Crowd Control

A riot is tactical when thugs conduct it; it is strategic when conducted by professional revolutionaries determined to gain political power.

No private citizen is in a legitimate position in attacking the police in self-defense. That is an offense. Attacking the police is a crime. To be successful and not a criminal, one must become the masters of the police system, i.e. one must legitimate hold power in the governing party. To go from private citizen to legitimate politician means one will go from criminal to one who will act as the lead authority in the state with the help of the police. Consider carefully the relationship you will have as a politician if you are known to have previously assaulted a policeman.

Those who wish to conduct revolutionary activity for the furtherance of universal democratization will have the sense to refrain from attacking those who will later stand as their guard. Police defend order, not individuals. But the police are individuals, and if one assaults them they will likely retaliate in time even against a politician.

When a riot is in full swing, police will deploy in a square formation with a command team at the center. The command team is protected on all four sides by echelons of troops deployed in groups of 10 or 12 officers. There is also an arrest team at the center of the square.

When horses come charging forward, drop bags of marbles on the street under their hooves. When men on foot come, roll out your skate boards under the feet of those charging at you. If you're chased by dogs, stick up a balloon full of urine in a place a dog will find it and bite it.

This tactical unit is very mobile and able to adapt on the fly to changes in the situation. If a threat suddenly appears behind or to one side of the unit, then the echelon facing that direction is designated the front of the unit. The entire team can then change the direction it's facing without a lot of maneuvering. Also, the echelons can cover each other when the team moves to take advanced positions. If the unit is under attack, the whole team does not move together: One echelon moves while the others provide covering fire or an actual physical screen (with riot shields). Then another echelon moves up into position.

The echelon is not meant to be an impenetrable wall of cop. In fact, the riot squad often leaves an escape route to let rioters run past the squad. The officers can adopt a passive position, in which they spread out and leave several yards between each officer. The crowd can then easily filter through them. If a particularly violent group moves toward the officers or they spot specific suspects they want to arrest, they can quickly close the gaps and form a tight line.

As the unit moves forward into a crowd, it will prod and push at anyone who doesn't respond to requests to move away by the time the front echelon reaches them. If they still refuse to move, the unit continues moving forward, but the front echelon opens up and passes around the protesters. Once the protesters are inside the square, the unit stops, the front echelon reforms and the arrest team processes the rioters. When they're done, the unit can continue moving.

One forms "affinity groups" of three to four people well-known to each other by sight; and these affinity groups will spot each other and rescue each other as a team. Each affinity group will pair with another, one person from each group knowing one from the next group, and then to the next group so all four people are connected to a further group, and in turn are connected.

If or when a group is contained or restrained or scattered, then there must be a place to flee to in advance for regrouping. maintain contact with other groups. Signal by number the rendezvous to other affinity groups. In case of arrest in a non-police-state, have lawyer's telephone numbers inked on non-sweaty areas of the body. Have a command centre relay names and numbers so help is on the way in advance of detention. If people know you're missing, they will account for you.

When a crowd-control unit gets ready for action, the first thing it does is put on protective gear. The full outfit is known as hard tac and consists of:

• Helmet with face shield
• Body armor
• Large body shield

If you will be in what could be a riot situation, the police have a right and a duty to arrest you for showing up in combat gear. You can justifiable show up in a bike helmet and shin guards, gloves and wrist and knee guards, if you seem to have a bike somewhere near. You can also wear wrist guards, knee guards, a helmet, and kidney belt if you hold a skate board or have roller-blades around your neck. You can wear long pants with the cuffs tied to keep out tear-gas. Bring petroleum jelly to cover your face and hands from the gas, and you will wish to wear goggles, even those meant for swimming. But you cannot arrive dressed for combat.

Shields are not allowed. One may find garbage can lids, though they're increasingly rare on city streets. Instead, one might substitute cafe tables and folding chairs from near-by patios.

The most basic offensive weapon a riot-control officer has is a baton. These are usually between 24 and 42 inches (60-107 cm) long and are made of any hardwood. Most crowd-control units use these instead of rifles because the mere presence of rifles tends to escalate any kind of disturbance, and if the crowd manages to wrest a rifle away from an officer, the results could be tragic.

You cannot defend yourself against a police charge and hope to talk your way out of it in a court of law. If you are in danger of being beaten by a person with a club you can use a chain to disarm him. You might, if you're agile, disable his arm or ankle.

The first step in crowd management is making sure a riot doesn't happen in the first place. Although sometimes riots erupt unexpectedly, they are frequently tied to planned protests and organized strikes. When the police think there is the potential that such a situation could get out of control, they contact the organizers and leaders of the protest or strike ahead of time. They set up ground rules that the protestors are to follow, and they designate a specific area for the event to happen in. The police assign specially trained officers to monitor the event. The point is that the police will simply provide a presence and work to ensure that everyone stays safe. Only if the ground rules are broken will any police action be needed at all.

