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Hi, I block cars and we've talked about the use of caltrops and it's unclear if they are effective or not for what we want. There's some information that's been posted on how to make caltrops already and think they have their place, but the problem is that when you caltrop someone looking to hit people with their vehicles, you end up with an enraged person who cannot leave and who may be armed.
Vehicular assault has to be prevented at least a block away from a protest, assuming they are already moving. It cannot be prevented in close range because they'll already have momentum. In the ideal case, when someone attempts vehicular assault by breaking the line a block out, a warning system allows protestors to get to safety. We use whistles with the international repetitive two-short-bursts signal.
That's really the best you can do, but I've also considered having banners around protests that can be used to toss over a vehicles windshield.

Caltrops should only be used as a device when you want to permanently(effectively) disable a vehicle and are able to clear out of an area. For example, if you identify a group of vehicles coming from an area that are definitely going to be committing acts of violence, using caltrops to disable their vehicles before even reaching a group of vulnerable individuals is an effective strategy.

Some notes from a conversation:

1) We stand for an explicit confrontation of racism that requires encountering discomfort. We agree that we support autonomous action, but thought that a more specific definition of autonomous action is necessary. Finally, a committment to building transformative justice processes to comfront issues of discrimination and abuse was seen as a high priority as part of our ideology to ensure people aren't abused within movement spaces.

2) Building a Working Group Infrastructure: Generally, the group felt there needed to be specific spaces for people to build new relationships and organize non-direct action related work (Direct action should be handled in Affinity groups). The working groups suggested were eviction defense, mutual aid, propoganda, and reading groups for education and transformative justice. Anyone who feels knowledgeable or skilled regarding any of the others (or wants to start a different working group) should take initiative and share.

3) Sharing skills: Generally, people want a more skills based focus for building action capacities. This can involve OTG tactics, anti-Doxx preparation, and security culture. The idea of skill sharing through workshops has also been repeatedly mentioned and would be a good way to not flood chat with suggestions

4) Anti-racism: A principle that was approved by consensus was that anti-racism must be centered in every organizing meeting, action, and discussion. Concrete organizational steps must be taken to make this happen.

No Badjacketing - The State Wants to Kill Us, Let's Not Cooperate
Twin Cities IWW General Defense Committee

"BADJACKETING: creating suspicion, by spreading rumors or unsubstantiated accusations, that people are undercovers, infiltrators, snitches, or cooperators. Sometimes this is done out of fear and paranoia. But normally, those who ‘lay jackets’ on others want to consolidate their control over a movement and feel threatened in their authority. It’s a favorite tactic of the State in destroying movements of liberation."

https://twincitiesgdc.org/badjacketing/

#communications #organization #security #intelligence #link

Every city needs stuff like this: