruct giant inflatables, homemade musical instruments, infernal machines. Carry out interruptive performance art actions at municipal events, staid gallery openings, graduation ceremonies, and the like. You can read about how others have done such things here.
\nPrint handbills advertising local events. Leave them at bus stops, on the bus, at coffee shops. Put them under windshield wipers. Put them in mailboxes. Hand them to strangers.
\nTalk to people. Talk to your housemates, your family members, your co-workers, your neighbors, to people at bus stops. Invite them to events. Don’t keep to yourself with others like you in a subcultural bubble—make sure you are always interacting with new people, challenging them and yourself.
\nMost of these things can be organized in such a way as to minimize risk from COVID-19 and address other health concerns in order to keep everything participatory and inclusive. If circumstances make participating in these activities difficult for you personally, you can support others who engage in these activities, donate to social centers and distribution projects, and contribute to bail funds when people get arrested.
\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2022/12/08/5.jpg\")
One of our posters in action.
\nPrecisely nine months after this article was published, we finally have a citation for this claim. According to a New York Times article published on September 9, 2023, “Days after Twitter’s board approved the deal, Mr. Musk told his four teenage sons that he had purchased the social network to sway the next U.S. presidential election. ‘How else are we going to get Trump elected in 2024?’ he said.” ↩
\nThe richest 1% of the world’s population currently owns nearly half of the world’s wealth, and the rest of the top 10% own most of the remainder. ↩
\nIn a sector of the tech market in which employees have a wider range of employment options that Tesla and SpaceX employees do, reusing the tactics he developed in the aerospace and electric car industry proved more difficult than he anticipated. Many of the employees who worked at Twitter could earn more money selling the same skills to other corporations; they stayed at the company because, to some extent, they identified with the role Twitter played in society. As soon as they received Musk’s email demanding that they be “hardcore,” most of them left. ↩
\nLast week, Elon Musk personally banned us from Twitter at the request of a far-right troll. Musk is not introducing “free speech” onto Twitter; he is systematically suppressing the voices of those who oppose fascism while welcoming the most notorious Nazis back onto the platform. In response, we invite you to make the streets of your community speak out with a new poster about capitalists like Elon Musk and Donald Trump. If there’s one medium that billionaires will never control, it’s wheatpaste.
\n\nBut first—why has the world’s richest man thrown his lot in with fascists?
\n\nThe best theory we can come up with is that fascism in general and anti-Semitism in particular offer the most convenient means to redirect anger that would otherwise be directed against the capitalist ruling class. Over the past three decades, the amount of wealth controlled by the world’s richest man has increased by almost ten times. As the billionaires get richer, the rest of us get poorer and more desperate. If not for conspiracy theories about the “wrong” people having all that power, the obvious fact that it is unjust for anyone to hold so much power would be inescapable.
\n\nMusk didn’t set $44 billion on fire because he thought he was going to make money on one of the world’s notoriously unprofitable platforms. It was worth it for him to spend billions buying Twitter in order to shape public discourse according to his personal interests. As for what those interests are, we can deduce them from the voices he has removed from the platform and the voices he has added back to it. Billionaires like him and Donald Trump would prefer the rest of us have to fight brainwashed fascists than have our hands free to take on the system that creates such imbalances in wealth and power in the first place.
\n\nTo address this situation, we’ve dusted off a classic motif of ours and designed a new poster. We invite you to plaster the walls of your community with it—in a strictly legal way, of course.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2022/12/02/3.jpg\")
Click on the image to download the poster.
\nIn addition, in case you prefer to paste up posters the old-fashioned DIY way rather than just buying wallpaper paste or spray adhesive, we have made a zine version of our Field Guide to Wheatpasting—please print these out and distribute them to anyone who might be interested in communicating on a platform that isn’t run by a pro-fascist billionaire!
\n\nYou can read the contents of the zine in full online here.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2022/12/02/1.jpg\")
Click on the image to download the zine.
\nThe text of the poster follows.
\n\nFor every billionaire, millions go hungry. That’s what creates billionaires: the concentration of wealth in a few hands. When you hear about a billionaire running for president or a billionaire buying Twitter as you pass homeless encampments on the way to your second job, make no mistake—it’s all connected.
\n\nThey’ll tell you anything to make you believe that your problems are your own fault, to pit you against each other, to get you to work a double shift so you can make more money for them. But however hard you work, they take home more than you do. That’s the nature of capitalism.
\n\nThey tell us they want to preserve free speech, that they offer us “opportunities,” that they’re here to protect us. Then they buy up the ways we communicate, fix the algorithms, determine what we see and hear. They sponsor fascists who attack anyone who criticizes them, spread lies to foment ethnic and religious strife. They want money to be the only thing that has value so we can’t dream of anything else.
\n\nWe deserve a world in which people are respected for what they share, not what they take for themselves. The real problem is the system that creates these inequalities in the first place. Rather than competing to be the ones who exploit and oppress, let’s abolish the means by which they do.
\n\nFor a world without tyrants or tycoons!
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2022/12/02/5.jpg\")
Another version of the poster. Click on the image to download the poster.
\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2022/12/02/4.jpg\")
\nOn November 25, at the urging of a far-right troll, Elon Musk banned the @crimethinc Twitter account. Musk’s goal in acquiring Twitter had nothing to do with “free speech”—it was a partisan move intended to silence opposition while opening up space for the far right. This underscores the hazards of depending on corporate social media platforms.
\n\nUpdate: Two months after this article appeared, leaked documents confirmed that it was Musk himself who personally ordered the purging of anti-fascist accounts as soon as he took control of the platform.
\n\nPlease follow us on Mastodon and Telegram and subscribe to our RSS feed. You can even find us on YouTube, Tumblr, and Reddit—and we’ve just signed up for Bluesky (look for @crimethinc.bsky.social). If you want to help us continue to reach people offline, order stickers and others materials to distribute here.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2022/11/25/1.jpg\")
\nOn November 24, a white nationalist1 who speaks at conferences alongside Richard Spencer posted a tweet approving of a wave of bans on Twitter. Elon Musk responded favorably to him, and far-right troll Andy Ngo answered Musk, specifically requesting that the @crimethinc account be banned from Twitter. Within a couple hours, Musk had fulfilled Ngo’s request.2
\n\nThe @crimethinc account on Twitter dates from May 2008. The account has never been suspended or received a warning throughout fourteen years of Twitter administrations. Ngo was not bringing any new material to Musk’s attention, but reposting years-old screenshots. Other Twitter users were banned under similar circumstances today, as well.
\n\nMusk’s rhetoric about making Twitter a venue for “free speech” was a lie. Musk bought Twitter in order to impose his agenda on what he saw as the most influential social media platform remaining outside the control of people like himself. Like Donald Trump, Musk brazenly says the opposite of what he means, and his supporters interpret this as a show of strength.
\n\nAt the same time that he welcomes Donald Trump, white nationalists, and fascists back to Twitter, Musk is purging those who stand in the way of their authoritarian aspirations. Make no mistake, the point of silencing our voices is to prepare the way for other kinds of violence.
\n\nA part of the ruling class has always aligned with the far right and fascists. In this regard, Elon Musk is treading a path already worn by Henry Ford, promoting reactionaries who explicitly aim to attack broad sections of the population and popular movements. As in Ford’s day, the rest of the ruling class, including centrists and liberals, hope to benefit from the forcible removal of radical voices from public discourse without having to get their hands dirty.
\n\nThis is possible, in part, because the majority of employees at Twitter have resigned or been fired. The remaining employees are disproportionately dependent on their employment at Twitter for visas to remain in the United States—a grim example of how borders serve to impose the agenda of the ruling class on workers, even relatively wealthy workers.
\n\nWhen Musk says he’s building Twitter 2.0, he is referencing the transition from the original iteration of the internet—message boards, indymedia, a more or less open and participatory model—to Web 2.0, in which all interactions are shaped by the algorithms of a few tech overlords. They aim to determine what we are able to imagine as well as what we are able to say and do. What has already happened on Facebook and Instagram and is now occurring on Twitter is the inevitable consequence of increasingly widespread dependence on corporate media platforms.
\n\nIn response, we encourage you to diminish your dependence on Twitter and other corporate media platforms, to explore other sources of information and means of communication. We urge you to mobilize against the far right on every terrain they attempt to seize and to continue organizing against capitalism, state violence, white supremacy, patriarchy, and other forms of oppression. We invite you to talk with your friends and neighbors about what it would take to create a world in which a single billionaire would not be able to control how everyone else can communicate.
\n\nLet’s meet in a space where no algorithms or autocrats can determine what we are able to dream and create together.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2022/11/25/2.jpg\")
\n\n\n\nI can confirm my account was suspended after Elon Musk was told about me by far-right extremists who have tried to get me murdered numerous times. I was also placed on the Nazi-made “antifa” list that is being used by bots to mass report accounts that oppose fascism. My last tweets highlighted the plot to remove my account by abusing the report system as well as certified evidence that Andy Ngo was knowingly friends with famous pedophile Amos Yee. I also highlighted the Nazi past of Gays Against Groomers founder Jaimee Michell. I will not stop my work of exposing fascists despite the organized campaigns to silence and assassinate me.
\n\n \n
\n\n\n“When we say abolish Twitter, we don’t mean beg politicians to regulate them. We mean take grassroots action to prevent them from continuing to do harm—until flowers grow in the wreckage of their social media system.”
\n\n“Abolishing Twitter means developing ways to communicate and address audiences that do not depend on concentrating all coercive and communicative force into unaccountable institutions. It is a project that extends from our interpersonal and digital relationships to mass action against state and corporate violence.”
\n\n-anonymous renouncer of social media
\n
Paul Ray Ramsey (also known as ramzpaul and RamZPaul, born 1963) is a well-known white supremacist. He spoke at the 2013 conference held by the white supremacist online magazine American Renaissance and has made numerous similar appearances in other events organized by explicitly racist groups. Media Matters for America, The Forward, and the Southern Poverty Law Center have all identified Ramsey as a white nationalist. ↩
\nThe same morning, at 9:21 am, we received an email from notify@twitter.com establishing that our account was not in violation of Twitter policy, reading “Twitter is required by German law to provide notice to users who are reported by people from Germany via the Network Enforcement Act reporting flow. We have received a complaint regarding your account, @crimethinc […] We have investigated the reported content and have found that it is not subject to removal under the Twitter Rules (https://support.twitter.com/articles/18311) or German law.” We did not receive any other such emails. This suggests that the decision to ban our account shortly thereafter was dictated by Musk himself. ↩
\nElon Musk has taken possession of Twitter, claiming he will make it “a common digital town square.” What kind of town square is owned by a single plutocrat? The square in a company town—or in a monarchy. What will this mean for ordinary people who depend on platforms like Twitter to communicate and organize in the digital age?
\n\nWe encourage you to follow us on Mastodon and Telegram and subscribe to our RSS feed.
\n\nThe conflicts that played out within the capitalist class during Trump’s presidency effectively pitted an upstart coalition of nationalists and old-money capitalists (such as the oil lobby) against the partisans of neoliberal business as usual, exemplified by the vast majority of Silicon Valley. If not for these intra-class conflicts, Trump’s effort to consolidate control of the US government for his particular brand of nationalist authoritarianism might have already succeeded. Grassroots movements spearheaded resistance to Trump’s policies and street-level support, but Silicon Valley also took a side, culminating with Twitter booting Trump off their platform in the wake of the bungled coup attempt of January 6. This underscored what had already been clear since summer 2020: Trump had not built up enough support among the capitalist class to maintain his grip on power.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2022/10/28/3.jpg\")
The decisions of the previous administrators of Twitter during the Trump era revealed fault lines within the capitalist class.
\nWhat if Trump had been able to make common cause with a critical mass of Silicon Valley billionaires? Would things have turned out differently? This is an important question, because the three-sided conflict between nationalists, neoliberals, and participatory social movements is not over.
\n\nTo put this in vulgar dialectical terms:
\n\nThesis: Trump’s effort to consolidate an authoritarian nationalism
\nAntithesis: opposition from neoliberal tycoons in Silicon Valley
\nSynthesis: Elon Musk buys Twitter
Understood thus, Musk’s acquisition of Twitter is not just the whim of an individual plutocrat—it is also a step towards resolving some of the contradictions within the capitalist class, the better to establish a unified front against workers and everyone else on the receiving end of the violence of the capitalist system. Whatever changes Musk introduces, they will surely reflect his class interests as the world’s richest man.
\n\nOf all the social media giants—and despite Trump’s notorious presence on the platform—Twitter’s administrators were arguably less accommodating to Trump’s agenda than those of Facebook or Youtube. Whereas Mark Zuckerberg met repeatedly with Trump and his far-right supporters like Tucker Carlson, and Facebook and Instagram granted far-right demands to ban anarchists and anti-fascists from their platforms, Twitter banned fascists at least as readily as they banned anarchists and other activists. At the time, we speculated that this might be because Twitter was still effectively under the management of some of the original founders.
\n\nHere, we’ll trace Twitter from its grassroots origins as a protest tool for activists to the Musk acquisition, sketching out a history of the capitalist takeover of the internet in microcosm.
\n\n\nhttps://twitter.com/crimethinc/status/1591091630425182208\n\n\n
With Musk’s purchase of Twitter, we see the conclusion of a cycle of innovation and cooptation in the field of communications. In the late 20th century, the dominant political and technological models were monolithic and unidirectional: network television, mass-based political parties. In response, anarchists and other rebels experimented with independent media and underground networks, producing innovative horizontal and decentralized models like indymedia.org. Tech corporations eventually monetized these models as the participatory media of Web 2.0, such as Facebook. Yet from the turn of the century through the uprising of 2020, the lingering horizontal and participatory aspects of the internet in general and social media in particular continued to empower those who sought to achieve more self-determination—witness the “Thank you Facebook” graffiti in Tunisia after the so-called “Arab Spring” uprisings of 2010-2011.
\n\nOver the past decade, however, corporations and governments have introduced more and more online surveillance and control. Musk’s acquisition of Twitter is the latest stage in a reactionary clampdown with grim implications.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2022/10/28/1.jpg\")
February 2011: graffiti in Tunis after the fall of President Ben Ali. Photograph by Habib Nassar.
\nMusk and his colleagues see capitalism as a meritocracy in which the shrewdest and most hardworking competitors inexorably rise to the top. Hence, presumably, their own success.
\n\nOf course, if Musk wishes to prove that his success is not just the consequence of privilege and luck—of fortune and good fortune—he could demonstrate this easily enough by giving away his wealth, cutting his social ties, changing his name, and repeating his supposed rags-to-riches feats a second time. If he were able to climb the pyramid a second time without the benefit of growing up white in apartheid-era South Africa (setting aside the question of his father’s emerald investments for now), we might have to grant a hearing to his claims that the market has elevated him on account of his personal qualities—though that still would not show that capitalism rewards the efforts that are most beneficial for humanity.
\n\nAccording to the Silicon Valley narrative, platforms like Twitter are the inventions of individual entrepreneurs, propelled into being by the finance capital of canny investors.
\n\nBut Twitter did not simply spring, fully formed like Athena, from the head of company co-founder Jack Dorsey. In fact, it was a modest refinement of a model already demonstrated by TXTmob, the SMS text messaging program developed by the Institute for Applied Autonomy for protests at the 2004 Democratic and Republican National Conventions.1 Blaine Cook and Evan Henshaw-Plath, anarchist developers who worked alongside Dorsey at his previous company Odeo, helped refine TXTmob and later took the model with them into the conversations with Dorsey that gave rise to Twitter.2
\n\nIf the unrelenting urgency of social media in general and Twitter in particular can be exhausting, that’s to be expected—the infrastructure of Twitter was originally designed for street communications during high-stakes mass mobilizations in which information must go out immediately, boiled down to its bare essentials. It’s not a coincidence that, despite its shortcomings, the platform has continued to be useful to street activists and conflict journalists.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2022/10/28/2.jpg\")
The good old days, when pro-Twitter graffiti appeared in Tahrir Square during the Egyptian Revolution.
\nThe point here is that innovative models do not necessarily emerge from the commercial entrepreneurism of the Great Men of history and economics. More often, they emerge in the course of collective efforts to solve one of the problems created by the capitalist order. Resistance is the motor of history. Afterwards, opportunists like Musk use the outsize economic leverage that a profit-driven market grants them to buy up new technologies and turn them definitively against the movements and milieux that originally produced them.
\n\nWe can identify two stages in the capitalist appropriation of the TXTmob model. In the first phase, a framework that was originally designed by volunteers for the use of ordinary protesters was transformed into a publicly traded corporation, around the same time that the open spaces of the early internet were being colonized by the for-profit surveillance systems of Web 2.0. In the second phase, this publicly traded corporation has been transformed into the private plaything of a single entitled tycoon—with consequences that remain to be seen.
\n\nMusk claims that his goal is to open up the platform for a wider range of speech. In practice, there is no such thing as “free speech” in its pure form—every decision that can shape the conditions of dialogue inevitably has implications regarding who can participate, who can be heard, and what can be said. For all we might say against them, the previous content moderators of Twitter did not prevent the platform from serving grassroots movements. We have yet to see whether Musk will intentionally target activists and organizers or simply permit reactionaries to do so on a crowdsourced basis, but it would be extremely naïve to take him at his word that his goal is to make Twitter more open.
\n\n\nhttps://twitter.com/Esqueer_/status/1583225288481046528\n\n\n
Imagine that you do not believe that Elon Musk deserves to have more power over what occurs on Twitter than the roughly 238 million people who use it today. For the purposes of this thought experiment, imagine that you believe that no one deserves to have such disproportionate power over the means via which human beings communicate with each other. In other words, imagine that you are an anarchist.
\n\nWhat can you do to ensure that people can control the technologies that connect us? Can you establish new platforms that answer directly to those who use them? More importantly, can you popularize those, drawing users away from the closed playpens of corporate social media? Can you draw people together in other forums, spaces that can’t be bought and controlled by billionaires?
\n\nEffectively, Musk’s acquisition of Twitter returns us to the 1980s, when the chief communications media were entirely controlled by big corporations. The difference is that today’s technologies are participatory rather than unidirectional: rather than simply seeing newscasters and celebrities, we see representations of each other, carefully curated by those who run the platforms. If anything, this makes the pretensions of social media to represent the wishes of society as a whole more insidiously persuasive than the spectacles of network television could ever be.
\n\nTwitter itself is likely a lost cause, but we should not hastily cede any territory via which we might communicate and organize against our oppressors. In a globally networked world, our adversaries in governments, corporations, and reactionary movements will continue to take advantage of digital technology to act with speed and coordination. We can’t afford not to do the same, even if in the long run we seek much richer forms of connection than anything that digital technology can provide.
\n\nIt’s you against the billionaires. At their disposal, they have all the wealth and power of the most formidable empire in the history of the solar system. All you have going for you is your own ingenuity, the solidarity of your comrades, and the desperation of millions like you. The billionaires succeed by concentrating power in their own hands at everyone else’s expense. For you to succeed, you must demonstrate ways that everyone can become more powerful. Two principles confront each other in this contest: on one side, individual aggrandizement at the expense of all living things; on the other, the potential of the individual to increase the self-determination of all human beings, all living creatures.
\n\nThe good news is that their narrative about where innovation comes from is a lie. Anarchists had more to do with the origins of Twitter than plutocrats like Musk. We can create new platforms, new points of departure for connection, new strategies for changing the world. We have to.
\n\n\nhttps://twitter.com/rabble/status/1590853230208376832\n\n\n
\nhttps://twitter.com/blaine/status/1591189007798767616\n\n\n
\nhttps://twitter.com/PaulbernalUK/status/1587353426484203521\n\n\n
\nhttps://twitter.com/stevekrenzel/status/1589700737407549440\n\n\n
We could go back even further to the protests at the summit of the European Union in Gothenburg, June 14-16, 2001, during which some participants organized a “communicationcentral” using a crude program to mass-distribute SMS messages. Everyone could subscribe to the service, but the infrastructure was not decentralized, which made it vulnerable. The police carried out a raid and eight people served a year or more apiece behind bars. Similar raids followed during protests at the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul and the 2009 G20 summit in Pittsburgh before the authorities shifted from trying to prosecute those providing information to the general public during protests to targeting those who inadvertently gave away too much information about themselves via social media. ↩
\nAccording to an account by Evan Henshaw-Plath and Harry Halpin, “Although Twitter received early favorable coverage from venture capital magazines such as TechCrunch and an outburst of usage around the San Francisco earthquake in August 2006, it still only had 5000 users—the same as TxtMob—by September 2006.” It didn’t take off until the 2007 SXSW conference. ↩
\nIn parts of Texas, a winter storm has knocked out electricity to millions of people. We saw via social media that some comrades were using a guide from our book, Recipes for Disaster, to make a rocketstove in order to boil water and cook food. We’ve scrambled to put that chapter online here in case anyone else needs it—in Texas today, or elsewhere in the climate disasters to come.
\n\nYou can order Recipes for Disaster here.
\n\nAlthough a rocket stove can reduce the amount of carbon monoxide that a fire releases into the air, common sense about fires in enclosed spaces still applies. Make sure your space is ventilated! This particular design is most useful for cooking without gas or electricity.
\n\n\nhttps://twitter.com/MonkeyWrenchATX/status/1361883739219914752\n\n\n
This is an amazingly efficient way to extract the maximum amount of energy from limited stove fuel resources. In our final test before composing this, we made a large pot of old-style whole oat cereal boil for two hours with just a three-foot two-by-four that we yanked off a pallet.
\n\nFive steel food cans:
\n\nPermanent marker
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2021/02/16/2.jpg\")
\n Using the can opener, cut off the top and bottom of the two 15-ounce cans, making them into tubes; cut off the top of the 26-ounce can; cut off the top of one one-gallon can; cut off the top and bottom of the other one-gallon can. Save the top from one of the one-gallon cans.
\n\nRemove the labels, glue, and food residue from all cans.
\n\nHold the bottom of the 26-ounce can to the side of one one-gallon can, about one inch from the bottom. Trace the circumference of the smaller can onto the side of the larger can so you will know what size hole to cut. Use your tin snips to cut the hole in the one-gallon can. You may want to cut the hole slightly small at first, then remove more if need be; you want these joints to be fairly tight.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2021/02/16/1.jpg\")
\nHold the 15-ounce can to the side of the 26-ounce can—all the way at the bottom this time—and trace it. Use tin snips to cut the hole in the 26-ounce can. Make sure the smaller can fits snugly in the larger can.
\n\nMake a two-inch cut lengthwise in one of the two 15-ounce cans. This will allow the can to squeeze and fit snugly in the end of the other. Now you have a steel tube about two cans long. This is your chimney.
\n\nCover the bottom of the one-gallon can with insulation. The insulation should come up to the level of the bottom of the hole you have cut.
\n\nPut the 26-ounce can through the hole in the one-gallon can so that the hole you cut is in the center facing up. This is your firebox.
\n\nSqueeze the chimney cans into the hole in the 26-ounce can. Adjust the position of the cans so the chimney is in the center of the one-gallon can.
\n\nMake sure you haven’t shoved it so far into the 26-ounce can that it blocks too much airflow. You can also cut a bit of material away from the bottom of the chimney to further accommodate airflow when there is a fire.
\n\nPack the remaining space between the inner cans and the one-gallon can with insulation. If you have used cob for insulation, it will take a while for this to dry and begin to insulate. You can speed this process by poking holes in the one-gallon can, leaving it in the sun, or running the stove. If you run the stove with wet insulation, you will get less heat to the pot and there will be less “draw”—the flames will not be as readily sucked up into the chimney where you want them. This should improve greatly as the cob dries.
\n\nUse the lid that you saved from the other one-gallon can to make a shelf for the firebox. The shelf should be a bit lower than the middle of the firebox. It should also be shorter than the firebox, so the space directly under the chimney is undivided. Fuel will go on top of this shelf; ash will fall down and collect underneath.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2021/02/16/3.jpg\")
\nYour rocket stove is now complete, except for a pot rack. That is what the second one-gallon can is for. Cut a series of large holes along the top of this can so air can flow, but leave enough space between the holes that the can remains strong. Slice the can lengthwise so it can expand to fit over the other can, and slice a few inches off its bottom all the way around. Slide the sliced can over the other gallon can, so the former extends one or two inches above the latter; this is the rack on which your pot will sit. The chimney is your burner.
\n\nWrap tie wire around the sliced can, and use pliers to twist it tightly so it is squeezed firmly around the other gallon can. You should tie at least three wires to hold the rack. Remember, the weight of your pot and food will rest on this rack.
\n\nTo use the stove, place it on a level, steady surface that is high enough off the ground that you have easy access to the firebox. Use a hatchet to make small pieces of wood. Wood should be up to the diameter of a finger. Use paper and smaller wood kindling to start the fire. You can set and light the fire at the opening of the fire box, then shove it to the back under the chimney when it gets going. Be careful not to choke the stove—keep half or more of the volume of the firebox open to airflow.
\n\nWhen your fire is established, you can begin to cook. This is probably a two-person job: one to cook, the other to stoke. The stove burns the small pieces of wood very fast and requires constant attention. If your insulation is good and you are burning hot enough, the stove will produce very little ash. You shouldn’t have to empty it until the end of one cooking session.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2021/02/16/4.jpg\")
\nTo further increase efficiency, put a lid on your pot and pile bricks onto the lid—the more, the better. This creates a low-tech pressure cooker, decreasing cooking time.
\n\nYou can use longer pieces of wood by letting the wood hang out of the firebox, advancing the pieces into the fire as they are consumed.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/books/recipes-for-disaster/recipes-for-disaster_front.jpg\")
\nIf there’s one thing that police officers prefer to hitting people with sticks, it’s shooting blunt objects and chemical weapons at people. Arms manufacturers are constantly developing new ways to assault people from a distance—and taxpayers keep buying new toys for their oppressors.
\n\nThis article offers an overview of less-lethal projectiles—both chemical weapons and impact munitions. The police themselves don’t bother distinguishing the two. We’ll cover chemical weapons like tear gas and pepper spray. We’ll cover impact weapons like baton rounds, rubber bullets, and pepper-balls. We’ll cover the systems police use to apply these weapons, including air guns, sprays, grenades, grenade launchers, and shotguns. We’ll cover the ways that police mark people for arrest—and the ways they probably don’t. Other articles in this series discuss batons and other police weaponry. One of the most useful articles to read in conjunction to this one is our “Protocols for Common Injuries from Police Weapons.”
\n\nThis can be a scary subject. But remember—their goal isn’t to strike us with plastic bullets or spray us with chemicals. Their goal is to make us live in fear. They want us to stay home, disconnected, leaving their authority absolute and unchallenged. They fail to achieve goal every time we take the streets together. They fail every time we refuse to let that fear dictate what we do.
\n\nIn this article, we’ll touch briefly on how to protect ourselves via gas masks, armor, shields, and the like. Other articles explore those options in detail. But the chief thing that can protect us against the police is solidarity. We are the ones who must keep each other safe. One shield on the front line of a demonstration can protect many people. One medic willing to treat those in the line of fire can protect many people. A few people who risk jail time to push the police back can protect many people. Our best protection against riot munitions is each other.
\n\nCourage is not the absence of fear. It is acting despite fear. Together, we can overcome fear.
\n\n\nhttps://twitter.com/hungrybowtie/status/1344916089436655618\n\n\n
We have found no evidence that there is any federal or state oversight of what weapons police are permitted to use to quell civil disturbances. According to an anarchist lawyer who specializes in this field, each of roughly 18,000 agencies in the US maintains its own use of force guidelines detailing internal standards regarding what its officers can do to people. We’ve found no body that certifies the chemistry employed in chemical weapons. Any given chemical weapons manufacturer chooses their own binding agents and chemical additives; it appears there is no easy way to know what chemicals we are being exposed to when police target us with these weapons. While this shouldn’t cause us to back down and accede to authoritarianism, it’s important to remember that these weapons are only “less lethal” in comparison to live ammunition.
\n\nThere are only two factors contributing to standardizing these weapons. The first is that weapons that use existing projectile systems (such as 37mm launchers) are more likely to be widely adopted than oddball systems that require entirely new training and weaponry. The second is that manufacturers tend to copy each other’s innovations.
\n\nWhile the federal government apparently does not provide oversight, it does occasionally offer advice and suggestions—for example, in this somewhat-outdated 2004 manual of less-lethal weaponry.
\n\nPolice fire a wide range of blunt force projectiles from a variety of weapons. Manufacturers and police departments sometimes call these “Blunt Impact Projectiles” (BIPs) or “Kinetic Impact Projectiles (KIPs). “Rubber bullets” are only one of many variants. They vary in size, force, composition, delivery methods, and lethality.
\n\nThe sales pitches that manufacturers make to law enforcement agencies emphasize the ability to obtain compliance from subjects via projected force with minimal risk of injury or death. All of the academic studies—not to mention our lived experience—show that neither of these claims is correct: impact munitions regularly maim and kill protestors and they rarely succeed at breaking up demonstrations. They’re even less effective at stopping social movements. Often, when one of us loses an eye or suffers a fractured skull, more people come out to the streets.
\n\nSome of the more common impact munitions include baton rounds, large plastic, foam, gel, or even wooden projectiles that are fired from a multi-launcher or occasionally a shotgun; rubber bullets, metal projectiles coated in rubber or PVC; bean bag rounds, woven bags filled with either silica or lead, usually fired from shotguns; pepper-balls, which are essentially paintballs filled with pepper spray; FN303 rounds, a combination of pepper-balls and regular impact munitions; rubber balls, which are rubber or plastic or foam pellets packed into grenades to explode like shrapnel or shotgun shot; and, of course, the venerable gas canister (bearing chemical agents or smoke), which is not designed to be fired directly at protestors—but regularly is.
\n\nContrary to popular supposition, most modern impact munitions are designed for “direct fire” rather than “skip fire.” Direct fire munitions are for shooting directly at individuals, while skip fire projectiles are designed to be skipped off the ground into the crowd. Tear gas canisters are generally intended for skip firing at close range or firing at a 25-30 degree arc into the air for maximum range; they are not rated for direct fire. Some styles of baton rounds that split into multiple projectiles are designed for skip fire to distribute the projectiles more widely, while others are designed to be fired over the heads of protesters in order to rain chemicals down. Full-size wooden baton rounds and some rubber bullets seem to be designed for skip fire as well, but in general, skip fire is less accurate and less common.
\n\nBaton rounds, stinger grenades, and beanbags hurt. They injure people. Occasionally, they maim or—even more rarely—kill people. Yet of all the tools used by the police, they are some of the least effective at stopping demonstrations. Unlike a cop within mêlée range, a baton round cannot arrest you. Unlike a cloud of gas, it can’t force you to disperse. Ranged impact weapons rely primarily on pain compliance. While this may work on individuals, pain alone usually cannot force a resolute crowd to comply. Standing around getting shot at isn’t always the right move. But the effects of impact munitions can be mitigated by protective equipment including shields, armor, helmets, goggles, barricades, and even umbrellas. Impact weapons rely on fear above all—and through mental preparation and mutual support, we can defend ourselves from fear. We can choose not to comply with fear.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2021/01/04/19.jpg\")
All around the world, intimidation is the chief weapon of the mercenaries who serve the ruling class.
\nImpact munitions are ostensibly designed to hurt people and cause compliance without causing significant injury. But there’s nothing safe about them.
\n\nIt’s been difficult for us to parse the available data to work out which parts are applicable specifically in the United States. The largest study, from 2017, includes information from many other studies around the world. But a good portion of its data—about 41%—describes the use of rubber bullets. Rubber bullets account for a vastly disproportionate number of the serious injuries in the study, and a slightly disproportionate number of deaths. The study found that 3% of people injured with impact munitions die as a result, but that is not a useful number to understand in the context of a demonstration of the US. People do die as a consequence of impact munitions—but it will not be anywhere near 3% of those who are injured by them. We have not been able to confirm whether rubber bullets are currently in use in the US (as they are easily confused with rubber ball ammunition), but if they are, they are not the predominant impact munition in use.
\n\nThe 2017 study found that the majority of serious injuries and deaths were the result of impacts to the head or neck. A smaller study from 2000 found that the majority of deaths were the result of impacts to the chest (causing ribs to break and puncture the heart or lungs).
\n\nAfter the type of munition fired, the most significant factors determining the severity of injuries are the distance from which it is fired and the speed with which the victim can access medical care. Attacks from within ten feet caused the greatest number of broken bones, for example. Also, street medics save lives.
\n\nThe most common injury from impact weapons is intense bruising. And despite police lacking competence and acting with impunity, it does seem like most impact munitions are aimed where they are supposed to be aimed, at the abdomen or lower, where serious injuries are less likely to occur.
\n\nOccasionally, injuries and deaths occur when an officer fires breaching rounds (projectiles designed to break through barriers such as doors) directly at people, presumably by accident.
\n\nThree weeks into the George Floyd uprising, the American Academy of Ophthalmology reported at least 20 serious eye injuries at protests caused by impact weapons (including baton rounds, bean bag rounds, and pepper-balls), tear gas canisters, and, in one case, the probe of a Taser. These included seven instances in which people lost an eye as a result of such an incident, with many more people awaiting surgery, unsure if they would keep their eyes. In one case this year, a journalist suffered a serious eye injury after a projectile broke the protective lenses of his gas mask.
\n\nAcross the world, medical specialists continue to call for the abolition of impact munitions in policing.
\n\nBased on street experience and the analysis of studies, the most vital areas to protect are the head, eyes, neck, and chest. Helmets, gorgets, sports armor breastplates, and impact-resistant goggles, face masks, or gas masks can protect against this, potentially combined with shields. The neck is the most complicated of these areas to protect; most people have never heard the word “gorget,” let alone imagined wearing one while protesting against the police. Basically, a gorget is an item of neck armor worn by fencers. None of us have ever seen anyone wear one at a demonstration.
\n\nWe will discuss shields in a later article. Here, suffice it to say that, to protect against impact munitions, a shield must be strong enough to resist penetration of the round, rigid enough to distribute the force of impact across a large surface area, and be backed by foam wherever the wielder’s body is in contact with it. Plywood 3/8” thick serves well enough, though 1/2” can hold up to more weaponry. Traffic barrel plastic resists penetration well but distributes the force poorly, though it is substantially lighter than wood. No shield makes you invulnerable.
\n\nMost injuries occur below the waist. It appears that the most effectively trained police prefer to shoot demonstrators in the kneecaps. In view of this, it may be worth considering wearing kneepads or more complete sports armor, not so much to avoid permanent injury or death as to remain mobile, effective, and uninjured.
\n\nShields and barricades can help mitigate all of these potential injuries as well.
\n\n\nhttps://twitter.com/gravemorgan/status/1295116634583994369\n\n\n
To understand impact, we have to understand kinetic energy.
\n\nKinetic energy, often called muzzle energy in ballistics, is measured in joules (or in foot-pounds, if you’re not feeling metric). It’s derived from the velocity of an object and its weight, with velocity being exponentially more important. The formula to determine the kinetic energy of a projectile is Ek = (1/2)mv2 with Ek representing energy (kinetic), m representing mass, and v representing velocity.
\n\nNone of us are engineers, but we consulted a couple in the course of writing this article. Basically, we can understand joules measuring the answer to the question “How much did I get hit with?” A baseball thrown at 90 mph might have 120 joules. A baton round might have 240 joules, hitting you twice as hard as that baseball. A .22 rifle might also deliver projectiles with 240 joules, but the baton round is a blunt impact whereas a bullet is designed to penetrate. A 9mm pistol might deliver bullets with 470 joules, an AR-15 with 1850, while a slug from a 12-gauge shotgun could approach 4500. If a 180-pound person fell from a height of 15 feet, they’d have around 4000 joules when they hit the ground. A speeding car? Easily 200,000 joules.
\n\nYet most of us would rather get shot with a baton round than a .22. As one contributor to this text put it, “I’d rather be hit with 200 joules of marshmallows than 200 joules of baton.” Joules are far from the whole story about the damage a given projectile can inflict. The surface area it hits you with (the joules per square meter), the angle it hits you, where it hits you, and the object’s composition (a wooden baton round will absorb less of its own impact than a gel baton round, for example) all matter more. In one study, it took only 375 joules to break bones when pressure was applied at certain angles, while it took 9920 joules to break the same bones when pressure was applied at other angles.
\n\nBecause velocity is more important to energy than the weight of the projectile, the energy with which a projectile strikes a target drops off quickly at distance. A faster object will often carry more kinetic energy than a slower, heavier object.
\n\nIt is useful to start with the energy various weapons can deliver and the impact testing to which various pieces of protective gear are subjected. We’ve found one military document that refers to a “internationally recognized lethality limit” of 75 joules. But these factors do not give us enough information to know how a given projectile will affect a given target. While we are testing various impact munitions against various items of protective gear, we’d like to hear any anecdotes or research you can share about the effectiveness of different forms of protection against projectiles.
\n\nBaton rounds come in multiple shapes, sizes, and materials, but they’re basically big chunks of painful object. They tend to be large-caliber (37mm and 40mm), so that they impart as much force as possible while remaining too blunt to penetrate skin. Many baton rounds also include some kind of payload, such as chemical agents or marking dye.
\n\nMost projectiles that get called “rubber bullets” are probably baton rounds. It’s not necessary to correct people pedantically, but for the purpose of this article, we’re going to make the distinction and call them baton rounds instead.
\n\nThe most common materials for baton rounds are plastic, foam, gel, and wood. While there are far too many varieties list at length, and different manufacturers use different materials for different purposes, the general idea seems to be that foam rounds tend to be intended for short-range fire while plastic and wood are intended for longer range applications. Gel rounds are advertised as being useful at short or long range, as are “collapsible head” plastic rounds. Of course, it’s hard to imagine the police really thinking through exactly which round they want to use for which tactical purpose, especially in chaotic situations, and it’s safe to assume that they are firing all of these at any range they want.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2021/01/04/9.jpg\")
40mm foam baton round.
\nBaton rounds often contain multiple projectiles within each shell that are designed to split apart.
\n\nSome baton rounds have rifling built into the shell or into the barrel of the launcher to spin-stabilize the projectile for accuracy. Most appear not to. While every baton round is rated to a different range, most seem to be designed for use between 2 and 40 meters; only a few varieties are designed for up to 80 meters.
\n\nDirect fire baton rounds are supposed to be aimed at the navel, thighs, buttocks, or knees—though as previously mentioned, it is a mistake to expect police to limit themselves thus.
\n\nMost people struck with baton rounds just come away with a nasty welt. However, baton rounds have maimed and killed people, especially when they strike people’s faces. In July, Portland police shot a 26-year-old protestor in the face with a baton round while he had his hands up. We believe that round to have been a Sage International 37mm KO1 round. The blow fractured his skull, nearly killing him and necessitating surgery.
\n\nThere are also 12-gauge shotgun baton rounds. Most of these are various rubber projectiles that have fins and look like tiny missiles or rocket ships. One, for example, the stabili-shock, weighs 6 grams and is meant to fire at 426 fps for a total of 51 joules of force. We found one video of someone loading the round wrong and shooting it at three times that velocity. We have seen some evidence of police using these at protests in the US.
\n\nAnother make is the Lightfield Superstar, a colorful sea urchin of pain. It is a close-quarters weapon, considered safe for direct fire at as close as two meters. We have found no evidence of law enforcement using these in the US.
\n\nBaton rounds seem to have been invented by the British for use in their colonial project in Ireland, because the rubber bullets they were using at the time were killing too many people. Plastic baton rounds still killed colonial subjects, but at a slower rate.
\n\nModern baton rounds often contain one or more chemical weapons, including OC (Oleoresin capsicum) and CS (common tear gas) most commonly, though CN (which is more dangerous) is used as well. Some baton rounds also contain marking compounds.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2021/01/04/11.jpg\")
37mm wooden baton round.
\nRubber balls are fired individually or, more often, packed into shotgun shells, multi-launcher shells, or hand-thrown grenades. They shoot out wildly and injure people unpredictably. Brand names include Stinger, Sting-ball, and Hornet’s Nest; they are sometimes generically described as rubber buckshot. We’ve found a few common calibers of balls: .32 caliber and .60 caliber (which is to say .32” and .6”), are common in grenades and larger canisters, while “rubber buckshot” seems to come in 00 buckshot size: .33”. Some shotgun rounds are packed with one to three .68” rubber balls.
\n\nAccording to one manufacturer, rubber ball weapons are considered a weapon of last resort when other less lethal options have failed. This is probably because rubber balls are unpredictable in who they strike and where.
\n\nIt’s possible, though we have not been able to confirm it, that most of what people describe as rubber bullets in the United States are the larger caliber of rubber ball. Combined Tactical Systems Sting-balls are in common use in Portland—they are presumed to be the means by which police broke someone’s finger in August. Anecdotally, a lot of them seem to misfire, as demonstrators have found a large number of improperly-deployed canisters.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2021/01/04/17.jpg\")
A sting-ball grenade.
\nThere is speculation that expired rubber balls lose some elasticity over time and become more hazardous.
\n\nRubber balls are also packed into grenades that for all other purposes function as flash-bang grenades: disorientation devices that use sound and light to distract people. One hand grenade we looked at, the ALS Hornets Nest Sting Grenade, holds 180 .32 caliber balls and produces a flash of 1-2 million candela and a bang of 130 db at five feet.
\n\nRubber balls move very chaotically; grenades detonated on the ground can easily send projectiles towards our faces and eyes.
\n\nThese grenades are absolutely not safe to handle and should not be caught or thrown back.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2021/01/04/12.jpg\")
12-gauge stinger balls.
\nBeanbag rounds are bags full of metal (such as #9 shotgun shot) or silica (sand). On average, they are for closer-range use than baton rounds; they more often used inside buildings—specifically, in jails. Every manufacturer and every round will be different, but most seem to be intended for use between 20-35 feet. Some beanbag rounds are “drag stabilized” with a bit of cloth that hangs off the back to keep it accurate its entire effective distance. They are fired from 37mm and 40mm launchers and 12-gauge shotguns.
\n\nManufacturer’s guidelines suggest that it would take 2-3 shots with a beanbag round to incapacitate a target. When they are used in riot situations, they are not usually employed to incapacitate people so much as to inflict a psychological impact on the crowd.
\n\nWe saw one police officer on a forum telling the story of a man on PCP surviving 34 shots with beanbag rounds (though one round shattered the bones in his hand). Police on internet forums often boast about how they shoot rookies with beanbag rounds to haze them.
\n\nWe found Safariland beanbag rounds for retail at $30 or available on eBay for $10. Other manufacturers charge around $6-7 per round.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2021/01/04/10.jpg\")
40mm beanbag round.
\nThus far, our research into rubber bullets has been less conclusive than our research into the other rounds. Historically, rubber bullets for crowd control come in two forms: metal projectiles coated in rubber, as British occupiers used extensively in Northern Ireland, and hard pellets made of a homogenous mixture of roughly 20% rubber and 80% silica, as commonly deployed by the Israeli colonial occupation in Palestine.
\n\nWe know that the police in the US are shooting people with rubber balls, and there has been some speculation that in 2020, DC police have used the steel-cored variety that have killed so many people over the years.
\n\nAs metal-cored projectiles were disproportionately responsible for death and maiming in the 2017 study of less-lethal weapons, this warrants further investigation. If you see police fire rubber balls at people, try to grab some. Measure them, cut them open, and send us pictures.
\n\nThere are also bullet-shaped rubber bullets designed to be fired from 9mm handguns and, presumably, every other common firearm caliber. But as these are fired from regular firearms, they do not seem to have found their way into the police riot control weapon arsenal. So far, the only manufacturer we’ve tracked down that makes this style of bullet is in Canada: Lamperd Less Lethal. It’s safest to assume that the rifles and handgun you see police carrying hold live ammunition.
\n\nMore and more commonly, less lethal munitions are fired from .68” caliber airguns—which is to say, paintball guns. A few styles that we have not confirmed to be in use in the USA are covered above under “rubber bullets.” The more common styles are pepper-balls and FN303 rounds.
\n\nWhile both are used as impact munitions, they are unique to their individual platforms, so we’ll cover them under “launchers” below. However, fascists have lately adopted the paintball gun as a favored tool for street conflict. Rumors abound that they are using frozen paintballs, but we suspect that they may be using rubber balls.
\n\nFrozen paintballs are nearly mythical in the paintball world because local media outlets falsely claim they are favored tool of Halloween vandals. Paintballs frozen in a home freezer for 48 hours do not freeze solid; they only become slightly more brittle and tacky, and they thaw quickly. Paintballs frozen in dry ice are much more solid and potentially dangerous, but unwieldy to shoot. Liquid nitrogen frozen paintballs are as hard as ice, but so brittle they are nearly impossible to load and fire. All cold paintballs become less accurate—as the shell becomes tackier—but sting more.
\n\nIn parts of the world where access to firearms for self-defense is less ubiquitous, airguns are sometimes used to deliver near-lethal force, firing pellets including solid rubber and rubber- or PVC-coated steel balls such as those covered under rubber bullets above, sometimes referred to as “glass breaker” balls. These projectiles are certainly available to US law enforcement as well as civilians; they can be fired from any paintball launcher.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2021/01/04/28.jpg\")
“Glass breaker” balls.
\nAnti-fascists leaking far-right communication logs in Portland in 2020 revealed that at least one far-right militia member discussed using frozen paintballs but noted their lack of accuracy. He suggested instead using glass breaker balls, as detailed above.
\n\nThere are also self-defense rounds for airguns that use a D-shaped round like First Strike. First Strike is a style of paintball round fired from a magazine instead of a hopper, designed for greater accuracy. The same system has been adapted to shoot rubber projectiles with enough force to be deadly. We’ve seen no evidence of their use by police, besides the Pepperball VXR rounds covered under pepper-balls, below, and the FN303 rounds.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2021/01/04/3.jpg\")
FN303 rounds.
\nBarricade rounds are projectiles that are designed to penetrate barriers as tough as glass windows (12-gauge), hollow-core doors (37mm), or thin wallboard or plywood (40mm) and release chemical agents from their nosecone upon impact with said barrier. They are not as effective at breaking through double-pane windows or getting past heavy drapes. The rounds are not meant to be fired at people; they have killed multiple people who were struck directly by them.1
\n\nThey carry OC, CS, CN, or inert liquid or powder. The liquid-carried ones are heavier and penetrate barricades more effectively, while powder carriers are more effective at dispersing gas. Liquid rounds come with red dye that mark where they hit.
\n\nPolice have access to a wide variety of tools they use to project force at a distance. The most common of these include .68 caliber airguns (essentially, paintball guns), 12-gauge shotguns (referred to and usually marked as less-lethal shotguns, but effectively interchangeable with any other 12-guage shotgun), grenades, and 37 or 40mm “multi-launchers,” which are functionally grenade launchers. They also disperse chemicals with sprays, hoses, and smoke candles.
\n\nThese weapons are not particularly inaccurate, manufacturers’ promises notwithstanding. Studies show that when the operators of less-lethal weapons are under stress, their vertical accuracy past 30 meters is significantly compromised. Other factors include fatigue, the weight of the launcher itself, which is significant when loaded, and the recoil of the rounds, which tend to “pull” the round up when fired. These minor differences multiply in effect over distance. What would be a one-inch variance at close range can become a difference of several feet at a longer range. This means that even if an officer chooses to aim a crowd control weapon at someone’s lower body, he could easily hit his target in the head—or hit someone else entirely. There is not a surefire way to shoot any weapon into a crowd of people and be certain to hit your intended target.
\n\nPolice use what amount to paintball guns to launch chemical agents, impact munitions, and marking rounds at people. These are .68 caliber air-powered rifles and handguns. At one time, these were used almost exclusively to shoot pepper-balls and paintballs at protestors, but it wasn’t long before one manufacturer added impact munitions to the projectiles by forgoing a round ball and making fin-stabilized projectiles that contain both chemical agents and enough metal to hurt.
\n\nThere seem to be two primary manufacturers of .68 caliber “less lethal” weapons and ammunition: Pepperball and FN Herstal. We will focus on each one’s flagship rifle as an example, but police might be armed with older models of these weapons, the pistol versions of these weapons, or systems from other companies entirely. The pistol version of the Pepperball system seems to be even less accurate than other options.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2021/01/04/20.jpg\")
Pepperball pistol.
\nThere are also a large number of “riot ball”-style munitions designed to be fired from air rifles/paintball guns (including .68 caliber and .50 caliber), though we have not collected evidence of their use in the United States. These might be anything from solid rubber balls to PVC- or nylon-coated steel pellets to D-shaped projectiles that use “First Strike” paintball guns for increased accuracy.
\n\nThere is a lot of anecdotal information about paintball players suffering eye damage from ordinary paintballs. These smaller projectiles may be especially dangerous in demonstrations. That’s a good reason to wear goggles.
\n\nOf the two weapon systems known to be employed by US law enforcement, the FN303 seems to be substantially more dangerous in terms of pain, injury, and death, while the Pepperball system is more tactically versatile.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2021/01/04/2.jpg\")
The FN303.
\nThe FN303 is a gun that uses compressed air to fire rounds at targets. While the actual barrel is small, firing a .68” projectile like other paintball and pepper-ball guns, the FN303 looks a bit like a grenade launcher from some angles because the compressed air tank sits above the barrel and can be mistaken for a larger barrel itself. It fires polystyrene projectiles that are fin-stabilized for accuracy. Each projectile has a front section containing tiny pellets of bismuth and a rear section containing the payload. Bismuth is essentially a non-toxic alternative to lead. The front section is designed to deliver trauma without skin penetration; but tests on ballistic gel imply that it often penetrates skin regardless, and protestors in Portland have found that the rounds can penetrate bicycle helmets. Bismuth pellets can penetrate skin and stay embedded for weeks until manually removed.
\n\nThe FN303 has a 10” barrel (shorter than a rifle) and a 15-round drum magazine. The air tank can fire up to 110 shots before it needs refilling. The safety is inside the trigger guard. The entire device can be removed from its stock and mounted underbarrel on a rifle, although fortunately, we have not seen any evidence of civilian police doing so. It is also available in a pistol format, with a six-round magazine that contains a disposable carbon dioxide cartridge that powers the gun.
\n\nEach FN303 projectile weighs 8.5 grams. There are five versions on the market, each color-coded. White projectiles contain inert powder and are used for training; clear projectiles have no rear payload and are only used to hurt people; orange projectiles contain PAVA powder (synthetic pepper spray—see below); pink projectiles contain a pink, water-soluble, washable paint for marking targets; yellow projectiles contain a yellow, latex-based, indelible paint for marking targets that cannot as easily be washed off. The projectiles have a shelf life of three years when kept in their original, foil-lined packaging.
\n\nIn 2004, a Boston police officer used an FN303 to shoot and kill Victoria Snelgrove. The officer was allegedly aiming at someone else in the crowd. The pellet entered her eye, breaking through bone and injuring her brain. She died of her injuries a few hours later. Studies indicate that an individual FN303 loses accuracy after a few hundred rounds have been fired through it; the FN303 was the weapon used in the aforementioned study showing how inaccurate less lethal weapons are in the hands of an operator in a stressful situation. The city of Boston discontinued the use of the FN303 as a result, as did several other cities. Boston apparently melted theirs down to make manhole covers. As of this writing, Portland police continue to employ the FN303, as many other departments around the country presumably do.
\n\nIn Luxembourg, in 2009, police using FN303s for the first time shot and broke a journalist’s finger.
\n\nIn 2020, Portland police shot a National Geographic filmmaker with an FN303 round; it broke the plastic lens on his Czech M10 gas mask, lacerating his eye and necessitating surgery. Weeks later, the bismuth pellets were still embedded in the skin of his face, looking like small blackheads that he has been removing himself with a needle.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2021/01/04/1.jpg\")
In July 2020, federal agents shot Trip Jennings, a videographer who has worked with PBS and National Geographic, in the eye with a less-lethal round in Portland, Oregon.
\nThe Pepperball VKS (Variable Kinetic System) is essentially a paintball gun designed to look and function like an AR-15 and to fire paintballs full of pepper spray or other rounds. The user can switch between feeding them via a rifle-style magazine (which can hold pepper-balls or shaped rounds) or a paintball-style hopper (that holds only pepper-balls) by rotating the barrel. They can also use two different compressed air sources: the stock itself is a compressed 13ci HPA air canister or a remote air line can connect to any compressed air tank. Online forums suggest a wide range of how many shots one can get from a 13ci tank, estimating between 80-250. The AR-style safety switch has three modes: (S) Safety, (F) Fire, and (D) Disassemble. A velocity adjustment screw sits above the trigger on the right side. The VKS comes in black-and-yellow, black-and-orange, and all black.
\n\nThe manufacturer’s guidelines say that the weapon is not to be fired at the head, face, eyes, ears, throat, or spine.
\n\nPolice departments use pepper-balls for direct impact as well as area saturation. A Denver PD trainer says that the police use pepper-balls to saturate an area that would otherwise be dangerous to approach, to draw suspects out from hiding or cover.
\n\nThe rifle fires two types of ammunition: round pepper-balls, loaded from the hopper or magazine, which are accurate up to 20 meters, and the newer form of ammunition, VXR-shaped projectiles, which are only loaded from the magazine. The VXR projectiles are accurate up to 50 meters, as they are fin-stabilized.
\n\nThis rifle can fire projectiles at speeds of up to 425 fps. For comparison, most paintball fields limit guns to 280fps for safety.
\n\nEach round is color-coded. The shelf life of ammunition is 3 years.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2021/01/04/21.jpg\")
A pepper-ball launcher with a hopper.
\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2021/01/04/24.jpg\")
A “less lethal” shotgun.
\nA large number of less-lethal projectiles are fired from 12-gauge shotguns. Beanbag rounds are the most common, but rubber ball rounds exist, as do baton rounds, as do muzzle blasts—a means of dispersing chemical agents directly from the barrel of the gun, shooting a cloud of dust 10-15 feet or so.
\n\nNote that the title “riot shotgun” does not apply to dedicated less-lethal shotguns but instead describes shotguns that are designed for defensive fighting, in contrast to a hunting shotgun for hunting or a tactical shotgun for offensive combat.
\n\nWe have not found evidence that there is any oversight in the US that requires police departments to use dedicated less-lethal shotguns, though most departments do. Dedicated less-lethal shotguns are generally designated by the use of bright orange, red, or other color furniture (i.e., the outer parts of a firearm) on the stock and/or the fore end (the part you pump on a pump-action shotgun). While some models of shotgun are sold specifically for less-lethal use, many departments retrofit existing models to color-code them instead. This makes it hard to offer specifics about what shotguns are in use.
\n\nMost police shotguns are pump-action shotguns, as these enable them to fire a wider variety of ammunition. A semi-automatic shotgun usually uses the blowback from the shell to chamber the next shell, and that amount of force is irregular if different types of ammunition are used, causing feeding problems and jamming.
\n\nMost police shotguns appear to have either 14” or 18” barrels. It is illegal for a civilian to own a 14” barrel shotgun without filing federal paperwork for a short-barreled shotgun. Most pump-action shotguns hold between 4 and 8 shells. One less-lethal 18” shotgun we found held 6+1: that is, six shells in the magazine tube and one chambered.
\n\nHowever, we have received reports on the ground of police using full-length hunting shotguns, presumably with barrel lengths of 26 or 28 inches. One comrade in Cleveland reports that these were being carried primarily for intimidation purposes, while the same department fired actual less-lethal rounds out of 18” barrel shotguns instead. The longer the barrel of a firearm, the more accurate it will be, but also the faster the projectile will go and more powerful the impact will likely be.2
\n\nBarricade rounds can be launched from a 12-gauge shotgun. They are not designed for firing directly at people. Despite this, since they are loaded into less-lethal shotguns, officers have killed multiple people with direct shots, presumably unintentionally. Relatedly, “breaching rounds” are designed to destroy locks and doors. These are shotgun rounds generally comprised of small metal shot, or metal powder, often lead, suspended in a medium like wax. The idea is that the round maintains rigidity until impact, expels energy into a hinge, lock, or doorframe, then fragments into a powder after impact.
\n\nWith both barricade rounds and breaching rounds, the injuries result from the initial impact, which can transfer a lethal amount of energy into a target.
\n\nSeveral manufacturers of police munitions sell “grenade launching cups” that attach to the muzzle of 12-gauge shotguns, enabling police to launch grenades that are ordinarily thrown by hand. These are used by attaching the cup to the end of the barrel and loading special launching cartridges into the gun.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2021/01/04/13.jpg\")
12-gauge beanbag round.
\nThe majority of riot munitions—including tear gas canisters, muzzle blasts, baton rounds, flash-bangs, and marking rounds—are fired from devices designed as grenade launchers. For the purpose of disambiguation, we’re going to refer to them as “multi-launchers,” as some sites call them, because they fire a wide range of devices, not just grenades. These are also sometimes called “riot guns” or “less-lethal launchers,” but “riot gun” is often used in the US to describe lethal “riot shotguns.”
\n\nThere are two common calibers of multi-launchers, 37mm and 40mm. Traditionally, 40mm launchers are seen as “military” and 37mm launchers as “civilian,” but the police employ both and the differences between the two seem to be minor. It can be legal for a civilian in the United States to own a 37mm launcher so long as the munitions they use with it are not anti-personnel; flares and fireworks are legal, while baton rounds are not. There are also 38mm munitions, and most 37mm less-lethal launchers we’ve seen are advertised as firing 38mm munitions as well. 38mm munitions might be more common outside the United States.
\n\nAll 40mm grenades used in protest situations seem to fit the “40x46mm” NATO standard for low-velocity grenades, which is the standard used for handheld launchers, unlike the 40x53mm high-velocity grenades that are generally fired from mounted and crew-served weapons (i.e., guns that are designed to be operated by two or more people at a time). The ammunition is not interchangeable between these systems.
\n\nMany multi-launcher projectiles are fired with black powder, rather than more modern gunpowder, which causes sparks and smoke. This is done because these projectiles are more fragile than most modern ammunition. Some are available in “smokeless” models that, presumably, use EC smokeless powder, a slightly more modern variant of black powder that produces less smoke.
\n\nWhen people report with shock that police who work at public schools have “grenade launchers,” this likely means multi-launchers. The police probably don’t plan to fire live grenades at students; rather, they plan to poison them with chemical weapons that are explicitly banned for use in war by the Geneva Convention.
\n\nPistol-style launchers exist, but are generally designed only for muzzle blasts.
\n\nFull-size launchers are usually either breech-loaded single-shot guns (in which the barrel hinges away from the handle and a single round is inserted) or drum-fed versions that look like gigantic revolvers. These revolvers are usually advanced by a pump action, rather than a trigger as in a conventional revolver. These tend to hold between 4 to 6 rounds, depending on the model. Some are rifled to spin projectiles for better accuracy. Internationally, many have wooden stocks and look more like traditional rifles, while most of what we’ve seen in the US are “tactical” style guns with pistol grips in addition to stocks as well as vertical fore grips—a style that is not legal for civilians without special permission.
\n\nLaunchers can also be mounted under the barrel of a rifle, rather than operating as standalone devices. This style is in common use in military situations but does not seem to be common among law enforcement.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2021/01/04/25.jpg\")
A multi-launcher.
\nFor the purpose of this article, we are distinguishing “canisters,” designed to be fired from launchers, from “grenades” that are designed to be thrown by hand. In reality, there is no such clear distinction. Some weapons are designed to be thrown or rolled by hand, while others are designed to be loaded into multi-launchers—but some are designed for both.
\n\nGrenades are often used to disperse chemical agents and/or impact munitions, particularly rubber balls. Other grenades are “distraction devices,” generally referred to as flash-bangs. Many combine these functions.
\n\nWe’ve found at least three body styles for police grenades. There is the ball grenade, which looks like a classic baseball-style military grenade, designed to be thrown or rolled. These often contain rubber ball impact munitions, possibly paired with chemical weapons, while others are traditional pyrotechnic tear gas grenades. There are the “low roll” body grenades, which are cylinders with large hex-shaped ends that minimize the distance the grenade will roll. Then there are the regular canister grenades, which appear to be the most common style. These can be of any diameter, but 37/38m, 40mm, 45mm, and 60mm seem to be the most common.
\n\nGas grenades and canisters can disperse chemical agents through a number of methods. The most common is the classic pyrotechnic dispersal, which works by creating a fire inside the canister that releases the chemical agent as smoke. These canisters are very hot and can spark and start other fires.
\n\nAnother dispersal method, used more often by OC canisters than CS canisters, is aerosol dispersal (sometimes called “flameless expulsion”). Releasing something more akin to a mist than a smoke, these are more commonly used indoors, where pyrotechnic canisters would be less convenient. As best as we are able to determine, these are generally not used as much outside because they produce less dense concentrations of chemical agents.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2021/01/04/26.jpg\")
An instantaneous blast grenade.
\nFinally, there are instantaneous blast canisters, which explode all at once and release their payload as a powder. These are designed for inside or outside use, but as the dust is easily dispersed by wind, they are intended primarily for use against dense crowds of people, when pyrotechnic grenades are less effective, either owing to throwback potential or the risk of starting unintentional fires. These canisters are easily identified after the fact because they are split open along the sides.
\n\nGas dispersal canisters are often designed to separate into a number of sub-munitions, like the “triple chaser” from Defense Technology that splits into three smaller tear gas canisters. This is done to make it more work for us to throw them back or douse them with water.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2021/01/04/14.jpg\")
The “triple chaser” from Defense Technology that splits into three smaller tear gas canisters.
\n\nhttps://twitter.com/comradecamera/status/1352152555933978627\n\n\n
Less-lethal grenades are generally equipped with fuses like any military grenade: the user pulls a pin, which makes it possible to release a lever that is gripped in the hand. Once the lever is released, the fuse is ignited. While fuses could be of varying length, we have found two second delays to be common: a 1.5-second delay before the fuse is ignited, then .5 seconds for the fuse itself. On at least some models, the fuse assembly ejects itself before the payload is ignited so that it does not become a projectile.
\n\nSome grenades come with additional safety clips that prevent the fuse from being pulled while the grenade is being carried. Some come with water-resistant bodies for high-humidity environments. Some, particularly flash-bangs, are reloadable. People have reported seeing police combing the area after protests and picking up certain spent munitions. It’s possible they are doing this to conceal the use of some particularly egregious weapons (such as DM gas), but it’s also possible they are recovering reloadable grenades.
\n\nGrenades can also be “command initiated” instead of lit by a fuse. This system seems to be more common in tactical situations, such as house raids, rather than at demonstrations that are more dynamic. This system involves attaching a tube to the grenade to allow for instantaneous, remote detonation.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2021/01/04/7.jpg\")
A federal officer using a fogger to assault a legal observer from the American Civil Liberties Union in Portland, summer 2020.
\nIn addition to firing canisters that release chemicals as smoke, police also spray people directly with chemicals with handheld devices. The two chemicals we’ve found in our research are OC (pepper spray) and CS (a tear gas), but almost any chemical agent can be aerosolized and sprayed. Depending on the manufacturer, the chemical irritant, and the spray pattern, these can employ any number of propellants, such as compressed air, nitrogen, or the refrigeration chemical ominously named 134a. There are numerous spray patterns, from the simple “stream” pattern to cones, fog (or “vapor”), and even foam.
\n\nChemical sprays, unlike pyrotechnic dispersal methods that disperse a powdered irritant, generally aerosolize a liquid form of the chemical. This can be water-based or oil-based; consequently, chemical weapon protection should be rated against oil-borne particulates (P100 filters instead of N100 filters). Foggers use a liquid formulation as well, but aerosolize this liquid pyrotechnically (the way a fog machine does) rather than by using an aerosol gas.
\n\nChemical sprays come in a range of different concentrations and it would be difficult to anticipate which is ones law enforcement are utilizing without research. To make matters more complicated, the strength of OC (the most common sprayed irritant) is notoriously difficult to identify. Manufacturers’ claims are not regulated, and there are many different types of capsaicinoids that might be present in a given variant of OC gas. There is probably internal consistency within each manufacturer’s line of weapons, but that’s about it. One manufacturer’s 2% spray might be more powerful than another’s 4% spray. Those numbers are almost meaningless on their own.
\n\nSmall handheld canisters with a button on top seem to be accurate from 10-12 feet, while larger canisters with a trigger assembly seem to be accurate up to 15-20 feet, although this differs from manufacturer to manufacturer.\nMany spray systems also contain visible or UV reactive dyes to mark targets. UV dye is particularly common in civilian self-defense spray, while police in Seattle and other cities are known to use visible dye to mark demonstrators for arrest.
\n\nThere are larger canisters that operate on the same principles as the smaller ones. These often look more like full-size fire extinguishers. Then there are backpack devices with separate spray nozzles and tanks—the “Ghostbusters” variety, as some have called them. These can operate with either powder or liquid chemicals; at least one model has an effective range of 45 feet. Portland police have been seen to conceal backpack chemical foggers inside an unmarked black backpack with a spray nozzle attached to a hose protruding from the bottom.
\n\n\nhttps://twitter.com/PredatorFiles/status/1287725556453187590\n\n\n
There are also devices that look like a cross between a fog machine and a leaf blower that are gas-powered and are designed to fill large areas with poison. Like the backpack foggers, these are generally designed for use in prisons, not at demonstrations. As we’ve seen recently, however, riot police will often use any weapon available to them.
\n\nFinally, chemical weapons are sometimes mixed with water and dispersed through fire hoses or water cannons. None of us had seen this method in use in the United States until the 2020 protests in Portland. Chemical burns on a nearby tree were consistent with chlorine poisoning, which could be the result of expired chemistry. This means of chemical weapon dispersal has been used in Hong Kong, Thailand, and Turkey; it is presumably possible in any country that uses water cannons against demonstrators.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2021/01/04/6.jpg\")
Federal troops poisoning downtown Portland with a fogger, summer 2020.
\nA hundred years ago, when chemical warfare was first emerging, some poisonous gasses were dispersed by “candles,” which would burn and release gas. Functionally, this is the same thing as a modern tear gas grenade, which uses pyrotechnics to disperse chemical powder; the phrase “tear gas candle” could be used to describe any pyrotechnic tear gas canister.
\n\nYet in the summer of 2020, we saw either police or federal agents walking through the streets of Portland holding a burning object at the end of a stick. This looked, for all the world, like a censor at a Catholic mass with smoke pouring out of it.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2021/01/04/15.jpg\")
Officers distributing tear gas in Portland, summer 2020.
\nWe don’t know for certain whether this was a chemical agent (probably) or inert smoke, but it feels noteworthy that the only tear gas we’ve come across that was designed for dispersal in “candles” like this is DM gas, the vomit gas that protestors believe is in use in Portland. This would mark a major escalation in the form of chemical warfare employed against protestors.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2021/01/04/23.jpg\")
A civilian pepper spray.
\nAs with all many other less-lethal weapons, the distinctions between categories of chemicals are actually quite blurry.
\n\nConventional parlance divides chemical weapons in two categories: tear gas and pepper spray. While these distinctions exist, they’re not clear-cut. If we imagine “tear gas” as clouds of smoke or dust and “pepper spray” as chemical sprays, this is really a question of methods of dispersal, not the actual chemicals being used.
\n\nWe will discuss seven different chemicals herein. Although something like fifteen varieties have been developed, we will focus on the most common ones that are either known to be used against demonstrators or at least widely suspected of being used thus. Of those seven, five of them are usually dispersed as gas, while two usually appear as a chemical spray. But it’s possible for almost any chemical to be dispersed by almost any means, and we have seen quite a bit of crossover.
\n\nThe five tear gasses, in brief, are:
\n\nThe two pepper spray chemicals are:
\n\nWe will largely conflate these two throughout this article, as we’ve had a hard time identifying any significant distinction between them.
\n\nThe first self-defense sprays were actually filled with CN gas, but OC is generally more effective at disabling a target. There are sprays filled with CS, CN, and OC. There are also tear gas munitions filled with OC and PAVA.
\n\nFor the ostensible purposes of crowd control, OC (or PAVA) is the most effective tear gas agent. It is the fastest acting, the most debilitating, and the least toxic, and its victims recover faster. CS gas is in second place; it is more traditionally used, and the most widely available.
\n\nBy any measure, no other tear gas agent besides OC or CS has any use even from a statist point of view except to punish and poison people. They are outdated and cruel technologies. We don’t say that in order to ask for sympathy or to appeal to the moral judgment of the state, but simply to point out that the cruelty is the point.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2021/01/04/22.jpg\")
Common pepper spray.
\nChemical weapons are used for a number of tactical purposes. As we’ve found with impact munitions, police employ them in many ways that they were never designed to be used. In general, tear gas is designed to control the movement of crowds, or to disperse crowds. Tear gas clouds are meant to discourage people from occupying particular areas. Police can use tear gas to direct a crowd much the same way that lines of riot police can: most people will avoid the gas and will move in the direction of clear air. The same crowd control effect can be done, on a smaller scale, with pepper-balls and the focused remote deployment of chemical weapons.
\n\nSprays tend to be used closer up. Outside of demonstrations, they are used to subdue individuals. Inside of demonstrations, they are often used indiscriminately, to disperse, intimidate, or incapacitate a crowd.
\n\nTear gas and other chemical weapons are specifically not designed for punishment: they are not designed to be deployed against a trapped crowd or a restrained individual. Police use them this way regularly, of course.
\n\nTo prevent the police from accomplishing their crowd control goals, we simply refuse to be crowd-controlled. This can necessitate a certain amount of advance preparation.
\n\nTo mitigate the effects of chemical weapons, personal protective equipment is in order. Our guide to gas masks and goggles gets into this in detail, but the short version is:
\n\nUmbrellas can block chemical sprays. On the day Trump was inaugurated president, in the fabled “umbrella charge,” a single umbrella protected dozens of anarchists as they escaped from a police kettle, eight felonies, and a years-long court case.
\n\nJanuary 20, 2017: the umbrella charge.
\nIn light or moderate chemical weapon attacks, it’s usually sufficient for a few people to deactivate or throw back the canisters while medics and others treat those affected by sprays. It’s also possible to keep moving, so long as this doesn’t interfere the goals of the demonstrators.
\n\nUnfortunately, the heavy use of chemical weapons will tend to thin out a protest of people who are less prepared. Having wet bandannas (stored in individual ziplock bags) or other PPE available for distribution can be useful to enable the crowd to stay around longer.
\n\n\n\n\n“It is never polite to throw back the tear gas…\nBut sometimes love\nSometimes real love\nIs fucking rude.”
\n\nAndrea Gibson, “Etiquette Leash”
\n
Protestors regularly return tear gas canisters to those who have deployed them. Since tear gas is pyrotechnically deployed, most canisters are quite hot—hot enough to start fires or burn your skin. Anyone hoping to handle gas canisters should wear insulated work gloves made from fire-resistant material. Cheap hardware store gloves are not adequate; canisters have burned protestors through them. Synthetic materials, if not specifically designed to be fire-resistant, can melt into a person’s skin. Leather work gloves are often the simplest and best choice, though those who choose not to wear leather should be able to find heat-resistant synthetics.
\n\nPeople have also employed lacrosse sticks and hockey sticks to return tear gas canisters without touching them.
\n\n\nhttps://twitter.com/plsnotmike/status/1286951807168598018\n\n\n
\nhttps://twitter.com/MrOlmos/status/1285110589606334465\n\n\n
Police may employ pepper spray without putting on gas masks, but if they are going to gas an entire area, they will almost always put on masks or rotate in a new line of officers wearing protective gear. This is important: it means that if you keep an eye on the police, you should be able to tell in advance when they are preparing to gas you. It follows that, if anyone must be subjected to tear gas, it should be the people who are best equipped for it—the ones who deployed it in the first place. Of course, we’re not lawyers, and laws about which burning objects one is allowed to throw at the police likely vary by locality.
\n\nYou should only throw canisters when you are aware of your surroundings and have an open space behind you. Before you throw a canister, take note of which direction the wind is blowing and where people are likely to need to go shortly, as well as where they currently are.
\n\n\nhttps://twitter.com/Gian_Neon/status/1268060951846281216\n\n\n
In recent years, protestors around the world have been learning to neutralize gas canisters rather than simply tossing them back. These methods have the advantage of being a bit less confrontational.
\n\nSince most canisters are pyrotechnically deployed, it’s enough to simply put out the fire inside the canister. One rudimentary method, which does not require touching the canister at all, is to put a road cone over the canister and then pour water in through the hole at the top of the cone until it is doused.
\n\n\nhttps://twitter.com/hkfp/status/1158399008261464064\n\n\n
A more refined method involves picking up the canister with gloved hands and putting it in a large water bottle or a bucket of water. In Chile and some other parts of the world where communities in revolt have honed their practices, extinguishing canisters has become a distinct role in street protests. People playing this role bring a water jug with a wide mouth, containing a little baking soda, dish soap, and/or vegetable oil—3 tablespoons of each to 1 liter of water. When a canister arrives, they drop it in the jug, and shake the jug while covering the top with one hand just enough to keep the gas from getting out. If you try this, don’t seal the bottle—you don’t want it to explode.
\n\nHow to extinguish tear gas canisters.
\nFailing all else, if you aren’t prepared to neutralize the canister, it could be enough to simply cover it with something like a cooking pot or an orange road barrel. Some gas will leak out, but this will diminish its ability to hurt people.
\n\nIn theory, riot control agents are designed to be as uncomfortable and debilitating as possible without causing permanent damage. They irritate the lungs, eyes, and skin. They are lachrymatory agents, causing your eyes to water. Your nose might run. You might have trouble breathing. You might be unable to open your eyes. Some chemical weapons take effect almost immediately; others can affect you minutes after exposure. Some continue to irritate you long after you move to fresh air; others dissipate faster. Some are more toxic than others; some can cause permanent damage. We’ll discuss the specific effects of each chemical separately. But in short: sometimes exposure to riot control agents can be painful and debilitating, especially when you’re directly exposed to them without protection. In other cases, they may be simply irritating.
\n\nShortness of breath is a specific and common problem resulting from exposure to chemical weapons. When this is combined with the shock of getting gassed, the overall stress of the situation, and irritated lungs, some people may feel as though they are going to pass out.
\n\nIf you are experiencing this, try to get out of the area where the gas is deployed, sit up or stand with good posture to open your lungs, and try to breathe deeply. Even if your breathing is still restricted, the additional oxygen will lower your ambient stress level, enabling you to address some of the effects of anxiety and decreasing your heart rate. If you see other people who appear to be on the verge of passing out, try to get them to somewhere safe outside of the area of deployment and encourage them to breathe as deeply as possible.
\n\nThe other thing that chemical weapons are intended to do is intimidate us. They are used to keep us out of the streets, to keep us from accomplishing our goals. If you are still building your experience in the streets, we recommend that you speak with coolheaded people who have considerable experience in public order situations about what to expect and how to handle the stress of chemical weapons attacks. If you are experiencing large-scale police violence for the first time, and you have the option, it can be a good idea to pace yourself, leaving a stressful situation when it becomes overwhelming, in order to slowly, steadily build a skillset for dealing with it levelheadedly. If you are aiming for longevity as a participant in social movements, it’s better to err on the side of caution at first than to ask too much of yourself, have a bad experience, and withdraw from the struggle.
\n\nSome of us have been hit by everything under the sun over the years and survived. The fact that we have and the experience of being among comrades who have persisted in spite of intense police violence have both done a lot to demystify the weaponry of the police.
\n\nAsthmatics and others with breathing difficulties should be particularly careful about exposure to chemical weapons. This could mean bringing a gas mask or being prepared to leave the area as soon as you see police preparing to deploy gas. It appears that asthmatics account for most of the deaths caused by these chemical agents. To be clear, while these agents do occasionally kill people, being gassed as an asthmatic is rarely fatal.
\n\nAccording to Sven-Eric Jordt, Ph.D., a tear gas researcher, children are particularly vulnerable to tear gas because of their smaller lungs, which have a very different surface-to-volume ratio than adults. This has not stopped federal officers from employing tear gas against migrant children at the US border.
\n\nRumors abound about immunity to CS or OC, particularly in military circles.
\n\nSome people do appear to be naturally immune to CS gas, or at least more tolerant of it. It is indeed possible to build up the mental capacity to continue to function despite the pain and other effects. But there is no evidence that it is possible to develop a physiological immunity to CS or OC. In fact, on the contrary, repeat exposure to CS gas is known to cause sensitization—the opposite of tolerance.
\n\nUS soldiers are exposed to CS gas during basic training as part of “mask confidence training,” aimed at demonstrating the effectiveness of their gas masks. During these trainings, it appears that some small portion of the population (perhaps 2-5%, according to speculation we’ve seen) is naturally resistant to the effects of CS. On one forum, we read that a soldier who was highly tolerant of CS gas let someone pepper spray him, erroneously believing that pepper spray (OC) is the same thing. It turned out that he was not immune to pepper spray.
\n\nThe other common rumor within the ranks is that drill sergeants develop immunity to the gas as a consequence of repeated exposure. What is likely happening, instead, is either that the officers who display some naturally occurring tolerance of CS are put in charge of the CS exposure chamber, or that these instructors have developed a mental, rather than physiological, tolerance for the pain and discomfort that the gas causes.
\n\nIn any case, it is ill-advised to routinely expose yourself to CS gas in hopes of building up a mental tolerance to it. Exposure to CS gas can cause a number of long-term health problems. Nor is there any evidence that eating hot peppers or the like can increase your tolerance of it.
\n\nSome police academies apparently teach racist myths about pepper spray, suggesting without evidence that Latin American and East Asian people are more tolerant of pepper spray—and therefore, it is implied, need to be sprayed longer—because of exposure to spicy food. This is just the latest in centuries of white supremacist pseudoscience justifying cruelty.
\n\nDepending on the agent, most of the effects of chemical agents will clear up after about 30 minutes of fresh air. Avoid rubbing your eyes. If you have contacts in, remove them as soon as possible.
\n\nRinse your eyes with water—or, ideally, have someone else rinse your eyes. The best way to rinse someone’s eyes is to take a sports-style squirt water bottle and spray water into their open eyes. Bring a bottle for this purpose and use it only for flushes; do not drink from it, lest you contaminate it with saliva. You can open someone’s eyes with your thumb and forefinger; wear clean gloves, if you have them. It is enough to open their eyes just a little bit. Start rinsing from the inside of the eye, near the nose, and work your way to the outside. Do one eye at a time. Ask them to blink; remind them to not touch their face. Repeat as many times as necessary.
\n\nSpray the water from the sports bottle with some force: the goal is to flush the chemicals off the eye. Rinsing your eyes will not immediately alleviate the burning, but it will enable you to begin to recover.
\n\nTo get tear gas and other contaminates off your skin, wash with soap and water. If the gas has dried as a powder on you (which is especially possible with expired tear gas), brush the powder off your skin and clothes before rinsing. While it’s been suggested that water “activates” the powder form of chemical irritants, experience has shown that removing it with water, or soap and water, is effective.
\n\nWhen you meet people after being gassed, if you are still wearing the same clothes or have remnants of the gas in your hair, warn them. You may not be affected by traces of gas that could still provoke a significant reaction in them, especially if they have asthma or similar conditions. This can also be a concern if you are entering enclosed spaces with others. Treat the risk of exposing others to tear gas secondhand as a consent issue.
\n\nWhen you have exited the conflict area after exposure, take off your outer clothes and double bag them until you have a chance to wash them. Shower, scrubbing your skin vigorously with soap. Be careful when you wash the chemicals out of your hair: if any get into your eyes, your genitals, or open wounds, it will hurt.
\n\nTo deal with your clothes, wash them thoroughly, possibly through multiple cycles. Run the washing machine without anything in it afterwards to wash the inside of the washing machine itself. Drying your clothes outside on a line is preferable, so that any lingering effects can dissipate.
\n\nTear gas makes your nose run, and bodily fluids are effective vectors for COVID-19 infection. Concerned with minimizing the spread of a deadly disease, some medics who would otherwise be administering assistance to those exposed to chemical weapons have begun advocating that people treat themselves for chemical weapons exposure if they are able to. Failing this, you should wear gloves, eye protection, and a mask of your own when you are treating a person for chemical weapons exposure. Take care to clean and decontaminate as soon as you can.
\n\nLaw enforcement use Sudecon wipes for decontaminating people from pepper spray and tear gas. Medics we’ve spoken to report that they haven’t seen a side-by-side comparison, but believe that Sudecon wipes might work at least as well as soap and water on skin.
\n\nRosehip Medic Collective in Portland, Oregon has published a recipe for DIY decontamination wipes that were in wide use in the chemical-soaked streets there during summer 2020.
\n\nBegin with:
\n\nMix this well, then combine it with 21 fluid ounces of baby shampoo and mix it gently. Soak high quality paper towels in the mixture, and pack them into ziplock bags a few of them at a time. These should keep for a few days, or a few months in a refrigerator.
\n\nMedics in Portland have been manufacturing these with the help of a small rolling machine to distribute the moisture more evenly; they hope it will enable the wipes to keep longer. It also helps the medics to manufacture them more quickly.
\n\nPeople use many different remedies and treatments for chemical weapons—everything from milk to antacids and herbal concoctions. Based on our conversations with street medics and doctors, we recommend just using water for flushing out eyes and soap and water for washing skin. Why? After all, the doctor we spoke to pointed out that it doesn’t usually hurt, medically speaking, to use milk to flush out someone’s eyes.
\n\nWe advocate for water because it’s readily available and it’s less likely to cause allergic reactions. We recommend it because it isn’t gross—getting arrested soaked in milk isn’t a pleasant experience—and because it doesn’t leave telltale white residue like antacid does, which appears more visibly on darker skin and has been used (for example, by police in the Ferguson uprising) to mark suspects for arrest. Perhaps most importantly, we recommend it because it demystifies chemical weapons.
\n\nThe idea that we need some sort of special remedy to treat exposure to chemical weapons adds to their mystique and the fear they can inspire. But there’s nothing arcane about these irritants. Wash them off and get to fresh air. Even if you disagree with us that water is best, please do not interrupt experienced street medics who are applying water eye flushes. That is not helpful behavior.
\n\nThere is an outdated protest technique (referred to as MOFIBA) that uses mineral oil to cleanse the skin of contaminants, but it has largely gone out of use because, if administered wrong (whether as a consequence of inexperience or of being applied in a tumultuous situation), it can do more harm than good. We won’t detail it here. Soap and water are effective for cleaning the skin. Decontamination wipes are good—possibly better—if you have them available, but they are not necessary.
\n\nAdditional care can sometimes be useful, both medically and emotionally. As one street medic put it, they rub arnica lotion onto handcuff bruises because when someone shows you the bruising caused by police handcuffs, they’re showing you the physical evidence that they were assaulted and kidnapped. When you examine those bruises and apply a lotion, you’re showing that what happened to them matters and that the consequences are worth treating with care. The arnica lotion likely helps with the bruising, but the act of showing care matters too.
\n\nSome protestors in Chile have taken to spraying a room-temperature tea (made by boiling laurel leaves) into the eyes of those who are suffering from pepper-spray, and it seems to be effective. This is not a mechanical flushing of the eyes, but rather applied with a squirt bottle as an aftercare treatment to alleviate burning and to calm the person.
\n\nSome protestors in Hong Kong have carried spray bottles containing three teaspoons of baking soda for every 8.5 ounces of water. While the efficacy of this has not been directly studied, it lines up with the findings of a 2003 study to the effect that CS molecules are unstable and basic fluids like baking soda might accelerate that process of molecular breakdown.
\n\n\nhttps://twitter.com/nicole_froelich/status/1231084763412357121\n\n\n
Perhaps you’ve heard that the use of tear gas in war is a war crime, banned by the Geneva Protocol (which is distinct from and predates the Geneva Conventions). This is true. It’s not just that tear gas was accidentally swept up in a broad agreement not to employ chemical weapons, either. It’s in there explicitly by name.
\n\nIn 1925, after the chemical horrors of the First World War, 38 countries signed the Geneva Protocol banning the use of chemical weapons. Most of the signatory countries assumed that this included tear gas and chemical herbicides dropped indiscriminately in remarkable quantities. The United States government decided not to share this interpretation. Throughout the 1960s, the US made extensive use of tear gas and herbicide (Agent Orange) in Vietnam.
\n\nToday, the Geneva Protocol makes it clear that tear gas is specifically prohibited.
\n\nHeads of state don’t want anyone else dropping chemicals on their civilians—but if that’s what it takes to maintain order internally, they’re all for it. So yes, international law explicitly forbids the use of tear gas in war, describing it as a war crime. But governments agree that it is fine to use it on us.
\n\nWe’ll review the properties and effects of the more common chemical agents here.
\n\nCS gas (2-chlorobenzalmalononitrile, C10H5ClN2) is the most common tear gas agent. Two US scientists, Corson and Stoughton, were the first to synthesize it; they named it after themselves. It was not weaponized into tear gas until the 1950s.
\n\nCS gas is found primarily in tear gas canisters, but it also appears in sprays, or laced throughout impact weapons.
\n\nCS gas is perceived to be substantially less toxic than CN gas, while being more effective at disabling people. It’s probably more toxic, and less disabling, than OC.
\n\nWe know that CS can cause heart and liver issues. We know that intense exposure can cause chemical burns and scarring. But there is more.
\n\nIn terms of immediate lethality, it is speculated that CS could kill in an enclosed space; protesters blamed several deaths in Tahrir Square during the uprising on CS. But this has not been confirmed. CS gas does seem to be less immediately capable of killing than other chemical agents. Its long-term effects, however, are troubling.
\n\nMost toxicity reports on CS are over fifty years old; new studies are somewhat rare. The US military is increasingly finding links between CS gas and persistent lung problems by studying the incidence of lung problems before and after soldiers are exposed to the CS gas chamber.
\n\nCS gas is clastogenic—that is, it can change your chromosomes. This primarily affects people who are capable of menstruation. Science has been slow to study these effects, but a large number of stories describe miscarriages, excessive bleeding, cramps, blood clots, and seizures after exposure to CS gas.
\n\nCS gas (unlike OC and the Russian tear gas MPK) is not generally considered as effective against dogs, bears, and some other mammals owing to different tear duct structure and some resistance from fur. It certainly causes discomfort, and studies have shown it is capable of killing dogs. Anecdotal reports from Turkey describe it killing birds by the thousands and blinding street cats.
\n\nAs with all chemical weapons, the police do not use CS in a “pure” form—and the other chemicals it is adulterated with can also be toxic. We believe that the liquid/spray version, at least the one that the UK police use, employs methyl isobutyl ketone (MIBK) as a solvent. MIBK is itself toxic and can cause liver and kidney problems.
\n\nAt least at the siege in Waco, the US government used CS aerosolized along with the solvent Dichloromethane, which has a sweet odor. It is carcinogenic.
\n\nSome comrades reported that at least some of the gas used during the G20 protests in Pittsburgh in 2009 smelled vaguely like banana candy.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2021/01/04/16.jpg\")
A CS tear gas canister.
\nPhenacyl chloride is a common chemical used in organic chemistry. When it is weaponized as a tear gas, it is called CN gas (2-Chloroacetophenone). It was first developed as a tear gas during the First and Second World Wars, though it is not known to have been used during them.
\n\nCN gas is commercially available through any number of police weapon manufacturers, although there is no reason why it should be, considering that it is substantially more toxic and substantially less effective than CS gas. It is less common than CS or OC, but can be found in tear gas canisters, sprays, and laced throughout impact weapons.
\n\nCN gas was the active ingredient of “Mace,” the first brand of self-defense spray, before OC was developed.
\n\nCN gas has killed at least five people via heart damage or asphyxia. It has also caused contact dermatitis—sometimes permanently—in an unknowable number of police officers whose chemical weapons have accidentally leaked onto them. If it can injure police in that manner, it can injure us as well.
\n\nCR gas (dibenzoxazepine) is a tear gas agent that is suspected but not confirmed to be in use in the United States. It was developed in the UK in the 1960s and earns its nickname “fire gas” for its capacity to not just hurt your lungs and eyes, but to make your whole body feel like you’ve been thrown into a patch of nettles. It is said to smell sweet.
\n\nCR gas is allegedly 6-10 times more potent than CS gas, and while all the documentation we’ve found says that it is “less toxic” than CS, it is known to be capable of killing people by asphyxiation or pulmonary edema (liquid filling the lungs).
\n\nOne of the worst things about CR gas is that it is substantially harder to decontaminate than other riot control agents. It can persist on surfaces for up to 60 days.
\n\nWe have not found any manufacturers who advertise any products that contain CR gas.
\n\nSome protestors in Portland conjecture they might have been exposed to CR gas because some gas they were exposed to reacted particularly strongly to their sweat. The theory is that federal agents, tired of gas-masked protestors, utilized a weapon that causes suffering even to those who are masked. These federal agents might have access to old stores of CR gas, or perhaps do not need to go through public-facing commercial channels the way local police generally do.
\n\nHowever, CS gas (and perhaps especially expired CS gas, which might cause larger flakes that persist longer on the skin) also reacts to sweat to cause burning, and can be dispersed through sweet-smelling solvents. Chemists and others are currently trying to work out whether CR or DM have been in use in Portland.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2021/01/04/27.jpg\")
One mysterious green gas officers utilized to assault protesters in Portland has been identified as HC gas.
