Don’t overlook the possibility that protesters with placards on poles may be carrying more than meets the eye in the way of potential weapons.
Of course, any stick in the hands of the wrong individual can be dangerous, but simple modifications can make the wooden stakes prevalent among demonstrators even more threatening in not-so-obvious ways.
Tom Moy, a use-of-force trainer with the University of Delaware PD who conducts a popular listserv on officer safety issues, reports from East Coast sources, for example, that in some cases solid metal rods are being inserted into hollowed-out stakes to make them heavier and more powerful as striking weapons. Also, he says, razor blades are sometimes attached to the end of a stake to turn it into a slashing tool.
Some protesters, he says, “are using PVC pipes to carry their signs. When they strike officers with the pipe, it breaks, leaving a jagged end that they can then use like a spear to attack. And banners can be reinforced with wooden pallets to be used as a battering ram against officers.”
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority PD in New York City warns of an additional threat devised from hollowed-out wooden stakes. The hollow core is filled with steel ball bearings. When an end cap is removed, the stick can be slung toward officers, releasing the metal marbles to strike cops directly or cause them to lose footing and fall.
Step-by-step instruction with photographs on how to construct such a weapon can be found at a website designed specifically to encourage protestors to adopt more aggressive tactics than mere marching. At www.destructables.org you’ll see a wide variety of other how-to projects that you may end up confronting on the street.
These include:
• “Lock boxes” that allow strings of demonstrators to chain their wrists together inside tubing to form “human blockades” that frustrate police dispersal or arrest attempts
• Tips on how to withstand or defeat tear gas and pepper spray
• How to drill locks to gain access to parking meters or enter standard doors
• Cheap ways to manufacture smoke bombs without leaving “a paper trail to yourself”
• How to “assault” (disrupt) a mall with an “optimal” number (five to 15) actors
• How to “get out of dicey situations”; i.e., successfully elude officers intent on making arrests
As we head toward November and the election campaign intensifies, we’ll no doubt see a plethora of protests and demonstrations.
Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.
