Been a lot going on, but as barricades come down, we think its important to talk about security dynamics at RHED. We all worked hard to help build and defend the blockade, and we all need to challenge dangerous, even deadly, dynamics as they come up, both now and in the future.
the space may not be an autonomous zone, but some people seemed determined to make the same mistakes that wreaked havoc at CHAZ. The same mistakes that led to the shooting of two Black kids, and the death of one, 16 year old Antonio Mays Jr. These are mistakes of policing.
We do not ever want to watch the same shit lead to another kid killed. We'll share thoughts and stories from our own experiences at RHED, from conversations with comrades, and from concerned kids who reached out to us recently. We love this space and community — we protect us.
We protect kids most of all, and in the past week we've seen ourselves, or heard of, numerous times kids have been threatened with violence, or even physically attacked by a controlling security team consisting seemingly entirely of large cis men in tactical gear. Fuck that shit.
Three minors, one of them indigenous, were kicked out of RHED by a group of mostly white cis men with guns. A man told the kids they weren't allowed to paint without permission from the security team, before more "security" was called on radio, and surrounded and threatened them.
A teenager was assaulted and demasked by a "security team" after the kid sprayed paint at a streamer's camera. As the kid walked away, baton-wielding men in tactical gear attacked from behind, tore off their mask, hit them in the head, and placed the kid in a rear naked choke.
Recently a large "kill the cop in your head" graffiti piece was buffed by some activists in the blockade. Instead of covering it up, we suggest folks take that advice. Antonio Mays Jr. was killed by gunmen doing "security": Kill the cop in your head before it kills a kid again.
Assaulting kids over property, kicking Native kids off of stolen land ...that's just the creation of a mini settler police force, macho violence and posturing included. To rulebreaking kids: stay dangerous. We'll do our best to have your back; feel free to reach out anytime.
Below is exactly what we've seen starting to happen, and we want to start a conversation about these dynamics: they are both straight up dangerous and have destroyed action spaces, and occupations specifically, in the past. Cop mindsets just fucking suck.
Can we stop with formalized security teams at protests? It always just takes the ppl who want to exercise power over others, puts them in a cop mindset, and legitimizes their inevitable bullshit. Never seen a situation where organic group self defense hasn't handled shit better.
And this. Lot's of this. Big armed cis men assuming positions of authority can really fucking suck for women and queer folk, and it has, for us and others. Especially because of the type of dudes who like to gear up and order people about.
Sharing this again. Adding that security teams tend to recreate violent cisheteropatriarchal shit— we’ve always seen teams composed primarily of cis men who like acting tough. Organized security with cop mindset also likely contributed to the shooting of two Black kids in CHOP
There also haven't even been many instances where a special "security team" was at all necessary to protect people. We aren't even sure if there's been any time at the blockade when "security" has escalated to the level of chokeholds against chuds... just against kids with paint.
Anyway, we suggest not being cops, but once you've gotten that down, we suggest looking out for policing dynamics and talking about that shit before people get seriously hurt. We keep us safe, especially from each other
oh yeah they did that too... too much bullshit in one week for some very tired kids to keep track of :/
There was evidence in the graffiti of some conflicts that occurred within the eviction protest. Namely, between folks who wanted to tag buildings inside and "security" folks, some of whom shot at graffitting people with paintball guns.
had their dog get attacked by another dog at the trap house.