\nDM gas (Adamsite, Diphenylaminechlorarsine) is another largely outdated and particularly vicious tear gas agent. Chemists in both Germany and the US developed it independently in the 1910s. It was originally burned in “candles” to disperse the gas.
\n\nDM gas is particularly ineffective as a riot control agent, as its effects take 5-10 minutes to set in. It would only be useful for inflicting punishment—for which purpose it would likely be effective, as its effects can easily last 12 hours. It starts like other tear gasses, with irritation to the eyes and lungs, but this develops into nausea, headache, and persistent vomiting.
\n\nDM gas was most notoriously used in the United States against the “Bonus Army,” a demonstration of 45,000 veterans of the First World War and their allies in DC in 1932. Eyewitnesses say that the gas suffocated two young children, though historians have been unable to confirm this.
\n\nSome people conjecture that DM gas was in use by federal agents in Portland in the summer of 2020, but it remains unproven. There were rumors describing green smoke that might have been DM gas, and reports that some tear gas had made people vomit. So far, no one has been able to prove or disprove this, though some green gas utilized in Portland has been identified as HC gas.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2021/01/04/8.jpg\")
Toxic DM gas was used to target World War I veterans who participated in the “bonus march.”
\nOC (oleoresin capsicum) is the only organically derived riot control agent we are aware of. It’s derived from capsaicin, the active component of chili peppers.
\n\nAs far as the ostensible purpose of riot control agents go, OC seems to be the most effective: it is substantially more irritating and incapacitating than CS or CN gas, with a faster onset time than either, while apparently inflicting substantially fewer long-term adverse health effects on those exposed to it.
\n\nOC was first introduced as pepper spray, but has increasingly found its way into tear gas variants as well, appearing in tear gas grenades (both slow-burning and instant clouds of dust) and laced throughout impact weapons.
\n\nLest we paint too rosy a picture of OC, it, too, can kill people—specifically, those who are exposed to a great deal of it, such as when police torture restrained arrestees with it, which is a common enough procedure. In particular, it can kill asthmatics by blocking off their lungs to air by “severe acute bronchospasm.”
\n\nOC in spray form is often suspended in propylene glycol, which is comparatively harmless by itself.
\n\nPAVA (Nonivamide, pelargonic acid vanillylamide) is a (usually) synthetic form of OC that is more common in Britain, where it is the most common form of pepper spray, than in the United States. The only use of it we’ve identified in the US so far is in pepper-balls and FN303 rounds.
\n\nPAVA does appear naturally, but manufacturers generally synthesize it. It is more heat-stable than OC. It is edible in the same way that OC is. We have yet to find any particular differentiation between the toxicity of PAVA and OC.
\n\nMost PAVA spray is suspended in aqueous ethanol. This is sometimes called PAVA 1. In other cases, it is suspended in a mixture of mono propylene glycol, ethanol, and water referred to as PAVA 2. PAVA 1 is flammable, while PAVA 2 is not. Neither are made of chemicals we know to be particularly toxic.
\n\nWestern readers are unlikely to ever be exposed to MPK (N-nonanoylmorpholine), a tear gas used in Russia that is reported to be effective against dogs and people who are too intoxicated to be easily incapacitated by other chemical weapons. It is not as strong as other chemicals, so it is generally mixed with CS or CN gas. It is presumably less toxic than the chemicals it is mixed with, as it is reportedly sometimes used as a food additive as well.
\n\nMany canisters the police employ are just smoke grenades. Police use smoke grenades to mark areas with colored smoke, to hide their own positions and actions, to cause panic in the crowd, and, possibly, to refract lasers pointed their way (we are unsure of the efficacy of this, as there is a great deal of mixed information about lasers). Most chemical weapons manufacturers also offer smoke grenade versions of their various canisters and grenades.
\n\nMany military-style smoke grenades, called HC or HCE grenades, contain Hexachloroethane. Hexachloroethane is toxic through skin absorption, depressing the central nervous system; it is presumed to be a carcinogen. In mid-2020, federal agents in Portland, Oregon used outdated grenades containing HC. According to one researcher, HC is no longer manufactured in the USA, but is harvested as a byproduct of other chemical processes. While it is toxic, it seems considerably safer than the other chemical weapons police employ.
\n\n“Saf-smoke” grenades, the style manufactured by Defense Technologies, are advertised as less dangerous. The actual contents of Saf-smoke and other competing brands of smoke grenade are proprietary and not immediately available for review.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2021/01/04/18.jpg\")
A “Saf-smoke” grenade.
\nThese devices, which manufacturers call “distraction devices” or “disorientation devices,” are more commonly known as flash-bangs or stun grenades. They produce an intense flash of light and a loud bang as well as some concussive force. The light (upwards of 8 million candelas—as bright as eight million candles) blinds viewers for approximately five seconds and causes severe afterimages. The volume is around 160-180 decibels, substantially louder than any gunshot you are likely to ever hear; this deafens those in the vicinity, disrupting the fluid in the inner ear and sometimes causing dizziness.
\n\nPolice occasionally use these in conjunction with baton charges or other impact weapons when they wish to knock demonstrators off guard. But at the end of the day, like so many police tactics, these are methods to intimidate people into complying, not methods that directly force people to comply.
\n\nFlash-bang grenades are generally made of solid steel or aluminum, designed not to fragment as a result of their detonation. Many of them are reloadable or refillable.
\n\nSome flash-bang grenades are “aerial warning/signaling” munitions designed to be fired into the air to explode over a crowd. These can come with or without chemical payloads; each round has a different range, ranging from 50 to 300 meters. There are versions for 12-gauge shotguns as well.
\n\nAt least one manufacturer says that there should be a clear area of 5-6 feet around the site where a flash-bang will detonate; still, police regularly throw, fire, and roll these into crowds. While some are packed with rubber ball munitions, most are designed not to cause harm via impact. Yet they can maim or kill people, usually through burning. They’ve also been known to start fires, particularly when deployed indoors.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2021/01/04/4.jpg\")
Flash-bang grenades.
\nSince there is so little oversight and so little information available about the weapons that taxpayers pay for police to shoot us with, protestors have taken to documenting spent shell casings to see what is being fired at them. Collecting spent munitions can contribute to useful pattern analysis. Some cities have people who are willing to come pick up munitions for this purpose. If your city doesn’t have anyone pursuing this, consider taking it on yourself.
\n\nThe National Lawyers Guild is interested in knowing what people are being shot with; they are collecting information. So are we. Please contact us with photos and information.
\n\nPolice in Portland seem to be convinced—or are trying to convince people—that picking up spent munitions is a crime and they have threatened to fire more munitions at anyone caught doing it. They have not managed to figure out exactly what crime it is, and we are not currently aware of anyone facing charges for doing so.
\n\nPolice munitions are often found unexploded or unfired. It’s unclear to us if this is because these cartridges are firing without deploying properly, if they’re jamming the gun and being ejected unspent, or if police are simply dropping munitions on the ground by accident.
\n\nWhen opening a bag of spent munitions, it is possible to experience secondary effects from gas residue. Consider storing them double bagged in ziplock bags. Only handle them in open-air environments while wearing gloves and protective clothing.
\n\nThe police sometimes attempt to mark those participating in demonstrations or suspected of crimes in hopes of arresting them later. In some cases, they may simply use marking to frighten us by making us believe that they will come looking for us, in hopes of limiting what we choose to do in the streets. We know of far more times that the police have used marking than times that this marking was later used to identify people for arrest or was presented as evidence in court. We would love to hear from anyone with more information about marking, whether through experience or research.
\n\nThere are reports of police using pepper-ball rounds for marking at least as far back as the 2003 protests in Miami against the Free Trade Area of the Americas ministerial and the Iraq War protests of the same era.
\n\nWe’ve been able to identify at least seven means by which police mark people:
\n\nIt is probable that colored, visible dye is used as well. These are often paired with other effects, such as 12-gauge beanbag rounds loaded with florescent green powder or FN303 rounds that add paint or dye to impact weaponry. We have also received reports that police in Portland have shined green laser pointers from the rooftops to mark protestors as targets for impact weapons or arrest.
\n\nThere appears to be only one malodorant round on the market, the 40mm BIP Malodorant from Security Devices International, Inc. It is intended to mark people by smell and also to serve as a crowd deterrent. The smell was described by Fox News as “egg salad meets trash” and is said to disperse fairly quickly. None of us have heard of it being used at demonstrations.
\n\nMarking powder, paint, or dye can be applied via any means that chemicals are administered. Paintball guns, shotguns, and multi-launchers all have marking rounds available, and we’ve heard reports of police adding paint or dye to their water cannons.
\n\nWe have yet to find information on the exact makeup of the paint or dye commonly included in marking rounds. Some manufacturers divide their products into “washable,” “indelible,” and “UV” or into “powder” and “liquid.” Security Devices International, Inc., for example, claims that their liquid marking round leaves a “semi-permanent stain” that “remains on the target and clothing up to 24 hours.” The data sheet for that particular round refers to its contents as a proprietary blend of inert materials. Other companies are no more forthcoming.
\n\nThe easiest way to deal with a mark on your clothes that identifies you as a suspect is to get rid of the clothes. You should make this decision according to how important they are to you and what you fear you might be arrested for. A court case is usually more expensive than a windbreaker. You may also be able to leave an item of clothing somewhere—for example, in a bush or trash can—and come back later to see if you can recover it.
\n\nWashable paint and chalk should be the easiest to remove. It should wash off of skin with water, or soap and water and scrubbing. One way to remove water-based paint from clothes is to let the paint dry, then scrape off as much as you can with a butter knife or the back of a spoon; then hand-wash the item, passing warm water through the fabric from behind the stain, blotting it with a rag or paper towel; then mix half-detergent and half-water and rub that into the stain. Then rinse, and repeat the last step until the stain is gone or you are no longer drawing paint out of the clothes. In a worst-case scenario, try using small amounts of acetone (nail polish remover) or rubbing alcohol—but be advised, this might damage the item.
\n\nOil-based paint, which might be used in the “indelible” paint, can be removed from skin by mixing olive oil and dish soap, lathering up your skin, and rinsing it off, repeating as necessary. You can remove oil-based paint from clothes by putting your clothes inside out on a stack of rags or paper towels and then pouring turpentine or another paint thinner onto the fabric from behind the stain, blotting it with rags. Once no more paint comes out that way, rub dishwater detergent into the stain and then leave the clothing in hot, soapy water overnight. Rinse it thoroughly in the morning, then throw your clothes into a washing machine.
\n\nUV ink can also be removed from both skin and clothes. In some ways, it may be easier to clean than other inks because it doesn’t really dry except under UV light (we are unsure if the UV light in sunlight will cause it to dry). Most UV ink appears to be alcohol-soluble, so using rubbing alcohol or even hairspray should help remove it from skin. Other recommendations we have seen include washing with diluted bleach water or scrubbing your skin with an abrasive mixture of sugar and dishwashing liquid. Still other people maintain that hot soapy water and plenty of abrasion will do. You could try washing your clothes repeatedly in hot water, checking with a UV flashlight as you go.
\n\nThere are cheap, small flashlights available that come with both regular and UV LEDs. Usually, they are used by employees working door security to look for hand stamps—or by people who are checking their bedding for bedbugs.
\n\nThere’s paint, there’s invisible ink, and then there’s… DNA marking. Actually, there are two different things that are called DNA marking. The first is a chemical weapon, usually a spray, that contains a unique blend of different metals and other materials, acting as a sort of chemical fingerprint that can be identified later. This type of tagging uses the word DNA only as advertising jargon. Each can, or shipment of cans, might contain its own unique fingerprint, though we have not been able to confirm this.
\n\nThe other style of DNA marking uses DNA, literally. This DNA marking is a system that marks a target with synthetic DNA that can live on clothes or skin for several weeks. Both systems of DNA tagging work the same way: if someone is identified later by way of these tags, this can provide concrete evidence in court connecting them to potential criminal behavior.
\n\nThere is every reason to believe that police are using one or both of these methods, though it is hard to know which one and precisely when they are using it. The 40mm DNA Forensic Marking round, for example, made by Security Devices International, Inc, uses a “botanical encrypted taggant in water” which we believe refers to actual synthetic DNA.
\n\nAll the DNA marking materials that we’ve been able to find seem to be suspended in UV ink for dispersal, although we know of no reason that they would have to be.
\n\nAs of this writing, we have not heard of any arrests or court cases related to the 2020 uprising that involved DNA marking. Most after-the-fact felony arrests of protestors seem to hinge instead of livestream footage and social media posts. This does not mean that it is not in use or that it will not be used in the future.
\n\nOn Twitter, Minneapolis police have openly discussed using DNA marking spray, although they have not specifically claimed to have used it on protestors. It’s possible that they were conflating “UV marking” with “DNA tagging.”
\n\nSince all available evidence suggests that DNA marking is carried in a UV dye, it seems probable that it can be removed in a similar way as one goes about removing UV dye. Most manufacturers claim that the marking lasts for “days,” or “several washes,” although at least one claims it lasts for “weeks.”
\n\nOne manufacturer, Security Devices International (SDI), claims that it lasts 3-5 days on a person but 2-5 years on clothing.
\n\nRumors from Portland suggest that the synthetic DNA is degraded by UV light. Some people have suggested that any clothes that one might not want to destroy or throw away—for example, body armor—should be left in the sun for several hours, with someone turning them regularly to make sure all parts of the items are exposed. Sunlight is bad for the plastic polymers of armor, especially soft bulletproof vests, so this might not be recommended for some materials. People also suggest using alcohol or hydrogen peroxide to break the DNA tag down, but this might degrade the material as well, especially in the case of hydrogen peroxide.
\n\nIt all depends on how important it is to destroy the evidence that you were in a particular crowd at a particular time. Depending on the severity of the risk, you might replace all of your affected clothes and spend considerable time washing and exfoliating—or you could simply wash everything a couple times, take a few showers, and check yourself with a UV light.
\n\nPerhaps the first company to develop synthetic DNA marking for police use was SelectaDNA in the UK. SelectaDNA sells DNA spray, gel, and other devices directly to consumers for the purpose of home security. They also sell less-lethal .68 caliber air-powered weapons, a rifle and a pistol, to shoot DNA marking rounds at rioters. Both of these guns have an effective range of 30-40 meters and use 8-round magazines and a 20-round disposable CO2 cartridge. They are semi-automatic and can fire six rounds in a second. Each comes equipped with a camera. It’s unclear if the SelectaDNA pellets can be fired by other .68 caliber air guns.
\n\nEach pack of 16 pellets is uniquely coded. In theory, this means that police can do more than argue “this person was at the demonstration where we shot everyone with green paint, you can tell by the green paint”—they can claim “this is someone I shot with one of these 16 pellets, as registered on the timestamp of my rifle camera.”
\n\nThe synthetic strands of DNA are carried by a UV ink substrate. It can be detected on a suspect with a UV light or smelled by specially-trained dogs. Presumably, the dogs are smelling the UV ink, not the DNA itself.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2021/01/04/5.jpg\")
SelectaDNA has already caused controversy in the UK.
\nDefense Technology’s barricade rounds, called “Ferret” rounds, come in 12-gauge (with 2.5” shells), 37mm, and 40mm. The 12-gauge rounds have a velocity of 1000 fps and an effective range of 50-100 meters. The 37mm reputedly has a velocity of 450 fps an effective range of 50-200 yards (though we question this 200 yard claim—it seems like a typographical error). The 40mm variety has a velocity of 325 fps (liquid) or 375 fps (powder) and an effective range of 54 yards. ↩
\nOne chart we found compares a 22-inch barrel with a 28-inch barrel, noting that a round will fire at 1304 fps from the 22-inch and 1331 fps from the 28-inch, but this may not map to the difference in velocity of a beanbag round. ↩
\nIn the early hours of Saturday, December 19, one day before their new terms of service took effect, Instagram shut down a page associated with CrimethInc. with no explanation or justification. The account had never been suspended before, nor received so much as a warning. Well over 40,000 people were following it. The issue was not a violation of the terms of service—rather, this is a political measure to suppress the voices of dissidents, expanding Facebook’s August 2020 decision to ban an array of pages associated with anarchist journalists and publishers.
\n\nThis comes at the same time that Instagram is suppressing the voices of sex workers and their supporters, among other groups. These are not isolated incidents, but steps in a systematic crackdown intended to exclude millions of voices from public discourse in order to render the communities that these platforms serve more vulnerable to other forms of repression.
\n\nMeanwhile, Facebook continues to offer a platform to far-right conspiracy theories, militia groups, and fascist organizing. In one of the most glaring examples of this, last August’s militia mobilization in Kenosha, Wisconsin—in which far-right paramilitary Kyle Rittenhouse murdered two people and shot a third—was organized over Facebook a few weeks after the company took down the pages of dozens of anti-fascist journalists who would otherwise have reported on it.
\n\nAs we wrote in August:
\n\n\n\n\nFacebook’s decision to ban pages associated with anarchism is a strategic step in a much bigger unfolding conflict. It is analogous to a military knocking out a village’s lines of communication before carrying out a bombing. […] Anarchists are only one out of many groups on the list of targets; many immigrants, Black people and other people of color, Muslims, trans and queer people, and others are experiencing far worse forms of oppression. But this precedent, like all the previous precedents, will only embolden government agencies and fascist groups to carry out more attacks, not all of which will occur online.
\n
Thousands of public figures including Noam Chomsky, David Graeber, Cory Doctorow, and Chelsea Manning came together to publish an open letter protesting the banning of anarchist journalists from Facebook and rejecting the company’s false equivalence between right-wing groups that organize violent attacks and anti-fascist groups that report on them. Yet controlling the largest monopoly in the history of interpersonal communication, Facebook has little incentive to be accountable to public opinion. It is especially telling that they are continuing this crackdown as we enter the Biden era, when they have no need to curry favor with the outgoing Trump administration.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/12/21/4.jpg\")
\nProfit-driven social media corporations have never had the best interests of the public at heart. With the exception of Twitter, where we have contacts among the original programmers, we shunned corporate social media platforms for the first two decades of our publishing. Four years ago, in recognition that a new generation was becoming politicized via social media and not wishing to cede the terrain entirely to authoritarians, CrimethInc. accounts appeared on Facebook, Instagram, and elsewhere. Today, we are rapidly entering a world in which doing without Facebook and Instagram will not be a question of boycotting, but rather the consequence of a widespread crackdown.
\n\nIf nothing else, this means that our efforts to establish other venues of communication will be relevant to many others as well. It’s high time to foster our own resilient communication channels so that relying on corporate platforms will not be our Achilles heel.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/12/21/3.jpg\")
\nHere’s how to keep up with us despite the Facebook and Instagram bans.
\n\nWhile we ourselves no longer use these platforms, we endorse this Facebook page and this Instagram page as sources providing updates similar to what we used to offer. If you are still able to maintain Facebook and Instagram accounts and you choose to do so, please follow these.
\n\nThere is a brand-new Telegram channel to announce CrimethInc. projects and provide a forum to discuss them.
\n\nAt the turn of the century, CrimethInc. cells established and curated some of the early online spaces for horizontal discussion and coordination, such as the now long defunct forums crimethinc.net and crimethinc.info. As emerging 21st-century megacorporations integrated communications networks into Internet 2.0, designing them to promote competitive individualism, we focused our attention on offline collective collaborations. Today, we are excited to participate in a new experiment in anonymous online discussion, without the pressure to curate a personal brand that other contemporary platforms promote.
\n\nThere is a CrimethInc. account on the decentralized open-source platform Mastodon instance todon.eu, a server run by and for anti-authoritarians. Comrades have recently started another Mastodon “instance” called Kolektiva Social specifically for anarchist groups, projects, and individuals. The different decentralized instances on Mastodon all interact with each other, so there is no problem in signing up on todon.eu and following projects on Kolektiva Social.
\n\nMastodon’s format will be familiar to Twitter users. You can “favorite” or “boost” posts (unfortunately named “toots”), follow accounts, and the like.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/12/21/2.jpg\")
\nYou can also go “old” school and subscribe to our RSS feed, which will automatically send you our new articles as they appear. All you need is an RSS client, such as NetNewsWire on macOS / iOS.
\n\nThe people behind Wikipedia have formed another alternative to corporate-owned social media. Our account is at https://wt.social/u/crimethinc-ex-workers.
\n\nWe still passionately believe in print media. Books and zines enable the reader to step out of the relentless flow of information to digest an idea or narrative; once a print project enters circulation, no corporation or government can easily suppress it. We aim to start a new initiative providing zines to those who are not able to print them themselves from our online library. If you can help supply us with print materials for this purpose, please contact us. Thank you!
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/12/21/1.jpg\")
\n\n\n\nThe networks offered by Facebook aren’t new; what’s new is that they seem external to us. We’ve always had social networks, but no one could use them to sell advertisements—nor were they so easy to map. Now they reappear as something we have to consult. People corresponded with old friends, taught themselves skills, and heard about public events long before email, Google, and Twitter. Of course, these technologies are extremely helpful in a world in which few of us are close with our neighbors or spend more than a few years in any location. The forms assumed by technology and daily life influence each other, making it increasingly unthinkable to uncouple them.
\n\n…This isn’t a criticism of technology per se. The point is that it’s not neutral: technology is always shaped by the structures of the society in which it is developed and applied. Most of the technologies familiar to us were shaped by the imperatives of profit and rule, but a society based on other values would surely produce other technologies. As digital technology becomes increasingly enmeshed in the fabric of our society, the important question is not whether to use it, but how to undermine the structures that produced it.
\n
-The Internet as New Enclosure: Digitized Capitalism, the Attention Economy, and the Surveillance State
\n\n" }, { "id": "https://crimethinc.com/2020/12/15/a-demonstrators-guide-to-understanding-police-batons-and-how-to-protect-against-them", "url": "https://crimethinc.com/2020/12/15/a-demonstrators-guide-to-understanding-police-batons-and-how-to-protect-against-them", "title": "A Demonstrator’s Guide to Understanding Police Batons : And How to Protect against Them", "summary": "Three kinds of batons that police use, how they employ them, what kind of damage they can do, and some ways of defending against them.", "image": "https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/12/15/header.jpg", "banner_image": "https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/12/15/header.jpg", "date_published": "2020-12-15T21:21:54Z", "date_modified": "2026-01-29T00:13:17Z", "tags": [ "helmets", "protests", "shields", "body armor", "safety", "batons" ], "content_html": "This guide details the kinds of batons that police use, how they employ them, what kind of damage they can do with them, and some of the ways that demonstrators have historically protected themselves against baton attacks.
\n\nThis is the fourth article in a series, following our guides to helmets, gas masks and goggles, and body armor. The contributors have spent countless hours gathering experience, data, and anecdotes and speaking to professionals in these fields. We will be updating this document on an ongoing basis as more information comes in. If you can offer suggestions or corrections, please contact us.
\n\nCops often hit people with batons. Looking at footage, you’d think that the prospect of doing so is what gets them out of bed in the morning. Historically, batons are the bread and butter of policing to such an extent that the baton is often referred to as the officer’s “badge of office”—though lately, Tasers have supplanted batons as their go-to weapon.
\n\nInstructional videos and pamphlets give the false impression that police are martial arts masters who carefully study all the ways to injure people with big wooden sticks. If you go to demonstrations, though, you generally see the same few moves over and over. They swing wildly at people they already have on the ground. They jab people with the end of the baton, often without provocation. They hit people with wild overhand swings, often in the head—although in theory, they’re not supposed to do that unless they’ve been authorized to employ lethal force. They put one hand on each end of the stick, hold it horizontally at chest level, and shove people back while grunting “move”—often regardless of whether the people they are shoving are able to move and regardless of whether they were already moving.
\n\n\nhttps://twitter.com/justrinidad/status/1335660826363977728\n\n\n
Fundamentally, batons are compliance tools. They’re not specifically designed to kill or injure people, though they are capable of doing so. They are designed to hurt people in order to force them to comply with an officer’s command. Of course, police often continue to use them after a subject has complied, just to emphasize the power relation between the subject of the state and the mercenaries it employs.
\n\nNot everyone loves batons. Some officers don’t carry batons unless ordered to do so by their department. One ex-cop on YouTube points out that the overlap of the Venn diagram of “effectiveness” and “legality” is very small indeed. However, police are rarely held to any standard of legality. Batons are often the primary means by which police seek to control space in close quarters, especially against demonstrators.
\n\nDuring protests, police use batons to accomplish a wide range of tasks. There are baton charges in which large numbers of police charge, swinging and shoving, to disperse a crowd and incite fear. Officers use batons to clear a path for a snatch squad to enter a crowd to carry out arrests. Officers use batons to advance a police line, shoving people to keep them moving, often while pepper-spraying them for good measure. Officers use batons to injure people once they have them immobilized on the ground, out of pure vengefulness or cruelty.
\n\nThere is a misconception that batons are only used against individuals who are not complying with police orders. In fact, police employ them against anyone they suspect might hinder them from accomplishing whatever their goal is, regardless of whether the target is breaking any laws or failing to comply with their orders.
\n\nPolice use-of-force guidelines generally dictate that using a baton to strike major nerve centers on extremities is “intermediate force,” while striking someone on the head, neck, or clavicle is “deadly force.”
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/12/15/1.jpg\")
This is the cover illustration from a 1967 law enforcement training manual published by the FBI and the United States Department of Justice. This is how the authorities want police to see themselves.
\nWe’ll look at three types of batons: the fixed-length baton (or “straight stick,” including the riot baton), the collapsible baton, and the side-handled baton.
\n\nA riot baton is a style of “straight stick” baton. The most common example is 36” long and 1.25” in diameter, made of polycarbonate or hardwood—usually hickory, but sometimes cherry, ash, or another wood. Some police are adopting thicker sticks, such as a 1.5” diameter baton, to apply more force. If you hold a 1.25” baton and a 1.5” baton in your hands, the difference in weight and girth is greater than you might have anticipated.
\n\nThe thicker sticks are not inherently better weapons, but they are sturdier. We put sticks of both thicknesses into the hands of an experienced stick fighter, who was able to break the 1.25” baton against plywood shields but not the 1.5” batons. This person applied substantially more force than the average officer would be able to bring to bear.
\n\nWooden batons are either clear-coated or painted black. Polycarbonate sticks are black. Riot sticks come with a variety of grips, such as rings or grooves carved into one or both ends, or a crisscrossed “knurling” grip. Some of these grips are designed to offer better retention if the baton is pulled, while others are intended to offer better retention in the case of twisting motions. Most come with a simple leather thong for retention. A well-trained officer is supposed to hold the thong in such a way that he can let go if the stick is grabbed and pulled into a crowd, but many cops hold them incorrectly, in such a way that if the baton is pulled, the officer will come with it whether he wants to or not. Polycarbonate sticks deliver more impact than wooden sticks but are substantially more expensive. Some police complain that polycarbonate sticks can warp in the summer or shatter in the winter.
\n\nThe riot baton is used to strike people, jab people, and shove people. Broadly speaking, police use batons to strike people who are resistant or combative, while they use batons to shove people who are in their way, approach too closely, embarrass them, or look like they can be intimidated into leaving an area. They jab people for both of these purposes. In crowded environments, police are trained to fight with one hand on each end of the stick, for weapon retention.
\n\nOfficers think about weapon retention in crowd situations quite a bit. Their training focuses on this. They are afraid that someone might grab the baton and use it to control the officer.
\n\nIt would be hard to overstate the role of riot batons in intimidation. Police wield large sticks when they want to look scary; in some cases, they employ wooden batons to contrast with their uniforms, with the intention of inspiring fear. They hold them in two hands in police lines to look unapproachable. They use them unpredictably in order to keep people on edge.
\n\nThe chief difference between the riot baton and the traditional fixed-length baton is that the latter is 26” or shorter. Many departments employ tapered sticks for everyday use, with a wider striking surface at one end and a smaller, more controllable handle. These provide greater leverage for striking blows. Learning to distinguish between these types of batons can help demonstrators figure out what tactics police are considering: if they are wielding the longer riot batons, they expect to employ more violence.
\n\nMore and more police departments are using extendable batons as the everyday carry baton on their service belt. These batons are also called collapsible batons, or ASPs after the brand ASP. Extendable batons usually measure between 16”-31” with 16”, 21”, and 26” being the most common lengths. Most of them are made of steel, while some lighter-weight models use an aluminum alloy. The grip can be foam or plastic, or use some other texturing. Closed, they’re roughly the size and shape of a small lightsaber and they look a bit like one on a belt. Cops open them by flicking them and letting centrifugal force slide the segments into place. Most are held open by the friction of each steel segment against the next and can only be closed by slamming the tip onto concrete or some other hard surface. Some newer models have a push button lock that makes them easier to close and more effective for jabbing as well as swinging. One of the other reasons that police are moving to the push button lock is that a baton that is closed on concrete will quickly end up with a roughed up tip, which will occasionally cut those who are struck by the baton.
\n\nPolice complain about extendable batons breaking when they are used to beat people all day—at unruly demonstrations, for example—and many cops who make heavy use of their batons treat them as disposable. Police literature explicitly mentions the intimidation factor involved in opening an extendable baton as an advantage of the weapon.
\n\nExtendable batons are somewhat common for civilians interested in self-defense. We’ve seen them most commonly among those who are in violence-prone situations and prefer not to defend themselves with bladed weapons or firearms. Their legality varies from state to state.
\n\nThese are straight batons with a short handle protruding from the side about six inches up from the base. This is the Western adaptation of the tonfa, a Japanese weapon—though the tonfa wielder usually employs two of them. Side-handled batons are considered a more “defensive” weapon; they became common after the bad media exposure resulting from all the police violence against civil rights protestors in the 1960s.
\n\nCops can hold these batons by the side handle, so the length of the baton runs down the forearm to the elbow. This position is used for blocking blows and executing pain compliance holds. They can also hold them at the base, so the side handle serves as a sort of a hilt that could stop counter-strikes. Most famously, these batons were carried by the Los Angeles Police Department and employed in the widely viewed assault on Rodney King in 1991. That episode shows that this “defensive” baton is just another stick, used the way police have always used blunt impact weapons, and its reputation as “defensive” is just a matter of branding.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/12/15/4.jpg\")
A police officer employing a side-handled baton to attack demonstrators during the protests against the beating of Rodney King.
\nWhile side-handled batons are not designed to use the side handle as the point of impact, many of us have seen police hold them by the end opposite the handle and swing them like hammers. This concentrates more of the weapon’s force at a single point, inflicting worse injuries.
\n\nOver the past two decades, side-handled batons have fallen out of favor as the everyday carry batons for police in the United States, replaced by extendable batons. Many cops disagree with this transition; some still choose to carry their beloved “PR24”—a generic name for a side-handled baton named after the standard Monadnock PR-24 baton, which is 24 inches long and made of polycarbonate.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/12/15/2.jpg\")
Twenty-five years after the Rodney King uprising of 1992, a former Los Angeles Police Department officer fondles his side-handled baton as he recalls how police behavior contributed to the unrest.
\nWe have not found many studies on the lethality of police batons, but it’s no secret that hitting people in the head with sticks can often kill them. Most of the information we were able to find was published in the UK. This is not surprising: their police often do not carry firearms, instead injuring or killing people the old-fashioned way, by bludgeoning them.
\n\nAccording to one doctor, a large number of baton injuries are fractures of the forearm resulting when a person raises an arm to protect their face. Blows to the head and, to a lesser degree, the chest are far more dangerous than blows to limbs, however, as these can cause internal brain bleeding, concussions, and fractures.
\n\nBroken ribs are common in situations in which police are swinging from the side into the target’s torso. Some of us have seen people end up with fractured hands and wrists from trying to catch baton blows. Two-handed stabbing strikes targeting the diaphragm can cause loss of breath; combined with shock and stress, these can make people lose consciousness or vomit.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/12/15/3.jpg\")
\nTo avoid sustaining bludgeoning damage in melee range, you have three basic options.
\n\nPolice use violence for at least two purposes: to control space—dispersing us, herding us, preventing us from reaching our destination—and to subdue individuals. Sometimes, the simplest solution is to run away from a cop with a stick: to stay out of melee range by retreating. In other cases, the consequences of this approach are not worth it. You may not wish to abandon other demonstrators. You may not wish to abandon the objective that brought you out into the street in the first place. You may not wish to positively reinforce the assumption that all it takes to keep people in a condition of fearful servility is to brandish sticks at them every once in a while.
\n\nSo another way to stay out of melee range is to compel the police to retreat, or at least keep them from closing the ground between you. Historically, protestors have accomplished this by using projectiles of their own—bottles, rocks, paint bombs, and the like. This can be effective, but its efficacy and advisability is situational—it depends on the objectives of the police and the factors limiting what they can do. Police in the United States are better equipped and less likely to back down than police in many other countries, which is one of the reasons demonstrators rarely employ this strategy here unless the stakes are high. When everything is on the line, however, people sometimes summon up the courage to do unbelievable things.
\n\nAnother solution to this problem is to build barricades. To serve their purpose, barricades have to be suited to blocking the particular threat that they are intended to address; obstructing vehicles and hindering officers on foot are two very different objectives. Historically, some demonstrators have made barricades more difficult to pass or dismantle by setting fire to them; but once a barricade is burning, it will eventually consume itself, unless there is an unlimited supply of fuel. Common-sense fire safety measures apply; so may local laws. Even if it doesn’t impede foot traffic, the right kind of barricade might give officers something else to focus on, which is another way to keep them at a distance. As long as the situation is unpredictable and they have to keep an eye out in all directions for new developments, they may choose not to engage in a way that would leave their backs open.
\n\nThe second strategy is to prevent police from being able to see you clearly enough to hit you accurately. Protesters have employed shields, umbrellas, smoke bombs, and sometimes even fire extinguishers to this end. We’ve seen protestors carry banners that are so tall that they block the view of officers on the other side—though even if you add eyeholes, these will also prevent most protestors from seeing what the police are doing, too. Police hate not being able to see what’s going on; this can cause them to step back and regroup, but it can also provoke them to escalate senselessly. If they can’t see clearly, officers may simply strike at random—which may not be an improvement.
\n\nDecember 2020: Demonstrators in Portland employ a fire extinguisher and projectiles to compel the withdrawal of police who had arrived to carry out a violent eviction.
\nFinally, if nothing else serves, there is the possibility of protecting directly against baton blows. This usually involves armor, shields, mobile barricades, reinforced banners, or other barriers. Armor designed to protect against bludgeoning impact is generally designed with a “shell/soft” framework: a hard shell disperses the impact of the blow across a greater surface area, while soft padding absorbs that impact. Nowadays the shell is usually some kind of plastic, though steel was used traditionally and wood may serve in some cases; likewise, the soft layer is usually comprised of foam, though in the past, padded clothing might have served. If you are considering wearing any sort of armor, start by thinking about a helmet. The more normalized wearing helmets becomes, the harder it will be for police to target individuals for choosing to protect themselves.
\n\nHead injuries are serious business, and repeated concussions can be exponentially dangerous. Even if you feel all right after experiencing a head injury, the risk of sustaining subsequent blows to the head increases significantly. People in the streets who suffer a blow to the head should consider themselves at heightened risk for up to a week afterward; a second concussion following an unhealed first concussion can lead to death. Consider avoiding danger for a week.
\n\nSports armor is readily available from secondhand stores. By and large, it is designed for protecting against the same kind of impact police batons can inflict. Hockey and lacrosse pads are available used; they’re light, low-profile, and are designed to maximize mobility while protecting vital areas. Soccer shin guards can also serve as forearm guards. Being struck by a baton is never a good experience, but armor can mean the difference between a broken arm and a hairline fracture. Choose where to focus on protecting according to your threat model: knees are common targets for less-lethal munitions, groins are vulnerable areas, forearms are often used to block baton blows, the chest and abdomen are often vulnerable to jabs from batons or blows from impact munitions. The more you want to be able to stay on the front lines regardless of what happens, the more you should consider what kinds of armor will protect you.
\n\nHistorically, some movements have employed “padded bloc” techniques to defend crowds against police violence—building incredible costumes out of foam, inner tubes and other inflatable swim devices, and whatever other large soft things they can access. This severely limits individuals’ mobility, but it may hinder police from breaking up a crowd. It can also create striking optics. The most famous example of this approach is the Tute Bianche in Italy.
\n\nShields can be somewhat more flexible, tactically speaking. A person with a shield can often protect the people on either side of them as well. A group of people with shields can form a shield wall, which is much more effective than a lone shield.
\n\nMobile barricades are effectively multi-user shields carried by several people. These can be especially useful at the front, sides, or rear of a crowd to provide cover and prevent police from easily attacking or dispersing the participants. A simple example would be a large piece of plywood with multiple handles or a single long handle bar along the back. In a pinch, demonstrators have improvised mobile barricades out of ladders and other freely available objects—for example, at the 2010 protests against the Olympics in Vancouver. We’ve seen other mobile barricades constructed from see-through steel grating or roofing stretched across wooden frames. We’ve seen them with stands on the back so that they can stand freely on their own when set down.
\n\nTo make a reinforced banner, take a vinyl or fabric banner and line it with wood, plastic, or another hard material. Reinforcement is useful simply to make banners easier to carry, but they can also be used tactically to defend the edge of a crowd.
\n\nPVC pipe is easy to purchase, but breaks easily upon impact. As a means of reinforcing banners, it has repeatedly failed, perhaps most famously in Washington DC in 2005 during protests against the second inauguration of the second President George Bush. If you’re in a hurry, green bamboo may serve—it’s surprisingly light and flexible enough to be somewhat resilient against blows.
\n\nMind you, armor, helmets, shields, mobile barricades, reinforced banners, and other protective gear can make you stand out—and it’s rarely a good thing to stand out at a demonstration. There is no airtight protest scheme, no tactic that is guaranteed to work, no gear that solves every problem or is ideal for every situation. Think about what you want to accomplish and how the police might try to prevent you from accomplishing it. Be pragmatic. Mobility, speed, initiative, the element of surprise, and the sense to quit while you’re ahead will usually serve you better in the streets than any item of equipment could—so make sure your gear doesn’t impede or distract you from making the most of any of those.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/12/15/5.jpg\")
\nTo understand police tactics and mindsets, it can be helpful to peruse their training manuals:
\n\nOver the past four years, police and fascist violence against demonstrators has escalated around the United States, with well over a dozen demonstrators murdered in 2020 alone. This is not the consequence of Trump’s presidency, but the result of intensifying social pressures that will not be relieved by another politician taking office. Unfortunately, ceding the streets to fascists and police will ultimately only increase the dangers to all of us. By taking the proper precautions, we can mitigate the risks while continuing to take action to build a better world. This guide reviews a wide range of protective gear, exploring the advantages and disadvantages of each so you can pick out what’s best for you. The life you save could be your own.
\n\nThis is the third article in a series, following our guides to helmets and to gas masks and goggles. The contributors have spent countless hours gathering experience, data, and anecdotes and speaking to professionals in these fields. We will be updating this document on an ongoing basis as more information comes in. If you can offer suggestions or corrections, please contact us.
\n\nWe’re going to focus on three styles of armor: sports armor, for mitigating impact weapons like bean bag rounds and batons; soft ballistic armor, or “bulletproof vests,” which defend against handguns; and plate carriers, which are designed to protect your vital organs from rifle fire.
\n\nOur threat models—the risks we are seeking to protect against—are changing constantly. A few years ago, protest armor was intended to protect against Nazis with knives and sticks. At the beginning of the George Floyd uprising in the US, the chief threat model involved police using various impact weapons. By the end of summer 2020, police were still shooting baton rounds and pepper-balls, but fascists shooting live ammunition had become a more pressing issue.
\n\nAll armor involves pros and cons. Most armor reduces mobility, which is one of our primary advantages against police who are weighed down by both bureaucratic command structures and heavy gear. Most armor makes us stand out, rendering arrival and departure more difficult. Some armor incurs the risk of legal penalties. Being the only person wearing armor is often a bad idea unless it can be concealed. Still, normalizing wearing armor can make it easier for others to do so, and the more people do, the safer we all will be—both from direct attacks and from police efforts to target us for protecting our bodies.
\n\nWhich kind of armor is appropriate will vary from one situation to the next. In many situations—for example, when speed or optics is paramount—it may still be best not to wear armor.
\n\nArmor can easily give the wearer a false sense of security. Shortly before we published this, there was yet another incident in which a fascist shot a counter-protester; the survivor was wearing body armor, but the bullet entered their body at a point that was unprotected. No one is invincible, no matter what they wear.
\n\n\nhttps://twitter.com/mollyjsmith1/status/1287568008173371397\n\n\n
If you want to protect yourself primarily against batons and other police impact weapons, get a skateboard helmet, some hard-shelled knee pads, some children’s shin guards to wear on your forearms, and possibly motocross chest armor or a plastic fencing breastplate. If you want to add more protection, consider a shield, full leg armor, and a HEMA gorget—plastic or padded neck armor for people who fight with swords for sport. A guide to shields will appear later in this series.
\n\nIf you want to wear something that protects you against handguns, get a wraparound IIIA vest, either from the leftist armorer Red Star Defense or from eBay. If you are buying from eBay, consider purchasing a surplus vest to save money. If you’re worried about knives, pay a bit more for a vest with stab resistance.
\n\nIf you want to protect yourself from rifle rounds, get a plate carrier and a pair of III+ ceramic plates from Red Star Defense or elsewhere. This is heavy and harder to conceal.
\n\nNot all that long ago, the chief threat that many demonstrators faced in the United States and Europe was the blunt impact of police batons. In response, some demonstrators—notably the Tute Bianche in Italy—took to wearing helmets and padding and reinforcing massive inflatable inner tubes and other flotation devices to protect their bodies from the fists and clubs of the police. Some demonstrators in the United States embraced these tactics, which came to be known as “padded bloc.” A widely distributed zine, Bodyhammer, explored helmets, body armor, shields and shield walls, and an array of defensive tactics and formations in this vein.
\n\nToday’s demonstrators still stand to learn a lot from the tactics developed at that time, especially where they can be deployed in contexts where there is little threat of lethal violence or fascist attacks. Essentially, padded bloc tactics are most effective as a sort of militant civil disobedience aimed at slowing or inconveniencing an adversary who is not prepared to escalate to potentially lethal force. They are more useful for distracting and delaying than for winning offensive victories, but they can play a valuable part in a larger ecosystem of interlocking tactics and strategies.
\n\nIn this guide, we will focus chiefly on forms of armor that can protect against knives and guns, in order to expand the range of options at the disposal of the modern protester.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/12/14/26.jpg\")
Anti-capitalist demonstrators opposing the G8 summit in Genoa, Italy in 2001.
\nDemonstrators from around Europe opposing the summit of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Prague in the year 2000—including some employing the tactics of the Tute Bianche.
\nWe’re not lawyers. You should do your own research.
\n\nIn the USA, it is federally prohibited for violent felons to own or wear armor designed to protect against bullets (referred to herein as “body armor”), except by special dispensation from an employer.
\n\nIn addition to the federal law, each US state has its own laws regulating armor. In most states, it is illegal to wear body armor while committing a crime; being caught doing so could occasion additional charges. In Kansas, wearing body armor is prohibited at demonstrations, too. In Connecticut, you cannot have it shipped to your home. We have yet to obtain a solid answer regarding whether minors can own or wear body armor.
\n\nThe legality of body armor varies widely from country to country. In some provinces in Canada and some territories in Australia, you need authorization or a license to wear it. The UK seems to have no laws restricting civilian use of body armor. The European Union bans body armor that is for “main military usage,” but this implies that certain forms of body armor are legal. It appears that body armor is legal in Japan and Hong Kong but prohibited in Argentina, Brazil, and Thailand. If you can share information about the laws in your country, please contact us.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/12/14/16.jpg\")
Motocross armor.
\nAs of this writing, ballistic armor is hard to come by. The deepening political crisis has all sides scrambling to protect themselves; most retailers of both soft armor and hard armor are reporting delays on orders of at least two months. This makes it difficult to recommend specific products or retailers. We suggest learning about what you need and keeping an eye out for deals—or even just for notifications that a product is in stock.
\n\nAt the same time, as the crisis appears to be deepening, it’s probably worth ordering now rather than waiting.
\n\nWe know of one left-wing armorer, Red Star Defense. They manufacture their own ceramic III+ plates for a good price—currently $300 a pair—and retail IIIA soft vests for a very good price ($225), as well as selling plate carriers and tactical gloves cheaper than you can find elsewhere. They currently have a 4 to 8 week lag on armor orders. We recommend Red Star Defense because their goal is not profit but to protect the bodies of working-class revolutionaries.