While officers are trained to stay polite with the people in the crowd, they are careful to not give off an air of subservience. The police have to be seen as being in charge and in control at all times, even while they stay passive and allow the crowd to operate within the ground rules set out ahead of time.

Sometimes, though, these preventative measures don't work, and a riot breaks out despite police efforts to keep everyone calm.

The first step in crowd management is making sure a riot doesn't happen in the first place. The question then is why would you attend a riot situation in the first place? One attends a riot for the sake of furthering ones goals. The goal is not to allow the police to talk you into going home early. Agree with the police on all counts, then, and act responsibly in every instance right up till the rioting starts. Lie to the police with full confidence that you mean not a word of what you say and that you will ignore everything you've told them. The next time you encounter the police they will not trust you. From then on, you are in charge of whether you lie further or tell the truth. If you do the latter, you can complain the police don't trust you and have betrayed their word. Do not allow the other side to feel confident about controlling the situation. If you lie to them and betray their trust, they will not have the control they expect. Destroy your credibility so you are automatically unpredictable but assumed to be lying regardless. The other side will the have to respond in the worst case scenario each time.

Use the Arafat technique: Tell the opposition you're attempting to calm the crowd; tell the media something outrageous about the police; and tell the home troops to go wild.

Organize in such a way that your main group is at an edge of your assigned space. This gives you running room in three directions. The other side will often seal off an area, in which case you'll have reserves outside the zone and the opposition will be boxed in with the central core. The opposition is flanked and you have a rescue team. You move inward and the opposition has to break up to meet the new threat. If your main core is boxed in, you must have reinforcements to use a pincer to box in the opposition.

If a crowd gets unruly and starts taking violent action, then the police will switch to a more aggressive attitude. Their actions here reflect the fact that almost all riots are incited and lead by a few individuals who feel strongly or have something to gain from a violent confrontation. The majority of the people present either show up because something exciting is going on or are bystanders who got carried into the mob mentality. Faced with the possibility of arrest or confrontation with police, most of them simply want to escape and go home.

Most people who show up for riots have no idea why they are there. They are mostly by-standers curious and looking on. They will generally move as they are directed by those with the authority to move a herd. One must then salt the crowds with motivated leaders who guide the masses into proper formations. One does this by chanting and sloganeering. Engulf the collective mind in a single voice of short and choppy repeated slogans, for example: "Gag Garg, Hark Chark!". [Call it a spiritual chant from the mystic ancestral spirits.] Accompany this with rhythmic hand-clomping and foot-stomping in unison. Keep the group in solidarity by unifying the mind.

The first step is simple intimidation. Riot officers stand in strict formations and act with military precision. Once they form echelons -- lines of officers that effectively work as barriers -- the officers tap their batons on their shields or stomp their feet in unison. The result can be quite frightening to unarmed civilians -- it looks and sounds as if this group of armed and armored officers is getting ready to come crashing down with clubs swinging. In truth, this display is meant to scare off as many of the rioters as possible without the officers ever getting near them.

Use half of the first group to stand against the opposition thus: they will be committed and determined, some of the strongest of your forces. Those will meet the first rank of out-riding opponents, a medium echelon. Send in the weakest group against the strongest scene of resistance from the opposition, those in the center of the opponent's group. And finally, leave the strongest to battle the medium of the opposition in reserve. Ideally, weakest against strongest, strongest against medium, medium against weakest, guaranteeing at least two victories out of three with a loss of the weakest.

Police do not try to arrest every rioter. Their first targets are those who are leading the riot, because often the crowd will disperse without their leaders firing them up and encouraging them. All people who are spotted breaking a law are also targeted for arrest, especially if they injure or kill another person.

When it gets to the point where officers are actually in conflict with the rioters, the goal is still to disperse the crowd. A combination of advancing lines of officers and the use of noxious gas is used to direct the crowd in a certain direction or keep them away from a certain area. The crowd is never pinned down -- rioters are always given an escape route, since the whole point is to get them to run away.

If your crowd does run away, you want them to return next day for more. Everyone who is able can use the Internet and cell phones to propagate the incredible victory of the rioters against the forces of oppression. Next time the victory will be certain.

Be organized well in advance of your action. Know your routes to advance and to escape. Dress for success. Assign affinity groups and identify each others' contact. Set a number of rendezvous points by number. Mark down the number of a lawyer you will contact in case of arrest. Have your defensive gear with you. Know your terrain. Know where you wish to approach from and where you wish to exit from. Give yourself room to move but not room enough to allow for easy desertion of the less motivated. Leave room for rescue. Take the initiative from the opposition by lying and destroying any trust of your intentions. Assign your forces so that at least two out of three time you are struggling against a weaker opponent, giving you the chance of two victories rather than three defeats. Claim victory and claim brutality and unfairness on the part of the opposition. Really, all we want is fairness, right? Anything else isn't fair.

Ruthlessness might seem effective in the short term, but one must keep an eye on the future when rule is day-by-day. That is strategic.