Arrested Development

I have been several times. In Minneapolis at a Neo Nazi March. In Fargo, not really a protest or anything just got attacked by the cops, really fucked up situation. Apparently punks are not allowed in the park while wedding parties are going on. Once at an animal rights protest. Once for burning a flag. They tried to charge me with arson. That got dropped as the flag was mine.

Do I recommend it? Hell no, it sucks. Not a good time at all and nothing is really gained. In fact I think it may actually have a negative impact. Whatever message you are trying to get across tends to get overshadowed by the arrests. It becomes a spectacle and nothing more. I've also learned that if you want people to listen, lose the punk fashion. Most people will not take anyone with a mohawk seriously.

If you are arrested the one tip I can not stress enough is "Shut your fucking mouth!!" They will use everything you say against you. They will twist your words and use them against other people. Just be quite. Most likely you will be charged with a misdemeanor and be out within 24 hours, longer if arrested on the weekend.

 

Do they make an English version of this t-shirt? Because i would risk being labeled a consumer whore, and buy that shirt.

All of the Protests ive been to have been peaceful, organised events. Its great because all the traffic gets held up in the city, take that traffic.
At one of these events i met a woman, i cant remember her name. I didn't think much of her until i saw something on the news a few months later about some "Eco-Terrorists" who had stormed and broken in to the construction site of the new Desalination plant going up near Melbourne, And they showed a 5 second interview with the leader before she was arrested, and it was the chick from the protest. I think they got her on trespassing on government property, inciting riotous behavior and destruction of property (the mob she was leading pushed down one of the perimeter fences, and i think they overturned a porta-loo).

I would say i would be prepared to be arrested, but would still avoid it at all costs. At the end of the day, protests tend to be remembered by how many arrests occurred, or how many police officers were "injured", rather than how many people were there protesting, what they were protesting etc. Getting arrested for activism makes all the activists look bad, same as how a few dirty cops make all cops look bad.

 

i have been arested protesting once. at the anti police brutality protest. i was the unlucky groupe that got trapped between 2 wall of cops. on of my freinds was able to hop a fence and get out but by the time i was hopping it i was pulled back down by a cop and pushed into the crowed of about 300 or so. they arrested all of us but i was not given criminal charges but given a fine. they kept us in a parking garage for about 5 hours i would say.(they took every ones watches cellphones everything..so no way to really tell. they would not give us any water or let us make a call. thankfully i was able to get my hands out of the stwist ties so i could take a piss. haha that was a dirty smelly piss corner by the time every one was done. some one even tried taking a shit.. i was eventualy dropped off in the middle of montreal somewhere i had never been and told to go home...

this years protest i knew their tactics and was able to realise what was going on a just escaped. i had to run up a car and use it to jump a fence. i wish my landing was as good as the jump. i ended us landing half on a concrete garden wall thing and crashed taking out a few flower pots and cut my leg. there were othetr people there trying to open a gate but it was l;ocked. i refuseed t get arrested again so i told them to move and i pretty much ran right through the fence. mister kool-aid style. but just missing the "OH YA!" at the end.

i gotta say though. getting arrested made me want to go back more. they try and arrest people and be rough to try and scare them from ever coming back again. they want you to say oh fuck that im not going they arrest and beat us. but that makes me want to go. and say YOU DONT SCARE ME! and protest even louder! \m/

hmm ungov u made me think about cops looking around at this site. im sure with g8 and g20 coming fast a site like this would be found and watched very closly. with a name like it has and the people on it. and i have heard many storys aboiut an organisation called csis. its like the canadien fbi or what ever. they been going to activitsts house telling them not to go to g20. and interveiw their friends about them to find out about their personality and what not, its to bad so far its not really in the cards for me to get to toronto for g20. with ever changing working schedule and the need and lack of money and so far no one willoing to drive down to toronto. but i havent given up hope

so that lkeaves me with one things to say. if your a piggy and your reading this. GO FUCKYOURSELF JUST LIKE I FUCKED YOU WIFE YOU FUCKING FACIST!

 

Its when Kids go to marches and do stupid shit that we all get a bad wrap.

If you do get around to it, ill definitely buy it.

This is excellent, i like to think that this is how i would respond to being arrested.

 

Just because I will defend someone's right to say something stupid doesn't mean I will agree with them.

