2011年7月15日 星期五

How to Organize Protests and Demonstrations


Protests and demonstrations help get your message across to two important audiences: the public and the protest target. Make sure you prepare and organize, so that your protest will be as effective as it can be.

Why Protest?

Protests generate media coverage for your issue, while also expressing your position to the target of your protest. Because protests sometimes antagonize the other side, it’s usually best to try to resolve the issue amicably before organizing a protest. However, there are going to be times when you can’t resolve the situation amicably, and a protest is an important tool to help get your message out.

Scheduling a Protest

When scheduling a protest, consider the target, the activists, and the media.
  • Target: A protest is more effective when you know your target is present. If your protest at the state house takes place on a weekend and no one is inside the building while you are outside with your signs and leaflets, the legislators you are targeting will not see you, and your group will appear disorganized.
  • Activists: A protest with a large number of people looks impressive to the media and to passers-by, so try to schedule your protest for a time when many activists are available.
  • Media: Try to schedule your protest early enough in the day so that a camera crew has time to attend your event and make it back in time to edit the video for the evening news. If your protest is at 5pm, it's going to be difficult for them to show it on the 6pm news, although it may show up on the late news. Also, the Sunday newspaper is the most-read edition, while Saturday’s is the least-read. A Saturday protest will likely be covered in the Sunday newspaper, which will be read by a larger audience, while coverage of a Friday protest will appear in Saturday’s newspaper and reach a smaller audience.
These three considerations sometimes clash, but of these three, it’s more important to consider the schedules of your target and the activists.

Preparing for Your Protest

Protest preparation is important to make sure everything goes smoothly on the day of the protest.
  • Protest Permit: Contact the local police and find out about protest permit requirements as far in advance as possible. You may find in some towns that no permit is necessary, but it is still a good idea to notify the police in advance so they can be there for crowd control. Then notify your activists of all the protest details as soon as you have your protest permit.
  • Getting your Message Out: Send out press releases the day before the protest, to make sure the media shows up. Make signs and posters to make it obvious why you are protesting. The text on the posters should just be a few words, and the font should be large and bold, so that a pedestrian across the street can read it easily. If you will be in an area with foot traffic, print fliers that you can distribute to people who want more information about the issue. Prepare a press kit to hand out to reporters. The press kit should be a folder that contains your press release, any literature that you are handing out at the protest, and general information about your organization. Prepare yourself to make a statement to the media and to answer questions about why you are protesting.

Right to Protest

In the United States, your right to protest is guaranteed under the First Amendment of the US Constitution as part of your right to Free Speech. However, the government can place reasonable time, place and manner restrictions on that right. Common restrictions include requiring a protest permit, limiting sound levels, and prohibiting the obstruction of roads, sidewalks, and building entrances and exits. Try to plan your protest as far in advance as possible, and speak with the local police about their requirements for protests. If those requirements seem unreasonable, speak with an attorney. If your group cannot hire an attorney, try contacting your local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Kettling the game

Manage protestors by detaining them en-masse in this puzzle game! If you mess everything up, bring in your horses (i.e. reset the level) with the space bar.

2011年7月13日 星期三

Being safe at protests - Protest kit


Mask-wearing protestors in D.C. can now be arrested

By: Freeman Klopott | Examiner Staff Writer | 11/28/10 10:05 PM


Wearing a mask while protesting outside a residence without telling D.C. police first could now get you arrested.
The D.C. Council has unanimously passed a strongly worded bill to deal with an animal rights group that has been known to wear masks and appear unannounced outside District residents' homes shouting things like "You should die." Residents have been complaining to their council members that they felt "terrorized." Critics of the bill say it's too broad and limits First Amendment rights.
"They scared some people so much that they feel like prisoners in their own homes," said Ward 3 Councilwoman Mary Cheh, who sponsored the Residential Tranquility Act of 2010.
Police can be called, Cheh said, but they don't always have the legal grounds to arrest the protesters.
The animal rights group in question, Defending Animal Rights Today and Tomorrow is the local offshoot of Stop Huntington Animal Cruelty. The international group was set up in 1996 to organize protests against Huntington Life Sciences, a European company that provides animals for corporate science experiments.
According to the group's Web site, they recently protested outside the Dupont Circle home of a Goldman Sachs executive, who the group claims is connected to HLS. It's unclear how, and DARTT didn't respond to requests for comment for this story. Pictures show the protesters wearing masks, and white trench coats with a bloodlike substance on them.
Now, police have the authority to arrest the protesters -- groups of three or more -- on sight if they:
» Fail to inform police before a protest;
» Protest outside a residence between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m.;
» Wear masks.
The American Civil Liberties Union came out against the bill.
"It's already unlawful to wear a mask while committing a crime," said Arthur Spitzer, the legal director for the ACLU's Washington branch. "Now they've prohibited peaceful demonstrations when people are wearing masks ... and there are legitimate reasons to protest outside a house with a mask on." For example, an employee may want to protest her boss and wear a mask so she won't get fired, he said.
Cheh pointed to the 1988 U.S. Supreme Court case in which the court ruled the First Amendment allows the government to protect people from "objectionable speech" when in their homes.
"People shouldn't have to put up with this repeatedly without being able to get help from the police because a group is able to beat the system," Cheh said.