\n\nMost body armor retailers aim at some combination of three markets: police and military personnel, right-wing paramilitaries, and private security (and, by extension, those involved in illegal capitalism). A few retailers also focus on protecting civilians and schoolchildren, promoting “bulletproof backpacks” and similar products that cash in on rampant gun violence in the United States.
\n\nThe best market we’ve found so far for fast-turnaround body armor orders is eBay. New IIIA vests can be sourced from the UK and Canada ready to be shipped; surplus vests from the US should ship quickly as well, though the stock of those varies. Most surplus vests are surplus Kevlar inserts placed within new vests.
\n\nOpinions vary about surplus vests, but for the most part, they are considered acceptable. Because Kevlar degrades from UV exposure, it comes with an expiration date—usually five years from manufacture. Police departments replace their gear after five years. But the armor remains effective long after—in every test we’ve seen, expired Kevlar vests continue to defend against all the threats they were rated to protect against. It’s impossible to recommend using expired vests, because there’s no way to guarantee their safety—but used vests perform favorably and are substantially cheaper than new vests. In addition, ironically, retailers of police surplus vests tend to be the retailers who least aim their sales at right-wing and police markets.
\n\nYou can purchase vests, especially surplus vests, in person at army surplus stores. We have heard from people who negotiated good deals for bulk vest orders by sending one person—whoever is likely to be most agreeable to the owners—into a store with cash in hand, ready to purchase.
\n\nThere is also a market for body armor on Armslist, which is like Craigslist but for guns. It appears that some enterprising folks, anticipating the current crisis, have stockpiled a lot of gear and are selling it directly. There are reportedly a lot of scammers on the site; if you’re purchasing anything online, it’s best to pay with a service that offers buyer protection, like PayPal, rather than through Venmo, which does not. If the seller doesn’t want to pay for buyer protection, that itself is a red flag.
\n\nThere are rumors that people using ArmsList have been set up for robberies. Consider meeting in a well-lit, public place during the day and bringing someone with you, especially someone who can legally conceal a firearm. You may wish to make sure that your clothing and vehicle do not give away your politics or other details about you. If you are purchasing with cash, pay only after you have obtained the item. When possible, buy from verified commercial sellers vetted by ArmsList.
\n\nSports armor remains readily available. You can often acquire it secondhand for very cheap, although COVID-19 has made it more difficult to obtain it cheaply at yard sales and secondhand stores. You may be able to find quality knee and elbow pads at gun shows, as decommissioned military gear from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is flooding the market and driving down prices.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/12/14/1.jpg\")
A level IIIa vest.
\nSports armor offers a cheap and reasonably effective way to protect yourself from impact weapons, police batons, and, to some degree, knives. It offers no protection from gunfire. You can usually source it secondhand; much of it can be concealed under clothing. It will probably look better in court than ballistic armor. It’s legal for more people to wear it—it is less likely to occasion additional charges if you are arrested the way ballistic armor can. In the few instances we’re aware of in which people received “possession of criminal tools” charges for wearing padding, the charges were ultimately dropped.
\n\nThe fundamental principle of sports armor is the “shell/soft” model of protection. A hard external shell (usually plastic) takes the impact of a weapon, preventing penetration and dispersing the force of that impact over a broad surface area. Beneath the shell, soft padding absorbs the impact. Effective armor requires both of these parts. Steel medieval armor, for example, relied on a thick layer of quilted cloth to reduce the impact of the blows. Some modern sports armor lacks a hard shell, including padded shirts and pants and boxing helmets; these are less appropriate for our purposes.
\n\nWhile ballistic armor is designed to protect your vital organs from gunfire, sports armor is designed to protect more of your body—for example, your shoulders, forearms, or joints, depending on the armor. Against police impact weapons, this can be crucial. Police are trained to aim most impact weapons at the navel or below; they often specifically target knees or limbs. Yet they also regularly shoot people directly in the chest, back, or head with impact weapons, and jab batons into the chest or abdomen or else swing at people’s backs or heads.
\n\nThe top priority is to protect your head. After that, you can consider kneepads, as impacts to the knee are more disabling than strikes to much of the rest of your body. When impact munitions kill people, it is usually because they strike a person in the head or chest; chest injuries can break a rib, which can puncture a lung or heart. This is very rare, but protecting your chest isn’t a bad idea. Some people who anticipate close encounters with club-wielding attackers—such as far right demonstrators or police—also wear forearm guards, often repurposing youth shin guards. These can be used to block blows from a stick or a baton, although such guards hardly guarantee safety.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/12/14/10.jpg\")
Fencing chest protection.
\nIt is possible to make your own effective armor, although secondhand sports equipment is often available so cheaply as to render this unnecessary. When making do-it-yourself gear, make sure it follows the shell/soft model. For the shell, plastic is the lightest and generally best, but sheet metal can also work—as can rubber, wood, or even thick magazines. We know one protestor who wears forearm guards made out of old license plates. While not particularly rigid, orange road cone material is better than nothing and often readily available. You can repurpose the plastic of barrels or buckets in a number of ways. We’ve come across one particularly promising method of creating simple breastplates from 5-gallon buckets that we’re excited to try, though for our purposes it would require foam padding on the back.
\n\nFor the “soft” in your shell/soft armor, closed-cell foam is usually the best thing. Yoga mat material is often cheap and effective. The blue foam from the $5 camping mats from WalMart is considered cheap and good by people who make their own sports gear. Even packing foam can work. Try attaching it with spray adhesive or, better, contact cement.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/12/14/6.jpg\")
Blue foam mat.
\nSome people have used the following method to make custom armor for free. Recover mattresses and 5-gallon buckets from the trash; cut the buckets into strips roughly matching the part of the body to be covered (thighs, shins, arms, and so on) and put the strips into an oven at low temperature. Don’t melt the plastic—just soften it a bit. Some people prefer to use scavenged ovens for this purpose rather than an oven they use to cook food. Meanwhile, rip foam out of the mattresses and tape that temporarily over the part of your body part to be covered. Take the plastic out of the oven and mold it over the foam; once it has cooled, use spray glue or contact cement to attach the foam to the inside of the plastic.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/12/14/8.jpg\")
Contact cement.
\nIn our experiments with making DIY plastic knife-resistant armor, we discovered that any hard plastic plate will be substantially slash-resistant, but that armor requires fairly thick plastic to be stab-proof. One of our testers was not able to get a knife through most sheet plastic, but another tester was able to get a knife through almost every piece of plastic we put in front of them. Still, most stabs in a tumultuous brawl will not be full force and a hard plastic layer will provide substantial resistance even if it is not knife-proof. This degree of protection might still be the difference between a painful cut and a punctured organ. We have yet to test sports armor specifically against knives and impact weapons.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/12/14/9.jpg\")
Cut-resistant sleeves.
\nMedieval armor was generally designed according to the same principle as modern sports armor: a hard shell backed by padding. Those who wear medieval armor for sport today have done a lot of work updating medieval armor for modern purposes. Most of this can be adapted to protest use.
\n\nSteel armor tends to weigh more than plastic armor; its primary advantage over plastic armor is cut and slash resistance. This is less important to demonstrators who are looking to protect themselves from blunt impact.
\n\nTwo modern groups that wear and understand medieval armor are the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) and those who study Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA). Both tend to wear a combination of steel and plastic armor, but the SCA in particular has developed DIY plastic armor designed to protect all parts of the human body. Their designs are likely to be effective for demonstrators.
\n\nWe cannot recommend steel for helmets, as the impact munitions police use deliver far more force than hand weapons do and deformation (denting) of steel helmets could endanger the wearer. We have researched this hypothesis, but have yet to test it.
\n\nMedieval armor makes for interesting optics. If you wear it overtly, it is bound to attract attention. Of course, both historically and in the modern era, armor has often been designed to look like clothing or be worn beneath it. The idea that people used to run around in shiny tin cans is largely ahistorical.
\n\nMedieval armor is not bulletproof—nor even particularly bullet resistant. To withstand bullets effectively, steel must be at least 1/4” thick and composed of an almost unworkably hard alloy.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/12/14/27.jpg\")
A demonstrator expressing opposition to the courts extending de facto impunity to murderer and former St. Louis police officer Jason Stockley on September 17, 2017, in St. Louis.
\nSoft armor vests are lightweight, concealable, effective against handgun rounds, and variably effective against knives. Ideally, you want a vest rated IIIA, although level II vests are often more available in surplus and are better than nothing. Level II protects against the average 9mm round—the most common handgun round in the US—but not against the “self-defense” 9mm rounds that gun enthusiasts commonly use. Vests can easily be very expensive (some can be had new for $250 or so, but most are $400+). Used or surplus vests (which are still usually $200+) might offer less protection than new ones, although this is both debatable and difficult to test with any given vest. Soft armor probably offers the best balance of protection, weight, and concealability for most demonstrators who are concerned about handgun fire.
\n\nSoft armor employs many layers of strong plastic fabric. Each layer absorbs more and more of the ballistic energy of the bullet until eventually it becomes caught in the fabric itself.
\n\nMost soft vests use Kevlar (a brand name for aramid fibers, a type of plastic fiber), but Dyneema and Spectra (brand names for UHMWPE, another type of plastic fiber) are a newer and stronger material that is becoming more common in various types of armor.
\n\nThis principle has been used in armor for millennia. The medieval gambeson was a quilted fabric made of many layers of linen; while those who could afford to do so wore it under other armor, some combatants—such as peasants in revolt—wore it alone. It was particularly effective against arrows, as layered fabric is specifically good at stopping penetration.
\n\nWhen you choose a soft vest, you must choose between a “wraparound” vest, which has large protective inserts that protect your sides as well as your front and back, and a vest that only protects you from the front or back—functioning almost identically to a plate carrier, except with soft fabric armor in place of the plates. Wraparound vests are preferable in almost every way except price—most of the cheapest IIIA armor only protects your front and back.
\n\nLike plate carriers, soft vests often come in both “covert” and “overt” styles [see below]. But since one of the primary advantages soft vests have over plate carriers is that they can be concealed, there seems to be little reason to consider an overt soft vest.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/12/14/14.jpg\")
A IIIa wraparound vest liner.
\nSoft vests come in two different types of plastic fibers: aramid and UHMWPE. You can’t go wrong with either one. Aramid fibers (like Kevlar) are a slightly older technology; they are heavier for the same level of protection. UHMWPE fibers (like Dyneema) are fancier, newer, lighter, more UV resistant, and less resistant to temperature changes—this means they are less capable of stopping a “contact” shot, when a gun is held directly against the vest, as the fibers can melt. There is some debate about whether this is a significant problem.
\n\nAramid fibers are the most common type of plastic used in bulletproof vests. The most popular brand is Kevlar, made by Dupont. Aramid fibers were the first plastics strong enough to make into ballistic armor. One other brand of aramid fiber used in armor is Teijin Aramid (previously known as Twaron).
\n\nAramid fibers break down from UV exposure. The outer shell of a bulletproof vest generally protects them from this.
\n\nUltra-High-Molecular-Weight Polyethylene (UHMWPE, sometimes simply called PE) is a plastic fiber that is increasingly common for armor of all types. Soft vests are made of layered fabric; hard plates are often backed with it or made entirely from it; modern military helmets are made from it instead of aramid fibers. It is stronger by weight than aramid fibers, so that armor can be made slightly thinner and lighter.
\n\nThe two most common brand names of UHMWPE fiber used in armor are Dyneema (made by DSM) and Spectra (made by Honeywell).
\n\nWhile UHMWPE is not inherently UV resistant, it can be made so reasonably easily and Dyneema is considered substantially more UV stable than Kevlar. We have not been able to find comparable information about Spectra besides the fact that it is advertised as more UV resistant than many other fibers, presumably including aramid).
\n\nUHMWPE has a much lower melting point than aramid; some speculate that it degrades from heat as a result. We found footage of one manufacturer lighting their vests on fire for a full minute, then testing them and finding that they continued to stop bullets. The same manufacturer also tests contact shots against their vests, although we don’t know whether all UHMWPE vests would produce the same results.
\n\nIn any case, it is generally unadvised to leave any soft vest containing UHMWPE in any environment that might exceed 180 degrees Fahrenheit, and they are still considered more vulnerable to contact shots than aramid fiber vests.
\n\nPlate carriers are practically the only game in town if you are looking to protect yourself from rifles. For a plate carrier, you need two things: the carrier—a fabric vest with sleeves to hold hard plates—and the plates. Generally, you want plates rated III+, ideally ceramic or a combination of ceramic and PE (polyethylene, usually the UHMWPE mentioned above). Side plates are likely overkill and needless weight and expense, as are level IV plates, the most protective armor. Hard plates are ostensibly more knife-proof than other forms of armor, but an overt plate carrier is so obvious that a determined attacker would simply aim where you aren’t protected.
\n\nPlate carriers are only designed to protect the most vital areas of your chest, an area sometimes referred to as the “kill box.” Most shooters are trained to aim for “center body mass” because it presents the largest target and offers the most vulnerabilities. With the exception of head wounds, wounds elsewhere on the body are less likely to kill you, so most armor systems do not prioritize preventing them.
\n\nPlate carriers come in “covert” and “overt” models just as soft vests do, with covert ones designed to be worn beneath clothing and overt ones designed to be worn over it.
\n\nIt’s considered good form to pick your plates first and then match your carrier to them, though you can do it in the opposite order as well.
\n\nThere are several things to consider regarding plates, including composition, size, cut, and curves.
\n\nPlates comprise a range of things that stop bullets. We’ll cover soft plates, steel plates, ceramic plates, and PE plates.
\n\nSoft plates are made of layers of the ballistic fabric discussed above in the section on bulletproof vests. If you’re looking for modularity, you could keep a pair of soft plates that you can insert into your plate carrier instead of hard plates when you want a lighter armor. Advantages: light, flexible. Disadvantages: poor protection.
\n\nSteel plates are the most common, but are going out of style. Steel plates are slabs of steel, about .25” thick. The most common alloy of steel is AR500, a particularly hard steel. It’s used primarily for armor, plow blades, construction and mining gear, and the like. Steel plates are easily 8 or 9 pounds apiece. (There is also an armor manufacturer called AR500; they make armor of all types, confusing matters.)
\n\nSteel plates are less popular now that ceramic plates are becoming more affordable. Steel plates are substantially heavier. When struck at an angle, they can cause bullets to ricochet, and they’re capable of causing “spalling,” in which tiny shreds of steel go flying. Vertical spalling is the chief concern, as that can go up toward your face.
\n\nThe only steel plates worth considering come with a buildup of “spall coating,” which is usually the same stuff that truck bed liners are made of (such as the spray-on Rhino Liner), though we believe that some manufacturers use fiberglass sleeves instead. Many manufacturers come with options regarding how thick you want your spall coating to be. A thick (“build up”) coating is more important for the front plate than the back plate. Spall coatings will usually protect the wearer from two or three hits before there is more vertical spalling.
\n\nNow that ceramic plates are affordable, the main advantage of steel plates is that they are thinner than ceramic ones and more capable of handling more rounds at the same point of impact.
\n\nCeramic plates are sometimes called composite plates because they are not usually made entirely of ceramic. They work by breaking down upon impact, absorbing most of the force of the bullet, which is then stopped by a second layer. Once, this second layer was usually composed of steel, but nowadays polyethylene is most common. Ceramic plates are generally between five and six pounds and .75” to 1” thick; the cheaper plates tend to be thicker and heavier.
\n\nIn order of increasing cost and efficacy, the three most common types of ceramic are Alumina, Silicon Carbide, and Boron Carbide. Alumina has to be thicker and heavier to offer the same amount of protection as Boron Carbide, but is substantially cheaper. It might be better to buy multiple sets of Alumina plates to distribute to friends than a single fancy lightweight set of plates that only you can wear, although thinner plates are more concealable.
\n\nThere are fears that ceramic plates might degrade from rough handling, but current opinion is that this concern is overblown.
\n\nOne danger with ceramic plates is that to save cost and weight, most manufacturers use foam rather than ceramic along the edge of the plate. This is usually mentioned in the item description. One plate we handled had a full inch of foam around the edge—reducing an ostensibly 10x12” plate to dimensions of 8x10” in full effectiveness—although the PE runs edge to edge beneath the ceramic and it’s generally considered to be IIIA rated (enough to stop handgun rounds) on its own. Red Star Defense advertises “edge to edge” ballistic ceramic.
\n\nWe recommend ceramic plates because they are substantially lighter and don’t have issues with spalling. However, they will not survive as many shots as steel armor, and because they are less rigid, they are more prone to backface deformation (denting), which transfers more of the force of impact to the wearer. You can mitigate this danger by using trauma pads, which are essentially just extra padding.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/12/14/7.jpg\")
A ceramic plate after multiple impacts.
\nPE (polyethylene) plates are plates made entirely of UHMWPE. As with soft armor, it relies on multiple thin layers. Unlike soft armor, the layers are heat-laminated together. When a bullet strikes the plate, it breaks apart each layer one at a time, and this delamination absorbs force each time. Because this process can cause a fair amount of back deformation, most PE plates are backed by a layer of foam.
\n\nPE plates are substantially lighter than other hard plates—often less than three pounds. They’re also buoyant in water. But they are much thicker (1-1.25”) and therefore less concealable. Most importantly, we have not been able to source any plate rated higher than level III—it seems that armor-penetrating rounds cut right through the plastic layers. Because the AR-15 is the most common rifle threat in the United States and some available AR-15 ammunition options can penetrate level III plates, we cannot recommend them for safety.
\n\nAny hard armor containing PE, such as ceramic or standalone PE, should not be exposed to temperatures above 180 degrees Fahrenheit.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/12/14/23.jpg\")
UHMWPE plates.
\nRoughly speaking, a plate should protect you from your collarbone down to a few inches above your navel and from nipple to nipple.
\n\nTo make everything as confusing as possible, there are two different sizing standards in use in the USA. We’ll call them civilian and SAPI.
\n\nCivilian plates, which are what we are most likely to encounter, are available in 8x10”, 10x12”, and 11x14” dimensions. The 10x12” size is the most common.
\n\nSAPI (Small Arms Protective Insert) is the military acronym for protective plates. SAPI plates come in a very specific cut (the SAPI cut), but in five different sizes: extra-small (7.25x11.5”), small (8.75x11.75”), medium (9.5x12”), large (10.25x13.25”), and extra-large (11x14”).
\n\nThe best way to size a plate is to measure your body, then choose the plate size that closest fits you. Of course, you may not have access to all the possible sizes.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/12/14/11.jpg\")
A full cut plate.
\nPlates come in a number of different shapes: full cut, SAPI, shooter’s, and swimmer’s. The differences between these are minor, and each cut (besides SAPI, a military standard) differs from manufacturer to manufacturer. While most plates are sold in pairs, many people mix and match, with a regular SAPI cut back plate and a deeper shooter’s or swimmer’s cut front plate.
\n\nFull cut plates are essentially rectangles with the corners rounded off. They are not common but can be used for side plates or back plates. They may not fit in many carriers.
\n\nSAPI plates are the standard military hard plates. They have a nearly-45 degree angle cut from each part of the top. SAPI plates work well and offer a good deal of coverage. Actual military SAPI plates are not sold directly to the public, but manufacturers sell plates in “SAPI cut.”
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/12/14/20.jpg\")
Sapi plates, shooter’s cut.
\nShooter’s cut plates are similar to SAPI plates but have slightly more of a cut away at the corners. Some manufacturers sell right-handed or left-handed plates and further accentuate the cut on the dominant arm for better mobility.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/12/14/21.jpg\")
Shooter’s cut steel plate.
\nSwimmer’s cut plates have substantially deeper cuts away from the top corners, forming a vaguely teardrop shape. This sacrifices protection for mobility. Some people with breasts or other curves find a swimmer’s cut most comfortable.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/12/14/22.jpg\")
Swimmer’s cut steel plate.
\nPlates can come in three different curve styles: flat, single curve, and multi-curve. Once again, each brand has its own interpretation of each of these.
\n\nFlat plates are just that—flat. Most people don’t like flat plates, though some people wear them, especially on the back. Sometimes flat plates are cheaper.
\n\nSingle curve plates are the most common. These are curved on the vertical axis to better wrap around your torso.
\n\nMulti-curve plates curve in multiple ways to better fit what the manufacturer believes to be their average customer’s body. These are generally preferable, especially for people with breasts or other curves. They’re often more expensive. Not all manufacturers offer this option.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/12/14/17.jpg\")
A multi-curve plate.
\nMost plates we’ve discussed are Stand Alone (SA or STA) plates. These plates are designed to perform at their rated level by themselves.
\n\nIt’s also possible to get In Conjunction With (ICW) plates. These are generally thinner and lighter but only perform at their rated level when worn in conjunction with a IIIA soft vest.
\n\nThe modularity of the latter system has a lot to recommend it, but you will have to source a bulletproof soft vest with plate inserts (which are often more expensive) or else wear a plate carrier over your vest. ICW plates are harder to come across. The whole system is likely to be more expensive.
\n\nThis style used to be the more popular military style, as it offers more protection, but current trends favor mobility over protection, and military forces seem to be shifting towards standalone plates.
\n\nWhen you buy armor, you might encounter “trauma pads.” This phrase actually has two different meanings. Before standalone plate carriers, In Conjunction With plates were called “trauma plates” and were inserted into sleeves on bulletproof vests to increase their ballistic rating. Now, however, “trauma pads” are usually non-ballistic foam inserts you put behind your hard plates in order to soften the blunt force trauma of an impact.
\n\nThe value of trauma pads is hotly debated. They seem to be more important for ceramic plates than steel plates. It’s also increasingly popular for people to make do-it-yourself trauma pads out of yoga mat foam.
\n\nWe don’t have enough information to come down hard on either side of this debate, but it might be worth getting or making trauma pads, especially if you have ceramic plates. It can’t hurt, and some people wear them just because they make the armor more comfortable, although they do add expense and thickness.
\n\nIt is possible to make DIY armor plates. It’s probably only worth doing as a last resort. YouTube is a magical wonderland full of people testing various DIY forms of body armor. Some are easy to make; others are labor intensive. Some are affordable; others are expensive. We have not personally tested DIY ballistic armor and cannot recommend it, but there are situations in which armor is needed and not commercially available.
\n\nWe’ve seen two common methods. The first involves laminating lots and lots of layers of Kevlar (better) or fiberglass (cheaper) with resin. This is labor intensive and not necessarily cheap, but it makes it possible to form the plates into various shapes. There are arguments about what kinds of resin work best; some people argue convincingly that using less resin enables the layers to delaminate upon impact and absorb more force.
\n\nThe second method, which is substantially simpler and often cheaper, involves layering ceramic floor tiles—using the hardest ones available—with various thicknesses of steel and rubber. This method seems to make stronger armor that is less subject to back deformation. Some people argue that ceramic mosaic tiles offer better multi-hit capability, while others say that single larger tiles absorb impact better. It’s possible that aluminum oxide ceramic panels can be sourced from commercial manufacturers, possibly from China.
\n\nSome people combine these various methods in various ways.
\n\nOne person made a thick, light plate out of DIY recycled HDPE from milk jugs that seemed to be roughly level 2 or 3A.
\n\nAnother person proved that thick slabs of non-laminated UHMWPE don’t do any good as armor.
\n\nThe cheapest and strangest DIY plate we’ve seen is a $12 plate made from items from the dollar store: baking pans full of rocks and glue with a hardcover book as spall protection. This stopped some rifle rounds but not many.
\n\nOne person we spoke to has had some success cutting steel plates from suitably strong and thick steel found in scrapyards. Steel that is too hard will shatter upon impact; steel that is too soft will allow penetration—and if bullets do pass through, they might leave additional jagged bits of metal. If you’re going to take this approach, it is absolutely crucial to get enough extra material to test these plates. You can cut the plates to the desired shape with an angle grinder. DIY steel plates should absolutely be backed with trauma pads.
\n\nIf you possibly can, you should get well-engineered, properly tested gear. Failing that, you had better carry out your own thorough tests on the gear you make yourself. One person who does so described the process thus:
\n\n1) Extensively research core concepts involved in the project, to understand considerations, potential points of failure, and potential reasons for failure.\n2) Develop a minimal viable product standard that you hope to accomplish.\n3) Determine the most basic test conditions possible, with as many variables eliminated as possible.\n4) Develop initial prototype.\n5) Test initial prototype.\n6) Disassemble prototype to determine what worked and what failed, and to determine cause of failure.\n7) Build next prototype with knowledge gained from testing.\n8) Repeat.\n9) Once you achieve a minimal viable product standard, start testing under increasingly harsh conditions—different temperatures, using different rounds, and so on—to determine resiliency and point of failure.
\n\nFor a project like this, make sure you have access to a workshop and someone who knows how to use the necessary tools safely and effectively. The proper tools will make production and testing faster; they can also help ensure standardized outcomes.
\n\nMany vendors will sell you the carrier and plates as a set, in which case you’re ready to go. Otherwise, you’ll have to pick a carrier for your plates. Be careful to pick a plate carrier that accepts the specific size and cut of the plates you plan to wear.
\n\nPlate carriers generally consist of two parts: the vest itself, which goes on over your head, and a cummerbund—a velcro belt that connects the front and back panels at your side.
\n\nPlate carriers come in two primary styles, covert and overt.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/12/14/19.jpg\")
The Slickster, a popular plate carrier.
\nCovert carriers are designed to offer the option of wearing them under other clothing. They don’t tend to come with as many pouches and loops and other tactical loadout options. For protestors, covert carriers are likely the best option. A black covert carrier under loose-fitting black clothing is unlikely to be noticed as body armor, especially in the dark or in a crowd.
\n\nThis has several advantages. First and perhaps foremost, police are less likely to tag you as a troublemaker and target you for arrest or other violence. Just as importantly, armed attackers may be less likely to target you. With firearms, one of the primary arguments for concealed carry is that a trained attacker will target known threats first. Basically, if someone walks into a store and starts shooting, they are likely to target anyone they see carrying a gun first. The same principle applies to armor: a shooter is substantially more likely to consider someone wearing armor to be a threat, and therefore to aim at them first. Furthermore, if a shooter knows you are wearing armor, they might intentionally shoot you somewhere other than where you are protected. Overt plate carriers are designed with soldiers in mind, whereas “operators” (spec-ops) are more likely to wear covert vests for the aforementioned reasons.
\n\nYou can wear covert vests modularly, with the option to swap in additional pouches and cummerbunds to switch the carrier to overt.
\n\nUnfortunately, the cheaper ceramic plates tend to be so thick that it is substantially harder to wear them covertly. If covertness is your top priority, consider saving up for more expensive, thinner ceramic plates. Although we cannot currently recommend steel plates, those are thinner as well.
\n\nBy comparison, overt carriers are designed to be worn as the outermost layer and to function as a platform from which to hang gear. Traditionally, this means guns, magazines, communications equipment, first aid supplies, and whatever else a soldier needs for their purposes. We’re not soldiers, we’re protestors.
\n\nOvert vests still have a place, of course, for some people and some purposes. They convey militancy and preparedness and they normalize the use of armor. Overt vests in bright colors are often worn by first responders and others who need to protect themselves but are trying to identify themselves as noncombatants.
\n\nPlus, the ability to hang gear off a carrier is convenient for many purposes, such as radio communications and serving as a street medic.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/12/14/18.jpg\")
An overt plate carrier.
\nMilitary and tactical gear is often easily identified by the loops of webbing sewn all over it. This is called MOLLE (Modular Lightweight Load-carrying Equipment): a military system designed to allow the attachment of additional pouches, packs, sheathes, and the like.
\n\nSome MOLLE is laser cut, particularly on covert carriers: instead of webbing loops, slots are cut into the outermost layer of fabric.
\n\nHook-and-loop (i.e., velcro) attachment points are also common on tactical gear, which are used to attach morale patches or even small pouches. Morale patches include the various emblems and signs that the military use to designate units and that tactically-minded civilians use to express political and subcultural affiliation. What 1” buttons are for punks, morale patches are for tactical gearheads.
\n\nSome specific manufacturers use other styles of attachment points as well.
\n\nFor most covert plate carrier purposes, attachment points are not necessary.
\n\nFor anyone experienced in sewing, making a plate carrier is a reasonably simple affair, as it is not itself a ballistic product. We would recommend that any aspiring plate carrier maker get a simple plate carrier to copy.
\n\nYou can make straps from webbing; 500D Cordura seems to be the most commonly used fabric for the vest itself. Most guides suggest double or triple stitching every seam.
\n\nPlates load into the bottom of the front and back sleeves and are generally secured by a generous flap of hook-and-loop.
\n\nIf your plate carrier is well-fitted, the armor should sit at your clavicle. With your armor on, lift your arms and twist around to make sure the carrier moves with your body. Breathe in deep to make sure it’s not too tight; at the most, it should feel snug when your lungs are fully expanded. Then test the fit by doing a Burpee or some other athletic activity to make sure that it nothing on the carrier moves around or falls out.\n### Fitting Armor to Different Body Types
\n\nMost armor is designed to fit able-bodied, athletic cis men. The further from that category you are, the more trouble you may have fitting body armor. It can be particularly challenging to obtain armor in smaller sizes and armor for people with breasts.
\n\nSoft body armor vests are substantially more forgiving than plate carriers, but can still be less comfortable for those with more curves. Some armor manufacturers design soft armor vests specifically to fit curvier bodies. These are less likely to be found at lower price points, although we’ve seen some surplus “female” vests on eBay.
\n\nSmall vests in general seem to be hard to find on the surplus market, as surplus vests tend to come from police departments.
\n\nPlate carriers offer even fewer options for people with breasts. The best option we’ve been able to find is to get a multi-curve swimmer’s cut front plate and wear either a tight-fitting sports bra or a chest binder.
\n\nLikewise, plates simply aren’t made in sizes large enough for all people. It seems that most larger people wear the largest plate they can (usually 11x14”), even if it covers less of their torso.
\n\nThere is a lot of contradictory information available about what happens to the human body when you’re shot while wearing body armor.
\n\nWhen you’re shot while wearing soft armor, the impact of the blow still hits you and can damage you, although the injuries are generally minor as the impact is spread out over a somewhat larger area. According to one study, 85% of those who are shot while wearing a vest rated for the right kind of impact suffer no injuries or minor injuries such as slight bruising. Yet one EMT says that the police they have treated who have survived shots to their vests describe it as being hit with a baseball bat full force.
\n\nPlate armor is something else entirely. It’s hotly contested whether injuries and fatalities are common when someone is shot while wearing plate armor. We’ve personally talked to experts and seen tests and studies that contradict each other.
\n\nIn general, if you are wearing armor that is rated for the impact you experience, you are unlikely to suffer a major injury. Unless you’re caught off balance, you’re unlikely to be knocked back or over. Steel, in particular, is effective at transferring the force of the bullet across its large surface, minimizing the force that is passed on to the wearer. Ceramic armor defaces more dramatically, but this effect can be minimized with trauma pads; it should not cause grievous injury to the wearer.
\n\nThis is not universally the case, however. People do suffer cracked ribs and other blunt force injuries when bullets strike them while they are wearing armor.
\n\nPeople are likely to experience the same impact differently according to body mass. Larger plates disperse impact over a larger area.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/12/14/4.jpg\")
Chest anatomy as it relates to plate coverage.
\nBallistics is a remarkably complex subject. We’ve spoken to a number of engineers and tactical enthusiasts about how to understand the risk of penetration.
\n\nBroadly speaking, rifle shots penetrate substantially more effectively than handguns or shotguns. They’re also considered substantially more deadly—though gun violence is a highly politicized subject and data is often skewed to support one position or another, and we’ve found contradictory reports about lethality claims according to caliber. The only exception to this rule is that .22 caliber rifles, which are common for small game hunting and for beginning shooters, are closer to handguns in terms of their penetration capacity than they are to other rifles.
\n\nArmor penetration is very different from overall power (the kinetic force transferred to the target by the bullet), which is different from “stopping power” (the ability of the bullet to neutralize a threat). Penetration is greater for faster bullets with a greater “sectional density”—that is, bullets that are heavier in relationship to their width. Thinner bullets are sharper and penetrate more effectively than larger bullets of the same mass. Armor penetration and stopping power actually work against each other: bullets that mushroom or fragment upon impact cause far more severe wounds, whereas bullets that maintain their shape more effectively are more capable of penetrating armor.
\n\nMost armor piercing ammunition works by using a steel or other hardened core that survives impact more effectively than lead. This ammunition is not generally available to civilians in the United States, although it is available to the military and police. This makes it less likely that militia groups and other non-state actors will be using it against demonstrators. It is not in common use by the police for a number of reasons: first, it involves greater risk of going all the way through the target and hitting someone else unintentionally, in what is called overpenetration; second, hollow point bullets (which mushroom upon impact) are more effective at killing unarmored targets, like the people that the police are usually trying to murder. The most common exception is 7.62x54r steel core surplus ammo, which has significant armor piercing capability, and anything in the 50 caliber range, which we are unlikely to see in domestic civilian conflict.
\n\nThere are two types of bullets worth knowing about that are available to civilians and are likely to be carried by non-state actors who seek to harm demonstrators. First are steel-tipped (not steel-cored) bullets, generally referred to as “green tip” bullets. These were designed for the military to offer greater accuracy and penetration at long distance, but they are in common civilian use, especially in AR-15s. The second are the “+P” style of bullets, generally 9mm—the most common handgun round—though not all 9mm are +P. These are not designed for armor penetration, but pack a “hotter” load of more gunpowder that provides greater power and therefore more effective penetration.
\n\nBoth of these threats can be stopped by appropriate and available body armor, such as what that we recommend herein. It’s worth being aware of these threats in order to understand why you might need an appropriate level of armor. Older and cheaper soft vests might stop most 9mm rounds, but not the +P rounds that are commonly carried by self-defense and gun enthusiasts.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/12/14/12.jpg\")
Green-tipped .556 ammunition.
\nArmor can be tested against several different standards to determine its efficacy. For products available in the United States, the most common by far are the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) standards, which we use throughout this article. These were designed with US law enforcement in mind. Many other countries use the NIJ standards for armor that is available to civilians. There are other standards in use throughout the world, as well.
\n\nThe US army does not use level ratings, instead offering specific armor items that must meet a certain threshold. These tests are not as simple as “this armor protects against handguns” or even “this armor protects against 9mm handguns.” The ratings designate the specific cartridge, down to its composition and how much gunpowder it is loaded with.
\n\nAgain, in short, if you are looking for soft armor, you want it to be rated to IIIA. If you are looking for hard armor, you want it to be rated at least III+, or “III special threat,” if it is to protect you against the common steel-tipped AR-15 rounds. Neither of these are officially part of the NIJ standards.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/12/14/3.jpg\")
9mm Luger+p ammunition.
\nThe NIJ standards are revised from time to time.
\n\nLevel I: This level is no longer part of the standards. It protected against some .22lr (small game hunting rifle) rounds and .380acp (handgun rounds).
\n\nLevel IIa: This protects against some handgun rounds, including some 9mm, .40, and .45 rounds.
\n\nLevel II: This protects against more handgun rounds, including 9mm as well as some .357 rounds.
\n\nLevel IIIa: This protects against nearly all handguns, including more .357 rounds and .44 magnum rounds as well.
\n\nLevel III: This level is rated to stop most 7.62x51mm NATO rounds, a common military round. It is not rated against the AR-15, but will stop many AR-15 rounds (5.56 or .223, which are roughly the same).
\n\nLevel IV: This level is rated to stop 30.06 (thirty-aught-six) armor-piercing rounds—the rounds fired by WWII-era battle rifles, which remain common for hunting.
\n\nThe new NIJ 0101.07 standards will likely be released at some point soon. This revision will address the major holes in the current system, such as the gap filled by III+. It will replace the numeral system with two separate categories: HG (handgun) and RF (rifle). HG will have two levels HG1, which will map to the existing level II, and HG2, which will map to the existing IIIA. RF will have three levels: RF1 which will map to the existing level III, RF2 which will fill the hole currently met by III+, and RF3 which will map to the existing level IV.
\n\nPlease read our full article about helmets here.
\n\nMost ballistic helmets are rated to the IIIa level and are designed to stop handgun rounds. A few newer military helmets can stop some rifle rounds, sometimes, from long distances. There are also rifle inserts available for some helmets to increase the protection level of the helmet, although these are not in common use, as most soldiers seem to prefer weight reduction to an extra level of protection.
\n\nIIIA glass visors are also available, which attach to helmets and protect the eyes. These are made of thick polycarbonate, the same plastic used in the manufacture of bulletproof glass.
\n\nWhile we will cover protest shields at greater length in a future article, it’s worth touching on ballistic shields: shields designed to protect the user from gunfire.
\n\nMost ballistic shields are rated IIIA for handgun protection or IV for rifle protection. They can weigh anywhere from 15 to 40 pounds. It’s very difficult to wield them in the ways that an ordinary shield is wielded.
\n\nWhile they’re somewhat common equipment for police, they are not generally used by the military or militias, nor are they generally applicable to self-defense or community-defense situations. They seem to be chiefly useful for raiding buildings.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/12/14/5.jpg\")
A ballistic shield.
\nCut-resistant gloves and sleeves are available and affordable, but they are generally designed for the kind of incidental contact with sharp knives one might experience in a commercial kitchen. These are generally made of aramid (Kevlar) or UHMWPE (Dyneema) fabric, though some also contain woven wire. Cut resistance does not translate to stab resistance. A truly cut-resistant sleeve would be useful for defending against knife attacks, but the testing we’ve seen has not led us to believe the current products would be much help against determined attackers rather than workplace accidents.
\n\nCut resistance is measured in the USA by the ANSI standards rating scale, running from A1 to A9, and in the European Union with the CE/EN standards rating scale, running from A-F (previously, 1-5). The ANSI standard rates to a higher level of cut resistance than the CE/EN standard.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/12/14/25.jpg\")
May we live to see a better future.
\nGunshot wounds are becoming more common at demonstrations. This is not to say you should panic—millions of people have participated in demonstrations over the past four months, while only dozens have been shot. Still, as political conflict escalates in the United States, it is important to think about how we can care for and protect each other. The good news is that even if you have no medical training, there are things you can do to maximize the likelihood that a person who is shot in your vicinity will survive—simple things like learning the location of the nearest trauma center. Though this subject can be stressful to contemplate, the following guide may equip you to help save lives.
\n\nWhile many demonstrators have learned how to prepare for tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets, LRADs, baton blows, and arrests, few are currently prepared to respond to gunshot wounds. This guide is drawn from the experiences of several people who have witnessed or treated gunshot wounds in the course of political and social conflict. In order to demystify the subject and help readers imagine how they might employ this information, we’ve included two personal narratives describing experiences with gunshot wounds at demonstrations.
\n\nAlthough this text draws on the practical knowledge of a number of people with both institutional training and street experience, it does not represent professional medical advice. It includes some information that will chiefly be useful to experienced street medics, but most of it is relevant to any reader. It is not intended to stand in for actual training in gunshot wound response or other medical interventions. We encourage readers to seek out additional training, skills, and life-saving critical response tools.
\n\nGunshot wounds involve traumatic injuries and serious puncture wounds. Their impact on the body varies according to the type of weapon, the distance of the shooter, and the location of the entry wound. Depending on the size and speed of the bullet, gunshots can inflict different types of harm—including severe bleeding, muscle and bone damage, and destruction of organs. They can damage bodies in unpredictable ways.
\n\nWhile some calibers of ammunition may pass directly through a person leaving easily identifiable entry and exit wounds, other calibers are more prone to “tumbling,” or ricocheting, inside the body. This can cause more internal damage and less predictable exits. Worse still, some types of “self-defense” ammunition for handguns are designed to “mushroom” out on impact, causing severe harm.
\n\nTreat any gunshot wound as a potentially life-threatening injury, regardless of the details. If an artery is compromised, a person can bleed out in as few as three minutes. Once a person loses half their blood, their chances of survival decrease dramatically. It is up to you to act quickly.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/09/24/8.jpg\")
\nFirst and foremost, pay attention to what is going on around you. Street demonstrations can be chaotic and loud. Police may employ tear gas, flash-bang grenades, LRADs, and other noisy weaponry, while protestors sometimes set off fireworks—which can sound an awful lot like gunfire. When you are surprised by loud bangs in the streets, try to identify the source and what kind of risk it represents.
\n\nStay aware of the location of anyone who is openly carrying a firearm, as well as anyone you have reason to believe may be carrying a concealed weapon. People have been hit by friendly fire at demonstrations as well as hostile fire. If you are working with an affinity group, you could designate one person to keep an eye out for potential threats. Take turns occupying this role, so one person doesn’t become exhausted from being constantly vigilant. In any case, all parties should stay aware, as things can shift rapidly.
\n\nCommunicate clearly and concisely, especially when you are describing individuals with firearms. This can help others to make wise decisions rapidly in an emergency, without contributing to undue panic. Here are two communication models you can employ to convey what you see.
\n\nUse the mnemonic device “S.A.L.U.T.E.” (Size, Activity, Location, Unit, Time, Equipment) to identify potential threats. For example, rather than shouting “They’ve got a gun!” you might report, “I saw three men (S) guarding the convenience store (A) at the intersection of Main Street and City Avenue (L). Possibly militia (U). This was at 11:15 pm (T). Two had long guns, I don’t know about the third (E).”
\n\nIn emergencies, or when time is of the essence, you can use another tool called the “three Ds”: Direction, Distance, Disposition. For example, “Four unknown white men with rifles at my 1 o’clock, one block up, scanning the crowd with binoculars.”
\n\nMuch of what you can do to treat a gunshot wound takes place long before the shot is fired.
\n\nDepending on the type of event and where it is taking place, there may be medics around. You could investigate in advance whether there are street medics in your area, whether they will be attending, and where they will be positioned. During demonstrations, one often sees medics milling around in the crowd or stationed at the margins, carrying gear and wearing a red cross or a similar insignia identifying them as medics. If you believe it could become relevant, you can ask them whether they are prepared to deal with gunshot wounds and other severe injuries. Many medics have experience responding to tear gas, pepper spray, and rubber bullets, as well as exhaustion, dehydration, and panic. Currently, it is less likely that a medic who responds to a gunshot wound will possess the relevant skills and experience.
\n\nIf you are assessing the extent to which local medics are trained to deal with gunshot wounds and you learn that they are prepared to offer “first response” care, you can also inquire as to whether they have the capacity to offer prolonged care in the event that EMS services cannot reach an area. This can give you vital information about the potential risks you may be taking on if you remain in an escalating situation.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/09/24/2.jpg\")
Street medics in the Bush era.
\nBefore going to a demonstration, assess the security and health needs of your comrades—including ability and willingness to call for emergency services, which are usually accompanied by police. Are there any needs that should be addressed before someone reaches the emergency room? Who would you like your friends to contact first in the event of an emergency or injury?
\n\nIn addition to learning whether trained medics will be around, make sure you know the location of the nearest emergency room—preferably one with a trauma center. Not all hospitals are equipped to deal with life-threatening wounds. If you will not be near a hospital with a trauma center, at least learn the location of the nearest hospital. With any luck, they should be able to stabilize a victim before transferring them to a hospital that is prepared to deal with mass physical trauma.
\n\nThere are several items you can carry with you that can be useful in the event of a shooting. Consider procuring or building an Individual First Aid Kit (IFAK) to carry with you. An IFAK is a trauma kit containing essential life-saving materials to help you control bleeding and treat major wounds. It is usually a small pouch containing items such as a gauze (regular or hemostatic), pressure dressing, personal protective equipment (gloves, face shield), and a tourniquet. An experienced medic has compiled a thorough list of what to put in an IFAK and where to obtain it, which is included in an appendix below. With the exception of PPE, which protects you and the person you are assisting from blood-borne pathogens or other communicable diseases, all of these intervention tools share the same purpose: to stop bleeding as quickly as possible.
\n\nGauze is a basic part of an IFAK, but a crucial one. It is used to absorb blood as you apply direct pressure to a wound. It can also be used to “pack” inside of a larger wound.1 Hemostatic gauze (often known by brand names such as QuickClot, Celox, and Hemcon) is gauze impregnated with a mineral agent that helps blood clot more quickly, which is critical in the case of a major bleed.
\n\nA pressure dressing (also referred to as an Israeli bandage, emergency bandage, or emergency trauma dressing) is an elastic wrap, similar to an ace bandage, with an attached non-adherent absorption pad and a Velcro or clip closure system. When holding pressure on the wound with your hands is not enough stop the bleed, a pressure bandage is used to apply stronger, constant pressure to a wound. There are many different models of pressure dressings; if you carry one, make sure you know exactly how it works. Online training or gear review videos are great for this.