 

Never been nicked at a protest but I can think of times when I should have been.


I tend to duck when the baton charge happens. It hurts when the baton drives into your torso.

The coppers here tend to hold the batons at gut height and thrust them forward while moving towards the crowd and they yell out "MOVE!" at every step. Once they make contact with the crowd the batons tend to hit various parts of people's bodies.


I have participated in un-arresting people.

 

You don't need to be arrested for the police to know about you.

They most likely know me, because my friends have been arrested, and apparently, they even monitored my friends phone calls during COP15 (where they talked to me).

I will try not to be arrested, but the fear of being arrested is not going to stop me from protesting or being part of illegal civil disobedience activities. At all.

 

ya being arrested is not a big thing...sure the fine sucks but its not goign to do much more then that. most of the protest tickets people i know have gotten did not even pay them and have yet to get any notice about the tickets.

what pisses me off most is when people destroy privately owned buisness...its dumb and counter productive. those are the buisnesses that we shoudl support as much as we can. if your really must smash somthing. go hit a mac donalds or burger kind or a bank or some shit liek that. done go after a ma and pa store.... one of the ebst things i have seen though was when all the cops were fighting to detain me and my friends they left a bunch of their cars and vans left alone unguarded so a bunch of peopel smashed the fuck out of them and stole a bunch of eqipment from them. god the things i would do to get my hands inside a pair of those riot cop gloves!!! they are leather and steal plated. they would fuck a kid up. hmm i just bought myself an extendo bat though. the kind cops use. hahah gotta love living next to an inian reserve. you go get pretty much any thing you want. guns, bats, tazers, knives, bows and arrows, airsof rifles...anything! the extendo bat cost me 30$ i cant wait for a that groupe of kids that tried jumping me a few weeks ago come back and try and finish the job. hmm that situation made it worth being nice to the local football team. those guys saved me from quite the beatign cuz no way those fuckers were getting my shit with out a fight

 

I agree with Rude Boys on the businesses - There's plenty of McD's to smash, why go for a small local grocery store?
But my experience with these sorts of riots is that they attract a lot of people who have no idea what they are fighting for or against.

Ungovernable:
I think they are watching many of us as private persons too. Really, getting arrested matters less and less these days, i'm sure they can use all that we say on sites like this against if they wish too - they've done so in other cases before. They don't even need to catch us to register us anymore.

 

Getting back to topic... i've been arrested for stupid things, nothing to do with activism..grand theft auto, public intoxication etc. etc. , but for my activities. No way, they are usually performed when cops actually do come, we are long gone. And for protests... no, usually when they start coming after you, you run. I wish they would turn into the Greece riots, where we would actually overrun barricades. But theres just never enough people, or balls. I mean you can do it yourself, but youd die.

 

in montreal people made a barrier made out of shit we stole from a construction site. they rammed the barrier with a bunch of cops and chased us up the street into their trap they had set up....

oh boy if i listed shit that wasent for rotesting i would have quite a few other storys haha

 

never got detention but i was taken to station for spray painting on bank walls "Capitalism is cannibalism" and I put some glue in a keyhole of butcher shop.i was there for 12 hours and got fine about 200$.

 

Kobac:
Nice one!

 

ok people lets keep things in perspective, yes the cops are watching this website and probably all others having to do with anarchism and/ or activism. we are living in big brother times and what they can do (and do!) in terms of technological surveillance if incredible. they know who all of us are and they know most of what we do, not to freak people out there, their not gonna do anything with most the info. they just want a picture of the networks we have etc. but come on people if you're gonna do an action dont talk about it the phone in too public places or on internet fora.

but back on topic about getting arrested. i read a lot of people saying that getting arrested somehow diverts the attention away from what you're protesting against of for. and this is true but the corporate media will never focus on the issue and always rapport what is in favor of those we are trying to fight. and although i do agree with arrest not being the best thing that can happen top you. im not gonna let the police tell me were i can walk or have my protest. and if that means being arrested so be it. now this might be easy to talk for me cause i come from a country were the cops are pussys and you have a lot of rights as a prisoner, so in no way interpret this as an attack on anyone else. im just giving my own perspective on this. but my point also is that it depends on you're action and sometimes getting arrested will only help you're cause.

as for advice about getting arrested, its been giving before but its the best advice there is DONT SAY ANYTHING