Author Archives: roverello

Stoccarda (Germania) – Notte di rivolta, scontri e saccheggi

Posted on by

A Stoccarda, nella notte tra il 20 e il 21 giugno, un fermo per un controllo anti-droga ha fatto scoppiare una vera e propria rivolta.

Alcuni giovani presenti in un parco vicino al luogo dell’operazione sono intervenuti per liberare il fermato poco prima di mezzanotte. In breve tempo a queste prime persone – tra le 100 e le 200 – se ne sono aggiunte altre, in buona parte con il volto occultato da mascherine chirurgiche – viva la sicurezza e la responsabilità individuale – e indumenti vari. La folla in rivolta ha raggiunto circa le 500 unità e ha continuato ad attaccare la polizia e le sue volanti con lanci di pietre e oggetti trovati in zona. La folla si è poi diretta in gruppi più piccoli verso il centro città attaccando e saccheggiando una ventina di negozi. Il tutto è durato fino alle tre del mattino, quando alla sbirraglia già presente se n’è aggiunta altra arrivata in rinforzo. Si contano circa diciannove poliziotti feriti, diverse volanti danneggiate, 14 tra negozi e ristoranti danneggiati, 9 saccheggiati tra i quali una gioielleria, 20 persone in stato di fermo.

Mentre in molti affermano di non aver mai visto scene del genere in quella città aggiungendo di aver avuto l’impressione di vivere situazioni da ‘guerra civile’ i servi del sistema si affrettano a ricondurre le ragioni dell’inaspettata violenza verso cause, per loro, più accettabili. Se da una parte c’è chi dice che la rivolta è stata determinata dall’eccesso di alcool altri affermano che invece deriva da questioni etniche. Altri ancora non riescono proprio a capire il perché di una tale e inaspettata violenza..

Qualcun’altro, invece, forse non fa fatica a comprendere le cause di questa esplosione di rabbia liberatrice. In Europa veniamo infatti da mesi di reclusione per un problema che – ingigantito, o meno, creato dagli umani o meno – è sicuramente veicolato e alimentato da questo sistema. Reclusione che è stata possibile solo tramite il massiccio utilizzo di infami in divisa, utilizzo che non ne ha di certo aumentato la simpatia e l’accettazione. Oltre a queste, il diffondersi delle immagini delle rivolte scoppiate negli Stati Uniti, che seguono di qualche mese quelle che, l’anno scorso, hanno sconvolto l’ordine di buona parte del mondo sono verosimilmente state fonte di una spontanea ispirazione.

Queste le probabili ragioni alla base di quella notte di incontrollato attacco e distruzione. Ragioni che causeranno di sicuro grandi preoccupazioni in coloro che governano questo mondo.. forse temono l’inizio, o meglio la continuazione, di una stagione di rivolte.

Se questa idea farà perdere loro il sonno a noi non può che farci sorridere..

Quì un articolo piuttosto esaustivo, di seguito alcuni video.

https://invidio.us/watch?v=FjZcyY8A2Zk

https://invidio.us/watch?v=tyHku5LQTQA

https://invidio.us/watch?v=-YKKJGZPmnE

https://invidio.us/watch?v=dCA-yPmJBaM

St. Cloud (Usa) – Two nights of clashes between crowds and police

Posted on by

ST. CLOUD — Reports of gunshots started a second night of unrest and looting in south St. Cloud late Monday night into Tuesday morning.In about a four-hour period starting at 10:20 p.m. Monday, up to 200 people gathered in the area of Ninth Avenue South and University Drive. About 11 p.m., sections of the crowd broke into the Southtown Liquor Store at the intersection and looted the store, according to a news release from St. Cloud Assistant Police Chief Jeff Oxton. About 40 people were taken into custody.

Throughout the four hours, police reported multiple gunshots, individuals throwing rocks, several reports of assaults within the crowd and three dumpster fires.

Tuesday morning’s events were in the same area a large crowd gathered early Monday morning after police arrested a man suspected of having a firearm.

During that arrest, the suspect fled and a police officer was shot in the hand when he was apprehended. The incident sparked false rumors of Black men being shot, which triggered that crowd to march to St. Cloud police headquarters, doing damage along the way and eventually at the police station early Monday morning.

The police release about unrest Monday night into Tuesday morning said while officers were investigating the initial shots fired call, numerous people started to congregate in the area, eventually taking over the roadway and blocking traffic. Police located no gunshot victims.

Individuals in the crowd began to throw rocks at officers and passing vehicles before the liquor store was breached. Multiple people entered the store, stealing items and causing damage, the release said.

More: Police clash with large crowd on 9th Avenue South in St. Cloud

At that point, officers moved in to stop the looting. “Chemical crowd control munitions were successfully utilized” after warnings to disperse the crowd, the release stated.

Authorities took 37 adults and two juveniles into custody on suspicion of unlawful assembly by early Tuesday morning. All arrests were taken to the Stearns County Jail. One adult was taken into custody suspected of burglary of the liquor store. The release provided no names of those in custody.

[Taked from https://eu.sctimes.com/story/news/local/2020/06/16/police-gunshots-started-4-hours-civil-unrest-st-cloud/3200501001/ ]

The World Is Ours: The Minneapolis Uprising in Five Acts

Posted on by

The following is a collective account from locals regarding the uprising in Minneapolis, which began on Tuesday, May 26th, one day after a Minneapolis police officer murdered George Floyd. It covers much of what went down in the first five days, but given the scope of the uprising, should not be considered a complete overview. It is also meant only as a report of what happened in the streets, rather than analyzing the context, historical background, tactics, implications, etc. of the uprising. At the bottom, a list of writings is included which address such topics better.

ACT I

Tuesday, May 26th 2020

A thunderstorm was brewing.

It was hot and humid on a Tuesday afternoon in Minneapolis. The COVID-19 pandemic had defined daily life for over two months. A horrific video of a police officer murdering George Floyd the night before was spreading rapidly across the internet. A protest was called for 5pm, with rain predicted to follow shortly. There was no telling what was going to happen that evening.

At 5 o’clock, thousands were already assembled at the intersection of 38th and Chicago where George Floyd had been killed the day before. The crowd stretched for blocks in every direction, with smaller groups spread outward around a larger radius. Quickly, groups began to break off to march to the Minneapolis Police 3rd precinct.

There were two large marches, one that went northbound on Chicago Ave and another that traveled east on 38th. For the crowd traveling down 38th, we made a turn onto Hiawatha filling all the street lanes. At a passing intersection along Hiawatha, two police cars pulled up next to the massive crowd. Quickly, some folks began throwing rocks and yelling before the crowd moved on to the precinct. A similar scene was playing out on the other march that went up Chicago Ave as well when police cars couldn’t escape the route of march in time.

I was in a smaller group that marched to the 3rd precinct a bit later, which departed not much later than the other ones. Over the two and a half mile walk, people began to spray paint slogans against the police and in memory of George Floyd and drag things into the street to act as barricades to protect us from rush hour traffic. At this point, the police were nowhere to be seen.

 

Before long, this group joined the large crowd that had formed around the 3rd precinct. When I arrived, banging could already be heard as the first floor windows were shattered, and tags had begun being written around the building. “Organizers” stood with their backs to the police and the precinct, screaming against all evidence that this was a peaceful protest. There was a standoff in an alleyway behind the precinct between three people holding megaphones, trying to defend a squad car from destruction, and a small crowd that smashed it relentlessly, as the megaphones screamed that this wasn’t helping. This small conflict was quickly made irrelevant as the crowd finally succeeded in dismantling a segment of fence protecting dozens of squad cars and police officer’s personal vehicles. Cheers went up as people turned their attention to smashing every window in that lot. People’s rage at the police knew no bounds.

Around 8pm, a small group of protesters in safety vests began yelling that the protest was over and that people should go home. This was met largely with indifference, although a few people shouted back that no one gets to decide when the protest is over.

Upon the departure of these supposed organizers, police moved in with tear gas and flash bangs. They attempted to push the crowds out of their parking lot and out of the street in front of the precinct. However, the geography of the immediate landscape basically rendered their attempts at dispersal futile. It was not a tight city block, it was a boulevard with an immense parking lot to the north, and an open hillside to the west. Everyone had ample space to retreat, recover from the tear gas, and then move forward again. Rocks that were taken from the nearby train crossing, alongside water bottles people had been drinking from, were thrown at the police lines to push them back. The police continued to use tear gas in large quantities, but were never able to hold any territory beyond their precinct.

Across the street to the north of the precinct, shopping carts are piled into and around a bus stop enclosure to provide cover. The police, holed up in their castle, were unable to block off incoming traffic and people warn drivers about tear gas ahead. At one point a semi-truck stops directly in front of the shopping cart barricade, providing the perfect cover from police munitions. Meanwhile, the crowd spread out in every direction.

These clashes continued long into the night. A liquor store, east across the street from the precinct, was broken into and looted. The police were able to send a team across the street to secure the building, but were forced to retreat eventually and looting began again. Only after 1am did crowds thin enough for the police to make a second attempt at securing the liquor store. In the area beyond, the police had no control whatsoever.

 

ACT II

Wednesday, May 27th, 2020

Crowds reappeared the next day in front of the 3rd precinct, which by now had been fortified with concrete barricades topped with large metal fences. Police officers were stationed on the roof, sporadically shooting marker rounds—rubber bullets coated in a brightly colored chalk. In the early evening before the sun even set, bricks began flying as the clashes heated up—some breaking what few windows remained intact on the precinct, while others aimed at the officers themselves. The cops unleashed a hail of marker rounds, which on multiple occasions hit people in the head. Fellow protesters used their bodies and umbrellas to shield those providing first aid, as others continued to gather rocks to fight back with.

North of the precinct, another massive barricade of shopping carts was assembled to prevent the police from advancing and providing cover to those throwing objects at officers. Police on the ground instead moved into the street east of the precinct, but despite fewer barricade materials in that direction, the crowd was able to hold the street fairly easily, and before long the police were forced to retreat back to the precinct itself. Spray paint cans were freely handed out and the already vibrant walls were adorned with further slogans. At the same time, the Auto Zone (renamed by graffiti as “Autonomous Zone”) began to get looted, before people re-entered the liquor store and then the larger stores around the area—Target, Cub Foods, and Aldi. The sun was still shining in the sky as people ran in and out of these stores, pushing carts full of looted items out into the crowd or into the nearby neighborhoods. Some grabbed boxes of food that they set out for others to eat and refuel next to graffiti that read “free shit for everyone.” Cars are constantly driving by, doing burnouts or loading up at the Target. Passengers hang out the windows to get a better view of their surroundings and shout “Fuck 12!” to cheers from the crowd.

Photo credit to @splitcoco on Twitter, used with permission.

In the clashes that continued, the police were unable to hold much of the street for very long. They would shoot tear gas and marker rounds, forcing people to retreat, only for them to return moments later. So while the front lines of the clashes rarely moved back—only later in the night when the police attempted to escort firetrucks to the Auto Zone which had been set on fire did they actually reclaim any significant amount of territory—whenever the crowd retreated, people were dispersed further down the streets away from the precinct. These crowds stretched out, and stores further and further from the epicenter of the 3rd precinct began getting looted.

I saw youths of color in crews streaming down Lake Street. These crews were out to have a good fucking time, and there wasn’t a cop in sight past 31st street. Here someone was beating the windows out of cars at the dealership, pleading “just one more” as his friend urged him to move on, while down the street a car rolled up to collect the bucket loads of change that had been freed from the TCF Bank coin counting machine. People streamed into Walgreens and excitedly emerged back onto Lake Street with their arms full. A confused person drove into the McDonald’s parking lot and then tried to order from the drive thru, even though the trash can out front was on fire and the front windows had been smashed.

A late middle aged white woman emerged and pleaded “I am begging you to please stop destroying my neighborhood. I live here.”

I saw some gatherings of older folks, talking and laughing while they watched the chaos.

Word goes around that the large apartment complex that was being built across the street from the Target has started to burn. People gather in groups on the edge of the Target parking lot to watch the six story tall inferno, sharing looted beer and cigarettes with everyone. By the end of the night, stores in several neighborhoods were getting hit, especially as people began using cars to assist in sporadic smash-n-grabs in wealthier areas of the city.

ACT III

Thursday, May 28th 2020

It was well before noon when spontaneous looting began at the Super Target across the river in Saint Paul. This spread around the Midway neighborhood until the police responded when clashes broke out, which would remain steady for much of the day. Upon hearing the news I decided to grab some water from a gas station (which would no longer exist by nightfall) and bring it to the people outside of Target. I don’t even make it that far before I see crowds of hundreds of people joyful and exuberant while parading in broad daylight with looted goods from the Max-It Pawn shop and Sports Dome store. “Here’s some water for tear gas, you’re gonna need it” I cry out, to approving smiles and laughs as people reach out their hands to grab a water bottle from me. The police are nowhere to be seen.

I hear the distant explosions of police munitions outside the Super Target parking lot. This Target in the Midway neighborhood is located right next to the Western headquarters of the St. Paul police department and is also the 2nd most profitable store in the entire Target corporation nationwide. Today, it’s a battleground. Saplings are uprooted from the ground and used as battering rams against police cruisers. Rocks in the parking lot originally used for landscaping are quickly turned to projectiles. Lil Boosie’s “Fuck the Police” plays intermittently above the din of people shouting at police, laughing while sharing looted food and liquor with each other, the screeching of tires as people do burnouts in the liberated parking lots of nearby businesses, and the hilariously pathetic robotic commands to disperse coming from the police loudspeakers. Just like the 3rd Precinct in Minneapolis, the St. Paul police are unable to control the territory immediately surrounding their headquarters without leaving it vulnerable to attack from the increasingly bold crowd. That attitude didn’t change with nightfall either.

 

As darkness falls across St. Paul, SPPD strike teams move in to control hotspots where looting and arson was occurring only to be immediately pushed back by throngs of people throwing rocks and bottles and anything that could be picked up and thrown. Dumpsters are utilized as barricades and pushed into the streets behind us while we retreat into the quiet residential streets. This neighborhood was very well suited for the sort of “hit and run” rudimentary urban guerrilla warfare that was emerging tonight. While Snelling & University and Hamline & University were busy intersections with many businesses and strip malls up and down the main roads, the surrounding side streets were purely single family homes dotted with a few apartment complexes here and there. Alleyways and backyards provided ample space to hide from the police, regroup, and go out on the offensive once more. These clashes would continue throughout the night.

Crowds also remained determined around the 3rd precinct in Minneapolis. People collaborated to build elaborate barricades from anything and everything found around the area. Plywood from the nearby construction site, shopping carts, cart return terminals, stolen segments of the police’s own fencing, and much more went up and began to provide cover behind which demonstrators gathered tools and assembled makeshift incendiary devices. Tables distributing food and water were set up close to the barricade, and people began to more confidently occupy the space. Around five pm, the police heavily tear gassed the area, and advanced to pull down the system of barricades. They pulled the majority into their own building, which was noted by many, and whispers started going around that they would definitely not be able to attempt the maneuver again.

During this time, looting and burning broke out with more intensity throughout the city. Elaborate sprinkler systems are what saved the larger stores like Aldi and Target from being completely torched the night before, but instead they flooded as the looting persisted throughout the day. Tons of food and aid supplies were gathered from stores and distributed outside for free. Throughout the night, many of the stores that had been looted the night before were now set on fire—many burned to the ground. The large parking lot across from the 3rd precinct had become a riotous party. A bonfire raged, as cars packed with people arrived and circled the lot. The shell of a torched vehicle was at the conflagration’s center; people tossed a burnt, looted beach ball back and forth across the flames. The collective din included cheers & conversation, the now non-stop blaring of sirens and security alarms, and live music coming from the tents used for distribution of supplies and respite from the sun.

Later into the night as the sun descended, the crowd began to get more and more daring. Tear gas was quickly thrown back or extinguished using tactics from the streets of Chile and Hong Kong. People moved between complicated setups of protective barricades, taking the edge off of the threat of less-lethal rounds. Whispers began to spread through the crowd that the cops would soon run out of rounds and tear gas. The intervals between the volleys definitely seemed to be increasing, even as the crowd grew more aggressive. People began throwing their fireworks directly at the police. Molotov cocktails were assembled by groups of strangers ducked behind barricades, and it slowly dawned on the crowd there was a very real possibility of overrunning this precinct, something that had seemed like a pipe dream on Tuesday night.

As the pressure increased on the police, yells went up that they had run out of tear gas, and it suddenly seemed obvious that they had not launched any for at least an hour. At 10 o’clock, joyful screams rang out as the police threw one last tear gas canister (which was quickly diffused) and formed a caravan of vehicles that tore through the lot fence, running for their lives as they were pursued, pelted with rocks and blinded by lasers. A barricade quickly went up to protect against their return, and a trashcan full of rocks was dumped into the street in front of it. Within minutes of their retreat, the great floodlights in the lot that had been illuminating and blinding the crowd all night began to fall and crash one by one, and we could see the doors to the precinct. The shattered floodlights and the barricade were ablaze within minutes. Immediately, hundreds rushed and disassembled the fence to the lot. Dozens of people rushed into the side door of the precinct, the intent was clear: to level this place. I witnessed people running out the door carrying pairs of boots, flashlights, and batons. People split into groups inside the precinct and began setting fires everywhere they could; with none significantly taking hold. Once the inside of the building had been thoroughly ransacked, the crowd retreated to celebrate with each other in front of the precinct as the fire gradually consumed the front facade of the building. Fireworks filled the sky above the precinct for hours as it burned, abandoned.

Later on, USPS vans were stolen and used to make a bonfire in front of the precinct, and on the peripheral streets large barricades were erected. All sorts of debris, metal fences, former bus shelters, planters, and more were assembled into barricades as bricks were stockpiled to defend from the suspected police counterattack. This counter attack came by daybreak, as State Patrol and National Guard arrived to reinforce the Minneapolis Police and reclaim a lot of the area around the 3rd precinct. The whir of Blackhawk helicopters in the sky became a constant reminder of this militarized presence, their constant surveillance and patrol of the streets.

ACT IV

Friday, May 29th 2020

With the area around the 3rd precinct thoroughly locked down by the State, the revolt was forced to either find a new target, or fade away. Given the collective intelligence rapidly emerging in the streets, it is no surprise that the next evening crowds marches past the police line down Lake street and makes their way to the 5th precinct, a couple of miles west from the 3rd.

 

Everything in the area was already boarded up, some stores likely hit in the previous nights of looting, others as a preventative measure. Smaller marches to Uptown wove in and out of the larger mass of people spread out from the intersection in front of the police station, expanding the territory freed from the illusion of police control. For a while, the relatively festive atmosphere continued from the previous nights. The Wells Fargo across the street from the 5th precinct was having its ATMs ripped apart while police stationed on the roof of their precinct dodged volleys of rocks and the glare of lasers. The energy of the crowd was joyful. I helped hand out water and first aid to the people who needed it with a group of medics who were monitoring the situation across the street. Graffiti writers were decorating the area with tags against the police, in memory of George Floyd, or their own monikers. As soon as the interior of the Wells Fargo was breached, it was set on fire, joining a number of other businesses on Nicollet, several of which had plumes of smoke rising from within.

After 11pm, the police began advancing on the crowd, retaking the street in front of the 5th precinct. They then began pushing the crowd north along Nicollet Ave towards the K-Mart which was being emptied of its contents this entire time. Vehicles ripped along the corridor in front of the large lot, which had long-ago been dug up for construction. People moved quickly to help a van full of medics displaced by the police; its wheels spinning wildly in the loose sand and gravel. Quickly, large barricades were being assembled on the street to prevent police incursions. Crowds of strangers came together to move sections of fencing, while a fire within a nearby backhoe raged and threatened a large, diesel-fueled explosion. Rocks and smashed pavers were collected in piles for throwing. It became nearly impossible to see how far the police were advancing thanks to the thick smoke of so many fires, combined with the tear gas that had been deployed. A crowd of hundreds, pushed into the expansive Kmart parking lot, still proved too massive and unruly to fall prey to the mass arrests threatened by the State.

ACT V

Saturday, May 30th 2020

With the reinforcements of other law enforcement agencies and the National Guard, the implementation of a curfew, in addition to the growing citizen reaction towards the unruly elements in the streets, the police were able to more efficiently crackdown on the protests beginning on Saturday.

It was the second night with the 8pm curfew in place, and crowds continued to gather near the 5th precinct. Not wasting any time police began to heavily tear gas the crowd after the curfew went into effect, and a lot of the crowd was easily dispersed. People began escaping into the streets parallel to the precinct, while others marched back down Lake Street where police moved to make mass arrests. Police and National Guard continued to patrol the area as the threat of arrest for being out past curfew lingers. I witnessed a few arrests as well as police ordering people to get off their lawns and into their houses. Some are even shot by the police with rubber bullets from being on their porch after curfew.

Epilogue

Back at 38th and Chicago (renamed George Floyd Square), the vigil has been maintained for the duration of this uprising and up to the present. The streets continue to be blocked off with barricades, murals adorn the walls, and music is almost always playing. Free meals are cooked, while supplies and groceries are likewise distributed freely. A stage has been set up for speakers to address the crowds that congregate there, which happens on a daily basis. Dance parties are also a nightly occurrence. Oftentimes, the speakers talk of God, or voting out the bad politicians, or coming together for peace. Nevertheless, the zone at George Floyd Square offers us the smallest glimpse of a different way of being together in the city. It remains mostly undisturbed by the police, with the tacit assurance that no matter how much those in the zone speak of peace, police incursion will mean war.

 

https://itsgoingdown.org/the-world-is-ours-the-minneapolis-uprising-in-five-acts/

Get In the Zone: A Report from the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone in Seattle

Posted on by

The following is an interview with a Seattle resident who has been out on the streets during the recent uprising and watched as both vigilantes, police, and the National Guard have attacked protesters in the Capital Hill neighborhood. Now, after over a week of intense rioting and clashes with the authorities, Seattle police have evacuated from their East precinct and an autonomous zone has sprung up around the empty building. Wanting to know more about what all is going down, we caught up to discuss how the last week and a half has played out on the streets.

IGD: Broadly speaking, what’s been happening in Seattle since intense rioting broke out in late May? 

Things began in Seattle on Friday, May 29th, with Saturday the 30th being the most intense day of rioting and looting. The days that followed all had similar arcs and tones, but were generally focused around the Seattle Police Department’s East precinct in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. This is where the majority of the evening clashes with police took place.

Every day has seen massive demonstrations throughout the city while protest infrastructure along the main business corridors of Capitol Hill has grown. Food, music, medics, literature tables and a vigil to the fallen all appeared over the course of the week.

IGD: The other day, the police announced that they were gathering their things and leaving their precinct. What do you make of this? 

This, to be very honest, is anyone’s guess. There are many theories around why they abandoned the precinct. Some feel that they ran out of resources, some feel that it was a politically expedient move on the Mayor’s part. From my perspective-this was a “good” move on the city’s part. They were getting hammered in the press for the nightly tear gas barrages and street clashes, and the crowds never really got smaller. When an active shooter was on the scene, people rushed to the neighborhood to give support.

Every day has seen massive demonstrations throughout the city while protest infrastructure along the main business corridors of Capitol Hill has grown. Food, music, medics, literature tables and a vigil to the fallen all appeared over the course of the week. 

The risks that people were facing in standing off with the cops night after night were just not the deterrent I assume the city thought it would be. Once they left the precinct, while certainly a blow to their power, the focus has been taken off of the heavily militarized police that is still lurking in the area.

They also mounted a hard counter ‘arson’ campaign through fearful social media posts about the “threats of arson to the precinct” and the Seattle Fire Department on “standby.” From my perspective, it was a strategy gamble on the city’s part once they realized that the thing they were defending was symbolic at best. What they might not have factored in is how important symbology is to revolt – the statues coming down all over the world is a good example.

IGD: The area in the Capitol Hill neighborhood that people have been gathering around has been described as an autonomous zone. Can you speak more about this? 

Autonomy is going to mean a lot of things to a lot of people. This space is certainly not controlled by the city at this point. But it’s important to remember that because of the pandemic, this neighborhood was nearly abandoned for the last 2 months, which has made it an excellent choice to occupy but also an easier space to tip over into feeling like it’s ours.

Capitol Hill is the historic queer neighborhood, and back in the day it was where the punks and the musicians and all the freaks lived. The pitched battles around Ferguson in 2014/2015, Occupy in 2011/2012 and the anti-police movement of 2010/2011 saw a majority of these conflicts on the Hill. This has always been “our” neighborhood – but as with literally every other city in the US, rapid gentrification and demographic shifts kicked everyone out, corporatized Pride month, and built the neighborhood into a tech corridor. Currently, the streets are ours again, and with that comes the next battle of what does it mean to be autonomous?

IGD: What is the crowd coming out to these events like? How have bureaucratic Left groups/peace police attempted to maneuver in this context and how have they been received? 

With 9 days of riots, looting, demonstrations, sit-ins, clashes and everything else it’s hard to categorize the crowds in any way. But across the board, especially for the Pacific Northwest, this was some of the most diverse, inter-generational and generalized revolt that I have ever seen.

The streets have been filled with energetic Zoomers and street hardened anarchists, “peaceful protestors,” and those wanting to directly confront the police and capital. What has emerged tactically is the idea that militant defense was acceptable, and that more aggressive actions against the police were more controversial, leading to a deep “peace police” element which has been consistent. Despite that, people of all types continued to charge cop lines, throw sooo much shit at the police and try to create tensions with the cops literally raining tear gas down on people’s heads. The complex nature of race and leadership has been prominent in these clashes, with white people stopping Black youth from doing their conflictual thing because they have some sort of in with, “Black leadership.” These dynamics have made cohesion in the crowd difficult but not impossible. Fuck, despite the peace police people have been able to keep the National Guard at bay and get them to abandon their beloved precinct, so they couldn’t have been that powerful in the end.

Overall, there has been a lot of emotion felt viscerally on these blocks. So much joy and so much anger held at the same time as people have been coming together physically for the first time in months due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Live music has been played every night by these musicians calling themselves the Marshall Law Band, less than a block away from where police would be shooting tear gas and flash-bang grenades at protestors. Surreal barely describes the experience.

IGD: The National Guard has now left; does this change anything at all?

The National Guard as of last night (6-8-2020), is very much still present in Seattle. They’ve been spotted at various public school parking lots and parks in the areas surrounding the neighborhood. Not seeing them in backing up the police lines, that have also disappeared from the block, clearly allow a more tranquil atmosphere to take place. There was a lot of rage and anger voiced at the National Guard when they would physically march with police to press protestors back, people still seem very attached to this idea that the National Guard is supposed to serve the “American people” and everyone’s been calling them traitors for serving a role in suppressing the uprising. The public school district of Seattle posted on twitter that they were looking into finding a way to block the Guard from using their parking lots as staging areas, an encouraging statement for all of us who’ve had to stare them down over the last week.

IGD: Law enforcement in Seattle and Portland seems to have trying to outlast the people on the street; tear-gassing people again and again. Can you say anything to their over all strategy on the street? How have people responded?

The police in Seattle have very clearly tried to fix their public relations image in the last couple of days that led up to their withdrawal from the precinct. Seattle police have been issuing countless warnings via sound-system, specifically citing the importance of peaceful protest and stating things like, “It is you the protestors who have advanced your line towards us, we have not made any movement towards you.” Eventually these warnings turn into a deluge of crowd-dispersal tactics, including but not limited to tear-gas, OC canisters, pepper-balls fired from paintball guns, rubber bullets and flash-bangs shot directly at protestors.

It was a horrifying and incredible moment that was a clear example of how a liberatory process will incur attacks from all sides and will have to defend itself in a bunch of different ways. Those who were involved clearly found that the police do not care for our well being, and that we can protect ourselves from reactionary violence without the aid of the police.

I have been nothing short of inspired by the crowds’ ability to remain calm in the face of these aggressive maneuvers by the police. Countless videos show the crowds simply slowly falling back from advancing police lines, forming defensive lines with shields and umbrellas, and even sometimes throwing tear-gas and OC canisters back towards the police. However, it is also in these moments where some individuals have taken the opportunity to throw things at the cops, which is still incredibly unpopular in the streets, even as the police are actively attacking people.

IGD: The other night in Seattle, a vigilante drove into the crowd and opened fire, hitting one person. Has far-Right and/or vigilante violence been a re-occurring problem? 

So far, the identity of the shooter is very confusing. As far as most people can discern, he is a unaffiliated, not-white regular ass dude from the South End of Seattle. Instead of focusing on him, I think it’s important to think about the response to his attack – which is irrefutable.

When he drove his car at significant speed towards the crowd, people did not hesitate to try and stop him. People put themselves in the way, tried to pull him from the car, pulled others to safety, and physically stopped the car with repurposed cop barricades. Someone was shot for his efforts. It was a horrifying and incredible moment that was a clear example of how a liberatory process will incur attacks from all sides and will have to defend itself in a bunch of different ways. Those who were involved clearly found that the police do not care for our well being, and that we can protect ourselves from reactionary violence without the aid of the police.

Our general response has been to show up, to be there, to have literature and info available, to stick with it night after night and confront the peace police and help the medics drag bodies out, to get people out of jail and have some of the conversations that need to be hashed out-and to make the alliances and build the crews we we will need to continue this past a conflict with the East Precinct. 

The threat of reactionary violence is very real, and I fear that we will see this boomerang back at us soon. But in the current moment one of the bigger threats seems to be the fear around these forces. As we speak, hundreds if not more people are messaging, tweeting and generally boosting unsubstantiated claims of reactionaries on their way to the Hill at any given times. This constant signal boosting of public police scanner channels has deeply hampered the ability to organize real and consistent response to if and when the right does choose to engage us.

IGD: Riot shaming, liberal disinformation, conspiracy theories – the wider Left has really shown itself to be lacking in overall analysis and understanding of the current moment. Just curious how people are dealing with the sea of misinformation and bad-faith actors.

There are so many people engaged in this movement it is difficult to break down one exact way in which these ideas are being addressed. It also greatly depends on which perspective you are coming from. We can see that the people positioning themselves to “lead” this movement are disingenuous grifters, while others think the same way about anarchists. Our general response has been to show up, to be there, to have literature and info available, to stick with it night after night and confront the peace police and help the medics drag bodies out, to get people out of jail and have some of the conversations that need to be hashed out-and to make the alliances and build the crews we we will need to continue this past a conflict with the East Precinct.

 

https://itsgoingdown.org/get-in-the-zone/

US Prisons: Recent Writings from Eric King on Resistance Behind Prison Walls During a Pandemic

Posted on by

Received on 17.06.2020:

March 29 2020

They aren’t doing testing here, they aren’t doing shit really. No hand sanitizer, no mask, no ‘social distancing’, the tiers and showers aren’t being cleaned even semi-daily, we still only get 3 showers a week and only 1 hr outside a day, typically super early in the gloom or rain. Medical staff told me they can’t even order tests! They have to refer it to a doctor, who then refers it to Regional, who then reviews it and decides whether to test or not. Bureaucracy at its finest. They will let us die in the name of justice, blame it on the virus and move right along enslaving, business as usual.

Things here have been boiling a bit and almost went off today. There have been guards going out of their way to make things difficult, lying through their teeth, talking so reckless, small things that build and build. So today during our cell rotations (every 21 days we rotate cells) we just decided to slow burn them and not participate. It’s not much of a stand, but it gave us a chance to say “no” to these pig bastards and blow off a little steam. We ended up moving cells, they will move you one way or another, but it felt good to air our grievances and make the day cops look like clowns who can’t handle the basic task of cell rotating. Here soon it could have been something much worse, so letting the small aggro out now was a good stress relief.

May 13 2020

Big IRA and Irish history memorials this month. Bobby Sands death-iversary 2 weeks ago, and James Connolly yesterday. Fittingly, last Tuesday the mail police here rejected two IRA books from reaching me, calling them books that “advocate criminal activity”. I pointed out, what to me is obvious, when your country is occupied EVERY act of freedom is considered criminal activity. The USA considered MLK Jr and every civil rights activist to be criminal, the ANC was banned and forced into illegality and so forth. Naturally, my pleas fell on deaf ears, but I was told the S.I.S. Lieutenant would look into which books on Irish history would be acceptable… I’m expecting Cromwell and William of Orange biographies.

…It seems like absolutely no-one remembers [Sundiata Acoli]. Like he’s just a side-note in the Assata story, when in reality he sacrificed so much for the struggle, and is so brilliant and inspiring to this day. Before this assault robbed me of the chance, I was angling to get transferred to his spot in Maryland, just so I could meet with, learn from, and just respect and appreciate him. I did get to be cellies with Jaan [Laaman], multiple-time long-term political prisoner – easily the best prison experience of my life. His understanding of resistance, history, perspective, prison resistance: unparalleled. He taught me the old-timer expression of “Fight to Win”, which I write on the wall of every call I’m forced to occupy. It meant to him, choose your battles and go ALL-in, don’t waste struggle on frivolous bullshit. He may not be pleased with me, because at the moment I go in on EVERYTHING, big or small lol. Resistance is resistance, and something as small as a missing item on a food tray or a pig violating my space via shake-down is enough to go to war over.

We (my pals and I) have been working diligently to create a spirit of resistance back here, to make it a hostile environment for those who deserve it. Last night they bullshitted our dinner trays, and the entire SHU held their trays until a replacement was brought in. That wouldn’t have happened months ago, so that’s a win. The admin terrifies a lot of these dudes, like they are traumatized to both fear punishment and feel like they deserve it. That’s how battered partners feel, the trauma bonding. So I spend A LOT of time disabusing that spell they’re under. By dogging out staff, going hard on the range, standing up for THEM when staff disrespects them it builds confidence and convict loyalty. A lot of times it’s just me and one or two others, but it still inceptions others that these punk-ass Admins are not either 1) infallible, or 2) invincible.

It also shows spirit, that we aren’t here, either on Earth or in prison, to be fucking conquered. I set my limits of what behavior I’ll accept, then also accept the consequences when they come crashing down. All we have is our minds and our actions, and mine are always set on my dignity and freedom.

BTW, share everything! Lol, everything I’ve ever said or done is open game and I insist you share. Lol. All I said above, SHARE! That Warden Greilick refuses to let me call my family in the middle of a pandemic because two years ago A-News posted about my being beaten at Florence, SHARE! That S.I.S. Officer Barrera considers books about Irish history to be criminal and writes fraudulent shots about my poems “inciting riots”, SHARE. That Officer Barrera considers a spell I wrote to my pagan wife to be “assaulting staff”, SHARE. That pre-trial prisoners are only getting a 15-minute call a WEEK with their lawyers, despite pending trials – SHARE. That our showers are only cleaned once per week and we only get three of them a week, SHARE! That I had 26 letters rejected between March 8th and May 13th by Officer Gilley, who has a history of retaliatory action and weird sexual comments, SHARE! Ella’s article*, please share! That we have trial in August and still desperately need people to donate because legal action is expensive as fuck – SHARE! That daily newspapers are often held for weeks at a time – also by Officer Gilley – and his boss ISM Murray sees nothing wrong with it, SHARE!

Eric is currently unable to receive mail, but people can still send him books or magazines, or donate to help with his legal costs.

*I never got to see it. They rejected it six different times.

 

https://anarchistsworldwide.noblogs.org/post/2020/06/16/us-prisons-recent-writings-from-eric-king-on-resistance-behind-prison-walls-during-a-pandemic/

Atene – Il commissariato di Nea Ionia attaccato con delle molotov

Posted on by

Il 3 giugno ad Atene, la stazione di polizia di Nea Ionia, a nord della città, è stata attaccata con dei cocktail Molotov. E’ scoppiato un incendio e diversi veicoli sono stati distrutti o danneggiati. Dieci giorni dopo, l’attacco incendiario è stato rivendicato dal “Revenge for George Floyd Group” in solidarietà con la rivolta incendiaria negli Stati Uniti. Qui si può leggere la rivendicazione in inglese e in greco.

 

Rennes (Francia) – Incendiata la porte della cattedrale

Posted on by

Nella notte tra giovedì 11 e venerdì 12 giugno, un incendio doloso ha danneggiato una porta laterale della cattedrale di Saint-Pierre a Rennes (Ille-et-Vilaine), rue Saint-Sauveur. Verso l’1:30 del mattino, un bidone della spazzatura accostato alla porta dell’edificio religioso è stato incendiato, causando alcuni danni.

Purtroppo, l’incendio non ha avuto il tempo di diffondersi a causa della rapida reazione del proprietario di un bar e dei vicini che si sono offerti volontari come vigili del fuoco. Allarmato dall’odore di bruciato, il capo dice di aver visto i vicini correre dalla sua finestra che si affaccia sulla canonica con bacini d’acqua per spegnere il fuoco.

Tuttavia, i vigili del fuoco sono stati mobilitati per quasi un’ora per questo incendio notturno. Il dipartimento di investigazione criminale di Rennes ha preso il controllo dell’indagine.

[Ripresa da Ouest-France e France Bleu, 6/12/2020]

 

https://sansattendre.noblogs.org/archives/13982

Brême (Germania) – Attacco contro la sede del sindacato di polizia GdP

Posted on by

La notte dell’11 giugno, abbiamo preso a martellate le finestre degli uffici del sindacato di Polizia, GdP, a Brema e abbiamo lasciato lo slogan: “La Polizia non è riformabile! ». Un piccolo, ma furioso contributo alla lotta globale contro i poliziotti e le violenze di polizia a sfondo razziale.

L’attuale discorso sulla violenza della polizia si sta diffondendo da tutte le parti, soprattutto a causa delle furiose proteste negli Stati Uniti. Ciò che afferma la polizia di Brema è: “Le azioni a sfondo razzista non trovano posto tra la polizia di Brema. Fondamentalmente, ci vediamo ancora come un’organizzazione per i diritti umani.” Stronzate! Questa feccia di politici e poliziotti non ha eguali in termini di cinismo. La lista degli omicidi razzisti commessi dai poliziotti tedeschi è lunga. Il loro coinvolgimento nelle reti neonaziste è ben noto. Tutti conoscono i video dell’eccesso di violenza durante le manifestazioni. I poliziotti sono sostenuti non solo dai sostenitori della Legge e dell’Ordine, ma anche dal loro sindacato, il GdP. Il GdP non è un sindacato come gli altri. È spirito di corpo istituzionalizzato e quindi parte del problema.

La polizia non è riformabile. Non è un’amica o un aiuto. È il braccio armato dello Stato e, in ultima analisi, è lì per far rispettare l’ordine dominante con la forza. Qualsiasi movimento sociale, quando provoca turbamenti nella pace sociale, si scontra con i manganelli e le pistole dei poliziotti.

Un saluto di solidarietà al popolo di Lipsia!

Gli scontri diretti sono inevitabili e numerosi attacchi alla polizia dimostrano sempre più spesso che non è intoccabile. Basta qualche amico, un po’ di coraggio e di determinazione.

Il Sindacato di Polizia scrive della nostra visita come di “un attacco a tutti i dipendenti della polizia in generale e al Sindacato di Polizia in particolare”. Noi diciamo: è vero!

Abbasso la polizia!
Passiamo all’offensiva contro la violenza razzista della polizia!
La solidarietà deve diventare concreta!

Brême (Allemagne) : La police n’est pas réformable ! Attaque contre le siège du Syndicat de police GdP

Filadelfia (Usa) – Telecamere sabotate per la giornata di solidarietà internazionale

Posted on by

L’11 giugno, giornata internazionale di solidarietà ax prigionierx anarchicx, come piccola azione contro il controllo e l’imprigionamento, abbiamo tagliato i cavi di nove telecamere di videosorveglianza, tutte situate nello stesso settore di confinamento. Vogliamo ricordare ax prigionierx che siamo assieme a loro nella lotta contro il suprematismo bianco e contro la polizia.

Manteniamo vivo il conflitto, fottiamo la polizia, per un mondo senza prigioni!

Philadelphie (USA) : Sabotage de caméras pour le 11 juin

Kiev (Ucraina) – Attacco incendiario al dipartimento di polizia criminale

Posted on by

La notte del 10 giugno 2020, l’edificio del Dipartimento di Investigazione Criminale della Polizia (situato a Kiev, sulla statale 25 Naberezhne) è stato attaccato con un cocktail Molotov.

L’altro giorno abbiamo sentito notizie terribili da Kaharlyk, in Ucraina, dove, la notte del 24 maggio, alcuni agenti di polizia hanno aggredito e violentato una donna che era stata convocata come testimone. I dettagli, con i poliziotti che le hanno messo una maschera antigas, l’hanno ammanettata e le hanno sparato in testa con le loro armi d’ordinanza, hanno fatto il giro del paese.

Lo stesso tipo di notizie arriva dall’altra parte del Dnieper, dove i poliziotti che hanno ucciso un bambino di 5 anni a Pereïaslav-Khmelnytskyï [1] sono stati rilasciati su cauzione.

Dall’inizio della reclusione domiciliare, la polizia ha invaso le strade di Kiev. La sorveglianza e la pressione della polizia si sono intensificate, i controlli ingiustificati sono diventati più frequenti. Come il comportamento della polizia nel distretto di Podil a Kiev: controlli con perquisizioni di passanti con falsi pretesti, richieste di mazzette, pestaggi nelle stazioni di polizia.

Questi episodi sono solo dettagli di un sistema più grande. Fingere di “riformare la polizia” rimane una completa perdita di tempo, in quanto la polizia è uno strumento di violenza nelle mani dello Stato. È criminale in sé, tutti i misfatti dei suoi funzionari sono solo manifestazioni estreme del suo monopolio della violenza.

Con la nostra azione, prendiamo a schiaffi la polizia. Facciamo appello alla società e a tutte le persone, affinché tutti si uniscano a questo sforzo, per non rimanere indifferenti, per organizzarsi e per resistere attivamente. La gente di Minneapolis negli Stati Uniti ha dato l’esempio: in risposta all’omicidio razzista di un nero da parte di un brutale agente di polizia, hanno lanciato una guerra di strada in piena regola contro gli oppressori dello Stato e i sadici in uniforme.

La società può proteggersi sia dalla criminalità che dalla polizia. Ciò richiede determinazione, mutuoaiuto e auto-organizzazione – lo sviluppo di istituzioni di autogoverno e di milizie popolari.

Incoraggiamo tutti ad agire affinché tutte le atrocità della polizia e dello Stato non restino impunite!
Chiamiamo alle armi!

Dei coraggiosi

Aggiornato. I media e la polizia ucraina sono stati costretti ad ammettere che l’attentato all’edificio che ospitava il dipartimento di investigazione criminale ha avuto luogo la notte del 10 giugno 2020. Secondo diversi rapporti, l’incendio ha distrutto almeno un ufficio nell’edificio e ne ha danneggiato gravemente altri. I Daynappers hanno collegato questo attacco incendiario all’omicidio di Pavel Sheremet (il bambino di 5 anni citato nel comunicato stampa).

[Tradotto dall’inglese da A2Day]

 

https://sansattendre.noblogs.org/archives/13985