\n\nA tourniquet is the cornerstone of an IFAK. If you carry only one intervention tool, invest in a quality tourniquet. When purchasing a tourniquet, it is ideal to acquire one approved by the Committee of Tactical Combat Casualty Care. These tourniquets have undergone rigorous pre-manufacturing testing and have been thoroughly vetted through field use. We recommend a CAT-7 Tourniquet. One can cost around $35; you and your comrades may be able to buy them in bulk to save money. Beware of fakes! Many cheaper versions are in circulation; these can fail under pressure. You can usually recognize a fake by the absence of a factory stamp by the red pull tab; a skinny windlass (i.e., the rotating rod) can also be a giveaway, instead of a beefier one with extrusions. Finally, and most obviously, no black CATs produced before 2009 have white “time” straps. Fakes notoriously have these white straps.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/09/24/6.jpg\")
The one on the top is a cheap knockoff that could fail under pressure.
\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/09/24/9.jpg\")
The one on the right is a cheap knockoff that could fail under pressure.
\nIt is good practice to keep your tourniquet with the band already threaded through the buckle, creating a large loop you will then pass over the foot or hand, rather than attempting to thread the buckle in the heat of the moment if you need to use it.
\n\nFinally, carry sharpies to mark the time that a tourniquet was applied or any additional information that first responders—street medics or otherwise—may need to know. Black sharpies work for white people or lighter-skinned people of color, while silver sharpies work better for Black comrades.
\n\nEven if there is a trained and experienced medic collective local to you, carrying an IFAK, or even just a tourniquet, is a great idea. In the scope of emergency casualty care, many properly trained medics will seek to use the injured comrade’s equipment on them first, in order to save their specialized equipment for those who did not carry anything. Because of this, be sure to mark your IFAK or blowout kit clearly and carry it somewhere that is easily accessible. Failing this, make sure to have your tourniquet easily accessible, in a marked, visible location that is known to everyone in your affinity group. Normalize the practice of letting your trusted comrades know where your medical equipment is located.
\n\nSeveral things can happen in the immediate aftermath of a shooting. If police are nearby and intervene, it is possible that you will rapidly lose control of the situation. Despite their general lack of medical training, they will typically form a cordon around the victim and prevent a medic or anyone else from treating them. This does not necessarily mean they will act quickly in response to the injury. Put pressure on the police if they aren’t doing enough, or doing it fast enough. Demand they seek proper medical care for the injured.
\n\n\nhttps://twitter.com/crimethinc/status/1300285181530640391\n\n\n
The flip side of the scenario is just as possible—you and your comrades may have to make do without state intervention. If the situation is chaotic or deemed dangerous, even if you are willing to call emergency services, an ambulance may not enter an area. Police may spend an inordinate amount of time trying to clear the area with tear gas or other means before they bring in an ambulance—they might even simply prevent an ambulance from reaching you. In such a situation, depending on the severity of the wound, survival may depend on quick thinking and action. In that case, you will have no one to depend on except yourselves to care for the wounded and organize your evacuation.
\n\nContinually assess what’s going on around you. Are there still gunshots being fired? Is there traffic in the area? Are people running past you fleeing from a shooter, police, or fascists? Don’t let panic, haste, or inattentiveness cause additional misfortunes.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/09/24/5.jpg\")
A small Individual First Aid Kit (IFAK) containing a tourniquet and trauma dressings.
\nNothing you could read here can substitute for proper medical training. However, if you own an IFAK or tourniquet and possess a basic understanding of how to stop a bleed on an arm or leg, some action may be better than nothing.
\n\nIf gunshots ring out, try not to panic. First, get to a safer place. In the system of Tactical Emergency Casualty Care, the first step is to maintain scene safety, so you do not become a casualty as well. Find cover from which to assess the situation. “Cover” designates anything that can stop the rounds you are facing, which depends on the situation and the caliber of weapon. Consider a brick wall or the engine block of a car.
\n\nIf you determine that someone has been shot and you are equipped to provide aid, make sure the scene is relatively secure. If you can determine this, communicate to your friends that you intend to move to the person who has been hit. While moving, ask the person questions to determine how to care for them: “Where were you shot?” or simply, “What is your name?” If they answer these questions before you reach them, this will indicate that their airway is open and they are conscious, and you may obtain enough information to start preparing your equipment and mindset.
\n\nYour first thought will likely be, “That’s a lot of blood!” Initially, you may have a difficult time identifying exactly where the wound is, especially if the individual is wearing long-sleeved dark clothing. Quickly expose the injury, using trauma shears (special scissors designed to cut quickly through clothing) if you have them. In general, it is important to expose an injury at skin layer to understand the exact scope and extent of the wound.
\n\nImmediately apply direct pressure to the wound. Ideally, you would use a gloved hand and a gauze pad (preferably hemostatic gauze), but in an emergency, you can use a t-shirt, scarf, or extra mask. If blood soaks through the gauze, add more gauze or another cloth layer and apply more pressure. If holding direct pressure with your hands does not stop the bleeding, apply a pressure dressing. Place the sterile absorption pad over the wound, and over any gauze that has already been applied (never remove gauze—this could disrupt any clotting that may have started). Wrap the elastic bandage firmly around the injured part of the body. It should apply a lot of pressure, but not enough to cut off circulation.
\n\nWith a life-threatening bleed, time is of the essence. If the wound is clearly on an arm or a leg and you can see a lot of blood, you may choose to apply a tourniquet immediately. Unlike holding direct pressure with gauze or using a pressure dressing, which stops bleeding from a specific wound, a tourniquet cuts off all distal circulation to the limb, meaning that it should stop all bleeding that is further away from center body than where the tourniquet has been applied. If applying a tourniquet over clothes, quickly check to ensure that you are not fitting it over items in a pocket or anything else that could obstruct the pressure.
\n\nMany people have been taught that using a tourniquet is likely to result in the loss of the patient’s limb, due to complications from cutting off circulation; in fact, this is still commonly taught within many wilderness/remote medicine and street medic frameworks. Data garnered from combat zones across the globe, however, has shifted the understanding of tourniquet safety. Certified tourniquets such as the CAT-7 are now understood to be highly effective and safe live-saving devices, rarely resulting in long-term damage or side effects. Used correctly, they are considered an appropriate first line of intervention, rather than solely as a “last resort.” As the everyday demonstrator’s threat model changes—especially if the streets increasingly take on the contours of a combat zone—models of intervention based on armed conflict scenarios, such as the Tactical Combat Casualty Care framework, will gain increasing relevance.
\n\nFor a succinct step-by-step guide to using a tourniquet, see Appendix III.
\n\nTo apply a tourniquet, open your CAT-7 and make sure that the band is passed through the single routing buckle and the red tip is pointed towards the heart. Then slide the tourniquet up the extremity as high as you can possibly go, while taking the individual’s genitals into consideration if applicable. If the wound is clearly below the knee or elbow, and you can easily see there are no wounds higher on that limb, you can place the tourniquet just above those joints. Once you have it in position, make sure the strap is as tight as you can make it—think “ratchet strap.” If you can stick even one of your fingers beneath the strap, it is not tight enough. Turn the windlass until the flow of blood stops. Pull the “strap” closed through the windlass clip and mark the time applied on the time strap. This process will hurt your comrade immensely, though likely less than the initial wound, depending on its location. Talk to them while you are applying the tourniquet and afterwards as you are able.
\n\nPrior to ever using a tourniquet, you should get a sense of how tight it has to be to be effective. Try placing it on yourself briefly just above the elbow before the demonstration and tightening it until you no longer feel the pulse at your wrist. This is a good exercise in empathy, to know what kind of experience a person you treat will endure. Never leave a tourniquet in place for more than a few seconds except when treating an actual wound.
\n\nAs soon as you have stopped the bleeding—by using direct pressure, a pressure dressing, or a tourniquet—immediately being to look for other wounds. Sweep underneath all parts of the body with gloved hands. Check your hands for blood regularly during the sweep so you can immediately identify which part of the body is injured. If the injured person is wearing waterproof clothing, make sure to remove or sweep inside of those layers, as a rain jacket or rain pants can keep blood next to the body, concealing a major bleed. Do not wait to apply a tourniquet if you find a major bleed on an arm or leg. Pause the sweep, apply direct pressure, a pressure dressing, or a tourniquet, and resume sweeping once that bleed is controlled.
\n\nBleeds that are in junctional areas (i.e., the groin proximal to the inguinal ligament, the buttocks, the gluteal and pelvic areas, the area under where the arm connects to the shoulder, the shoulder girdle, and the base of the neck) can be controlled by “packing” the wound, which applies direct pressure to the severed artery or vein. If you are in an unsafe area, or if you are not equipped with wound packing material, direct pressure on the wound, ideally with a gauze pad, can do for the time being.
\n\nIf you are not equipped with an IFAK or tourniquet, call loudly for a medic. Call out landmarks to guide them quickly to you, as well as crucial information such as whether the casualty is bleeding considerably: for example, “I need a medic! I’m behind the red sedan—someone has been shot in the leg!”
\n\nWhile you wait for them to arrive, use direct pressure to slow the bleeding. If the bleed is capillary (slow and even flow, bright red in color) or venous (steady flow, dark red in color), you may be able to control the bleed with direct pressure. If the bleed is arterial (spurting or pulsing flow, bright red in color), direct pressure won’t be enough—you will have to apply pressure at an arterial pressure point. If the wound is in the leg, consider applying pressure in the upper thigh, near the pelvic region—but be careful. If there is a wound in this area, try applying pressure in the lower right abdomen. If the wound is in the arm, try applying pressure underneath the armpit. If the bleeding is on the neck, try applying pressure on the side of the neck generally underneath the point of the jawline, keeping in mind to apply pressure only on one side. Only do this in an extreme emergency, as it is of limited value for bleed control.
\n\nRegardless of where the wound is, once you apply pressure, do not remove pressure to check if the wound is still bleeding. Continue to apply pressure until a medic can place a pressure dressing or other hemostatic intervention.
\n\nIf the wound is in the chest, it is acceptable to cover the wound with your gloved hand, but applying too much pressure can potentially inhibit their respiratory system. Chest wounds generally present with less bleeding, but run a high risk of air entering the chest cavity, leading to a buildup of pressure that can cause a lung to collapse. Some medics carry vented chest seals in their kits, which serve the same general purpose as a gloved hand over the wound: preventing air from entering the chest cavity. If the wound is in the trunk—i.e., between the chest and the navel—there is probably little you can do to help besides notifying a medic or other higher care immediately.
\n\nIf you can control the bleed, you or a friend should prepare the victim for a possible ER visit or another situation in which they may have their possessions confiscated. Remove any potentially incriminating items from their backpack, pockets, and person. Dispose of these or give them to a trusted friend who can remove them from the scene.
\n\nWhen higher care arrives, whether that is EMS or street medics, give them a report to the best of your ability, using the MIST acronym: the Mechanism of injury (M), the Injuries sustained (I), the Symptoms (S), and any Treatments (T) given. For example, “They were shot with a rifle from about two blocks away, they received two bullet wounds in their left leg. Their skin is cool to the touch, and their breathing seems slower than normal. I applied a tourniquet high and tight and the bleeding seems to have stopped.”
\n\nIf it takes a while for medical care to arrive, consider writing symptoms or other things you notice on the patient’s arm with your marker.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/09/24/4.jpg\")
A small IFAK that can be worn on a belt, marked with a cross for easy identification.
\nKnow your options for evacuation. Are you behind a police line that an ambulance cannot pass through? Does the local medic collective offer transport to hospitals? You can try calling for an ambulance if you think you are in an area they can enter. When you place a 911 call for an ambulance, you can request that they do not send police in tandem, but they may well ignore your request. If you do decide to call EMS while you are in a group actively trying to assist someone who has been wounded, designate one person to make the 911 call and report the wound and location while the rest of you stay focused on assisting the victim. It is possible—but not guaranteed—that a 911 dispatcher can walk you through basic trauma response until you receive help or can transport the wounded.
\n\nIf you or your comrades have driven to the demonstration, it can help if a car is parked nearby with immediate access to the road. Make sure the location of the keys is known and accessible to more than one person. Other people will likely wish to assist in the event of a shooting. If you cannot transport the patient yourself, seek aid from those around you.
\n\nIn some cities, hospitals place shooting victims in protective custody to eliminate the threat of violence against them.2 If that occurs, you will not be able to locate your friend inside the hospital system. If the person is unconscious and unable to tell healthcare workers who to contact, the workers will try to contact a family member. If you are entering a situation in which it is possible that you will be severely injured, you could write an emergency number in sharpie on your skin with the instruction “call in case of emergency.”
\n\nWhile this may not be uppermost in your thoughts in the event of a shooting, it is important to know that most large hospital systems offer programs via which you can apply for aid to reduce or forgive your bills. If someone’s life is on the line, you can work out the financial details later.
\n\nWhen bringing someone home from the hospital, evaluate their home situation. Do they live alone? With friends or family? Is their bedroom up a flight of stairs? Depending on the severity of the injury and the forecasted length of their recovery, they may need to change their living situation.
\n\nBecause there is very little semblance of a public health system in this country, people are often released from the hospital very rapidly—sometimes before they are ready to go home. This can be intimidating, but the good news is that home is usually a better recovery environment than an institution. You can rent a hospital bed from a hospital or home-care equipment rental company—they are surprisingly inexpensive and can be enormously helpful in the case of a long-term recovery.
\n\nIf necessary, organize community care so people are present or available around the clock. Even if that is not necessary, try to organize a caregiver schedule involving a rotating cast of friends and loved ones to ensure that care does not fall solely or mostly on a partner. In addition, you can create a meal schedule for people to drop off food and groceries or cook for the wounded and the caregivers.
\n\nWhile it should go without being said, being shot—or responding to someone getting shot, or witnessing someone getting shot, or having someone you love get shot even if you weren’t there—is a traumatic event. You may experience a range of responses including nightmares, anxiety, flight/freeze/fight responses, self doubt, jumpiness, fear, and depression. Seek help! Form a community care circle and meet weekly to process the pain, confusion, and trauma.
\n\nIf many people in your community were affected by the event, you can seek out a friend or loved one from outside your circle to help you process what happened. Find a therapist in your town to help you work through your feelings. While therapy can often seem cost prohibitive, there may be a non-profit, a clinic system, or a university where counselors in training can offer services for free or a reduced price. If there are ongoing protests in your city, local non-profits may offer counseling specifically for those affected. This guide written in response to the COVID-19 pandemic offers some tools you can apply to coping with trauma.
\n\nThere has been a longstanding tendency in anarchist milieus to emulate tough attitudes and bravado. Analyzing and overcoming these cultural norms and eschewing a dichotomy between “passivity” and “militancy” can help us to build sustainable long-term movements. Remember, we want a thoroughgoing social revolution, not just periodic street violence.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/09/24/3.jpg\")
\nThere is a long history of state-sanctioned violence in the United States, against both ordinary people and movements for social change. Alongside this extends an equally long history of extra-state violence, from the lynchings of the not-so-distant past to contemporary equivalents like the murders of Trayvon Martin and Ahmaud Arbery. Since before the American Revolution, extra-state forces have worked in tandem with the state to uphold patriarchal white supremacy. It is well documented that police continue to cooperate with white supremacists. They are two sides of the same coin.
\n\nThe current clashes between white supremacists and anti-fascists are reminiscent of the rise of Nazism in Germany. In the early 1930s, when the Reichstag election campaigns were in full swing, fascists repeatedly baited their adversaries into street fights, injuring many while framing themselves as “victims in a lawless country.” They used this violence to bolster their campaign for “law and order,” a pretext to impose a dictatorship. Sound familiar?
\n\nThere have now been many instances of lethal violence during demonstrations, including the murders of Heather Heyer in Charlottesville, David McAtee in Louisville, Garrett Foster in Austin, and Anthony Huber and Joseph Rosenbaum in Kenosha. It is vital that we learn how to navigate these increasingly violent and contested spaces. If we are to sustain a culture of resistance, we’ll have to be prepared to respond to a wide array of scenarios. We can learn to deal with violence and mitigate its effects while refusing to glorify or romanticize it.
\n\nAs social conflict deepens, more and more people are becoming familiar with the violence that the state has long meted out overseas and against Black and Indigenous communities inside the United States. This must not deter us from action—it is better for us to confront these threats together, head on, than to try to hide from them until they reach each of us in isolation. Generalizing care and aid is an essential part of staying safer in the streets, which, in turn, is part of creating safer communities and, ultimately, a safer world for all of us.
\n\nAs frightening as this situation is, you are not alone. The same dynamics that are destabilizing our lives and our society offer us the opportunity to connect with each other and reinvent our lives on a new basis. Thank you for everything you have done to become part of the momentum towards a better world.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/09/24/1.jpg\")
On May 15, 1970, policemen in riot gear fired more than a hundred and fifty rounds in twenty-eight seconds, murdering two young Black men at Jackson State campus in Mississippi and injuring a dozen more. While the murders at Kent State a few days earlier remain widely known, the subsequent murders of young Black demonstrators in Jackson and Augusta, Georgia are often forgotten.
\nThe following accounts may help you to visualize how you would conduct yourself in similar circumstances.
\n\nIt is a dark and stormy night, the first night it has rained all week. People are milling around under the awning of a barbecue joint, hanging back from the police line, waiting to see what will happen. More than a few folks have guns tucked in their waistbands. Some people scuffle with the police, some break up chunks of concrete to throw at the tanks; others listen to heated arguments about whether we should go home, stop violating the curfew, and leave the fight for another day. Then, out of the blue, a lone cop car comes squealing in from behind, sirens blaring.
\n\nThe crowd scatters, people panic, running in all directions, as tear gas canisters skitter across the street and flash-bang grenades explode from the police lines. Choking smoke and chaos and fear everywhere. Gunshots ring out as people fire through the crowd at the lone cruiser, which has turned around to retreat. I dive to the ground by a blue mailbox, confused and separated from my friends. A tide of people flows down the street away from the police lines, as the cops start to push the crowd forward, hoping to clear it. Swept up in the sea of people, I take perhaps twenty steps down the sidewalk before I come upon a knot of people gathered around a figure on the ground.
\n\nTime slows down. Two of my close friends are clustered around a body on the sidewalk. That body is one of my oldest and dearest friends. Someone is screaming, “He’s been shot, he’s been shot!” One of my friends is shouting for people to back up, pushing people back, when he looks up and sees me. I look from him to my friend on the ground, who has been shot in the leg. But the light is fading in his eyes as he clutches his torso and moans. Getting shot in the leg isn’t enough of an explanation as to why my friend is crashing. We’re so confused—there’s no blood, there’s no blood. What the fuck happened? Where else is he hurt? There’s no blood, just a stumbling, haunting groan from his mouth. I am a mother, I have birthed a small person into this world. I know what it sounds like at the line between life and death, and all I know in this moment of despair and confusion is that this person I love so much is straddling that line before my eyes.
\n\nI still don’t know what the fuck is happening, but I do know that we have to get him out of there ASAP. No one is coming to help us and no one is coming to save him. I run to my car—thank goodness I parked only a few blocks away. I speed around screeching cars that are doing donuts in the street. When I get back, I find people lifting my friend’s body into an already packed car. I scream and scream that he is coming with me as my friends wrest his body away from the well-intentioned strangers. We race down the street into a rabbit warren of loopy suburban streets. I know what hospital I want to go to, but it’s dark and I’m confused. Riot angels pull up next to us and ask if we need to be led to the hospital.
\n\nWhen we arrive at the hospital and pull my friend from the car, his shirt slides up and there it is: an entry wound with no exit wound. He is immediately transferred to a trauma hospital. Over the following days, we hear over and over the words “should have died.”
\n\nBefore this, I didn’t know that I didn’t know what it meant to get shot. What getting shot means is that a bullet rips through muscle, maybe through bone, maybe destroys some organs—quite possibly some that are essential. It could destroy the left kidney or the spleen; it could collapse both lungs, clip the esophagus, fill up the inner cavities with blood as the body bleeds out internally. A bullet could end up in the heart. You could find yourself in a hospital in the middle of the night, being coaxed through a series of legal documents by a very patient and very kind cardiologist who is preparing to do a second open heart surgery on someone you love to fish out the bullet that is lodged in his heart.
\n\nLuck was on our side that night, absolutely. But we responded to the situation quickly. I found out later that many different friends had passed by, that I wasn’t the only one running for a car—I just got there first. And well-intentioned strangers were trying to evacuate my friend on their own—so many people get shot in this city that people recognized what they were looking at and how important it was to respond.
\n\nWhat happened to my friend hasn’t stopped me from returning to the streets, and it hasn’t stopped him or other people in my community. Because the hospital placed my friend in protective custody, only one other friend and I could be there with him. Many of my friends sought comfort in the street battles that continued to rage, glad to have an opportunity to turn their grief, fear, despair, and anger into action.
\n\nI’m thankful that I happened to be parked close that night. I’m thankful that so many people around us wanted to help. I’m so thankful that people realized we needed them to lead us to the hospital. I’m thankful that the transfer to the trauma center happened quickly enough and I’m thankful for adept and willing surgeons. I’m thankful that my friend’s inner will was strong enough that he survived. I’m so thankful he lived. I’m thankful that there are things you can all do, too, to make it likely that things will turn out as well as possible if you ever find yourself in a similar situation.
\n\nAnd I am thankful for riot angels. May they be by your side if you ever need them.
\n\nWe all heard it. A single pop. It rang through the night, oddly out of place after hours and hours of hushed scuffles and the rustling of an agitated crowd. Hundreds of people were in the square—many lined up to get inside the event, and possibly an equal number trying to stop them. Red hats sailed above the crowd like short-range fireworks as people snatched and threw them. It was a mess, the conflicts impossible to follow; eggs, paint bombs, pepper spray, and punches coming at odd angles and from all directions. The few police that were on hand didn’t intervene. Stepping back from the square into the dark campus streets, the entire situation looked like a poorly directed fight scene in a low budget play.
\n\nBut we all heard the pop. Just the one. Instinctively, the black-clad crowd dispersed throughout, the red hats all looked up. Given our knowledge up to that point of what happens at demonstrations, we assumed it was a flash-bang grenade. That was the only thing we thought could make that noise. But there was no second bang. Everyone’s eyes refocused on the stalemate around them. Pushing and shoving, some reinforced banners and phones being snatched, but a relative calm.
\n\nLooking up across the square, I caught a glimpse of something out of place. It was someone I recognized, someone I knew was in trouble. He had been trying to ensure that no one would get hurt, mixing distraction and de-escalation. Now something was wrong, but it was impossible to tell what it was.
\n\nA comrade and I pushed our way through the crowd to where he was. To get there, I walked through something hanging in the air—my brain wouldn’t put it all together for a while. It wasn’t a smell, it was more of a taste, a cloud in the air that had a tang of metal. Once we reached him, the look on his face told me that I was in over my head. That, and the sound. He was making a sound that you just don’t make. A scream and a gurgle mixed into one. I don’t know how he was still standing. I got to him first and he leaned into me, all dead weight. The smell of his leather jacket and the press of him onto my smaller frame in that moment of desperation is one of the things that would enter my dreams and wake me for years after. It was as if I was carrying a dead but still living body.
\n\nHe stared right at me, but looking past me. I realized he was dying. But I had no idea why. Reasons flashed through my head; there was almost no blood and I couldn’t find anything. We didn’t walk that far—twenty feet at very most—and the best I could come up with was that he must have hit his head, only a head injury would make him incoherent like that.
\n\nAnd then as quickly as I had taken his weight, the medics took him. His weight left mine and we were uncoupled from that moment. I stared at the medic, who I thankfully trusted, and all I could get out was “He’s hurt, I don’t know,” or something like that. Besides walking him out of the danger of the immediate moment, I felt totally useless. The medics began doing their part, on the ground where there was a fair amount of blood now, trying to run through what their training had taught them. I heard the crowd as a low din—that thing that happens when you’re about to pass out and the audio goes to the end of a tunnel. But that was when I finally put it together: pop, metal, gurgle.
\n\nSomeone had shot him.
\n\nThe police swooped in and took him, pulling the trained trauma medics away by force as we all screamed from the other side of a police line. Now everyone knew he was dying, that something had gone wrong. I wanted to scream that he had been shot; I started to, but then I realized that it might cause people to panic. I was just barely aware that I was already panicking. I found one of the medics; they confirmed that someone had shot him.
\n\nThe police loaded him into the back of some kind of open-air vehicle—campus cops with a golf cart. And the demonstration continued. I panicked openly at that point, finding my crew and demanding that we leave, that “they” were shooting at us and we had to go. But at that point, I didn’t even know where the threat was coming from or if leaving was safer. So we pushed back along the line of people trying to see Milo talk, well after the event had been closed off. The police never moved in, the “active shooter on campus” alert was never activated, and we stayed in that crime scene—for hours.
\n\nLive Like the World is Dying podcast recently aired an interview with an experienced street medic who gives detailed instructions about responding to gunshot wounds at demonstrations.
\nIn this podcast, Hex, who survived a shooting attack by a fascist at a demonstration on January 20, 2017, discusses justice, violence, patriarchy, and compassion, the critical importance of healing, and how to redefine resistance.
\nProtocols for Common Injuries from Police Weapons—A guide for street medics responding to non-lethal police munitions and chemical weapons
\nKeep talking to the person you are treating.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/09/24/7.jpg\")
\n IFAK Build—Current lowest price per kit: $95.25, not including tax, shipping, or a bag or pouch for the kit. Here are the recommended contents, with links to sources:
\n\n“Packing” means applying internal direct pressure to a severed vessel by creating pressure on that vessel with gauze, filling the wound with more gauze, holding direct pressure when the wound is filled, and finishing it with a pressure dressing. ↩
\nIn this case, if someone has been shot, the hospital assumes that they may still be a target and aims to reduce the possibility of continued harm. ↩
\nOne of the basic ways that police maintain violent control of our society is by interfering with our ability to breathe—and sometimes with our ability to see. Nowadays, regardless of whether you employ confrontational tactics, you could be exposed to tear gas or hit by a rubber bullet just by being is in the vicinity of a protest. By taking the proper precautions, we can mitigate the risks while continuing to show up for each other. This guide explores a wide range of options for protecting your eyes and lungs from chemical agents and projectiles, detailing the advantages and disadvantages of each, so you can pick out what’s best for you.
\n\nThis is the second in a series of guides exploring how demonstrators can protect themselves. The contributors have spent countless hours gathering experience, data, and anecdotes to prepare this series—including carrying out impact testing on various masks and goggles. We will be updating this document on an ongoing basis as more information comes in. If you can offer suggestions or corrections, please contact us.
\n\nThe previous installment in this series details how to choose a proper helmet.
\n\nThe best respirator is the one you have access to. Respirators are good at what they do—filtering air—and most of them will serve you well enough in a pinch. If you don’t have time to read the entire text and you need to get some gear in a hurry, here are some options:
\n\nIf you want a new high-quality full-face mask that will work in the apocalypse, the MIRA CM-6M costs $220-240. The 7M is similar, but has a more “tactical” look. You can purchase this mask with two MIRA-brand CBRN cartridges for $50 each; otherwise, filters will cost $70 apiece.
\n\nThis is all you need. If you don’t want to use $100 worth of filters at a single demonstration, however, leave the CBRNs in their packaging at home (or skip buying them entirely) and get two expired-but-unopened CBRN filters for roughly $20 each via ebay.com. These should work for tear gas and pepper spray, but not for apocalypse-level threats. Each filter should work for approximately eight solid hours of full chemical exposure, which could mean 30-40 hours in the street during demonstrations that involve a lot of tear gas. You should change the filter as soon as you begin to smell gas leaking through.
\n\nIf you wear glasses, this mask is compatible with the 3M Safety 6878 Spectacle Kit designed for their 6800 mask. You will need to get prescription lenses for that.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/09/02/7.jpg\")
MIRA CM-6M gas mask.
\nCivilian style full-face respirators such as the 3M brand 6800 ($150 with filters, using the same ones from the modular option below) offer protection for a much cheaper price. In our impact testing, we’ve also found that the JJKK and HAOX brand Chinese imports ($40, with filters) serve just as well to protect your eyes and offer an adequate seal against gas.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/09/02/17.jpg\")
An example of a cheap mask.
\nIf you want an affordable option that offers the best combination of ballistic resistance and chemical weapons protection, get a 3M half-mask respirator from the 6000 series for $25. The 6100 is the small, the 6200 is the medium, and the 6300 is the large. Attach a pair of 60926 cartridges ($35 for the pair). If the mask comes with 60921 or 60923 cartridges, you don’t need the 60926 cartridges. In addition, get a pair of Pyramex V2G Plus goggles for $15 and seal the vents on them with hot glue. If you wear glasses, get the RX insert and prescription lenses.
\n\nThe biggest downside of pairing a half-mask with goggles, however, is that it’s hard to maintain a good seal between the two, as the goggles and the mask compete for the same real estate on your nose.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/09/02/8.jpg\")
\nA surplus Russian PMK-3 will be less than 20 years old. If you can find a version that comes with the full kit, it has ballistic outsert1 lenses and an adaptor for attaching it to the more common NATO-threaded filter system. Surplus masks are always hit-or-miss; we have not found specific documentation on the ballistic rating of the outsert lenses yet.
\n\nIf you want to double down on your gambling, a Russian PMK-2 can be as cheap as $25, though it could be 30 years old. The PMK-2 can come with ballistic outserts and an expired filter that ought to work for a while—but it will be difficult to replace the filter and who knows what condition the mask itself will be in. The cheapest of these masks ship directly from Russia with a fairly lengthy transit time.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/09/02/9.jpg\")
A Russian PMK3 mask.
\nMost of the time, you don’t get shot in the face with a rubber bullet or a tear gas canister. None of the people who contributed to this guide have been shot in the face yet. Tear gas drives everyone back who isn’t protected, whereas impact munitions only kill or blind people every once in a while. Lots of people are getting shot in the face, though. It isn’t safe to be on the receiving end of police violence.
\n\nWe can only recommend eyewear that has impact-rated plastic. But if you don’t have access to it and you have to go out anyway, you need either a full-face gas mask (army surplus or otherwise) or a half-mask and goggles. Make sure your filters are either military-style (expired or not) or rated to handle both organic vapors and P100 particulate filtration. Make sure your goggles are sealed as best as you can. Make sure it all stays tight to your face.
\n\nGood luck. Don’t blame us if anything bad happens—we told you not to.
\n\nIf you want to improve on something you already have access to, or if you have different tactical needs than we’ve outlined above, read on.
\n\nWe are addressing two distinct goals here: protecting your lungs and protecting your eyes. You protect your lungs with respirators that filter chemicals out of the air. You protect your eyes with goggles, glasses, or visors—whether they are independent of your respirator or combined with it in one full-face system.
\n\nA respirator—technically, an APR (air-providing respirator)—is a device that filters the air you breathe before you breathe it.2 There are several classes of respirators or gas masks, including two that we’re going to pass over completely: SCBA (self-contained breathing apparatus), which come with oxygen supplies and are used by divers and some emergency personnel, and PAPRs (powered air-providing respirators) that force air through filters via electrical power. We’re going to focus on full-face respirators, half-mask respirators, and, to a lesser degree, disposable respirators. We’ll also discuss impromptu air filtration and the current speculation about DIY respirators.
\n\nWe’ll look at two general, non-technical categories of respirators: military/tactical respirators and civilian/workplace respirators.
\n\nMilitary and tactical respirators are chiefly used by the military and militarized police forces around the world. These are all full-face respirators—what you picture when you hear the term “gas mask.” Almost all of them use the same kind of filter: a threaded 40mm filter that is NATO-standard, sometimes referred to as a STANAG filter. Current-issue US military (and presumably law enforcement) masks use a proprietary bayonet mount3 instead that is self-sealing, making it easier to change filters in the field.
\n\nThese gas masks are often rated for a full range of threats from chemical weapons to nuclear fallout. Newer military models often include features such as speech diaphragms that make it easier to talk, multiple ports for filters that allow maximum airflow and enable you to swap out filters without removing the mask, and water systems that can be hooked up to a canteen or water bladder. Most models in use (currently or previously) by armed forces can accept ballistic lens or visor outserts that clip onto the outside of the lens or visor. You’re going to want these if they are available for your mask. Military gas masks can be purchased for quite a lot of money new, or outrageously cheap on the surplus market. New military or tactical masks start at $200+ and most are in the $500 range. Some worthwhile surplus ones can be found for $30-100.
\n\nThe surplus market for gas masks is notoriously hit or miss, and things are often mislabeled. Some, such as some of the old Russian gas masks, can be dangerous: some use glass eyepieces instead of impact resistant plastic, while others might come with expired cartridges that contain asbestos.4 Below, we will list some common surplus models and discuss whether they meet the needs of modern demonstrators. Yellowed lenses can be fixed, but decayed rubber seals cannot. Older plastic lenses are substantially less impact resistant—in our impact testing, we shattered the lenses of an Israeli gas mask with nothing more than a BB. Surplus masks can range from $30-500 depending on the rarity or usefulness of the mask. Good-enough masks (minus ballistic rating) seem to be consistently available for $80-120.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/09/02/10.jpg\")
40mm filters.
\nCivilian/workplace respirators come in both half-mask and full-face styles. They are manufactured by a number of companies, many of which use their own proprietary filter attachment systems. We will be focusing on the masks made by 3M because they are the most plentiful and because some other companies employ their “bayonet”-style mounting system for filters (which they call “cartridges”). If you already have a mask with a proprietary filter system, such as the ones made by Honeywell or MSA, make sure your filters are rated to OV and P100 protection. Some of the low-priced Chinese models flooding the US market in response to COVID-19 seem to have their own filter systems, while the ones we’ve tested use 3M’s bayonet system. These cheaper masks could enable you to save money, especially if you are buying them in bulk.
\n\nIf you are using a mask with a proprietary system, read on to the filter section to identify which filters will work for you.
\n\nThe half-face COVID-19 masks that are made of cloth but include exhale valves and replaceable carbon filters are unlikely to be much use against chemical weapons. They likely don’t protect people around you from viruses, either, since they don’t filter on the exhale.
\n\nWe have not been able to find any civilian-style full-face respirators with visors that meet ballistic impact standards (discussed below in the “Protect Your Eyes” section), but the 3M models and some others are rated for general impact resistance and seem to use the same plastic as ballistic-rated masks do, based on our initial impact weapons testing. One street medic we spoke with prefers to wear a 3M 6800 full-face respirator on the grounds that its civilian styling puts patients at ease more readily than a military look would. Full-face civilian respirators range around $60-70 for generic imports and up to $150-200 for name-brand items. Half-masks are substantially cheaper—as little as $8 for generics and $30 for a name brand.
\n\n3M manufactures three different models of both half-mask and full-face respirators. Any of them are adequate to our purposes, though some people we’ve talked to find a better seal with the slightly more advanced silicone facemasks. It’s probable that the 7500 series are the best half-mask respirators for our purposes and the FF-400 series is the best civilian full-face respirator for our purposes. The FF-400 series comes equipped with a speaking diaphragm, so your voice will be less muffled.
\n\nEach of the 3M models comes in three sizes, but “medium” will fit 80-90% of people and the sizes overlap with each other. To some degree, sizing is more important for comfort than efficacy.
\n\nFor $15, you can buy an adaptor to shift from 40mm threaded filters to bayonet filters or vice versa—so don’t limit your choice of masks based on what filters are available alone.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/09/02/11.jpg\")
The 3M Ultimate FX Full Facepiece Reusable Respirator FF-402.
\nHalf-mask models
\n\n—6000 series [basic]:
\n\n—6500 series [silicone rubber]:
\n\n—7500 series [silicone rubber and better breathability]:
\n\nFull-face models
\n\n—6000 series [basic]:
\n\n—FF-400 series [more advanced]:
\n\n—7000 series [substantially more expensive]:
\n\nWhether you are wearing a half-mask or full-face respirator, it is important to check the fit every time you put it on. To do this, start by blocking the cartridges with your hands and breathing in. You should create negative pressure in the mask, with no air seeping in. Then put your hand over the exit valve and breath out. It should create positive pressure in the mask, with no air escaping. When it comes to performing this test, some masks are easier than others; with civilian masks, it can be difficult to use your hand to block the filters effectively.
\n\nSome workplaces test fit by putting something that smells strongly—like ground coffee—or some kind of mild irritant under the wearer’s nose to see how they react.
\n\nRespirators are not designed to fit over beards, though people with beards have learned that if you coat your beard and the rubber seal with an awful lot of Vaseline, it will form a seal. This seal is hardly permanent, and it appears that CS powder is fat-soluble, so it might mix painfully with Vaseline the way it does with skin moisturizers and makeup. A doctor we consulted argued that a chemical burn at your beard is probably better than getting chemicals in your eyes. Regardless, shaving your beard is the safest option. Even a few days of stubble might be a problem, necessitating Vaseline or shaving.
\n\nWe spoke with one person who does not want to shave their beard; they simply accept that the air will be a little bit “spicy” and still find their mask to be very useful even without a proper seal. We cannot recommend this, but it may be relevant to your own cost-benefit analysis.
\n\nIt is difficult to source gas masks for children. They exist, but they are not produced in the same quantity. MIRA, the only supplier we were able to find that stocks them was sold out at the time of writing. Sometimes you can find Israeli surplus masks for children, as well. MIRA also makes a gas mask carrying bag that enables the user to safely transport infants or pets.
\n\nThe biggest disadvantage to pairing a half-mask respirator with goggles is that it becomes hard to get a proper seal on both at the same time. This is especially true with larger masks and larger goggles. The second biggest disadvantage is that it doesn’t protect all the skin of your face from chemicals, and chemical weapons burn on your skin as well as in your eyes or lungs.
\n\nYou need to make sure your filter is rated for both oil-based particulate matter (P100 filtration) and organic vapor.
\n\nIf you have a NATO-threaded military mask: For a 40mm threaded NATO cartridge, you need either a CS/CN/P100 filter, which can be difficult to come by as a civilian but seems to be what is commonly issued to police, or a CBRN filter, which is more commonly available but also more expensive. A CBRN filter is overkill for demonstrations, as it is designed to protect against chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear threats. Fortunately, expired-but-unopened CBRN filters should do the job and are much cheaper.
\n\nIf you have a 3M mask, you need either 60921, 60923, or 60926 filters.
\n\nIf you have something else, read on.
\n\nIf it is likely that you are going to be exposed to riot control agents, you want your mask to filter two things: airborne particulates and organic vapors.
\n\nParticulate filters in the USA are rated by how oil-resistant they are—N are (N)ot, R are somewhat oil (R)esistant, and P are oil (P)roof—and what percent of airborne particulates they filter out—95%, 99%, or 99.97% (called 100). This explains the name of the N95, the mask commonly worn to protect against COVID-19. You’re looking for P100, the highest level of protection. These aren’t substantially more expensive and there seems to be little reason to use any other particulate filter, unless your particular mask setup only allows access to N95, which is still substantially better than nothing. The European standard does not rate for oil resistance, only particulate filtration: P1 masks filter at least 80% of particles; P2 masks filter at least 94% of particles; P3 masks filter at least 99.95% of particles.
\n\nWhile all of the common tear gasses and pepper sprays are comprised of particulate matter rather than gasses or vapors, the airborne particulates themselves can release organic vapors. You need the particulate filter (generally made of fiberglass paper) to stop the particulates, followed by an organic vapor barrier (generally a bed of activated charcoal). The NIOSH certification for organic vapor protection is “OV”—look for this on your filter or its documentation. Some other OV irritants include pesticides, solvents, and paint fumes, all of which masks often reference in their sales information.
\n\nWe’ve seen guides for protestors based on front-line experience that claim only OV filtration is necessary. We’ve seen other guides that claim only P100 is necessary. Most seem to agree it is the combination that is necessary, but we suspect that one alone would do in a pinch.
\n\nParticulate filters do not become less effective at filtering out particulates over time. Rather, it is necessary to replace them when they become so clogged that they cause difficulty breathing.
\n\nOrganic vapor barriers do become less effective over time with use, as the charcoal becomes saturated. Both heat and humidity reduce the effective lifespan of charcoal filters. Heat causes the charcoal to separate, while water vapor can saturate the charcoal and prevent it from absorbing active agents. You should replace your organic vapor filter as soon as you can smell chemicals leaking through the filters into the mask from outside. Unopened-but-expired filters are generally considered usable—for organic vapors and particulates only—if they were vacuum-sealed, but if humidity was able to reach the charcoal, they are probably ruined. Multiple comrades who are military veterans told us that the military uses expired filters all the time for the tear gas chamber without any problems. In any case, use expired filters at your own risk.
\n\nWith 40mm threaded filters, you need “CS/CN/P100” filters at the minimum. AVON, Honeywell, and MSA make versions of these, but they can be hard to source as a civilian—especially amid a pandemic. If you’re going for overkill, get a CBRN filter—basically, a single filter that protects against almost any potential threat. MIRA Safety makes a high-quality filter of this kind; 3M also makes them. Be careful buying CBRN filters off of ebay or the surplus market: many are “new” in that they have not been used or opened, but were manufactured decades ago. Look for the manufacturing date, or roll the dice and buy cheap expired ones. Don’t trust these for anything but riot control agents.
\n\nFor all masks, you need at least one filter. Some masks can optionally take two or even three at a time in order to increase airflow, an advantage for situations that might involve running or other strenuous exercise.
\n\n3M masks and their clones use a three-prong bayonet style filter attachment. Some other proprietary attachment systems are similar but not interchangeable with 3M, but 3M are the most common. If you use these, you’ll likely end up with 3M-brand filters/cartridges, though clones of both the masks and cartridges exist. Note that 3M distinguishes between cartridges (the part that absorbs gasses and is usually made of activated charcoal treated with various chemicals) and filters (the part that blocks particulate matter). Make sure you get both. You can do this by buying separate cartridges and filters as well as the adaptors that connect them together, or by buying combination cartridges that come with filters pre-installed. Obviously, the latter is simpler.
\n\nHats off to comrades in Hong Kong who have done the work to figure out what cartridges and filters you need, as they lack easy access to the combination cartridges. We’ve heard that they are not available in the UK either.
\n\nIf you want a combination cartridge, your options include the 60921 (organic vapor + P100), 60923 (organic vapor and acid gas + P100), or 60926 (multi-gas + P100). As this goes to press, these are all about $15-20 each on ebay. You need two, and they usually come in pairs.
\n\nIf you want to build your own, whether because you already have stock available or because you live somewhere without access to the 6092x filters described above, start by buying a set of cartridges—the 6001 (organic vapor), 6003 (organic vapor and acid gas), or 6006 (multi-gas). Next, purchase one of the various P100 filters, which come in two styles. Some, like the 2091, have their own bayonet connectors, as they are intended for mounting directly onto respirators. Other filters are simple pads, such as the 5p71—which is only a P95 filter and therefore not advised (though we have not tested a P95 ourselves). If you choose a bayonet-connecting filter, you need a 502, which is an adaptor that snaps onto the cartridge and provides a bayonet mount. If you choose a pad filter, you need a 501, which is an adaptor that snaps onto the cartridge and holds the filter directly.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/09/02/4.jpg\")
Two 3M half-mask respirators showing several filter setups. Left to right: a p100 filter attached to an OV cartridge with a 502 adaptor; an N95 filter attached to an OV cartridge with a 501 adaptor; a blank bayonet attachment point; a p100 filter attached directly to the mask. Missing: an all-in-one cartridge, often identifiable by a bright pink outside shell.
\n3M marks their P100 cartridges by making them neon pink. Some people have expressed concern about this making the user identifiable, as it violates the all-black black bloc aesthetic—although if enough people are using pink filters, it will be somewhat less of a problem.
\n\nStudies have shown that under stress, even trained soldiers struggle to replace filters while holding their breath. The current US military model mask, the Avon M50, has self-sealing bayonet-mounted filters that enable the operator to change one filter at a time while continuing to breathe through the other.
\n\nMost masks you have access to will not have this feature. To change filters, you’ll probably have to hold your breath or exit the impacted area.
\n\nA comrade in Portland reported that they prefer the 3M cartridges with separate particulate filters (6001 cartridges with attachable P100 filters) because the P100 filters can be swapped out without taking the mask off, relying briefly on the cartridge alone for filtration.
\n\nAnother comrade says that they have been using the same gas mask cartridge (a military-style 40mm one) since 2011 and have never tasted spicy air through it. This supports the theory that most of the important filtration is being done by the particulate filter, which is never used up, only clogged.
\n\nOthers, in Portland, report that they their filters are lasting about 30-40 hours each.
\n\nSome surplus masks employ “cheek” filters located inside the mask. Changing these filters is a laborious process, and some YouTubers have found it’s easy to rip the rubber of the mask while doing so if the mask is old. Still, one person we spoke with prefers these masks, having seen police grab people by the external filters of other masks, since cheek filters do not present an easy handle for grabbing.
