MET YER MATCH!

YOUR CUT-OUT-AND-KEEP GUIDE TO SURVIVING THE SUMMER OF RAGE

Police have promised an overwhelming response to protests in the City of London this week.

Here’s yer ten point guide to keeping the Met on their toes. Their primary tactic is likely to be an attempt to ‘kettle’ the crowd – i.e. surround them either in a pre-prepared space with crash barriers, vans and/or lines of cops. Once the crowd is contained they will only be released once searched and photographed. The best time to beat this tactic is as the cordon is being prepared.

1) Stick together – in small groups (preferably affinity groups agreed on beforehand)

2) Be prepared to react quickly – get through police lines as they are forming – cops don’t like being outflanked and may abandon the attempt to form a kettle.

3) Avoid surveillance – UK police are notorious for poring over hours of footage to pick out faces and get convictions. Stop police from filming by putting placards in front of the cameras (A stock tactic of FITwatch – see www.fitwatch.blogspot.com). Caps, hooded tops and masks are all worth using. A determined crowd can stop a mass de-masking – saving prison sentences later.

4) Baton charges – are used in an attempt to make people run or force them into pre-prepared cordons. A football shin pad under the sleeve of yer jacket can take a lot of the sting out of a truncheon blow.

5) Pepper Spray – now used increasingly. If affected wipe away from eyes and through hair with dry rag, followed by water to flush eyes.

6) Horses – a charge by mounted police is one of the most severe tactics deployed by British police. One tactic that has worked is the stringing of lines between lamp-posts about 7 feet off the ground.

7) Snatch Squads – Police will attempt to invade a static crowd to grab individuals. Keep an eye on senior cops (often wearing different coloured hi-vis jackets) pointing people out. Warn those people and defeat the snatch squad by surrounding it.

8) De-arresting – many people have survived an attempted nicking when their mates have grabbed them and held on tightly.

9) Fighting with the cops is possible – if there’s a supply of throwables to hand – otherwise they’re of course better armed than us.

10) The best form of defence of all is CHAOS! The police have a hierarchy which takes orders from individuals making informed decisions. If the situation changes constantly they simply cannot keep up. Keep moving all the time, weave in and out of the crowd. Change your appearance. Open up new directions and possibilities, be unpredictable. If you find yourself still and passive for more than a minute then you’ve stopped acting defensively.