C.O.P Suit

C.O.P Suit






C.O.P Suit was inspired by the COP15 climate summit. The brief was to propose solutions for, or to comment on, the ongoing climate debate – using wearable technology and design as a medium.
The C.O.P Suit is an experiment in personal protest wear, designed to address the by now almost ritualised stand-offs between police and demonstrators – what has ironically been described as the ‘folk dance of disorder’. The suit is composed of an armored protection sleeve connected to a megaphone-mounted helmet, offering protection as well as the possibility of voicing commands, orders or simply generating noise. The suit is designed as a purposefully ambiguous and (slightly) ironic artifact, echoing the fetishistic visual language of protesters and police alike – a comment on the similarity of the means each side employs.
The C.O.P suit is designed to be completely self-sustainable – utilising kinetic energy from common gestures in a protest situation (the fist thrust triumphantly into the air, the swinging of a baton or the force of a strike to the armor) to power the megaphone, making rioting hard on the ears, but easy on the conscience.

環保示威內衣為大聲公充電

在民主社會中,市民有上街示威抗議和平表達訴求的權利,但在不少「大場面」警察會穿上全套防暴裝備應付示威者,雙方很容易發生推撞而造成意外。

揮動手臂 自動發電

丹麥有設計學院學生以別出心裁構思,為示威人士設計個人示威戰衣,戰衣結合了環保能源裝置,讓大聲公的電源「長叫長有」,包保口號的聲浪可抵受警方所播的古典音樂。




這套示威戰衣名為C.O.P. Suit,戰衣包括一頂裝有大聲公的頭盔及一件裝在右臂上的臂甲,臂甲與頭盔之間以電線相連,手臂格擋或揮動時,會牽動衣內的自動發電裝置,產生電力供應到大聲公的儲電池。只要用家保持活動,大聲公的電源就會得到無限供應。





How to Hold a Legal Political Demonstration


How to Hold a Legal Political Demonstration


Freedom of speech is one of our most dearly held rights and a building block of any democracy. But there are laws that govern the assembly of people for the purpose of holding a protest rally. Follow these steps to learn how to demonstrate without violating the law
.

Instructions








  • 1
    Find out whether you need a permit to hold a rally in your area. In some localities a permit is needed, in others, it is not.







  • 2
    Notify the governor, mayor and other public officials of your intent to gather. If a demonstration is to take place at a university, you must obtain permission from the authorities and if given permission, stay within the boundaries provided for such rallies.







  • 3
    Inform the public ahead of time. Announce the date, time and location of the rally. Make sure that you are in a free-speech zone, and that the demonstrators stay within the boundaries.







  • 4
    Appoint members to keep the assembly under control. No weapons are allowed, but the police may be called in to detain demonstrators who are causing or inciting others to cause trouble.







  • 5
    Do not block the entrances to any buildings, and observe any local laws regarding the mandatory distance you must maintain from military or other establishments. The police have the right to break up any demonstration that threatens to harm the public or cause a riot.







  • Law Enforcement Gun Defense


    Spark, Smoke & Boom!: Stink Bomb Revenge!


    you will need:
    1] Sparklers
    2] Rubber bands
    3] Newpaper
    4] matches
    5] hair

    good smoke bomb



    good smoke bomb

    You will need:
    1] Potassium nitrate(saltpeter found in garden shops)
    2] Sugar
    3] baking soda
    4] Organic powderd dye ( Found in hobby shops)

    A] Mix Potassium and sugar (60g potassium to 40g sugar) put on a ow heat and stir... sugar will start to caramelize, Keep stirring until it looks like peanut butter.
    B] Add 1 spoon of soda, this will combustion, add 3 large spoons of dye( orange or blue works best) and mix very thoroughly
    C] Fill a card tube with mix, and push a thick pen into mix
    D] Leave to set for 1 hour, the shape it has formed using the pean as amould will give best results.
    E] Remove pen, insert firework fuse and secure with cotton wool
    F] Wrap with duct tape





    The smoke bomb you would purchase from a fireworks store usually is made from potassium chlorate (KClO3 - oxidizer), sugar (sucrose or dextrin - fuel), sodium bicarbonate (otherwise known as baking soda - to moderate the rate of the reaction and keep it from getting too hot), and a powdered organic dye (for colored smoke). When a commercial smoke bomb is burned, the reaction makes white smoke and the heat evaporates the organic dye. Commercial smoke bombs have small holes through which the smoke and dye are ejected, to create a jet of finely dispersed particles. Crafting this type of smoke bomb is beyond most of us, but you can make an effective smoke bomb quite easily. There are even colorants you can add if you want to make colored smoke. Let's start out with instructions for the easiest/safest type of smoke bomb you can make: 


    Smoke Bomb Materials

    sugar (sucrose or table sugar) 
    potassium nitrate, KNO3, also known as saltpeter (buy it online or you can find this at some garden supply stores in the fertilizer section, some pharmacies carry it too) 
    skillet or pan 
    aluminum foil 