\n\nYou should clean your respirator after each time it is exposed to chemical weapons. 3M sells a product for this: “504 Respirator Cleaning Wipes.” These are affordable, but likely unnecessary. What they contain is a trade secret. Most people just use soap and water, to good effect. Don’t soak your filters in water, just wipe down the outside with soap and water. Then remove the filters and store them in a ziploc bag or other airproof container so they do not absorb moisture from the air.
\n\nUnlike cloth and surgical masks, respirators do not protect the people around you from your germs. However, much more so than cloth or surgical masks, they do protect you from the germs around you. One protestor reported wearing a cloth mask over the exhalation valve in order to block droplets for the sake of other demonstrators.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/09/02/14.jpg\")
A cheek-filtered gas mask in use in Baltimore in 2015 during the uprising in response to the police murder of Freddie Gray.
\nFull-face masks either use full-face visors or individual lenses over the eyes. Lenses are more common in military models, while visors are more common in civilian models. A full visor offers much better visibility. It’s possible that it is harder to make a full visor more impact resistant, although we’ve found both ballistic and non-ballistic examples of both types.
\n\nA mask with lenses can be more convenient for those who are going to be using the optics of a long weapon (like a scope, red dot, or iron sights on a rifle or grenade launcher), as it permits one to shoulder the weapon better to get what is called a cheek weld and view down the barrel more clearly. Of course, this is not generally useful to demonstrators. All in all, a full-face visor seems preferable.
\n\nWe will continue researching off-brand masks, most of which are from China. Some are rated as impact resistant; some use commonly available filter styles. So far, we have tried the JJKK and HAOX models. Both form an adequate seal against our faces in fit testing, though we have not taken them out into tear gas yet. Both have impact-resistant visors that performed identically to the American brand 3M when we shot them with various impact munitions—which is to say, they performed well. It’s been suggested that purchasers should buy from BangGood or Amazon rather than Ali Express, Baidu, or eBay for these types of masks because the quality control is slightly better. A few comrades dealt with a nightmare with a mask order early on in the pandemic as a result of poor quality control.
\n\nIt might conceivably be possible to work directly with manufacturers to produce masks to your specifications, or at least to purchase them in bulk. Ambitious groups could consider trying to do this for their city or region.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/09/02/12.jpg\")
\nSurplus military masks are another cheap option for full-face gas masks. They can be hard to source reliably, as many retailers (or else distributors serving retailers) lie about dates and potentially about features. This is also true for filters, and especially true on ebay. Both the rubber used for the seal and the plastic used for lenses and visors degrade over time, particularly when exposed to sunlight; both in our experience with testing and in anecdotes gathered from the street, they seem to be notoriously prone to breaking. Most surplus masks come in three sizes—small, medium, and large (generally numbered 1, 2, and 3, respectively, with the number displayed in the rubber of the mask)—but often, you cannot choose the size of mask when you purchase it online. Whatever mask you get, make sure it seals tightly to your face. Even a low-quality or wrong-sized mask will protect you as long as it seals to your face and is supplied with an adequate filter.
\n\nIf you can get a model number and a country of origin, you can cross-reference seller claims with online military gear sites.
\n\nTracking down the ballistic rating of the lenses and visors has been challenging. It would be very useful to identify a surplus mask that accepts 40mm NATO-threaded filters and includes ballistic lenses or visors (usually as a separate outsert). For those willing to forgo ballistic-rated lenses or visors, surplus masks are often the best option.
\n\nThe primary current US military model is the Avon M50; it can be found for $250. While we generally don’t recommend masks that use proprietary filters, the M50 filters are reasonably cheap (currently $50 for a pair) and, as previously mentioned, you can swap them out in the field without exposing yourself to gas. Ballistic outserts are available cheaply for this mask as well; we found one for $20. The C50 model is the civilian model of the same mask, though it is used extensively by law enforcement.. The main difference is that it accepts 40mm NATO filters. For better or worse—usually worse—wearing this mask will make you look quite a bit like a soldier or a cop.
\n\nThe Avon M40, which the US military used from 1986 to 2009, accommodates ballistic outsert lenses but does not come with ballistic lenses otherwise. 3M produces a civilian clone called the FR-M40 that is identical in every way. 3M also produces protective outserts for the lenses, but we have not been able to determine their impact rating.
\n\nThe US Air Force and Navy has used the MCU-2P since the 1970s; any surplus option might be from any year in that range. They range from $150 to $300 on ebay. You can learn how to identify models and years here. While some documentation claims the MCU-2P visor is ballistic, a specific ballistic outsert is available for around $75. This implies that the visor alone is not ballistic.
\n\nThe Russian PMK-3 (used from 2000 until recently, available for $70) and PMK-4 (in use since 2017, much more expensive) can make use of ballistic outserts as well, which often come with the full kit. Also included in the full kit is an adaptor to connect their proprietary filter system to the NATO-threaded system. The PMK-2 is even cheaper—around $30—and often comes with ballistic lenses, but can only use the 40mm-GOST filter system (used by Warsaw Pact countries).
\n\nA National Geographic filmmaker was wearing a Czech M10 (a clone of the US M17) iin Portland, Oregon in July 2020 when federal agents shot him in the face with a .68” round from an FN303 air gun, shattering the plastic lens of his mask and severely damaging his eye. Both of these masks can optionally be used with ballistic outserts, which the filmmaker did not have. These are the two models of mask we’ve found that use cheek filters, discussed above.
\n\nThe Israeli M15 is used by the Israeli Defense Forces and its civilian model, the 4A1, is distributed to Israeli citizens. Both are affordable on the surplus market. Most are simply labeled for sale as M15 masks, but you can tell the difference because the 4A1 has round eye-holes instead of the odd-shaped ones used on the M15. The manufacturer, Shalon Chemical Industries, claims that the plastic lenses are impact resistant, and they don’t appear to be sold with ballistic outserts yet are used by a modern military force. We have not been able to determine if they are rated at a ballistic level, and all plastic lenses degrade with time and UV exposure. These two masks appear to be the most affordable, readily-available, fully-featured surplus gas masks. The 4A1 is the only mask we have impact tested so far—and the lenses shattered easily upon light impact—but we are not sure the age of the mask, as we bought it surplus.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/09/02/3.jpg\")
We carried out impact testing on this Israeli 4A1—with dismaying results.
\nPolice use a mix-and-match array of gear because they source it from military surplus and various funding agencies. As far as we can tell, the two most common masks are the Avon C50 (though it’s possible that the federal police are using the M50 military version instead) and the MSA Advantage 1000 (or its military-grade equivalent, the MSA Millennium). The C50s are often seen equipped with the Avon mask comms unit, which gives them their distinctive mouthpiece. Witnesses have reported seeing police in Portland wearing Honeywell North full-face respirators, presumably the 7600 series.
\n\nA bandanna, ideally wet, will filter out enough tear gear to get you out of a situation. This is better than nothing. Some sources say that because CS adheres to water, a wet bandanna will only make it worse, but others, including people who have actually been exposed to the stuff, say that the wet bandanna diminishes the number of particulates that can reach your airways. It’s possible that a wet bandanna will become saturated sooner—but it will be saturated with all the stuff that would otherwise have been in your lungs, and that’s a good thing.
\n\nFor decades, protestors have argued about whether the wet bandanna should be soaked in vinegar, lemon juice, or some other acidic solution. This has not been studied in a laboratory, and the mechanism by which it would work is not clear. However, people have been doing this for a long time, and those who practice it report noticing a difference. A 2009 Pentagon-funded report did mention that a bandanna soaked in lemon juice could mitigate the effects of tear gas.
\n\nComrades in Portland report that some people are using the larger sneeze-guard-style facemasks common in COVID-19 protection and pulling their hoods up, probably with the drawstrings brought in tight around the face. Of course, this is not a perfect seal. One user reported that it delayed the effects of tear gas until after many unmasked people had been compelled to leave the area, that it made it difficult to talk with people, and that the facemask was too large to easily conceal on the way to and from the demonstration.
\n\nIt’s possible to make DIY gas masks. While we have not tested them ourselves, YouTubers have, and report some success. The idea is to fashion DIY filters out of activated charcoal (to filter organic vapors) and cotton (to filter particulates). These can be attached to anything from repurposed two-liter bottles to SCBA masks. If anyone has experience testing these, please let us know.
\n\nOf course, a poorly-made mask might be worse than useless.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/09/02/13.jpg\")
An improvised mask.
\nIn most situations, you don’t need a perfect gas mask to participate in a protest. Even if you are gassed, often all you need is something that can protect you long enough for you to get to the gas canister and deactivate it or throw it back. You don’t need to have all the right gear to go out and try to change the world.
\n\nTo put it differently: changing the world is never going to be completely safe. No mask will make it safe.
\n\nWearing a respirator can be uncomfortable, particularly in the heat, as sweat rolls down your face and the mask digs into your nose. Tight straps can give you a headache. Some masks limit your vision or your ability to communicate. Respirators make you more identifiable: even if everyone is wearing a mask, they might not be wearing the same kind of mask you are.
\n\nBut the long-term effects of tear gas can be significant, so it’s important to be protected. We don’t need more martyrs—we need more people who can continue to live and fight.
\n\nIn some places and times, the police use a lot of tear gas and other chemical weapons. In other places and times, they use kettling tactics or impact munitions. As with all decisions about what you need to be safe and effective, consider the specifics of your terrain.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/09/02/15.jpg\")
It may be necessary to protect your eyes against projectiles as well as gas.
\nIt’s also important to protect our eyes— both from chemical weapons and from impact munitions. This generally involves an impact-rated full-face respirator or a pair of goggles paired with a half-mask respirator. The goggles should be rated for ballistic impact (or at least impact resistant), fully sealed (without open-cell foam), and anti-fog. Unfortunately, all three of these aspects work against each other; it is rare to find goggles that meet all of these requirements at once. In some cases, you might have to seal up the vents on your goggles yourself.
\n\nWe’ve heard a few other suggestions worth considering, such as wearing a ballistic-rated visor attached to a tactical helmet over regular, non-ballistic sealed goggles. Demonstrators have sometimes worn masks from baseball and other sports, but many of the projectiles police use can fit through the wide grating such masks employ.
\n\nIf you wear corrective lenses, do not wear contacts into a situation in which you might be exposed to chemical weapons. Wear glasses. Some who prefer to wear corrective lenses but don’t absolutely need them have found it simplest to take their glasses off when it’s time to put on their ballistic and/or chemical-proof goggles. Others don’t have that choice. There are options available for those who wear glasses, though this consideration does limit your choices and increase the cost of eye protection.
\n\nThere are OTG (over-the-glasses) goggles, but we have yet to find a pair that seals adequately. Most use foam sealing, which is not airtight. Some comrades we’ve heard from just accept that their goggles will not be perfectly tight.
\n\nMost prescription goggles, including those made by sportsRX, are not ballistic-rated. We’ve found only one model of ballistic prescription goggle—the Wiley X SG-1. It’s unclear how much of a seal they establish around the eyes, however, and they are nearly $300 a pair. There are probably better options.
\n\nMany cheaper ballistic glasses, including the Pyramex V2G, can be outfitted with prescription inserts. The V2G, like almost every pair of ballistic goggles we’ve found, are not sealed against chemical weapons, but that can likely be addressed with tape or glue, as we discuss below. Most full-face respirators can be outfitted with prescription inserts as well. Protestors have been creating their own glasses inserts in gas masks, often using tape or suction cups.
\n\nOne veteran told us that when he was in the army, when he distributed gas masks to civilians in the countries that the army was occupying, his unit told those who wore glasses to cut the stems of the glasses off just long enough to fit inside the rubber gasket of the mask (or goggles) and then glue them into place. Hot glue might work. We’ll experiment and edit this text with our findings.
\n\nAnother style of “universal” prescription insert is a glasses frame with the stems bent down to fit inside the seal of the gas mask.
\n\nPrescription inserts can be filled by taking them to an optometrist or by mailing them to some places online.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/09/02/16.jpg\")
Pyramex V2G Plus goggles
\nGoggles come in three major classes: fully-vented, indirectly vented, and non-vented (sometimes called “sealed”). Fully-vented goggles offer the best protection from fog; they are used for a lot of sports. For most purposes, indirectly-vented goggles offer the best of both worlds: the vents allow enough air in to keep the goggles from fogging, yet the vents are inaccessible enough that they are reasonably safe from chemical splashes and things like sawdust. Unfortunately, they let in tear gas, so they’re not ideal for protests. You want fully sealed goggles. Sealed goggles rely solely on chemical treatments and the thermo-conductive properties of the lenses to fight fog, which are not always sufficient.
\n\nBe careful: sometimes goggles are listed as “sealed” yet use an open-cell foam for their seal, with the idea that the foam itself vents air to the inside. Open-celled foam is a bad idea for situations involving police repression because it absorbs chemicals. The other two means by which goggles form a seal against your face are rubber and close-celled foam. We have not tested the practical difference between those two methods. Our speculation is that rubber seals, like the seals on gas masks, offer better protection against chemical weapons and would get less contaminated, while closed cell foam might protect against the problem of suction.
\n\nWhat problem of suction? The idea is that, if goggles are attached to your face in a sealed manner (especially through suction, like swim goggles), if something hits those goggles, first, positive pressure might damage your eye, then, if air escapes, negative pressure could also damage your eye. Worst-case scenario, this could permanently blind you. We’ve looked into this a little bit, and talked to an anarchist doctor, and the general consensus regarding whether this is a real risk is… “maybe.” Some studies have shown swim goggles causing bruising and some eye damage, and it seems likely—though we have not confirmed this—that this explains why swim goggles are not permitted in full-contact water sports like water polo. It’s also possible this is why we’ve had such a hard time finding fully-sealed ballistic goggles available for sale. Of course, as the aforementioned doctor pointed out, if you get shot in the eye with a projectile, it’s better to have the problem of suction than the problem of the projectile hitting your eye. Also, we have yet to find any evidence of ballistic impact causing problems with suction.
\n\nWe speculate that some do-it-yourself methods of sealing vented goggles could mitigate the dangers of suction, as the DIY sealing would likely fail upon impact, normalizing the air pressure. If this is true, DIY sealed goggles could be safer than fully-sealed goggles.
\n\nProtestors have been employing at least two strategies to seal the vents on vented goggles—hot glue and duct tape (ideally applied to both the inside and outside of the vents). Hot glue is far preferable, as most tape loses adhesiveness as it gets wet. Fabric-based tapes do not seem to provide enough of a seal, while plastic-backed tapes trap moisture, which loosens the glue, causing it to fall off. Use tape only in an emergency. Even hot glue can sometimes work itself loose.
\n\nWe haven’t tested other glues or epoxies. There are likely additional methods besides hot glue and tape.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/09/02/1.jpg\")
Goggles sealed with hot glue.
\nUnfortunately, in addition to spraying us with chemicals, the police also shoot impact munitions at us. While every impact munition in production is specifically designated not to be shot at anyone’s face, police officers routinely shoot them at our faces. Police have inflicted severe eye injuries on dozens of people in the US in 2020 alone, and many of the victims have permanently lost their vision. Some of them were wearing safety glasses when they were hit, too.
\n\nIt’s probably safest to find eye protection that is rated to offer “ballistic” protection, rather than simply the “impact resistance” designed to mitigate workplace hazards. While this limits your selection of available glasses, goggles, and gas masks, ballistic-lensed eyewear can still be found cheap if you know where to look. Admittedly, in our experience testing different styles of goggles against various impacts, we have yet to find any noticeable difference between the performance of those that are rated only to the civilian impact resistance rating (ANSI Z87.1+) and those that are rated against the higher standard mil-spec (PRF-31013). We also obtained the same results testing one pair that was unrated but was advertised as “shatterproof.” While our experiments are ongoing, our current hypothesis that most shatterproof, impact resistant, and ballistic plastic lenses are constructed in the same way. Still, the higher testing standard also tests whether the entire goggle stays together during impact, even if it breaks.
\n\nIn any case, some level of impact resistance is vital. Anecdotally, we spoke with a protestor in Puerto Rico whose eye was saved when a large splinter of wood embedded itself in their ballistic goggles after police munitions shattered a nearby tree. While ballistic goggles are not rated to take direct fire from firearms—and we cannot promise that they will protect you from every possible impact munition—their rating exceeds the force projected by pepper balls or even baton rounds. On YouTube, you can see people shoot ballistic goggles with birdshot from a shotgun without breaking the goggles.
\n\nWe tested unrated lab safety goggles for comparison. They shattered dangerously at impacts that didn’t even dent shatterproof lenses.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/09/02/2.jpg\")
Regular lab goggles shattered when shot with a BB.
\nSome people have been using clear tape to reinforce their goggles and gas masks, hoping that if a munition breaks the plastic, the tape might keep the pieces from splintering dangerously, a premise based on the way automobile glass breaks. To test this theory, we taped just one lens on several pairs of goggles and one respirator with Gorilla tape—the strongest clear tape we could find—and shot them with pellets. The areas that were taped had worse penetration, presumably because the tape trapped the pellet and prevented it from bouncing away. Yet pellets are not a particularly realistic threat at demonstrations. So we shot a few with rubber pellets from a 12-gauge shotgun. One shattered, but more safely than those that were untaped, while one did not shatter at all when we fully expected that it would. This is not conclusive research, but it’s possible that tape might help.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/09/02/5.jpg\")
Ballistic rated goggles. The side on the wearer’s left was laminated in Gorilla tape.
\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/09/02/6.jpg\")
ANSI-rated goggles after impact testing. The side on the wearer’s left was laminated in Gorilla tape.
\nThe plastic (usually polycarbonate) lenses of respirators, goggles, and glasses are rated to various standards of impact resistance. In the US, civilian goggles can be rated to the ANSI Z87.1+ standard, while military and tactical gear is rated to MIL-PRF-31013 or another MIL ballistic standard; in Europe, EN168A (or, slightly less great, EN168B). Presumably, there are comparable standards in other parts of the world.
\n\nImpact standards are generally established by shooting a small steel BB at the glasses, goggles, protective visor, or gas mask at various rates of speed. To qualify for the standard, the lenses must not break or detach from the frame. Most “ballistic” ratings require the lens to survive projectiles striking at a velocity of at least 500 feet per second (fps). The main “impact resistant” standard, ANSI Z87.1+, is only 150 fps. We shot goggles at 630 and 840 fps and found no difference between the two standards.
\n\nSome manufacturers brag about the standards they meet on their sales pages, but failing that, it can be a lot of work to work out what gear is rated for ballistic impact, especially regarding older equipment like surplus masks. Fortunately, ANSI rated gear has Z87.1+ stamped somewhere onto the frame.
\n\nWe cannot say for certain which standards are necessary to protect against which particular threats, because these standards were designed with workplace hazards (in civilian models) and shrapnel (in military models) in mind, not impact munitions. We spoke with engineers who suggested that testing is more important than the application of abstract math, since the angle of impact, distance, wear and tear on the plastic, and shape of the visor are all significant factors in determining what will and won’t break a specific piece of plastic. Regardless, wearing impact-resistant eye protection will greatly reduce potential damage to your eye, face, or skull, even if it does break on impact.
\n\nGlasses and goggles fog up, particular in humid environments. Foggy goggles are annoying—and in a protest situation, potentially dangerous. Manufacturers (and protesters) employ three basic anti-fog measures.
\n\nFirst, and most effective, is airflow. Full-face respirators that are designed to fight fog direct fresh air across the visor before you breath it in, while ensuring that exhaled air escapes the valve immediately. Vented goggles—which we don’t use—also rely on fresh air to fight fog. Sealed goggles present a disadvantage.
\n\nThe second most effective anti-fog measure is to use “thermal lenses” or “dual lenses.” These goggles employ a dual pane system of lenses with an air gap in between, creating a thermal break (insulation, essentially) that reduces condensation on the lenses.
\n\nFinally, the most common anti-fog measure is a hydrophobic surface on the inside of the goggles. Most goggles that say they are “anti-fog” use this method, which consists of a thin layer of oil over the inside of the lens. Oil is hydrophobic, so moisture beads up and falls. The chief weakness of most of these anti-fog coatings is that they eventually wear out, especially if the lenses are washed with soap. Some manufacturers claim that their anti-fog coatings are chemically bonded to the plastic and do not degrade, but we have yet to test their claims ourselves.
\n\nOne researcher for this article lives in a region where humidity hovers around 80-90% all summer. In these conditions, relying on a regular hydrophobic anti-fog coating is far from adequate, even when using vented goggles; the goggles fog up very quickly. By contrast, indirectly vented thermal goggles can be worn for hours without fogging up. The difference between the two methods is significant.
\n\nAnti-fog sprays are available and reasonably cheap, though DIY solutions are just as common. Many swimmers swear by using saliva as a thin coating on the inside of their goggles to prevent fog, while others use baby shampoo (not adult shampoo, which would irritate the wearer’s eyes). We consulted an anarchist long-distance swimmer who reports that baby shampoo has been effective for hours at a time in the ocean, while saliva seems to last from 10 to 45 minutes at the very most.
\n\nComrades in Portland have submitted the following anti-fog recipe, which we have not personally tested.
\n\n\n\n\nMaterials: Toothpaste/baking soda, water, Dawn anti-grease dish soap, Johnson & Johnson baby shamboo, spray bottle (other brands of similar quality can be used).
\n\nIf your lenses have an anti-fog coating, wash them with water and a soft rag and let dry. If your goggles do not come with an anti-fog coating:
\n\n\n
\n\n- Wash your hands well.
\n- Use a non-whitening and non-gel toothpaste, or baking soda and water. Spread it over the entire lens and the skirt inside the goggles/mask.
\n- Use your fingers or a soft-bristled brush to scrub the lens, then rinse it thoroughly with water.
\n- Repeat this step again if your goggles get dirty, oily, or greasy.
\nNext, mix your anti-fog solution:
\n\n\n
\n\n- Use a clean spray bottle
\n- Fill with 40% dawn, 50% baby shampoo, and 10% warm water.
\n- Mix thoroughly.
\nFinally, treat your goggles/mask:
\n\n\n
\n- Wash your hands well
\n- Spray solution on the inside of the mask/goggles
\n- Scrub lenses and frame with clean fingers
\n- Let sit for 30 seconds
\n- Rinse briefly with warm water, making sure to leave a light layer of solution on the lenses, and let it dry.
\n- If it stings your eyes when you put the goggles on, use less Dawn and more water in your next batch.
\n- Repeat before every action.
\n
It is also possible to gain impact protection from a visor mounted to a tactical helmet. This is covered in greater detail in our guide to helmets.
\n\nMany people of Asian descent find that goggles do not contour well to their faces. Manufacturers make goggles that sit higher on the nose, labeled Asian-Fit goggles. We are currently looking for Asian-Fit goggles that meet the standards we’ve outlined, but the ballistic pairs we’ve found so far use foam as the seal. If anyone has suggestions, please let us know.
\n\nWork glasses: Some work glasses with ballistic lenses also come with straps to turn them into goggles. All three of the models of this style that we’ve researched do not really form a seal around the eyes.
\n\nFire goggles: Fire goggles are designed for wilderness firefighters, but tend to make use of thick open cell foam for ventilation. This is intended to filter smoke, but not tear gas.
\n\nSwim goggles: Swim goggles offer the advantage of being small and providing a good seal, so they pair well with half-mask respirators. However, it is hard to find impact-resistant swim goggles and it’s worth considering the potential problem of suction.
\n\nSki goggles: Most ski goggles use open cell foam, rather than rubber, to form a seal. As mentioned above, open cell foam can absorb chemicals
\n\nNone of the authors have tested the following goggles against tear gas or police munitions, though at least one of us has handled and worn each type. These recommendations are based on a mixture of research and conversation.
\n\nOur number one recommendation so far is the Pyramex V2G Plus. These are less than $20, ballistic rated, and use dual-lens thermal anti-fogging—one of the more reliable anti-fogging measures. There is a prescription insert available for those who wear glasses. These goggles are indirectly vented, however, so you’ll have to seal them with hot glue or tape. The only potential problem is that the two-lens thermal system makes it harder to adequately seal. There is a thin layer of foam between the lenses, allowing moisture to pass through, and if you live in a humid environment, you might trap moisture between the lenses permanently.
\n\nAnother option is the Pyramex Capstone. These goggles are less than $20 and ballistic-rated. They use regular hydrophobic anti-fogging. Like the V2G Plus, they are indirectly vented, so you need to seal them.
\n\nSolidWork Safety Goggles are slightly more expensive, $30 or so. They use a large rubber seal and seem more capable of sealing securely to your face. These are also indirectly vented, so you will need to seal them.
\n\nThere are many, many more goggles that can work, and something is almost always better than nothing.
\n\nOne person we spoke with wears swim goggles under vented ballistic goggles. The swim goggles provide a good seal despite being paired with a half-mask respirator. This approach could also work for those who own prescription swim goggles or are willing to buy a pair. It’s more to carry, it’s presumably uncomfortable, and we have not yet received word from this person as to how it has served in the thick of chemical weapons. If anyone else has experience with this method, please let us know.
\n\nMost military gas masks can be equipped with ballistic “outserts” that attach to the outside of the lenses—without these outserts, the lenses are not rated for ballistic impact. ↩
\nIf you look at the hazardous chemical specifications of various chemicals, you’ll notice that they list certain “protection factors” that are necessary to interact with them. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) rates various types of respirators according to protection factor. SCBA masks are rated at 10,000, PAPRs are rated at 50-100, full-face APRs are rated at 50, half-mask APRs are rated at 10, and disposable APRs are rated at 5. ↩
\nThe bayonet mount is the same model by which lenses attach to cameras: three tabs fit into three slots, then you twist it into place to lock it down. ↩
\nRealistically, this is only a danger if you manage to find an 80-year-old filter from an Eastern bloc country. ↩
\nAs violence intensifies from police, federal officers, and fascist groups around the country, it’s important to think about how to protect ourselves. No one should have to choose between preserving bodily safety and organizing in our communities—yet batons, impact munitions, and street attacks are designed to force us to decide between the two. It’s not a question of whether you employ confrontational tactics—nowadays, anyone who is in a protest situation could become a target. By taking the proper precautions, we can mitigate the risks while continuing to show up for each other. This guide explores a wide range of protective headgear, detailing the advantages and disadvantages of each, so you can pick out what’s best for you. The life you save could be your own.
\n\nThis is the first in a series of protest safety guides that we will be publishing over the coming days. Contributors have spent countless hours gathering experience, data, and anecdotes to prepare this series. We will be updating this document on an ongoing basis as more information comes in. If you can offer suggestions or corrections, please contact us. For more information about how to choose personal protective equipment such as ear protection for protests, you can start with this article published by the Indigenous Anarchist Federation.*
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/09/01/7.jpg\")
Aaron Cantu’s helmet after a police officer in Portland, Oregon intentionally fired an aerial flash-bang grenade directly at his head. If he had not been wearing a helmet, he would probably have been killed.
\nIf you don’t have time to read the entire text, here’s what you need to know:
\n\nIf you anticipate that no one else will be wearing a helmet, wear something concealable or inconspicuous—a bump cap baseball cap, a low-profile skate helmet under a hood, or a bicycle helmet—so as not to make yourself a target. If you anticipate that many people will be wearing helmets, wear the best helmet you can get your hands on, such as a tactical bump helmet or ballistic helmet.
\n\nHigh-end: Level IIIA ballistic helmet, such as the $500 Hard-Headed Veterans ATE, or a discount Chinese-made model that is still tested to a high standard, such as the $200 LongFri model.
\n\nCheaper tactical: Either a name brand “bump helmet” for $100-200, or an airsoft helmet that looks like one for $40. If you go with the latter, swap out the pads for real pads, which cost another $40, and do not expect it to provide nearly as much protection.
\n\nDirt-cheap option: Find the cheapest skate helmet you can that still advertises meeting various certifications. It should be about $20.
\n\nLow-key option: $20. Buy a “bump cap” (not a “bump helmet”)—a bit of a hardhat built into a baseball cap.
\n\nIn an emergency: A half or three-quarters motorcycle helmet, a half-mask hockey helmet. A lacrosse helmet with the facemask removed. Any other helmet you can find.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/09/01/2.jpg\")
Hard-Headed Veterans ATE helmet.
\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/09/01/1.jpg\")
A bump cap.
\nOur heads are fragile. Police know this—so they aim for them. Fascists do the same. It is smart to wear a helmet in a lot of protest situations.
\n\nAs with all gear, it’s always important to think in terms of tradeoffs. If you’re the only person with a helmet, you might attract more attention to yourself than you want. If no one else will be wearing a helmet, consider wearing a concealable helmet. If you anticipate that everyone will be wearing helmets, make sure you’re wearing a good one.
\n\nMobility, visibility, and flexibility are important—whether we’re talking about a particular item of gear or our movements as a whole. The police will almost always have more access to resources than we do; it’s usually a mistake to get drawn into head-to-head confrontations under static conditions. Their weaknesses are that they tend to react slowly to new information and that they often lack motivation and creativity. When choosing equipment and tactics, we should always aim to stay fluid and mobile, being careful not to weigh ourselves down attempting to hold a fixed position.
\n\nAll that said—you can’t really go wrong wearing a helmet to a protest. Cheap bicycle helmets have saved people’s lives this year. If you don’t want to spend any money, then wear whatever you have available. A skate helmet is great. A bicycle helmet is better than nothing. A full-face motorcycle or motocross helmet is expensive, limits your vision and hearing, and presents a variety of other downsides—but if you catch a tear gas canister to the brow, you’ll be glad you wore it.
\n\nThere is no helmet that will protect you entirely from blows or shots to the head. There is no “concussion-proof” helmet available to football players: it would require a tremendous amount of foam. Like all protective gear, all a helmet can do is mitigate certain risks.
\n\nPeople tend to fixate on the shell of a helmet—assuming, for example, that since a ballistic shell that can withstand gunfire, it will protect your head better than a hockey helmet. But a ballistic shell is only intended to protect your head from gunfire—it might not be as effective at protecting your head from a hockey puck. And a hockey helmet might not protect your head in a road accident the way a bike helmet could.
\n\nWith helmets, both the shell and the padding matter in roughly equal proportions. If a projectile penetrates the shell, the padding won’t do much. Yet the padding is what protects against blunt impact, presuming the shell itself is not penetrated.
\n\nBallistics is a complicated field. We spoke at length with an engineer in the process of preparing this series. The long and short of it is: it is very hard for a layperson to predict which objects will penetrate which surfaces and how much force will be transferred. We can learn the kinetic energy (in joules) of various less lethal munitions and we can learn the standards that various helmets are certified according to—but it is difficult to draw reliable conclusions on the basis of this information. In short, non-ballistic helmets are certified to resist substantially less kinetic energy than might be imparted by a less-lethal weapon.
\n\nHelmets mitigate risk. They don’t nullify it.
\n\nHelmets come in a variety of sizes and each manufacturer employs different sizing patterns. It’s worth getting a tape measure to measure the circumference of your head before shopping for a helmet, especially if you’re buying it online. If you don’t have a tape measure, use a piece of string, then measure the length of the string.
\n\nA lot of helmets are adjustable—you can fit them either by adding or removing padding or by tightening or loosening a headband. Hard hats in particular are eminently adjustable, though we don’t particularly recommend them. Regardless, it’s best to buy a helmet that fits you well. If you’re between two sizes, you should probably go with the larger size; but a helmet that is too loose can fall into the wrong position at inconvenient moments, even blocking your vision. A helmet that is too loose will likely absorb less impact, because the force of a blow can push the side of the helmet into your head, essentially making the helmet itself impact you.
\n\nWith padded helmets, you want it tight enough that it takes a bit of effort to get it on, but not so tight that it feels confining. To test the fit of a tactical helmet, shake your head from side to side with some force without the chinstrap on: the helmet should not move.
\n\nFor the purposes of this article, we’ll divide helmets into three basic categories based on how they’re designed. There are suspension helmets, which use a hard layer on the outside and a suspension system inside to absorb impact. This category includes most construction hard hats, older military helmets, and some climbing helmets. There are crash helmets, which rely on crushable foam, usually paired with a hard layer. These are generally designed with the assumption that they will be destroyed on impact. Bicycle, skate, ski, motocross, and motorcycle helmets are all crash helmets. And finally, there are padded helmets, which use a hard outer shell and non-crushable padding inside to mitigate impact. This includes modern military and tactical helmets as well as some sports helmets, including football, lacrosse, and hockey helmets.
\n\nCrash helmets generally provide the most protection from a single impact, but they lose their protective capacity after one blow. Suspension helmets are light, cheap, and durable, but are often not rated for side impact and generally less protective overall. We recommend padded helmets, which are often designed for repeated blows. There’s a reason soldiers wear them.
\n\nSuspension helmets have the advantage of being cheap and of allowing air to flow over the head, but are generally less effective against blunt impacts. We don’t recommend them.
\n\nFirst, and most common, is the hard hat. Most hard hats are good for protecting your head from falling objects, but not as useful for mitigating other threats. Many lack even a chinstrap, which makes them unreliable in situations that could involve running, falling, or grappling. Worksites are increasingly replacing hard hats with “safety helmets,” some of which use suspension systems, some of which use crushable foam or padding for the sides, some of which use a combination. If you’re going to use a hard hat, look for a “Type II” helmet, which includes non-crushable padding on the sides and is rated for side impact as well as top impact. These are much less common.
\n\nHard hats have a very “civilian” look, which can be useful for optics.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/09/01/3.jpg\")
The classic hard hat.
\nClimbing helmets are similar to “Type II” hard hats in that they are rated for side impact as well as top impact. They also sit closer to the head than a hard hat. Generally, they are more comfortable and offer better mobility.
\n\nAnecdotally, we hear that climbing helmets that are tested to the European ASTM F1492 standard offer effective protection against baton blows.
\n\nSome climbing helmets rely on suspension alone, while others use a hybrid system that incorporates crushable foam. As far as suspension helmets go, climbing helmets seem like a good choice.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/09/01/12.jpg\")
A typical climbing helmet.
\nAntique Military Helmets
\n\nUnfortunately, we cannot recommend the medieval helmet or a steel 20th century war helmet for protests, though some of us might wear ours anyway. Most medieval helmets and early modern military helmets use a leather suspension system, called a helmet liner, to hold the hard shell away from the head.
\n\nThe Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA), who fight with steel swords and armor for sport, requires steel helmets to be at least 16 gauge or thicker steel; many SCA fighters prefer 14 gauge steel. Anything thinner might be considered “decorative” only. We have not tested steel with impact munitions, and the deformation of a helmet could be very dangerous to the wearer if, you know, the helmet crushes your head. Many re-enactment fighters, rather than using traditional suspension systems, build foam liners from ½” or thicker closed-cell foam (yoga mat foam is thought of highly for this). Others use modern military helmet padding. To the best of our knowledge, a human arm with a steel bar (like a sword) delivers substantially less force than the more powerful impact munitions used by police, so we cannot recommend medieval helmets in good conscience until we’ve tested them properly.
\n\n A demonstrator expressing opposition to the courts extending de facto impunity to murderer and former St. Louis police officer Jason Stockley on September 17, 2017, in St. Louis.
\nSome people wear surplus early modern helmets, which are plentiful. Most of these are not rated against bullets, but were designed to protect soldiers from accidents and shrapnel. A few have a Kevlar liner and approach a ballistic-rated degree of protection. We’re curious what would happen if one were to replace the suspension liner with modern military padding and a chinstrap harness, but we have not spoken with anyone who has tried this yet.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/09/01/5.jpg\")
An M1 helmet—the helmet of the US military from the Second World War until 1985.
\nThere are more types of crash helmets than we can easily cover here. Crash helmets tend to be the most readily available helmets and they usually look “civilian” and unthreatening. Someone in a bicycle helmet can look like they were on their way home from work when they were swept up into a crowd. Also, some crash helmets can be concealed under a hood. For these reasons, as well as their relatively cheap prices, we recommend them—especially skateboard and snowboarding helmets.
\n\nCrash helmets, unlike suspension helmets or padded helmets, are less likely to be effective when purchased used. Fortunately, they tend to be very cheap new.
\n\nBicycle helmets are probably the most inconspicuous helmets you can wear apart from something completely concealed like a bump cap. They’re also dirt cheap. Those are their main two advantages. The disadvantage is that bicycle helmets are substantially less penetration-resistant than many other crash helmets, as the plastic shell is basically an afterthought. The plastic shell is so thin, in fact, that some of us have seen police batons shatter them entirely, sending shards flying that have cut people.
\n\nIn the United States, bicycle helmets—unlike skate helmets and other sport helmets —are required to meet certifications using the CPSC standard. However, they are only required to survive a single impact. In short, they’re designed to be disposable.
\n\nOne study we read indicated that $10-20 bicycle helmets meet the certification standards (on the basis of various impact tests) roughly as well as $100-200 helmets.
\n\nWe’ve seen an FN303 pellet (an impact .68” airgun pellet) embedded deep in the foam of a bike helmet, implying that it sufficed to stop the pellet.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/09/01/6.jpg\")
A bike helmet.
\nSkate helmets cover more of the head than bike helmets, since they aren’t designed to be aerodynamic. Snowboard helmets are functionally the same as skate helmets; the chief difference is simply that they lack ventilation holes entirely, as they are designed to retain heat.
\n\nSkate helmets, unlike bicycle helmets, require no certification to be sold as such. Some companies apparently certify only certain sizes of the helmet, because they use different amounts of padding in different sizes. If they are certified, these helmets are certified to ASTM F1492 standards, meeting a higher standard than bicycle helmets in that they are rated to survive multiple impacts.
\n\nSome snowboarding helmets come in with a built-in comms systems, which could be useful to a protestor.
\n\nSkate helmets are one of the best cheap options for helmets. Be careful when buying skateboard helmets online, as the listings are sometimes for children’s helmets in children’s sizes.
\n\nAaron Cantu was wearing a helmet of this kind when a police officer in Portland, Oregon intentionally fired an aerial flash-bang grenade directly at his head in 2018. Police are supposed to fire that kind of flash-bang into the air, to explode above the crowd—though in practice, they routinely aim them at our heads. The grenade penetrated Aaron’s helmet and became lodged in it, shattering his skull. He survived—and credits the helmet with saving his life.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/09/01/8.jpg\")
Skateboard and snowboard helmets.
\nMotorcycle helmets are designed to survive much higher levels of impact than other crash helmets. They’re also more expensive. If you’re buying something specifically for protests, they aren’t necessarily the best choice. If you have one around, however, it’s a helmet—a very good helmet. And if you ride a motorcycle or scooter to the demonstration, then you already have a helmet with you.
\n\nFull-face motorcycle and motocross helmets offer much better protection for a motorcycle accident, but this does not translate well to protest situations. They’re cumbersome, they limit visibility, and they make it much more difficult to wear respirators or ballistic goggles.
\n\nThree-quarter (open-faced) helmets and half helmets are much more useful for protest situations, as they are more compatible with masks and goggles. Half helmets are substantially cheaper than other styles.
\n\nWhen purchasing motorcycle helmets, our friends at Indigenous Anarchist Federation-Federación Anarquista Indígena (IAC-FAI) remind us in their own article about protest gear that
\n\n\n\n\n“DOT certification is not worth the ink its printed with since it is a ‘self-certified’ safety standard. For real safety, especially ballistic protection from the visor, be sure to get a helmet that meets ECE or Snell safety standards.”
\n
![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/09/01/9.jpg\")
A variety of motorcycle helmets.
\nEquestrian helmets are similar to skate helmets, but those that are certified to the ASTM standard F1163 are also tested against the sharp impact of a horse hoof. This is good for protestors.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/09/01/10.jpg\")
An equestrian helmet.
\nSuspension and crash helmets are just-in-case helmets, but padded helmets are worn by people who expect to be hit in the head: athletes, soldiers, cops, and, increasingly, well-dressed demonstrators. Let’s separate this category into two sub-categories: sports helmets and tactical helmets.
\n\nMore than any other category of helmet, sports helmets are designed specifically to protect against blunt impact; an incredible amount of engineering has been invested in this lately. Sports helmets are also the most readily available helmets on the secondhand market. In some cases, you’ll have to remove the facemask so it doesn’t interfere with your ability to wear masks and goggles—and so it won’t offer an opponent an easy opportunity to grab hold of your face and control your head. Other sports helmets are designed in such a way that they are not compatible with gas masks and goggles at all.
\n\nMake sure the padding of your sports helmet is in good shape.
\n\nHockey helmets are designed to protect against fast moving hockey pucks—which are a lot like the impact weapons used by police. Half-helmets are preferable, without a chin bar or face mask. Hockey and lacrosse helmets are two common and effective protest helmets.
\n\nLacrosse helmets are a lot like hockey helmets, but they are lighter and offer good ventilation as well as good peripheral vision. Although you’ll probably have to remove the facemask and chin bar, lacrosse helmets are a solid choice.
\n\nAccording to whitewater rafters we’ve spoken to, whitewater helmets are similar to other padded sports helmets, rather than to crash helmets. Although we lack direct experience with them, it appears they would serve well for protests.
\n\nFootball helmets are specifically designed to protect the head from repeated blunt impact. Some football helmets employ a two-shell system, utilizing what one company calls a “shock bonnet” in which plastic shock absorbers between the inner and outer shell absorb the impact. Apparently, this dramatically improves the protection these helmets offer against concussions. However, it doesn’t appear that this technology has been widely adopted yet.
\n\nWorn in baseball, batting helmets are cheap and strong. Traditional models are designed to survive baseball impacts of 70 mph, while newer models are rated up to 90 or 100 mph. The official helmet of Major League Baseball—the Rawlings S100 Pro Comp—uses this newer design, though some players complain it offers less mobility than the older models. We’ve yet to test how batting helmets fit with respirators—and many don’t use any kind of chinstrap, so they can easily fall off or be removed in a scuffle.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/09/01/11.jpg\")
A variety of sports helmets.
\nTactical helmets are designed for combat. That’s why cops use them: police constitute an occupying military force. Tactical helmets are intended to protect soldiers and other professional fighters from the hazards of their job, such as bullets and shrapnel. Many of them are also designed to stick gadgets onto. Gadgets are useful: in particular, activists might be interested in being able to mount ear protection or visors. Journalists might be interested in the ability to attach cameras, though we cannot in good conscience recommend that anyone film protests in such a way as might incriminate fellow protestors.
\n\nA note on buying tactical helmets securely—a lot of tactical gear manufacturers are explicitly politically opposed to various social movements, and many donate money to police organizations. While sometimes it’s necessary to let capitalists sell us the rope to hang them, it’s worth considering where your money is going—and what information you are giving to a manufacturer when you purchase from them. Consider shipping your purchase to a post office box at the very least.
\n\nAlso, it is illegal in the US for those convicted of violent felonies to own body armor designed to protect against bullets. Some exceptions can be found through workplace requirements. This law likely only applies to ballistic helmets.
\n\nTactical helmets can be distinguished by their ballistic rating, their style, and whether or not they are designed to carry gear. They are available in a wide range of prices and combinations of features. For that reason, we’ll discuss the different categories of features that can be mixed and matched, rather than mutually exclusive types of tactical helmets.
\n\nThere are four ratings of tactical helmets available. At the lowest end are airsoft helmets, which are often less than $50. These are generally not certified at all; functionally, they are just plastic replicas of higher-quality helmets. The next step up is bump helmets (which are distinct from bump caps). Bump helmets are tactical helmets that are not rated to protect against gunfire, though they are often well-made and certified to decent safety helmet standards. They are half the weight of ballistic helmets and substantially cheaper. In the military, they are usually only used by people who want the ability to hold gear like night vision goggles without the weight of a ballistic helmet. First responder helmets are often bump helmets in bright colors.
\n\nThen there are ballistic helmets. Nearly all military ballistic helmets are rated to NIJ IIIA—which is to say, they are rated to protect against handguns but not rifles. Finally, there are some helmets that claim to protect from rifle rounds. Most of these helmets only protect from certain rifle rounds at long distance. Others, however, can use a special insert to increase the level of protection they offer against rifles. This also increases a helmet’s weight. Ballistic helmets are generally made of aramid fibers like Kevlar.
\n\nThe best kind of helmet available to a demonstrator for confronting almost any impact threat model is a ballistic tactical helmet. However, the cheapest ones start new at $200, and most well-reviewed models are $500 or more. If bump helmets, or even airsoft helmets, are able to withstand less lethal munitions without penetration, then with impact padding, they are the next best thing for a fraction of the price. However, we have not tested this ourselves.
\n\nWe will focus on US models of ballistic helmet, because these are what are most readily available here and most manufacturers copy them. There are numerous styles for numerous purposes, but the most common include:
\n\nPAGST helmets are a style of ballistic helmet that has been largely phased out since 2001. Soldiers complained that the suspension system and pads were inadequate and that the strap worked poorly. The brow also limited visibility, and the nape protection extends low enough to interfere with shooting from a prone position. It would absolutely be worth wearing a PAGST helmet if you find one cheap, but if you’re shelling out real money to buy a ballistic helmet, don’t settle for a PAGST helmet.
