Practical tips for white people for intervening if you see someone being harassed or harmed, especially if you see police violence happening.

First, follow this infographic.

Additional tips for intervening:
1. Start talking to the person who is being harassed. Sometimes that's enough to get people to stop.

2. Listen to whoever is being harassed so you don't escalate. It's important that you don't do things they don't want, like calling police.

3. Do. Not. Leave. After you've started intervening, stay until the person being harassed/harmed is safe.

4. If you can, intervene in a group. Or if you're by yourself try to rope people in to help.

Intervening tips 5. Don't just ask if they need anything - offer something specific. A ride, a Lyft, for them to borrow your phone. Sometimes it's calling the police but ONLY if that's what they want.

Intervening tips 6: If there are people around, do not worry about recording. Someone else probably is. Just worry about getting in between the violent person and the person being harmed.

If you DO record and the person asks you to delete it, delete it. It's their decision.

Intervening tip 7: Remember that intervening at all, even if you can't remember exactly how or whatever, is better than not doing so.

It takes work to learn how to be ready to intervene. It's something you need to practice. It's something that you need to be honest with yourself about BEFORE you witness something. Face the fears honestly so that if the time comes where you need to intervene, you're prepared.

If you're white and physically capable, you need to be ready to put your body in between the police or other violent harassers and the people being harmed. Because the likelihood of police hurting you in that situation is so, so much lower.

Practice thinking about what you'll say to people when you intervene, if they yell in your face, if they say horrifying things, if they're an officer and their hand is on their weapon. Practice thinking it through because it's necessary if you're going to intervene.

You can learn to get past the inclination to freeze. You can learn to get past the hesitancy, if you actively work to. But you have to actively work to.