Some not-so-happy thoughts on community defense, a thread.

After every instance of cold blooded police brutality in the US gets publicized, there are renewed calls for community defense and Black Panther Party style patrols.
1/18

Before I start lets be clear: if youre ready to form a community defense patrol none of this should dishearten you but remind you of what the stakes are. Patrols are a calm show of force to stop police murders, not a guerilla group, but youll still go to jail for it. 2/18

The Black Panther Party is inextricable from the concept of marginalized community defense. White racist gangs may drive around open carrying rifles, but they lack all of the discipline, effectiveness, and purpose of the BPP patrols. 3/18

When Huey P Newton described the patrols, he talked about a few basic parts. A group would listen around the clock to open police scanners. When they heard police activity in a nearby black neighborhood they’d call a patrol team for rapid deployment. 4/18

The team would show up in black berets and jackets, legally open carrying rifles and shotguns, and calmly observe the police. This was all perfectly legal, and the Panthers were extremely disciplined. That didn’t stop the police from acting up. 5/18

Police would harass Panther party members, start shootouts, find & arrest members in their homes for trumped up felony charges, & sometimes even assassinate Party members. The patrols were the main reason why; other groups who just did "survival programs" didn't face this. 6/18

Armed patrols require three things: a ton of discipline, de-escalation skills, and a willingness to be jailed or worse. Lacking even one of these makes a patrol more dangerous than beneficial to a neighborhood. 7/18

Patrols are held to much higher standards than police and are easy targets for false flag operations. The teenagers shot in the Capital Hill Autonomous Zone are examples of this: whether it was the security patrol or a bad actor, the patrol was immediately blamed. 8/18

The government is looking for reasons to use RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) against Antifa. Antifa is meaningless and includes us all. This means it will be easy to charge patrol members as a group with felonies if even one member commits one. 9/18

If you are ok with these consequences, here’s what you might do. Form a group of people who you KNOW personally are all ok with the consequences AND the work. It doesn’t need to be part of a national organization. 4-6 people is enough. 10/18

Set a neighborhood boundary in which you operate. Patrols need to be made of people LIVING in the area, otherwise you’re just para-police. Start listening to police scanners and seeing how long it takes you as a group to get yourselves from door to crime scene as a group. 11/18

Study de-escalation techniques. Real training is expensive, but having group meetings where you act out scenarios & work through them helps. Take it seriously & make it fundamental to what you do. Practice, for real. https://www.crisisprevention.com/Blog/De-escalation-Tips 12/18

After a few months of practicing deployment a few times a week & studying de-escalation together, start showing up unarmed & recording the police openly as a group. If the group can’t do the earlier steps regularly for a few months they’re not disciplined enough, period. 13/18

Before even your first real patrol, get a lawyer. Most criminal lawyers won’t touch what you want to do, so call around. When you let lawyers know what you’re doing, sometimes they tell you what you need to change for them to be willing to represent you. Do what they say. 14/18

Carefully study the law. Open carry is legal in many states, but the laws are purposefully confusing to make it easy to trap you in a felony with a small mistake. EVERY patrol member must be serious about everything covered here, but especially this. No cowboy renegades. 15/18

The goal must always be to de-escalate and keep the person being oppressed safe. Don’t brandish weapons or point them. As a defensive show of force, you must be cool headed or you will get yourselves and others hurt. Don't put yourselves in middle of what's happening. 16/18

"But we don’t have time for all that! We need to help now!"

If you believe that, you’re likely to get yourself and someone innocent killed. If you’re not willing to lay serious groundwork, you should stop calling for the formation of armed neighborhood groups. 17/18

We as revolutionaries have to be better than the best cops. We have to know the law, be willing to face more lethal danger, be faster, & more careful all at the same time. Just driving around armed is bullshit: to be effective takes regularity, discipline, & solidarity. 18/18