\n\nMICH/ACH helmets replaced the PAGST model. The ACH is a more modern version of the MICH, but the helmets are very similar. Compared with the PAGST, it has a better chinstrap and relies on padding rather than suspension. It’s considered to offer superior protection against blunt impact. Now ECH helmets are replacing the ACH; they have a very similar design, but they are made of a lighter-weight material that some people consider slightly weaker, ballistically. This style of helmet has “ear bumps” that permit the user to wear headphones inside it, although the fit is not always perfect.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/09/01/13.jpg\")
MICH helmet with side rails and a shroud.
\nFAST/ATE/High Cut helmets are built similarly to MICH/ACH helmets but are cut above the ear (ATE) instead of having ear bumps. These weigh less, protect less, and allow the user to wear rail-mounted ear protection. Given the choice, this might be the style best suited to protest situations, particularly if you might need to wear ear protection. A “bump” model, rather than a ballistic model, weighs half as much and provides as much impact resistance, though less protection from bullets. Older models of this style of helmet, such as you might find on the surplus market, are sometimes called CVC helmets.
\n\nSome ballistic helmets (sometimes described as “shell only”) are plain helmets without mounting systems, but most tactical helmets are distinguished by the various mounting options built into them—usually, side rails and a shroud. Surplus helmets, particularly older helmets, are much cheaper when they don’t come with rails and a shroud. These can be attached aftermarket, but it’s a bit of an undertaking.
\n\nThe “shroud” is a rectangle on the forehead of the helmet that is designed to mount night vision goggles. In the civilian market, most people use this spot to mount GoPro cameras. The shroud is a fairly universal mounting system, although some cheaper helmets are poorly made and may not lock as tightly with accessories. The side rails usually run above and sometimes behind the ear and are used to mount other devices. They can hold visors, ear protection/comms devices, flashlights, cameras, or anything else you desire. Just as with the rails on rifles, not all helmets use the same standards for the side rails; there’s an entire industry of people selling adaptors to translate between all the different rail standards. If you go for rails, make sure your accessories fit your rails.
\n\nThe primary reason you might want side rails for a protest situation would be to mount noise-gated earmuffs. These headphones muffle loud sounds (such as gunshots, flash-bangs, LRADs, fireworks, and liberals with megaphones) but amplify quiet sounds.
\n\nStill, most helmets (not just ATE helmets) are designed to accommodate earmuffs like those underneath the helmet—which is less comfortable, but can be substantially cheaper.
\n\nIf you wear anything heavy on the front of a tactical helmet, such as night vision goggles, you might need to wear something as a counterweight on the back. Soldiers sometimes store extra batteries there for this purpose.
\n\nThe strongest shell in the world won’t protect your head from blunt impact without good padding. Many helmets, including some military-issue helmets, come with inadequate padding. Padding serves two purposes: impact resistance and establishing a tight yet comfortable fit. Both are important. To our knowledge, there is no single foam that provides both. Good pads are multilayered.
\n\nPads are generally foam encased in fabric. Sometimes there is plastic between the fabric and the foam to keep sweat from soaking the pads—this is likely an important feature for chemical weapon exposure as well. Some pads incorporate both types of foam (impact and comfort) in multiple layers within a single pad, while other padding systems use separate pads, which makes the helmet more customizable but also demands more work. In a multiple-layer pad system, it’s important to use both layers everywhere there is foam.
\n\nPads are largely interchangeable between all types of tactical helmets, as all use hook-and-loop attachments and are designed to be customized by the wearer to fit their unique head shape.
\n\nGood pads can be found reasonably cheap (approximately $40). Any reputable manufacturer should be proud to announce their impact resistance certifications.
\n\nYou can purchase surplus helmets on ebay.com or via a variety of surplus sites. A used helmet is better than no helmet, but the ballistic fibers of helmets break down from wear and tear as well as exposure to sunlight, and you have no way to ascertain where the helmet has been. Still, surplus helmets are substantially cheaper. Some models in some sizes can be found for as little as $50, although prices closer to $200 are the norm.
\n\nUnfortunately, forums that discuss the efficacy of various ballistic helmets tend to be dominated by US nationalists and gear snobs, which makes it hard to identify honest reviews of cheap equipment, especially foreign-made options. Yet the cheapest source for new, ballistic-rated helmets (especially helmets with all the bells and whistles) is China. Many manufacturers claim that they offer US quality at China prices, and we’ve found that “cheap” Chinese “knockoffs” often perform similarly to American models. We don’t currently have the resources to test these claims about Chinese ballistic helmets.
\n\nIt’s likely that helmets that are ballistically rated will stop handgun rounds, as they claim. The primary argument we’ve seen online is about whether the shell will deform upon impact enough to injure or kill the person wearing the helmet. We haven’t been able to reliably source that information yet. In any case, it’s never a good idea to get shot in the head with live ammunition. Even if the bullet does not penetrate and the shell doesn’t deform, the blunt force alone can be enough to injure or kill.
\n\nAt least one predominant ballistic helmet manufacturer, Hard-Headed Veterans, has their helmets manufactured in China.
\n\n\n\n\n" }, { "id": "https://crimethinc.com/2020/08/26/doxcare-prevention-and-aftercare-for-those-targeted-by-doxxing-and-political-harassment", "url": "https://crimethinc.com/2020/08/26/doxcare-prevention-and-aftercare-for-those-targeted-by-doxxing-and-political-harassment", "title": "Doxcare : Prevention and Aftercare for Those Targeted by Doxxing and Political Harassment ", "summary": "A step-by-step guide explaining how to protect yourself from online stalkers, why it's important, and what to do if you are targeted for doxxing.", "image": "https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/08/26/header.jpg", "banner_image": "https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/08/26/header.jpg", "date_published": "2020-08-26T18:02:08Z", "date_modified": "2024-09-10T03:55:46Z", "tags": [ "anti-fascism", "fascism", "doxxing", "security culture" ], "content_html": "“My friend lost an eye when he was in high school. A cop shot him with a rubber bullet. A couple years later, we were participating in a new round of protests against police violence, and people were getting seriously injured at every demonstration. We discussed it and concluded that, sure, maybe the police would target us more if we protected ourselves as individuals, but if we all protect ourselves, we would all be better off. My friend brought a shopping cart full of helmets to the next demonstration and made a speech about how important it was for everyone to wear one.”
\n\n“Since then, every couple demonstrations, someone brings a bunch of helmets to give out—all different sizes, to provide for everyone, since, for instance, I have to wear a child’s helmet for it to fit right. That helped to normalize wearing them.”
\n
This step-by-step guide explains how to protect yourself from online stalkers, why it is important, and what to do if you are targeted for “doxxing”—the publishing of your private information. In a era of universal surveillance, when livestreamers broadcast every major demonstration while fascists, FBI agents, and police officers comb through social media posts to gather intelligence with which to harass activists, there has never been a better time to take steps to secure your privacy. Here’s how.
\n\nI have been active in my community for years. Not long ago, far-right trolls found social media accounts of my friends, family, and workplace. They stalked me and used the photos they found of me and my family members to assemble timelines of my life and to map my social networks. Because of my anti-racist beliefs, they used the information they gathered to threaten me, my family, and my friends. In every harassing email and social media comment, they characterize the projects I participate in as “terrorist groups,” describing me as a “leader” and member of an imaginary “shadowy mob of violent leftists” that they want to “do something serious about.” Whether these conclusions are just shoddy investigative work or intentionally dishonest misrepresentations, their behavior should be concerning to anyone who believes in standing up against oppression.
\n\nI deactivated my social media when I learned that this was underway—not because I am ashamed of being associated with the struggle for a freer world, but because I want to protect my friends and social networks. Anyone who knows me knows it is no secret that I oppose all forms of bigotry and oppression. They did not target me specifically for anything in particular I have done, but because they are opposed to all anti-racist, feminist, and queer activism and they think that they can isolate and intimidate us one by one. This is why we need to stand by each other.
\n\nI want you to know about this in case you ever find yourself in the same situation. You are not alone. I hope this encourages you to think seriously about your personal online security and the security of your family members and friends.
\n\nRobert Bowers, the Pittsburgh synagogue shooter, publicly chatted with alt-right trolls who doxxed anti-racists. The stalking campaign against me shows that they are willing to manufacture falsehoods to put people in those crosshairs. The only way to protect ourselves is to keep showing up for each other. We must not let them intimidate us.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/08/26/2.jpg\")
Stay safe.
\nDoxxing means publishing a person’s private information with the intention of exposing and intimidating them. This can result in physical, emotional, and economic harm to the target. It is intended to dissuade the target from action and to shame them for their ideas and values. It is important to take security seriously before you are doxxed—before you even have reason to fear that you could be doxxed. Often a doxxer will wait until they have gathered a lot of information before releasing it. It is possible that you are already being stalked and will not find out until it is too late.
\n\nWhether you are a well-known public activist or hardly involved at all, you should protect your social networks and other spheres of your life—even if you don’t think you are doing anything that would warrant attention. Maintaining good practices protects your friends, family, and community. It is common for people to be included in right-wing conspiracy theories about “Antifa members” solely because they are queer or trans, “look like a leftist,” play in bands, attend an event, or hang out in radical spaces. The information does not have to be correct or justified for someone to target you. All a harasser needs is one piece of information to begin to seek more details online.
\n\nBeing aware of what information trails you leave online can protect you from law enforcement as well as stalkers. Now that state-imposed surveillance is increasingly sophisticated and livestreaming has become normal at protests, just wearing a mask is often not enough. In June 2020 in Philadelphia, investigators identified a woman starting with nothing more than a blurry photo of her. They followed a trail of breadcrumbs including an Etsy purchase, twitter accounts, and her professional work page. Customs and Border Protection have started to trawl public social media. Securing your online presence can make you feel more secure taking action offline.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/08/26/6.jpg\")
These days, there are cameras everywhere.
\nThere’s no better time to start than now. After you have been doxxed, you may not be able to eliminate the information that is out there even if you try to get it taken down.
\n\nThere are many different ways to approach this. Obviously, the best way to ensure that no one can find any information about you is to have nothing available—but some people can’t eliminate their online presence, whether because of work, family, or other responsibilities. In some cases, there are strategic reasons to maintain some sort of online persona; for example, having a longstanding, believable but innocuous social media account may be helpful for non-citizens crossing the US border. Thankfully, there are ways to firewall distinct spheres of your life, curate a public profile if you need one, and adopt practices that can help you and your friends to feel empowered to continue taking action in your community. This process can be tedious. It will take time and energy. I recommend doing it together with friends, roommates, or family members to help through some of the difficult or boring aspects.
\n\nIf you cannot completely delete yourself from the internet, you can still preserve relative privacy by maintaining distinct spheres1 of online activity and cleaning up forgotten or infrequently used accounts.
\n\nYou likely have more than one online presence. This could include social networks, message boards, job sites, email accounts—anything you need to log into. Often in doxxing, information is triangulated from many different sources. One way to reduce the amount of information available to doxxers is to partition these spheres so they are not connected to each other. This is a highly individualized process; take some time to consider the following questions and map out your own online spheres.
\n\nDo you spend your time on r/politics or the wall of a Facebook acquaintance debating? Do you frequently like or repost statuses from radical Instagram or Twitter accounts? Do you have images or personal information on job boards? Do you buy things on Etsy or eBay? Do any of your friends post pictures of you on their Instagram accounts? Do you have to promote yourself online for the line of work you are in? Do you connect with your co-workers, family members, and activist friends using the same account? Do you use parts of your real name or birthday for usernames or emails?
\n\nEach of these may not be a problem in and of itself, but together they can create links between different spheres of your life.
\n\nAsk yourself:
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/08/26/10.jpg\")
Don’t forget metadata! In this case, Gustave Courbet’s face is erased, but his signature is clearly visible on the canvas.
\nHere are a few examples of how your online presence can overlap across different sites:
\n\nRelatives
\n\nPolitics
\n\nFriends and Community
\n\nHobbies
\n\nLegal
\n\nCareer
\n\nTake time to consider where you overlap, what your online goals are, and where you can separate these spheres.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/08/26/4.jpg\")
\nLet’s talk about how to discover what information is available about you, how to identify and eliminate trails, and what online resources exist to remove them.
\n\nBegin with what is publicly available. Google yourself and make a list of all of your social media accounts. Delete old accounts for things you no longer use. This is also a good time to download a password manager like 1Password or LastPass to assist you in managing unique usernames, emails, and passwords.
\n\nFind out what information people can find out about you simply using a search engine. Search for yourself on DuckDuckGo and Google. Try doing this search in incognito mode. Try different versions of your name, with and with out your middle name and in quotation marks. You could set Google Alerts to send you emails when your name is published on the internet. This will give you a sense of how much data about you is available online to people who are not in your network.
\n\nAfter this initial search, have a look at all of the data broker sites that profit on trading in personal data. I also encourage you to remove your closest family members at the same time. This process can be arduous; these sites try to make it as difficult as possible to delete information about yourself. There are some things you can’t remove yourself from—for example, if you recently registered to vote and still live at that address. (This is another reason some people choose not to vote.)
\n\nThe most trafficked host sites include: Been-verified, CheckPeople, Instant Checkmate, Intelius, PeekYou, PeopleFinders, PeopleSmart, Pipl, PrivateEye, PublicRecords360, Radaris, Spokeo, USA People Search, TruthFinder.com, Nuwber, and FamilyTreeNow. I recommend starting by searching yourself on OneRep using the free version of their service—it will show you what sites have your information. Then use that information on this website, which has a guide for opting out of virtually every data broker. If you have more money than time, you can pay OneRep or Just Delete Me to have your information removed, but I usually only recommend this service if you have already been doxxed.
\n\nI recommend starting with these by searching each one on this website,\nwhich has a guide for opting out of virtually every data broker. If you have more money than time, you can pay for a service called Just Delete Me to have your information removed, but I usually only recommend this service if you have already been doxxed.
\n\nWhen you search yourself in a online search engine, you may also find old accounts. It can be good to do a reverse search using all of the old user names and screen names you can remember. Accounts you have not used in a long time can make you vulnerable because if they are using an older password, they can try that account’s technical support to get more data about you that they can try to use for other accounts. Download any material of sentimental value to you and permanently close all the accounts you no longer use. These can be full of clues about your life.
\n\nFirst, go to this website, which searches over hundreds of platforms for specific usernames, and search all the possible usernames and emails you have used. This will tell you what platforms have accounts using that handle.
\n\nSecond, go here and type in the website domain. This website archives a huge array of existing websites, categorizes how easy or difficult they make it to delete an account, and provides the link to the “delete profile” page for each respective site.
\n\nHaveibeenpwned.com will help you find out if there are any data breaches involving any accounts you hold. If there are, take immediate action to change passwords.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/08/26/7.jpg\")
\nThe easiest way for someone to find more information about you is to search your name, aliases, and usernames. To keep your spheres of internet activity separate, always use a new username when you create an account. If you have a professional website for work and must use you legal name, make sure the email you use for that account is used solely for that purpose. You may have to have a handful of email accounts and usernames. I have one for all of my medical and governmental accounts, one for my online shopping, one for my political life, and one for my social media, another for dating sites, and so on. I use aliases and false information for all the websites that represent me or display photos of me.
\n\nA password manager is a great help for this, as it will store logins for all of your accounts. I recommend LastPass, which you can download for your phone and web browser. It might be tempting to leave yourself permanently signed in, but always make sure to sign out when you are done using it. First, so you don’t forget the master password—and also to ensure that even if someone manages to gain access to your phone or computer, they can’t access all your personal data. Take this time to create new emails and change usernames for all of the accounts you aren’t going to delete. You can easily create new emails using Protonmail. Both 1Password and LastPass can help generate random string passwords, which are the most secure.
\n\nOnce you have eliminated all your loose ends, take a look at what you chose to retain and what can be found there. If you keep any social media accounts, go through your profile and note what people can find out about you. You can choose from a range of strategies regarding how to approach this, depending on how cautious you want to be and how certain are that it is possible to keep your different spheres of internet activity distinct.
\n\nSome of your options include:
\n\nThe Coach from Crash Override Network is a helpful step-by-step guide that links you directly to the privacy settings page for many commonly used social networks. Click “Let’s Get Started” and “Strengthen the security of my online accounts so people can’t break into them as easily,” and follow their guides for all the top social media companies. This guide can also help with other aspects of online security, so after you’ve done that, I recommend finishing the Coach helper and checking out what other resources they offer.
\n\nWhen you think you are done, have a friend try to create a profile based on what information they can find about you while pretending to be a “doxxer” to see if anything you didn’t think of slipped through the cracks. It may be important to periodically check in on what can be found by searching your name every few months.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/08/26/9.jpg\")
Conduct a “pre-mortem”: if something goes wrong, how will it happen? What are your vulnerabilities?
\nWe do not recommend approaching the police when you are doxxed (or ever). The police may use the information you give them about the harassers, but they will also use the information they get about you and other individuals and groups you may have been publicly associated with. Once that is on file, it’s permanently in their hands, and there’s no guarantee they won’t use it to target you or others with state repression.
\n\nIf you chose to involve the police, please be transparent and do not ask any radical groups to support you. Be sure to inform any groups that you are connected with of your decision. Usually, the police will do nothing or make the situation much worse. The idea of thiis guide is to provide you with alternatives based in community support and empowerment.
\n\nShort answer: Do not immediately react publicly. Take time to secure yourself and alert your networks privately before reacting publicly.
\n\nYour first impulse may be to alert as many people as you can immediately with a public announcement or to shut everything down. Going public in this way can provide you with immediate support if you have a sympathetic audience, but it carries the risk of increased aggression from harassers. There are good arguments for being cautious with information at the beginning. The most important thing to do first is to take steps to protect yourself and your networks against further harm.
\n\nImmediate announcements can complicate your security efforts. Whether or not the information posted about you is accurate, no one is likely to use it to cause you any serious harm without first confirming at least some of it. Posting on a social media account confirming your doxx immediately confirms that the information about you is accurate; it also indicates that you have seen where it was posted and suggests that you are terrified. This furthers the goals of your harassers. They want to intimidate and isolate you. Do not confirm or deny any of the information they have dug up about you, regardless of whether it is false or embarrassing. They are seeking a reaction. If you let them know that what they have posted is incorrect, they may conclude that they are on the right track and they just need to keep digging. Sometimes, one of the most effective initial public responses is no response at all—don’t make any major changes to your posting habits or show any fear. This can send the message that your doxxer missed the mark, and that the attack was a failure.
\n\nAfter you have had time to process your feelings and secure your position, it may be strategic to go public and perhaps to band together with other people who are in a similar situation. You may be able to leverage the public outrage over white supremacists to create a campaign to dissuade further doxxing—for example, make a funding drive with pledges to give money for every harassing email you or others in your community receive! Since your harassers want to isolate you, public support like this may dissuade further intimidation. Try to be creative, resilient, and strategic. Be careful not to endanger anyone else in this process.
\n\nWhen making public statements, if you posture or brag about your abilities, your ability to employ violence, weapons with which you can defend yourself, or overstate your ferociousness, you may bite off more than you can chew. It is generally not a good idea to misrepresent yourself. Talking directly or indirectly to the harassers does not usually improve matters. I recommend making a positive statement asserting your ethics and beliefs, describing how your identity or your ideals have made you a target but maintaining that while these campaigns of harassment are intended to make you cower, you will not do so, because you have no reason to hide your politics. Avoid talking about specific actions or groups, whether or not you are involved with them.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/08/26/1.jpg\")
\nDon’t panic. Call a close friend to come over and help.
\nCreate an incident log and keep records for both online and offline provocations. This is crucial to identifying the patterns of the attacks. It can be useful to compare these with other organizers in order to identify larger patterns so as to identify your opponents and their organizations.
\nAlert your friends, family, and sensitive political networks privately. Task a few friends that you trust with your personal information to help report social media and blog posts that doxx you, identifying them as harassment. Do so repeatedly. Some platforms lack policies that will protect you, even if these posts include accurate personal information, even if they put you in danger. Sometimes, doxxers will use your photos and information to make imposter accounts. It is usually easier to report these as fakes; try to do so quickly in order to prevent them from obtaining more information from your networks by posing as you. You, your family, and your employer may begin to receive threatening or harassing phone calls. Let them know what is happening as quickly as you can and instruct them not to engage with the harassers.
\nShut down the flow of information. If you are reading this section and have not done the preventative care section, begin that process. Download a password manager like 1Password or LastPass and change all of your passwords immediately. You can also pay for a service called Delete Me that will take much of your online footprint off of snoop sites that harvest and display personal information. This service will take care of the information aggregated by the data brokers but not any social media, web accounts, news articles, or arrest records you may have, those will have to be handled on your own. It is important to balance the hemorrhage of information, while also not alerting your harassers that the dox was effective or on target. Try to shore up your social media accounts by making friends lists and information private in order to protect your networks until you are sure that they don’t offer vulnerable personal information to those willing to dig for it. How you react publicly is a very delicate situation and should be handled carefully throughout this process.
\nSet up a safety plan. Recruit friends and family to support you. Let them know what is going on; doxxing can be traumatic and you need to prioritize your mental and physical health so that you can work through these attacks. These conversations can be difficult—especially if they do not understand the nuances of this political moment, if it’s the first time they are hearing about a particular flavor of hate group, or if your relationships are strained due to political or personal differences. If you don’t feel up to it, you could ask a friend who has a good understanding of the situation to have the more difficult conversations for you.
\nIf your home address is included in the doxx, find somewhere new you can stay if you are able. If you can’t leave your home, invite friends or a local security group to stay with you. Make a “go bag” with everything you will need if you have to pack up and go with little notice.
\n\nIf you don’t feel you are at any great risk, especially if your doxx is comprised of freely-available information or is just sent directly to you in an effort to unnerve you, you may feel fine dismissing it as a cheap intimidation tactic, blocking and reporting the harasser, and moving on. It may just be a matter of someone trying to get a rise out of you. However, if your doxx includes sensitive personal information, especially details that are not easy to obtain with simple detective work, or it appears in a public forum where people distribute information in hopes that others will act on it, you may want to take further precautions. This is especially true if you are already part of a targeted group or demographic.
\n\nWhen you learn that you have been doxxed, it’s important to establish which information could translate into credible threats. Often, doxxing is a precursor to more intrusive offline harassment, or is connected with threats to act on the information. This could be anything from threatening phone calls to family or workplaces to pointed death threats or a SWAT call.
\n\nIt is sometimes difficult to determine what makes a threat “credible.” The most common tactic of ordinary doxxers is to send creepy or intimidating messages wherever they think they can reach you—social media, email, and to family members, and the like. They will often imply that they have more information than they really do; it’s common for them to say that they have provided this information to local law enforcement. Their goal is to intimidate you out of acting; often, whatever information they post publically is all that they have.
\n\nYour employer may receive calls demanding that they fire you. Thus far, it is rare that the targets of doxxing have been physically attacked, but it has happened, and it is possible that those who doxx you may make efforts to get your information into the hands of people who are not acting rationally or ethically. It is important to be cautious, but don’t panic or immerse yourself in anxiety.
\n\nAsk yourself:
\n\nIs there information tying you to criminal activity that could get you arrested?
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/08/26/8.jpg\")
\n Here are some things you can do in response to the dangers that can arise from being doxxed:
\n\nThis conversation can be very difficult, especially if your relationship with your family is strained. Have a cool-headed friend on call to help mediate or support you afterwards if necessary.
\n\nThink about how often you are willing to be vulnerable with your family and how much opportunity you will have in the future to follow up on the conversation. If it’s necessary to speak to family members but you feel like you will only get one chance, you can rehearse with a friend and prepare for their reactions. If you have an ongoing, conversational, trusting relationship, you can explain the situation to them in a series of smaller conversations, instead of one long sit-down. Evaluate how much time and how much attention you will have.
\n\nIt has always helped me to frame this as “having a stalker” to people who I do not want to have a political conversation with—that may suffice to explain the severity of the situation and why you need privacy. But it can be worth the effort to be honest about what’s going on. This can help build stronger relationships and demystify this common occurrence, while encouraging others who may not have considered that it could happen to them or someone they know to take online privacy seriously. Most people will respond with fear and sympathy, though sometimes they will suggest or even insist that you call the police.
\n\nThere is no one-size-fits-all approach. In my case, I had to compel my conservative mother to promise that she would not involve the police. I did so by appealing to my right to personal safety and my autonomy as the victim in the situation, asking her to respect my wishes and reminding her that the police can do very little to respond to targeted harassment like this—and all that calling them would do would be to open me up to their scrutiny, since I was being accused of criminal activity. Such conversations can be very difficult, but they are often necessary. Remind your friends and family not to react or respond to any phone calls, emails, or social media requests.
\n\nYou can read a guide for how to discuss this with your employer here.
\n\nThings to remember when talking to your friends and family:
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/08/26/5.jpg\")
If you are targeted for doxxing, communicate clearly with others about the potential consequences of appearing in photographs together.
\nTake a deep breath. Do not blame yourself. Emotionally this can be deeply disturbing and disruptive, adding a layer of acute stress to your life. There may be people out there who know what you look like and you will have no idea who they are. Sometimes information from doxxes becomes a permanent part of the internet if you name is googled; this can affect your job prospects. Sometimes nothing comes from the attention—but there is always the possibility that someone will try to pick up where the last doxxer left off.
\n\nUntil you are sure that your time in the spotlight is over, you may have to alter some aspects of your life. Ask yourself, “What kind of life do I want to live? How can I manage my anxiety? Are there ways I can embrace being a more public figure? How can I feel secure in taking risks and being active again?” Especially as political tensions intensify, it may be important to take more extreme safety measures.
\n\nHere are some of the measures you might choose to employ:
\n\nNo matter how hard the people targeting you try make you feel isolated, you are not in this alone. As a community, we must protect each other and our online networks from harassment, imprisonment, political violence, and intimidation. Together, we can do this.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/08/26/3.jpg\")
\nFor people with more serious needs to erase and hide:
\n\nExtreme Privacy—What It Takes to Disappear: Data Removal Workbook & Credit Freeze Guide
\n\n\n\n\n\nGet a Password Manager like 1Password or LastPass: You can download it on your phone, computer, and as a browser extension.
\n\nGet a VPN: Riseup offers a free VPN, but the one from Nord is more user-friendly.
\n\nThis podcast presents ideas to help you become digitally invisible, stay secure from cyber threats, and make you a better online investigator.
\n\nThe concept of spheres was developed by the Smiling Faces Collective. ↩
\nThe anarchist public relations project Agency has published an open letter signed by hundreds of publishers, journalists, educators, authors, and activists condemning Facebook’s decision to ban pages associated with anarchism on the basis of a false equivalence between anti-fascist organizing and fascist violence. You can view the statement in full here and sign on via Change.org here. We urge everyone to add their names or the names of their organizations to this list—not because we think Facebook will relent, but to publicize the fact that Facebook has aligned itself with the far-right Trump administration and to catalyze pushback against the company itself.
\n\n\nhttps://twitter.com/AnarchistAgency/status/1296957855187308544\n\n\n
This decision from Facebook has targeted everyone from hip-hop musicians and journalists to filmmakers and community groups. Nathan Goodman and Kelly Wright, two authors whose pages were banned, have published a response noting the many forms of violent conduct from state and far-right entities that Facebook endorses, by contrast with the forms of speech for which it is banning publishers and individual users.
\n\nMany commenters have pointed out Facebook’s intentional effort to conflate groups that organize to carry out racist attacks with adherents of the philosophy of anarchism. As the solidarity statement argues,
\n\n\n\n\nFacebook categorizes anarchists with far-right militias that support the Trump administration, linking two groups that are fundamentally dissimilar and opposed… drawing a false equivalence between those who orchestrate white supremacist attacks and those who organize to protect their communities against them.
\n
The statement first appeared signed by hundreds of people, including well-known journalists Abby Martin, Jason Wilson, and Christopher Mathias. Other signatories include novelists Cory Doctorow, Rachel Kushner, and Alain Damasio and a wide range of academics, including Noam Chomsky—programmers, including Twitter founding team member Evan Henshaw-Plath—activists, including Chelsea Manning—musicians, including Andrew Hurley—and the editors of Jacobin, Semiotext(e), and AK Press, among many other publishers. Since then, over a thousand more people have endorsed the statement on Change.org.
\n\nThis is not the first wave of bans Facebook has perpetrated against pages associated with anarchism. For example, in May, we published a report from a Greek anarchist news publisher that was similarly banned:
\n\n\n\n\nIn early May, the Facebook page for RadioFragmata was shut down abruptly without reason. We expect nothing else from Facebook, but over 30,000 people followed the page, which served as a far-reaching platform spreading information about the struggle in Greece and abroad. We have organized a new page and continue to maintain a blog and twitter account. We assume Facebook took down our page in response to a request from the state, but Facebook has not given any justification for their action whatsoever.
\n
This time around—and once more with no warning, justification, or notification—the bans have included MC Sole, Truthout writer Chris Steele, an Anarchists Worldwide archive page, the European news source Enough is Enough, and pages belonging to the John Brown Gun Club, Redneck Revolt, Molotov 5.7, and many other projects, as well as the pages belonging to the administrators, including users from Australia to Turkey. This, in turn, affects other pages run by these administrators; Facebook has banned some of them, while leaving others without administrators, effectively disabling them.
\n\nOther pages have received notices from Facebook, but have not yet been removed.
\n\n\n\n\n“And if you ban us from your clubs, it’s the right time, with the right mind.”
\n\n-Bad Brains, “Banned in DC”
\n
It’s not surprising that Facebook is siding with the Trump administration in the its war against dissent and those who oppose fascism. We have always argued against entrusting unaccountable Silicon Valley corporations with the power to shape public discourse and carry out surveillance to pass on information to the government. We should focus our efforts and resources on building communications infrastructure that is not vulnerable to corporate executives’ desire to pander to the agenda of the Trump administration or any other government.
\n\nAt the same time, Facebook’s decision to ban pages associated with anarchism is a strategic step in a much bigger unfolding conflict. It is analogous to a military knocking out a village’s lines of communication before carrying out a bombing. The Trump administration intends to intensify its attacks against protest movements and they want to minimize our ability to report on these or mobilize against them. Anarchists are only one out of many groups on the list of targets; many immigrants, Black people and other people of color, Muslims, trans and queer people, and others are experiencing far worse forms of oppression. But this precedent, like all the previous precedents, will only embolden government agencies and fascist groups to carry out more attacks, not all of which will occur online.
\n\nThis is why it is essential to respond. We act now, in hopes that we won’t have to mobilize later in worse circumstances. Please circulate the statement published by Agency and stand up against every effort to suppress the voices of those who fight for a world without oppression.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/08/22/1.jpg\")
\nThe solidarity statement includes a number of statements from individual signatories, excerpted below.
\n\n\n\n\n“In a moment where large numbers of people around the world are coming together to resist police violence and racism, it is particularly bleak that Facebook has chosen to ban some of the most insightful and thoughtful analysis that provides context, history, and additional voice to these events as they unfold. Rather than honestly reckoning with the content and online behaviors they are incentivizing through algorithms designed to maximize advertising returns rather than public good, Facebook has instead decided to blunder through banning some of the most needed voices and outlets focused on creating a more just world for everyone.”
\n
—Moxie Marlinspike
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n“As a nonprofit dedicated to advancing human rights by creating and deploying free and open source anonymity, privacy, and censorship circumvention technologies, we are very concerned about the bans of the affected pages. The bias in this decision shows a disregard for important free speech, and demonstrates how far social media companies still have to go to implement effective content control without violating human rights.”
\n
\n\n\n“Facebook’s actions show how much power tech capitalists have over free speech and should be viewed as an attack on the entire workers’ movement. We stand in solidarity with all those targeted.”
\n
—Bhaskar Sunkara, editor of Jacobin
\n\n\n\n\n“I have no words for the callousness and cruelty of Facebook’s decision. They did it for political cover so the right-wing media they fear would be less angry about the banning of various militia and QAnon pages. But by banning Crimethinc, It’s Going Down, MC Sole and numerous anti-fascist accounts, Facebook has equated nonviolence with mass murder and dissent with genocide. They announced their willingness to participate with the U.S. government in the purges that are to come.”
\n
—Robert Evans, investigative journalist with Bellingcat and host of the Behind the Bastards podcast on iHeartRadio
\n\n\n\n\n“From the Myanmar genocide scandal to the constant censorship of Kurdish activism, Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg have proven time again that they are in favor of censorship and state oppression. This recent wave of removal of anti-fascist accounts is just another example of their willingness to shut down anything that isn’t advertiser friendly. It’s no surprise, but due to the sheer grip Facebook has on the internet, their censorship must be called out at every opportunity.”
\n
—Jake Hanrahan, independent journalist and documentary filmmaker. Founder of Popular Front.
\n\n\n\n\n“The ban of ‘Antifacist’ accounts on Facebook is simply driven by political agenda. Mainly that of our current presidential administration and its right-wing following, that are ofttimes of a violent extremist nature themselves. If you truly wish to reduce harm, ban the president’s image, for he spreads false information and abstract hatred with his every statement. These bans are a direct and deliberate assault on the first amendment rights of individuals whose political ideologies don’t fit the current administration’s views.”
\n
—Cory Elia, Managing Editor for Village Portland, podcaster, radio news broadcaster with KBOO Community radio, and board member for PSU’s Student Media Board
\n\n\n\n\n“When neo-Nazis were planning terrorism and violence in Charlottesville, they took to Facebook to organize. There, they were allowed to share posts calling for the raising of an army, the rasing of able-bodied fighters, and the harassment of Black and Jewish people in Charlottesville. When local organizers pushed back to prevent the violence, CrimethInc. was one of the only outlets to publish local concerns accurately and openly. As a survivor of the terrorism and violence, I find it unconscionable that Facebook can take action against one of the few organizations who was willing and able to help my community and me prevent the violence, when Facebook was a passive participant in helping those promote and encourage the terror.”
\n
—Emily Gorcenski, creator of First Vigil and neo-Nazi terror survivor
\n\n\n\n\n“The recent unfair Facebook ban of anarchist publishers and artist is like banning love. These folks are writing about and fighting for a better and just world. One where dignity and autonomy replace state and corporate violence and suffering. We desperately need these dreamers and voices to imagine a way to save the planet and all living beings on it. To silence these voices is coming out supporting the corporate ruling class, and the injustices that continue to grow under these brutal systems.
\n
—carla bergman, anarchist, organizer, and co-author of Joyful Militancy
\n\n\n\n\n“Facebook’s decision to ban anarchist publishers has nothing to do with ‘stopping violence’ and everything to do with silencing those who speak out against a brutal, repressive system that no longer works for 99% of the world. We could point to supporters of violently racist ideology such as Breitbart or Daily Wire, whose advertisement money Facebook welcomes, but the hypocrisy is beyond the point. Anarchists dream of a world where peace and dignity for all is the norm, and no longer something that must be fought for by staring down the barrel of a tear gas launcher. By banning publishers who openly advocate for building a better world without unquestioned power and oppression, Facebook has very much made it clear where they stand on the issue of ‘violence.’”
\n
—Sydney Anarcho-Communists
\n\n\n\n\n“This is the latest wave in oppressive Facebook censorship that has cast a wide net targeting radicals and leftists around the globe. While fascist pages, persons and groups are allowed to openly call for violence, those who stand against fascism and for justice are not only sidelined but silenced. We must amplify these voices now more than ever, but more than that, we must find ways to organize, tell our truths and build without having to rely only on the structures and platforms of the oppressors.”
\n
—Eleanor Goldfield, artist, organizer, journalist, filmmaker
\n\n\n\n\n“We have all known for some time that Facebook does not exist for any reason except to maintain their own profits, which rest squarely on the bedrock of a repressive government doing everything it can to quell dissent. Silencing the voices of anti-fascists and anarchists, who publish news and analysis about people who fight for a better world, comes as no surprise in this context of state and corporate interests colluding to maintain their existing power structures. They actively work to keep us from even communicating about standing up against the countless injustices our world has to offer, and at the same time, continue to promote corporate cheerleading for state sanctioned violence at the hands of the polcie. We stand in solidarity with all those silenced by Facebook, and our resolve is only hardened by this act as we press forward with our struggle for a better world.”
\n
—Black Powder Press
\n\n\n\n\n“Banning antifascists, anarchists and other related dreamers and resisters of fascism and totalitarianism on facebook leads us to only one conclusion – a side is being taken, and it is not the one of freedom and antifascism. Silencing dissent of totalitarians and movements against racists and xenophobes is a slippery slope to siding with those same people and movements. We are living in a moment when sides need to be taken, a time period we have seen before, and siding with the silencing of antifascists and anarchists is to side with totalitarianism and potential fascism.
\n
—Marina Sitrin, Associate Professor at Binghamton University and author of Everyday Revolutions: Horizontalism and Autonomy in Argentina.
\n\n\n\n\n“With this wave of bans, facebook has attempted to claim that they are neutral, or centrist in their approach to censoring political speech. What they have actually done is controlled the dialog, towards their own political aims, towards a conservative and capitalist worldview. Under the guise of neutrality they have made it so that anyone wishing to exist in their online space must not oppose fascism and far right violence in any meaningful way. They have thrown the weight of their platform behind the very notion that resisting genocide is violent in nature. What is considered acceptable political dialog in society generally creeps to the right over time. It is not often that we see such a blatant action taken to push the dialog in that direction. These are moments that we cannot allow to pass by silently. Fascism has brought about the most horrific acts of violence the world has ever seen. Opposing fascism is non violence by definition.”
\n
—Portland Anarchist Road Care
\n\n\n\n\n“At a time when elites in media and academia fret about ‘cancel culture’ and object to principled criticism, facebook is showing the world that the real ‘cancel culture” is corporate control of media platforms. Self defense is not violence. Anarchists are trying defend against us all against fascist violence and the nightmare future it portends. Facebook and other corporate media platforms are complicit in the violence of the fascists that they platform. We shouldn’t let liberals and others vested in the status quo muddle the issue by normalizing false equivlency between fascists and the anarchists and anti-authoritarians resisting them. Down with fascism! Stand with all anti-fascists!”
\n
—Brendan McQuade, Assistant Professor at the University of Southern Maine and author of Pacifying the Homeland: Intelligence Fusion and Mass Supervision
\n\n\n\n\n“That the U.S. government is working overtime to suppress dissenting voices is nothing new, nor is its dangerous revulsion for anarchists specifically, but each time they attack our community and ideology, more damage is done to the broader struggle against fascism, and for liberation. Facebook’s decision to ban a number of anarchist, antifascist, and anti-capitalist pages has made clear both their bias against the left, and their commitment to furthering the same “both sides” rhetoric that Trump and his lapdogs have used to deflect from their own firm support for violent white supremacist groups. The fact that this ban specifically targeted vital movement publications like It’s Going Down and Crimethinc only underlines the fact that the so-called free press is under attack, and yet the mealy-mouthed centrists and liberals who spend their time hand-wringing over “cancel culture” have said nothing. Those outside of the anarchist and antifascist community ignore this at their peril, because as we know full well, first, they’ll come for the radicals–but they’ll be coming for everyone else next.”
\n
—Kim Kelly, journalist, author, and A12 Charlottesville attack survivor
\n\n\n\n\n“It has been three years but Facebook has never taken responsibility for the deadly Unite the Right event being planned and propagandized on their platform. It is nothing short of shameful for Facebook to now sit in judgment of the same groups and people who stood up against white supremacist violence that day.”
\n
—Megan Squire, Professor of Computer Science at Elon University, Sr. Fellow at Center for Analysis of the Radical Right
\n\n\n\n\n“Facebook’s recent decision to ban radical leftist and antifascist groups that call for fighting back against the forces of fascism, genocide, and those that would wipe out our communities, while allowing, and even glorifying state-affiliated and sponsored groups that call for violence as well as right-wing militias is yet another example of tech companies finding it easier to punch down. Facebook’s decision reinforces the dangerous and false rhetoric emanating from right-wing media and politicians that seeks to demonize left-liberation movements at a time when they are being actively targeted and hunted by those in positions of authority. While hardly surprising, this decision by Facebook once again shows a willingness to put profits and access to politicians above scruples or access to diverse viewpoints.”
\n
—B. Remy Cross
\n\n\n\n\n“Facebook’s decision to ban anti-fascist and anarchist pages at the same time they ban violent Militia’s and QAnon pages is unfortunately unsurprising and all too familiar. This is done as a visual sacrifice in the name of misguided attempts at centrism and being ‘fair.’
\n\n“Anti-fascist and anarchist resources on the internet seek to create community defense against bigoted violence and share information about how communities can take care of problems that governments don’t prioritize as important to address. The problem with this decision is that the very real problems created by violent racist militias and absurd conspiracy theories are actively opposed in cities all around the work by anti-fascists and anarchists. This decision does not help communities become safer, in fact it makes them even more vulnerable. This decision shows Facebook’s lack of a spine and lack of a moral compass. I am proud to stand in solidarity with Anarchist Publishers to condemn this ban; but I am furious that I need to do so.”
\n
—Jake Johnson, artist, writer, reporter
\n\n\n\n\n“The ban of Crimethinc and other anarchist groups by Facebook is a clear step farther into a fascist American state. The Earth First! Journal stands in firm solidarity with all anarchist groups currently facing repression. Smash the state, for the wild!”
\n
—The Earth First! Journal
\n\n\n\n\n“Facebook’s ban has nothing to do with stopping violence and everything to do with cracking down on protest movements. The banning of CrimethInc., It’s Going Down, Truthout author Chris Steele, musician MC Sole, and other left media outlets and journalists in the name of opposing violence is disingenuous. Facebook continues to host and profit off of right-wing media outlets like Daily Wire that regularly promote violent racist ideology and conspiracy theories that have catalyzed and influenced violent fascists and white supremacists on the right. This is political censorship, plain and simple.”
\n
—scott crow, longtime anarchist organizer and author of Black Flags and Windmills
\n\nThanks to a tremendous amount of work from comrades around the world, we are finally realizing our longtime dream of making this website fully accessible in a wide range of languages besides English. This is taking place on two fronts. First, it means translating the infrastructure of the site itself, such as the navigation bar and the site map; at the same time, it means translating the content of the site, such as articles, books, and zines. As of now, we have the infrastructure of the site functioning in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish—and we have scores of articles, zines, posters, and books available in all of those languages and a dozen more. Here, we will review the progress we have made and describe how you can help us with the next steps.
\n\nAs authoritarian governments lock down their borders and nationalists attempt to foment new divisions between people, we are ever more determined to build connections internationally. Revolutionary movements are most effective when they can learn from each other and extend solidarity transcontinentally. We put a great deal of effort into maintaining communication between anarchists and other rebels all around the world, with the goal of cultivating decades-long relationships.
\n\nAlthough our collective began in the early 1990s as an anglophone project and English is used as a lingua franca in many contexts in which people do not speak it as a first language, we aim to de-center English in order to make our projects more inclusive and to work towards developing analyses that are informed by a global range of experiences. To this end, we seek to publish perspectives from all around the world and to make these available in as many languages as possible.
\n\nCrimethInc. materials have already appeared in over three dozen languages; our introductory primer, To Change Everything, is available in 30. You can see all the different materials that we offer in different languages at crimethinc.com/languages.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/05/13/1.jpg\")
You can choose your preferred language at crimethinc.com/languages in the footer of every page on our site.
\nEventually, we hope to archive every version of every text of ours that has appeared in any language. Although we have expanded this site to include a tremendous number of articles, zines, posters, and books in languages other than English, we have not been able to find everything. If you can help us to track down CrimethInc. translations that are not available on this site yet—whether in a document file, a PDF, or in print—we would be very grateful. Contact us here.1
\n\nIf you are willing to translate anything on our site, please write us at foreignlegion@crimethinc.com. You can see which languages an article is already available in below the title. If you translate a book, zine, or poster, our designers may be able to help you plug your translation into the existing layout as well.
\n\nLikewise, if you are involved in a publishing project in a language other than English, feel free to publish translations of our material. Everything we produce is copyright free. With your help, we can make our work accessible to people everywhere.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/05/13/2.jpg\")
Beneath the title of each article, you can choose the language you wish to read it in.
\nThe infrastructure of the site includes the navigation elements, labels, and other material that structures the content. So far, we have the infrastructure of this site fully functional in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish.
\n\nIf you have your preferred language set in your browser, we automatically detect it and direct you to that version of the site. For example, if your browser is set to Italian, we will automatically direct you to it.crimethinc.com.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/05/13/3.jpg\")
The header navigation bar in English, German, and Spanish.
\nWhen you open a page on our site, if we have a version of that page available in the language you are using, we’ll redirect you to it. If not, we’ll show you the English version of the page. If you are viewing the site itself in one language and you want to switch to another, you can do so by going to the languages section of the Site Map in the footer of the site and selecting your preferred language.
\n\nWith a little help, we could make the site functional in a dozen more languages. If you are willing to assist us with translating the infrastructure, please email tech@crimethinc.com.
\n\nIf you are already familiar with GitHub, the website we use for organizing the work on this site, you can get started immediately. Download this file from our GitHub repo and change all of the values in the file, translating into your language. Then you can create a pull request on GitHub or email the new file to us. Here’s the file:
\n\nhttps://github.com/crimethinc/website/blob/master/config/locales/en.yml
\n\nIf you already know your way around GitHub, you can submit a pull request for any files in this directory:
\n\nhttps://github.com/crimethinc/website/blob/master/config/locales
\n\nIf you don’t know your way around GitHub, that’s ok. Just email us your translated YAML file and we’ll handle the rest.
\n\nThank you so much!
\n\nOur wish list for non-English CrimethInc. texts includes the Russian and Korean printings of our book Work, the Turkish printing of our children’s book The Secret World of Terijian, the Serbo-Croat version of Evasion, and the original printings of the Spanish and Portuguese versions of our outreach paper, Harbinger, titled Heraldo and Arauto, respectively. If you can help us obtain any of these, we would be very grateful! ↩
\nBorder controls give the authorities an opportunity to invade our privacy and gather information. We would all be a lot safer if we could agree to a standard security protocol for how to approach crossing borders, as carelessness with our own security can impact others as well. The following guide details how to minimize the various security risks involved in legally entering the United States—whether by land, air, or ocean. It draws on the experiences of many anarchists and subversives, both US citizens and not, including some targeted by the security apparatus.
\n\nAmong anarchists, it has become expected practice not to inform on anyone to the authorities, to refuse to speak with law enforcement agents of any kind, and to decline to cooperate with grand juries. Likewise, it is now widely understood that posting sensitive information about others’ activities on public forums can be equivalent to informing to the authorities about them. Yet failing to take proper precautions to protect your devices, overestimating your rights, and answering questions from border officials can have similar consequences, enabling the state to obtain information about your political activities or your network.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/01/28/2.jpg\")
\nThe US border is among the most tightly controlled borders in the world. The other members of the so-called “five eyes” intelligence union—the UK, New Zealand, Australia, and Canada—employ similar measures. Countries like Saudi Arabia and Israel are also notorious for invasive and opportunistic security procedures.
\n\nUnited States Customs and Border Protection officials have little accountability to anyone; there are no checks or balances on their power to protect those who are not US citizens. Legally, they aren’t supposed to question, profile, or discriminate against visitors on religious, ethnic, or political grounds. But they most certainly do these things.
\n\nIn 2019, USCBP officers detained an 18-year-old US citizen for 23 days in a Texas Border detention just for looking and acting too Latino—even after he presented an ID and a birth certificate. This was not even at the border, but inside the state, when the boy was driving north to a soccer camp. USCBP have power within 100 miles of any American border; this includes entire cities like New York City or San Francisco.
\n\nDressing according to conventional standards may help to avoid extra attention and scrutiny when crossing borders. Police are often superficial and may judge by appearances if you are not already flagged. Of course, this will not necessarily help people of color and other targeted demographics.
\n\nIf you are a US citizen, the most important thing to remember when entering the US is that unless you are arrested upon arrival, you will eventually be let in. Legally speaking, you have a right to enter the country regardless of your cooperation with interrogators.
\n\nIf you are brought into an interrogation room upon arriving in the US and non-uniformed officers or officers without USCBP identification are present, you should immediately request that they identify themselves. If they are FBI agents or non-USCBP police, request an attorney immediately. Due to loopholes available to border enforcement, non-USCBP agents sometimes use the special status borders afford to listen in on interrogations and gather intelligence in ways that would be deemed unconstitutional in other contexts. However, if you have requested an attorney, they should leave the room or cease to question you. This is not guaranteed, but technically, they are supposed to do so.
\n\nThe laws regarding whether you can have an attorney at the border as an American citizen are complicated. Officers will tell you that you are not entitled to an attorney, as the law is confusing on this subject.1 According to USCBP, you are not entitled to a lawyer during first or secondary screenings when entering the country. As a citizen, you are entitled to request a lawyer, but it is not certain they will cooperate with your request. If you anticipate serious harassment, you should arrange in advance for an attorney to be on call or even to meet you at the airport.
\n\nRequesting an attorney may cause USCBP officers to escalate their efforts to intimidate you, but it will also let them know that you are prepared to stand up for yourself. Never forget that whatever happens, you will eventually be let into the country. If you are arrested, you will be entitled to an attorney as soon as you have been taken into custody by non-USCBP.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/01/28/1.jpg\")
\nAs a US citizen, you have the right to remain silent throughout your detention by USCBP. In theory, this is the best strategy for dealing with these officers. However, this will almost certainly escalate the encounter; if you insist on refusing to answer any questions from the outset, you will probably be detained, searched, and interrogated at length. Therefore, in practice, it can be advisable to start with a different strategy.
\n\nThe alternative is to remain polite and cooperative in response to requests for your documents and simple questions such as where you are coming from, then to politely decline to answer once the questions became invasive or political. You could explain “I’m choosing not to answer, as is my right as an American citizen.” If the questioning intensifies, answer, “On the advice of my lawyer, I’m not going to answer any such questions.” This is the best way to phrase your answer, as it sidesteps any questions about why you are choosing not to answer.
\n\nYou may be asked for your Facebook, Instagram, or other social media profiles. If you have any profiles in your legal name, it is probably better not to lie about it, as being caught lying will escalate the situation. It is better simply to decline to answer the question. It is a good idea to delete all apps that can be used to access social media and all online history, so there is no evidence on any device with you. Remaining silent in response to invasive questioning may be stressful; the officers may attempt to intimidate or trick you into answering. However, if you have the privilege of citizenship, they cannot deny you entry. Remember, they are counting on your fear. It is the chief weapon they have against you.
\n\nDo your best to prepare your emotions and belongings ahead of any potential encounter. This may not be the time that you are detained and harassed, but it is essential to prepare yourself, your devices, and your possessions so that you will have no regrets later.
\n\nWhile crossing the border as a US citizen, do not forget that whatever happens, you have the right to re-entry. A little courage and patience will see you through.
\n\n\nhttps://twitter.com/HMAesq/status/1221312555014152192\n\n\n
If you are not a US citizen, you lack most of the rights described above. Essentially, USCBP can deny you entry without reason. If you are denied, it is possible to send a letter requesting the reason and a reversal of the decision.
\n\nYou will likely be asked to provide a destination to border officials. The best answer is probably a hotel or the home of a person who is ostensibly a respectable, law-abiding citizen. Border officials may test you and ask for receipts or proof of a hotel reservation or the name and contact information of the people you will be visiting. They may also contact your hotel or host. You should also be prepared to answer questions regarding where you are coming from.
\n\nStay calm. Don’t risk making jokes, even harmless ones. Sarcasm can lead to detention or escalation. Remain respectful even if they bully you or attempt to provoke you. There’s no humanity when it comes to USCBP officials, like police, they should be understood as puppets of the state and navigated with calculated and stoic communication.
\n\nYou are not entitled to an attorney unless a non-CBP agent formally arrests you. You have very few rights as a non-citizen in this situation; essentially, USCBP can deny you entry on almost any grounds.
\n\nBorder control agents are basically able to do as they wish; because they are a federal police force, they do not have to recognize state laws. For example, if you arrive as a non-citizen in Oregon or California, where marijuana is legal, and you admit to having smoked marijuana at any point in your life, USCBP agents can reject your entry on this basis alone. Hundreds of Canadian citizens have been turned away from the US border and banned from the US for admitting to smoking marijuana at some point in their life—in a country where it is legal.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/01/28/3.jpg\")
\nOn November 12, 2019, a federal judge in Boston ruled unconstitutional the search or seizure of devices belonging to international travelers without individualized suspicion. While groups such as CAIR, the ACLU, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation hailed it as a victory, it may not change things very much in practice. We should never place faith in the state’s alleged protection of our civil rights; we will always find ourselves in a state of permanent exception when it comes to the democratic discourse of state-sanctioned rights.
\n\nThis ruling does not give a binding course for eliminating the practice of search and seizure. The category of “individual suspicion” is extremely broad, and USCBP officials are free to fabricate any reasons they require. In addition, the federal government has stated that the ruling will only apply to Boston International Airport, in the district where the ruling was issued. We should proceed on the assumption that the state may still seize our devices.
\n\nWhether or not you are a US citizen, if you do not cooperate in unlocking phones, laptops, or other devices when requested, the officers are permitted to seize them until they have broken your code and copied the contents.
\n\nSome would say traveling with no devices at all is the best solution. This is by far the safest way to travel across borders if you think your devices will likely be searched or seized. Unfortunately, this can be expensive and inconvenient, as well as potentially suspicious.
\n\nYour phone should always be locked and encrypted at all times. A good password can go a long way.2 If you are a US citizen, you can refuse requests to unlock your phone, and a strong password and encryption can help protect your phone if it is seized. Nonetheless, if they return your phone after seizing it, it is best to assume that the phone is compromised and replace it.
\n\nUSCBP agents have been known to demand that travelers turn on their devices, allegedly to show that they are ordinary electronics rather than disguised objects of some other character, threatening to confiscate and destroy devices that could not be powered on. If you would comply with such a demand, arrive with enough battery charge to be able to do so.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/01/28/5.jpg\")
\nIf you are a non-citizen, refusing to unlock your device could result in border guards seizing it and denying you entry.
\n\nIf you do bring a phone or other electronic device to a border crossing, it is a good idea to prepare it by removing any information or programs that would give the state access to your contacts or communications. This should only be understood as a means of harm reduction. We can’t be certain of the full capabilities the state has to investigate phones and other devices. Bringing no phone or device whatsoever is the only sure way to limit USCBP access.
\n\nWhatever you do, it is suggested that you do it at least 48 hours before arriving to the border. Even when you delete a file on your phone, it may not be immediately expunged. Some people whose phones and computers have been confiscated by USCBP have received them back with applications, messages, and contacts on them that they had deleted shortly before they were seized.
\n\nOne option is to reset all of your devices to factory mode well before the time of crossing a border. However, this could also be grounds for suspicion, and may create challenges for non-citizens. Another option is to cleanse all sensitive material from your phone so you can open it if asked.
\n\nManicuring your devices and your life for interrogation is challenging. It requires being able to identify and delete any information or contact information that would be of interest to the authorities. Considering that you cannot know for sure who or what may be of interest to them, it is better to approach this as a consent issue: if USCBP officials gain access to your phone, would all of the people in your contact list be comfortable with the state associating them with you?
\n\nKeeping the numbers of family members or non-political friends who consent to be associated with you in your phone when you approach a border might help to allay the suspicions of border officials if they ask you to unlock your phone and you choose to comply. Bear in mind that USCBP officers might contact someone at random from your list; ideally, anyone who answers should know to refer to you by your legal name alone, so as not to put additional information at their disposal.
\n\nIf you open up your device for them, they could review all of your correspondence. If it is necessary for you to have access to a phone or device with sensitive information on it and you are a frequent traveler, another solution is to buy a phone or device for this specific purpose once you cross the border, or to keep a phone in each of your frequented destinations. If you choose to use a burner phone, there are some promotional plans that can be almost free with new activation.
\n\nUSCBP shares information with a wide range of state agencies including the FBI. Whether or not you are a citizen, deleting sensitive contacts from your phone is essential to protect those who do not want their information shared with the US government. If you choose to open your phone when you have the contacts of anarchists or other targeted individuals in it, you are essentially cooperating with the US government at the expense of your revolutionary community.
\n\nIn addition to deleting contact information, consider deleting applications for encrypted communication such as Signal or Telegram from your phone. When preparing your phone, you should make sure to delete all remnants of correspondence, downloads, and data that could be connected to the deleted contacts, history, and applications. This includes
\n\nemail correspondence that offers an opportunity for state officials to fish through your information and compile a list of your contacts;
\nWiFi networks your phone has joined and learned;
\nphotographs you have downloaded that include sensitive information or metadata;
\nand cookies that can be used against you or contradict answers you have given about your travels or plans, or that show that your phone has been manicured.
\nIf you are a non-citizen, traveling with anarchist literature, posters, or books could also create grounds for officials to suspect you or deny you entry. For US citizens, traveling with such material will not enable them to deny you re-entry, though it could contribute to officials flagging you.
\n\nRegardless of your citizenship, if it is possible that you will choose to open your phone when asked, make it appear that you are using these devices in a normal manner and have nothing to hide. Open up new search histories, open some innocuous tabs on your browser, keep games on your devices, retain harmless correspondence and communication with those who are comfortable with you keeping their contacts in your phone, and keep some pictures or videos of yourself and your approved friends and family that don’t give away any sensitive details.
\n\nRegarding email and social media, if you claim that you do not use them, you must be very careful to ensure that all related history, downloads, and applications are cleared from all your devices. Some phones have Facebook built in, which offers an excuse; but if you have downloaded an image from Facebook and the authorities find it and analyze its properties, this could be grounds to accuse you of lying.
\n\nYou can make secondary profiles, especially if you are a non-citizen and you are afraid that you will be rejected if you do not give officers access. Generally speaking, anarchists should not make social media in their legal names. There are many creative ways to avoid this. Likewise, you should never use a social media account can be traced back to your legal name for sensitive political projects or correspondence. As for email, it is easy to maintain a separate email for anarchist correspondence.
\n\nSocial media creates tremendous security risks; it is a dismal part of social alienation, though unfortunately inescapable for many people. In any case, USCBP officers may search the internet for information about you, including social media profiles for you or any project you are involved in; you should be prepared to address anything they find.
\n\nYou can upload contacts or files that you wish to keep private online ahead of any border crossing. You can export contacts into files and upload these into a draft file on a secure email forum such as protonmail.com or another safely hosted server, then download them to your manicured, stored, or newly purchased device when you arrive at your destination. It only takes minutes to make exportable contact files and folders.
\n\nIt is safest not to discuss anything illegal on any electronic device, including via encrypted apps like Signal or servers such as protonmail.com.
\n\nIdeally, when you give your contact information to another person in the anarchist movement, they should be able to commit to making sure you are not setting yourself up for needless risk. Raids, unknown technologies, and unexpected arrests are among the threats that we face, but we should establish ethical frameworks and explicit expectations regarding how we conduct ourselves in order to minimize danger.
\n\nIf you are detained or interrogated for specifically political reasons when entering or leaving the US, it is important to consult a lawyer and to report your experience to other members of your community. This is true following police raids or FBI visits; it is just as important following border crossings. Making a public statement online can enable you to reach a larger number of people, but it can also lead to an escalation by those harassing you, as they may perceive it to confirm their suspicions of your involvement in the anarchist movement. Whether you reach out publicly or on an individual basis, it is important to inform others in order to maintain a strong network of trust and transparency within our communities, to alert others who may be similarly targeted, and to battle tendencies towards isolation that can lead to people leaving the movement or even betraying other participants.
\n\n\nhttps://twitter.com/HMAesq/status/1221312557031608320\n\n\n
If you are told you have been banned from entering the United States following rejection at a border, you can apply to repeal the decision via this application.
\n\nThis is only for those who have been formally banned, not those denied entry. These applications are not reviewed by a judge or any independent authority, but a bureaucrat within the USCBP. Getting a ban lifted entitles you to nothing beyond the opportunity to try entering again. It puts you in the same position you were in before you were banned, but this time with a black mark on your record.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2020/01/28/4.jpg\")
\nIn 2014, the No-Fly list was deemed unconstitutional. In 2019, the Terror Watch list—which includes approximately 1.2 million people—was also deemed unconstitutional.3 Despite this ruling, no formal procedure has been established to dismantle the lists or stop the state from using them. How the list is produced remains a secret—ironically, this is one of the reasons it was deemed unconstitutional. So even if the courts have made this ruling, we should assume that both lists are still functioning as guides for the authorities. In both rulings, the people who challenged the lists did so on the grounds that they were law-abiding citizens who have been persecuted on account of being Muslim. In cases of political repression, we assume that the courts would extend little sympathy to any anarchist unlucky enough to end up on either of these lists.
\n\nSadly, there is practically no way to challenge inclusion on the No-Fly list; you can only request the help of a lawyer and continue trying to fly. The ACLU has provided some guidance on challenging no-fly status here.
\n\nIf you do not have a criminal record, it may be possible to travel overland to Canada and fly from there to your destination. However, depending on the degree to which you have been flagged, you may also experience harassment there, as the Canadian and US border control agencies share intelligence. You can also travel to Mexico overland in order to fly onward to your destination; you should be able to do so without having to report your visit for upwards of 48 hours after arrival. It may be possible to book a departure ticket for these first 48 hours in order to avoid using your passport.
\n\nIf you need to travel for a long period of time, it is important to remember that under Obama, the US made it necessary to reapply for passport pages once you have run out of space for more stamps. If you run out of pages abroad, you can apply at an embassy. However, in case your travel needs turn out to be more complicated than those of a typical tourist, it is better to prepare in advance by getting a passport with 52 pages rather than 28. When acquiring a new passport, you can also order a Passport ID card. The ID card can serve as identification without disclosing an address and suffices for overland travel to Canada and Mexico. It can also help you to obtain a new passport if your passport is lost or stolen.
\n\n\nhttps://twitter.com/HMAesq/status/1221312561280421888\n\n\n
\n\n\n“As those intrusions become more common and aggressive in the Trump era, WIRED has assembled the following advice from legal and security experts to preserve your digital privacy while crossing American borders. But take all of these strategies with caution: Given CBP’s unpredictable and in many areas undocumented practices, none of the experts WIRED spoke to claimed to have a privacy panacea for the American border.”
\n
Bounty Hunters and Child Predators: Inside the FBI Entrapment Strategy
\nFrom an article in the Intercept:
\n\n“IN GENERAL, LAW enforcement agents have to get a warrant to search your electronic devices. That’s the gist of the 2014 Supreme Court case Riley v. California. But the Riley ruling only applies when the police arrest you. The Supreme Court has not yet decided whether the same protections apply to American citizens reentering the United States from abroad, and federal appeals courts have issued contradictory opinions. In the absence of a controlling legal authority, CBP goes by its own rules, namely CBP Directive No. 3340-049A, pursuant to which CBP can search any person’s device, at any time, for any reason, or for no reason at all. If you refuse to give up your password, CBP’s policy is to seize the device. The agency may use “external equipment” to crack the passcode, “not merely to gain access to the device, but to review, copy, and/or analyze its contents,” according to the directive. CBP can look for any kind of evidence, any kind of information, and can share what it finds with any other federal agency, so long as doing so is “consistent with applicable law and policy.” ↩
\nThe strongest passwords are long yet easy to remember. A good rule of thumb is to select at least five random words. For example, “correct horse battery staple atom.” Include the spaces in your password—they give you extra length without making it harder to remember. The key to making your password more secure is length, not complexity; the previous example is much more secure than “ruvsybgj36,” provided the word selection really is random. Don’t come up with the words on your own; your brain may not be a good random generator. If you look around your room and make your password “curtain chair window sky,” that isn’t random. Instead, choose words randomly from a list like this one. ↩
\nThough the task ahead is weighty, with the judge essentially asking the two sides to settle a fundamental question of the post-9/11 era, CAIR is celebrating the ruling as a “complete victory.” ↩
\nWe spoke with the world-famous hacker persona and self-proclaimed anarchist revolutionary Phineas Fisher about the politics behind their attacks on the surveillance industry, the ruling party in Turkey, and the Catalan police. Here follows a retrospective on the exploits of Phineas Fisher, followed by their remarks to us.
\n\nText and interview by BlackBird.
\n\nHacking is often depicted as something technical, a simple matter of attack and defense. Yet motivations are everything. The same technique that builds oppressive tools can be used as a weapon for emancipation. Hacking, in its purest form, is not about engineering: it is about leveraging power dynamics by short-circuiting technology. It is direct action for the new digital world we all live in.
\n\nIn the shadows of the techno-empire, the hacking scene became a target for cooptation and infiltration. But the underground cannot be eradicated: from time to time, a new action breaks through the surface. Some of the hackers we admire are coders who produce tools for online privacy and anonymity. Other crews create and distribute alternative media. And then there are those who hack back.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2018/06/05/1.jpg\")
\nIt is no secret, for anyone paying attention, that for a long time the hacker underground was also taking sides in the ongoing war. Yet the effervescence that characterized the underground DIY scene of the past few decades has died down, or at least receded to less visible places.
\n\nPessimists mourned the death of hacker communities in a proliferation of individual desertions. It is true that the techno-military complex succeeded in swelling the ranks of the mercenaries: there is a price at which a particular mindset can be bought, whether with money, success, the feeling of power, or the excitement of playing with fancy toys while chasing what state propaganda labels “the enemy.”
\n\nThe underground sought to multiply zones of opacity and resistance, while public perception shifted towards normalizing the relationship between the hacker attitude and technology. Hackers were no longer seen as rebel teenagers producing chaos in a casual game (as depicted by movies from the eighties or nineties like War Games or Hackers), but as a highly specialized unit of the military occupation forces—or else as their comic-book-level villain counterparts. In the most depoliticized version, the term “hacker” is understood as just another name for the capitalist entrepreneur, a myth you can find in the “hackerspaces” of any gentrified city.
\n\nThe surveillance industry was so proud of its business that it did not bother concealing it. Representatives of the armed forces and vendors of spy programs showed up regularly at hacker community events, openly recruiting talent. Commercial videos pitching “offensive security” tactics circulated openly, selling products to intelligence agencies, corporations, and governments.
\n\nIt’s an old story: states buy legitimacy in the eyes of the public by portraying themselves as fighting the kinds of crime very few dare to discuss—child pornography, human trafficking, international terrorism. But as soon as they have the surveillance weapons in their arsenals, they direct these weapons against the entire population.
\n\nIn the middle of this ongoing cooptation of the hacker world, the surveillance complex experienced an important yet invisible blow. An individual—or perhaps a group—fought back by hacking spyware companies and publishing the contents of their secret vaults. When you’re fighting an industry that depends on secrecy, publicly disclosing their internal communications and tools can be a very effective strategy.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2018/06/05/2.jpg\")
\nIn August 2014, a hack took place against “GammaGroup,” an Anglo-German vendor of spy programs. A dump of 40Gb of information followed. After this hack, there were no more secrets about GammaGroup: everything was made public, including their clients, product catalog, price lists, and the programs themselves, along with their training manuals.
\n\nThe star product of the company, a program named “FinFisher,” had been sold to more than 30 government agencies and police forces to spy on journalists, activists, and dissidents. The company had been infecting dissidents in Bahrain and Egypt in the wake of the Arab Spring. They usually used social engineering to trick their targets into installing the software.
\n\nA targeted dissident would click on a document attached to an email, or open a link that would install the spyware. From there on, the clients who bought the spyware from the company would have control over the infected computer or cellphone, monitoring microphones, voice and Skype calls, messages, and emails, not to mention continuous location tracking.
\n\nImmediately after the hack, someone began tweeting from an account posing as the Gamma PR. The info dump was not enough: a hacker going by PhineasFisher released an old-school text file containing a tutorial with the details of the attack on Gamma:
\n\n\n\n\n“I’m not writing this to brag about what an 31337 h4x0r I am and what m4d sk1llz it took to 0wn Gamma. I’m writing this to demystify hacking, to show how simple it is, and to hopefully inform and inspire you to go out and hack shit… I wanted to show that the Gamma Group hack really was nothing fancy, and that you do have the ability to go out and take similar action.”
\n
The name of that phile was “HackBack—A DIY Guide for those without the patience to wait for whistleblowers.” For a gravely wounded hacker community, in which the original solidarity, freedom, and open exchange of information was losing ground against the commodification of knowledge by the market and the empire, this action was a breath of fresh air. And—perhaps—the beginning of a movement.
\n\nYou are the target.
\n\n\n\n“You want more. You have to hack your target. You have to overcome encryption and capture relevant data, being stealth [sic] and untraceable. Exactly what we do.”
\n
You can hear these words in the commercial for a product called “Da Vinci,” a “remote control system” that was sold worldwide by an Italian company named “Hacking Team.”
\n\nA company so shamelessly called “Hacking Team” is what results when a local police department approaches two hackers of a mercenary mindset with a request for collaboration. The cybercrime unit of Milan’s police force decided that passive monitoring was not enough for their purposes; to fulfill their offensive needs, they asked Alor and Naga, two famous Italian hackers, for help modifying a well-known hacking tool that they had originally authored.
\n\nWho their clients were and how they managed to infect and spy on their victims remained a secret until July 5, 2015. That day, the twitter account for the company announced: “As we have nothing to hide, we are publishing all our e-mails, files, and source code,” providing links to more than 400 Gigabytes of data. As usual, the company initially claimed that the leak was comprised of false information, but forging such a tremendous amount of data would be an almost impossible feat.
\n\nThe ones who suspected that the attack had a familiar signature were not wrong: the sarcastic nickname of Phineas Fisher was once again behind the disclosure.
\n\nBy publishing all the internal information—and, later, another tutorial exploring technical details and political motivations—Phineas Fisher offered the world undeniable evidence about the operations of the 70 customers of Hacking Team. Most of these customers were military, police forces, and federal and provincial governments; the total revenue added up to over 40 million Euros. You can read the full list of customers here.
\n\nThis info dump confirmed that there were very good reasons for the global demand for privacy and anonymity. Alongside the Snowden revelations, the ability to peek into HackingTeam’s dirty secrets gave us an idea of the magnitude of the campaign of targeted surveillance being carried out by governments and corporations. We know today that there are many other unscrupulous firms profiting from illegal spy operations—such as the Israel-based NSO Group, recently involved in targeted infection of the devices of journalists investigating the Iguala massacre in Mexico, which used base tricks to lure their victims into compromising their own devices.
\n\nThis anonymous unmasking of HackingTeam was a brilliant operation with global repercussions.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2018/06/05/3.jpg\")
\nA business like Hacking Team depends on secrecy. To infect their targets, in many of the cases something called a “zero day”1 is used. A zero day is a vulnerability in a computer program that has not been publicly disclosed yet, which can be exploited by anyone who knows about it to attack computer programs, data, or networks, in many cases offering complete remote control over them. Recently, surveillance capitalism has created a net of companies that act as brokers, buying these vulnerabilities in black and gray markets. The price for a single zero day can range from $10k to $300k or even $1 million.
\n\nSpyware companies like Hacking Team “weaponize” these vulnerabilities, gluing several of them together and selling licenses to the forces of repression so they can simply “click and spy,” with the added possibility of custom developments for penetrating the systems that belong to chosen victims.
\n\nThe window of opportunity to take advantage of these “zero days” gets shorter over time. The more you use the knowledge of an unknown vulnerability, the higher the chances that someone will notice the attack and start investigating the holes that allowed it, and the higher the likelihood that other groups will find the same holes. The opportunity to use the vulnerabilities ends when the software in the user’s device is patched to fix the errors: this is why it is so important to keep our devices up to date. However, there are cases in which the manufacturers of our devices make the update procedure difficult or even impossible.
\n\nVulnerability brokers and spyware vendors make it possible for technically incompetent people to infect, spy, and exfiltrate data from their targets just by filling forms and clicking around a web application. We saw this when we were able to dissect software like XKeyscore or Hacking Team’s Galileo suite.
\n\nThe irony is that selling dumb-proof spy tools to the cops can give you a false sense of security. Phineas found that the compromised systems were using absolutely lame passwords such as “P4ssword,” “wolverine,” or “universo.” No one is free from the basic rules of operational security!
\n\nAnother advantage of cyberspace is that you do not have to travel to attack a target on the other side of the world. You do not even have to get out of bed, although often that is a good idea in order to keep a balanced mind.
\n\n“I hacked AKP,” Phineas announced in 2016 after having breached the servers of the ruling Turkish party. A dump of more than 100GB of AKP files and emails was passed on to the revolutionary forces in Kurdistan. Phineas had to hurry because Wikileaks published the information before he even finished downloading all the data.
\n\nInformation is not the only thing that arrived in Kurdistan thanks to hacking actions: Phineas also exploited a vulnerability in the security systems of an undisclosed bank and sent 10,000 euros in bitcoin to Rojava Plan, a group coordinating international solidarity with the autonomous region of Rojava.
\n\nIn May 2016, after watching the documentary “Ciutat Morta,” Phineas thought about trying a simple attack on the Catalan Police Forces. Ciutat Morta is a film about the 4F case, a famous case in the history of the Spanish state in which repressive forces tortured and imprisoned several young people from South America as an act of revenge after a policeman was put into a coma by the impact of a stone following a police charge in downtown Barcelona.
\n\nAs a result of this new hacking action, using a well-known vulnerability, Phineas defaced the website of the union of the Catalan police with an ironic manifesto declaring that the organization “was refounded as a union in favor of human rights.” A data dump with personal details of some 5000 police accounts appeared, along with a 40-minute video tutorial on the techniques used in the hack.
\n\nShortly afterwards, the police carried out several raids on social centers and hacklabs in Barcelona, then claimed to have caught the famous hacker. Only hours later, journalists reported that the same person had contacted them to say that “he was alive and well” and that the police forces had only imprisoned a scapegoat who happened to have retweeted the info in the dumps.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2018/06/05/4.jpg\")
After the Catalan police carried out a series of unsuccessful raids in pursuit of the hacker, Phineas Fisher agreed to do an interview with Vice Magazine on the condition that his answers be presented by a puppet.
\nOne of the most interesting consequences of the Phineas Fisher actions is the look you see in the eyes of your fellow hackers when you discuss the topic with them. Chileans will tell you that Phineas is obviously a Latino. Squatters in Barcelona swear that the tone is familiar. Italians will do the same. US-Americans think she or he speaks like one of them. And then there is the commonsense assumption that, like any good hacker, Phineas must be Russian—one of those Russians who speaks surprisingly good Spanish.
\n\nThere is indeed something familiar in the actions of this ghost: a deep sense of justice and internationalism, and the feeling that his actions will continue to remain under the radar, because—just as in the past—nobody could believe that a person living an otherwise ordinary life could be the mind behind such deeds.
\n\nThe truth is, no one cares—except for the cops, who are having a hard time identifying this persona despite all their adversarial modeling paraphernalia and stylistic analysis tools. We don’t care about the identity of the person who does these things. It doesn’t matter, in the end: when that identity is burned, a new one will appear. Once you ditch the cult of personality, you suddenly gain a lot of freedom.
\n\nWhat we do care about is that, whoever it is, it is one of us, and his actions help us to realize our power.
\n\nThese direct actions show that, while a lot of effort and dedication might sometimes be needed to cultivate a concrete skillset, most of the time nothing extraordinary is strictly needed. Perhaps you are not particularly technically inclined, but you might be good with people: often, that is the only thing that is needed to pull off an awesome hack. Or you might not come from a technical background, but a determined and playful perseverance can achieve more than any formal training when it comes to making a breach in the realm of cubicle bureaucrats that only care about enforcing policy.
\n\nSecurity is not an absolute quality; there will never be an absolute power in cyberspace. Quoting Phineas: “That’s the beauty and asymmetry of hacking: with 100 hours of work, one person can undo years of work by a multi-million dollar company. Hacking gives the underdog a chance to fight and win.”
\n\nThe actions of a humble but motivated hacker can go further than the big, inflated egos of the cyber-security industry, or the academics who do not dare to act outside of the box. It’s not always the big hacks that change reality: someone who learns how to stay anonymous, someone who is not afraid and keeps the discipline needed not to leak personal details already has a huge advantage. Not having an ego to feed is also crucial in the business of keeping one’s personal freedom.
\n\nEventually, Phineas Fisher went silent. “I killed the accounts because I had nothing else to say.” And probably it was enough. Sometimes a little action is all that is needed to shift the collective mood, to render us aware of our own power.
\n\nPhineas Fisher is dead. It was more than a name: the tip of an underground network of practices and desires. It was not one, but several actions. Cybernetic guerrilla: hit and hide.
\n\nHowever, as anyone who wrote to the hackback email can report, Phineas is still enjoying freedom these days. Engaging in charming conversation, he or she will demonstrate that state does not have absolute control. As he likes to repeat: it is still possible to attack the system and get away with it.
\n\nPhineas has kept himself busy. He enjoys talking from the shadows about his new occupation. As he told us:
\n\n\n\n\n“Expropriation has some material effects, but it really is an ideological weapon. The rules of this system are not immutable facts, but rules imposed by a minority, and rules that we can question, change, and even break. When someone robs a bank, the State spends huge resources investigating it, not because it makes any economical sense to spend 100k while investigating a 3k robbery, but they spend it because it protects the shared illusion of private property. They try to wipe out that rebel spirit that plays outside of their rules.”
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He adds:
\n\n\n\n\n“You don’t need computer science studies to be able to participate in what the former NSA chief Keith Alexander refers to as responsible for the greatest transfer of wealth in the world’s history. In this big project, most of the work is not done by hackers, but by lay people, those who know how to find addresses where to receive post and parcels, how to use a fake ID in a convincing way, and how to use a burner phone. Those are all the skills you need to open a cellphone contract, open bank accounts and ask for loans, make online purchases and receive them. Everyone can learn how to use the Tor Browser and bitcoin, and participate in the darknet markets. Mafia and organized crime acknowledged this change, but anarchists open to illegalism and expropiation did not yet realize that we are not in the pre-internet world anymore, and that there are better tactics than robbing a bank with a gun. We are living an unique moment in history, and we have a great opportunity.”
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Indeed we do. Long life to hacking, and to all silent expropriations to come.
\n\nYesterday, the FCC voted to repeal Net Neutrality. Without those protections, private corporations—and the class that controls them—can shape what information is available to people according to their own interests. Imagine a future in which the content widely available on the internet is comparable to what you could watch on network television in the 1980s! Today, the flows of information on the internet are almost identical with our collective thought processes: they determine what we can discuss, what we can imagine. But the fundamental problem is that the internet has always been controlled by the government and corporations.
\n\nIt says a lot about the private sector that military development produced a comparatively horizontal framework that corporate control has rendered progressively less participatory and egalitarian. Unfortunately, there’s no anarchist alternative, no people’s internet to build up instead; this is the only one. State socialists have taken advantage of this opportunity to promote nationalizing the internet, arguing that this is an opportunity to formulate a vision of a better future. But if we don’t want the capitalist class to control our communication, state control of the internet doesn’t solve the problem: it is, after all, the state that is making the move to put corporations in control here, and the existing models for state control (think: China) are just as oppressive. We should take pragmatic steps to defend our rights in the current context, but a rights-based framework that takes the state for granted as the arbiter of social issues will never secure our freedom. If we want a truly liberating vision of a better future, we have to think bigger.
\n\nAn anarchist approach must begin by rejecting the false dichotomy between corporate and state power. From there, we must dare to dream about decentralized forms of infrastructure that are resilient against top-down control. The internet, in its current form, is indeed indispensable for participating in society; but that doesn’t mean we should take the current form of the internet—or of society—for granted as the best or only possible model. It was our resources, extracted from us in the form of taxes and labor and innovation, that helped create both in the first place. What could we create if our efforts were not shaped by the constraints of the state and the imperatives of the market?
\n\nOur long-term goal should be to seize back the structures that we helped build, but we will have to transform them to make them function in our interests—so we may as well begin experimenting with parallel structures right now. Even reformists must recognize that doing so is practically the only way to gain leverage on those who currently control the means by which we communicate.
\n\nTechnology is never neutral. It’s always political: it always expresses and reinforces the power dynamics and aspirations that gave rise to it. If engineers and programmers don’t build from a political framework with the explicit intention of creating egalitarian relations, their work will always be used to concentrate power and oppress people.
\n\nFor more on the limitations that capitalism coded into the digital from the outset, read Deserting the Digital Utopia. For details on the end of Net Neutrality and the radical alternatives to corporate control, read the following text by William Budington, also interviewed on The Final Straw.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2017/12/15/1.jpg\")
If you want an image of the future, imagine an internet service provider stamping on a human brain—forever.
\nThe last bulwark has fallen that stood between broadband providers and a profit-driven feeding frenzy the likes of which we’ve never seen before. On Thursday morning, the FCC, led by Republican Trump appointee Ajit Pai, voted in a 3-2 split to repeal 2015 regulations enforcing strong consumer protections on the provision of Internet services, popularly known as Net Neutrality. The repeal will allow Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to bundle Internet plans in much the same way as they do cable plans, allowing access to certain websites only when you pay up. In addition, it also allows ISPs to create tiered levels of Internet access, forcing websites and content providers that have enjoyed the benefit of an equal playing field over the past years to pay more money in order to compete with properties owned by the cable companies themselves.
\n\nWant to buy bandwidth from your favorite Telecommunications company, like AT&T, Verizon, or Comcast? How about Telco Lite, with access to Wikipedia? That’ll be $59.99/mo. Oh, you want Telco Super, with YouTube bundled in? $79.99. You dare to ask for Netflix, a competitor to Comcast’s own Hulu service? Sure, Telco Ultra can give you that—for the price of $99.99.
\n\nLet us be clear: this repeal only benefits the ISPs. It allows ISPs to use their privileged position as the proprietor of the physical infrastructure for home Internet access to squeeze out profit from both sides of the pipe they control—to gouge both content creators and regular users alike. Everyone else, like 74% of Americans who favor Net Neutrality, or the overwhelming majority of people who submitted unique comments to the FCC opposing the repeal in the public feedback phase, be damned.
\n\nIn 2015, under the then-comissioner of the FCC Tom Wheeler, provision of Internet access was reclassified under Title II of the Communications Act. This meant that ISPs were regulated similarly to a utility, and that preferential treatment could not be provided to some websites over others. This is often referred to as an even on-ramp: when you open your browser, you’d see the same Internet everyone else sees. You’d have the same access to information as every other Internet user. Your ISP could still charge you for faster access in general, just not for faster access to particular parts of the net. Even with these regulations in place, ISPs have been found violating them over and over again. As recently as July, Verizon was caught throttling (read: slowing down) Netflix videos, in violation of FCC rules. But don’t worry, Chairman Pai says—we don’t need Net Neutrality because the ISPs will self-regulate. Yeah, right.
\n\nDirty tricks abounded in the lead-up to Thursday’s vote. In the aforementioned public feedback phase, millions of fake anti-Net Neutrality comments were submitted to the FCC website. These used variations of phrases—slightly modified to have the same meaning but using different words—in order to give the appearance of a unique comment being submitted. Especially disturbing was the fact that the comments were given under assumed names, often those of the deceased, or of those who are alive but never themselves submitted anything. So concerning was the practice that it prompted the NY Attorney General to open an investigation into the identity theft of New Yorkers whose names were used in fake comments, leading him to eventually publish an open letter to the FCC after failing to receive any response to repeated inquiries.
\n\nWhat’s important for anarchists to take note of here is that a lot of the debate around Net Neutrality makes it seem like it pits one set of profit-hungry companies against another. Why should we care if ISPs or streaming services win? Let them fight each other, it doesn’t affect us. But the reality is much more dire. Since the major broadband providers effectively run what amounts to oligopoly control over our access to information, they have much more direct ability to filter, throttle, and ban outright content which they deem unacceptable or unprofitable. So, yeah, it’s about Netflix and Youtube. But it’s also about access to radical or anarchist content from CrimethInc. or IGD. In addition to shaping traffic, the repeal enables your provider to actually block content altogether. This puts our ability to create our own radical subjectivities under an even greater threat than before.
\n\nRegulatory control by the centralized federal agencies backed by state force is certainly no ideal to strive for, but (as is so often the case) the state has set itself up to play the role of savior. In that role it was holding back the forces of unmitigated private extraction of the information landscape. But could things have been different? As anarchists, could we have helped to shape the landscape itself in a more decentralized, autonomous manner? Can we still? Instead of corporations held back by state force, what would a non-corporate alternative to Internet provision look like?
\n\nThere are some radical alternatives that challenge corporate hegemonic control over Internet provision at a very basic level. Exciting examples of community-based approaches are taking shape in hacker spaces from Oakland to New York in the form of mesh networks. The idea is simple: instead of relying on the existing physical infrastructure built out by the large telecommunications companies, we can build our own infrastructure. We can take our home wifi routers, and program them to talk to each other, to provide access to one another. This horizontal communication stands in stark contrast to the usual usage of these devices, which is mainly to facilitate access vertically, directly to the ISP uplink. In this way, we can build an net that is created and controlled by us. Pirate packets, jumping through the air.
\n\nThe benefit for us is clear, and this is a fundamental, structural challenge to the current state and corporate control flows. So our challenge is twofold, both short-term and long-term. First, we must stop the immediate, existential threat that we face with the repeal of the most basic Net Neutrality protections, which threaten to silence our voices. Second, we must build a structural alternative to the current Internet, an other network, one where our voices can not be silenced by a mere regulatory shift because no one else controls it but the communities that comprise it themselves. A small example of this is the mesh networks that exist today, which are fledgling but precious examples of the prefiguration of power we wish to see.
\n\n![](\"https://cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/articles/2017/12/15/2.jpg\")
A six-gill, blunt nose shark (Hexanchus griseus) takes a bite out of an undersea internet cable.
\nYour smart phone knows more about you than anything else you own. A person can learn more about you and do more damage to your life by gaining access to your phone than they could by breaking into your home. What if you are forced to unlock your phone and hand it over to someone? We’re proposing that there should be a way to hand it over unlocked but without access to any of your private information and without access to do damage to you.
\n\n“Cop Mode” in iOS 11 is a brilliant feature — tap your side button five times and your phone disables Touch ID and requires your passcode to unlock. But as John Gruber and Jason Snell1 pointed out on The Talk Show, even if you have Touch ID turned off and you can’t be legally coerced to enter your passcode,2 you can be physically coerced. With enough torture, anyone will say or do literally anything to make it stop—see CIA black sites, Abu Ghraib prison, and Guantánamo Bay for proof.
\n\nThere are many situations in which a person cannot be reasonably expected not to give up their passcode: a person entering a country who cannot risk getting turned away3 and a person being physically coerced,4 to name two.
\n\nIn those situations, it would be useful if the owner of a phone could give an answer to the person demanding it of them without compromising their own privacy. Let’s call it Guest Mode.
\n\nLet’s say your normal passcode is 1234.5 This feature would let you create a secondary passcode, say 9876. When that secondary passcode is entered on your lock screen, your phone would behave as though you had entered the correct passcode, but it would launch into Guest Mode.
\n\nGuest Mode would make your phone appear as if it were a brand new phone in the factory default settings—kind of like private browsing / incognito mode, but for your entire phone. No third party apps. No web browsing history. No text messaging history. No cloud services signed into (iCloud, Google, etc). No photos or videos in your camera or photos apps. No saved notes. No payments in the App Store or for in-app purchases.
\n\nGuest Mode could do even more to protect you and your privacy:
\n\n“I don’t have anything to hide on my phone.” Yes, you do. We all do. As Moxie said, we should all have something to hide.
\n\nOur phones are not only windows into our lives, they’re windows into the lives of our friends, family, coworkers… into the lives of any of our contacts. You may think that you have nothing to hide, but you can’t say that for everyone that your phone can access. Protecting your phone’s data is also about protecting your loved ones.
\n\nOn top of all of the reasons for privacy and security, there’s also the option of actually using Guest Mode for actual guests. You want to hand your phone to your kid. You want to let a lost tourist look up a map address or call a cab. Basically, anytime you want to hand your phone to someone else, but don’t want them to able to see all of your things. Guest Mode is perfect for that too.
\n\nOur smart phones are probably the most intimate object that’s ever been invented. They hold so much of our lives in them. They can do real damage to us if they fall into the wrong hands. A feature like Guest Mode would help protect us and those we care about. If you work at a company that makes smart phones or smart phone operating systems, please make this happen. This is an opportunity to use your power and privilege to protect people.
\n\n…and many others have before them. ↩
\nFor now, in the U.S. ↩
\nPolitical asylums seekers. Refugees fleeing a war zone. Hell, anyone who can’t afford to buy another plane ticket. ↩
\nTortured. ↩
\nPlease don’t use 1234 as a lock screen passcode. For that matter, don’t use a four digit passcode. 0000–9999 is only ten thousand permutations. An attacker could manually brute force that and unlock your phone. A six digit is only trivially more to remember, but increases the total permutations to one million! That still won’t protect you from an automated brute force attack, but it will dramatically improve your odds against a simple phone thief. ↩
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