    Once you've gathered your smoke bomb materials, it's easy to make the smoke bomb...
    Pour about 3 parts potassium nitrate to 2 parts sugar into the skillet (5:3 ratio is also good). Measurements don't need to be exact, but you want more KNO3 than sugar. For example, you can use 1-1/2 cups KNO3 and 1 cup sugar. If you use equal amounts of KNO3 and sugar, your smoke bomb will be harder to light and will burn more slowly. As you approach the 5:3 KNO3:sugar ratio, you get a smoke bomb that burns more quickly. 
    Apply low heat to the pan. Stir the mixture with a spoon using long strokes. If you see the grains of sugar starting to melt along the edges where you are stirring, remove the pan from the heat and reduce the temperature before continuing. 
    Basically you are carmelizing sugar. The mixture will melt and become a caramel or chocolate color. Continue heating/stirring until the ingredients are liquefied. Remove from heat. 
    Pour the liquid onto a piece of foil. You can pour a smaller amount onto a separate piece, to test the batch. You can pour the smoke bomb into any shape, onto an object, or into a mold. The shape and size will affect the burning pattern. 
    If you aren't going to clean your skillet immediately, pour hot water into the pan to dissolve the sugar (or else it will be harder to clean). Clean up any residue you may have spilled out of the pan, unless you want mini-smoke bombs on your stovetop. 
    Allow the smoke bomb to cool, then you can peel it off the foil.
    The solid smoke bomb material is flammable and can be lit directly. You can light your smoke bomb using a lighter, preferably one of the long-handled types used for barbeque grills. Only light your smoke bomb in a well-ventilated area, on a surface that won't catch fire. The smoke bomb will burn vigorously (more slowly with a higher percentage of sugar) with a purple flame. 

    Alternatively, you could place a short length of wick into the smoke bomb when you pour it, and then light the wick. 

    There are additional recipes for smoke bombs...
    No-Cook Smoke Bomb or Powdered Smoke Bomb 

    A variation on the saltpeter/sugar recipe is to replace the granulated sugar with powdered sugar (icing sugar). The powdered sugar and potassium nitrate are sifted or mixed together and left in powdered form. The powder is ignited to form smoke. 

    Zinc & Sulfur Smoke Bomb 

    Zinc Filings - Zinc Powder 
    Sulfur Powder 
    Mix the zinc and sulfur. Insert a red-hot wire to ignite the mixture and produce smoke. This is a particularly smelly smoke bomb. 

    Black Powder Smoke Bombs 

    Black powder (gunpowder) or pyrodex can be mixed with other substances to produce a lot of smoke: 
    as a powder, mixed with sugar and sulfur 
    mixed with sawdust 
    with sugar, sulfur, and a bit of material from a road flare (red flame) 

    It's easy to make a colored smoke bomb... 

    Recent Chemistry Features
    The recipes for colored smoke bombs require chemicals that may not be readily available unless you have access to a chemistry lab, but it's worth knowing how it's done. Parts or percents are by weight. The ingredients are sifted together and ignited to produce the smoke. 

    White Smoke Recipe 

    Potassium nitrate - 4 parts 
    Charcoal - 5 parts 
    Sulfur - 10 parts 
    Wood dust - 3 parts 

    Red Smoke Recipe 

    Potassium chlorate - 15% 
    para-nitroaniline red - 65% 
    Lactose - 20% 

    Green Smoke Recipe 

    Synthetic indigo - 26% 
    Auramine (yellow) - 15% 
    Potassium chlorate - 35% 
    Lactose - 26% 

    Reference: The formulations for colored smoke bombs came from Wouter's Practical Pyrotechnics, who cited the recipes as originating from L.P. Edel, "Mengen en Roeren", 2nd edition (1936). 

    You can also make a smoke bomb with colored flames...
    It's fairly easy to make colored flames by adding these chemicals to your smoke bomb recipe: 

    Chemicals Used to Color Flames 

    Red - strontium salts, most easily found in road flares 
    Orange - calcium chloride (laundry bleaching agent) 
    Yellow - sodium nitrate (common in chemistry lab) 
    Green - barium salts, such as barium nitrate (common in chemistry lab) 
    Greenish-Blue - copper sulfate (common in a chemistry lab, also found in many algicides for pool treatment) Blue - copper chloride (common in chemistry lab) 
    Purple - potassium permanganate (common in a chemistry lab, also used in sewage or water treatment) 
    White - magnesium sulfate (epsom salts, found on laundry aisle or in a pharmacy) 

    Essentially, you are adding metal salts to get colored flames. You may get additional ideas from looking at the Flame Tests, Fireworks Colors, and How to Color Fire tables. The metal salts listed here produce a relatively safe smoke. Use caution when considering other metals salts, as some compounds may produce toxic smoke.

    Gooseneck Wrist Lock to Wrist Wrap Hold


    How to make homemade pepper spray


    you will need:
    1] 2 table spoons of hot red pepper-powder/ground
    2] Rubbing alcohol
    3] Baby oil

    A] Put the red-pepper in a small glass and cover it with alcohol, 1c"m above the pepper
    B] Now grind and atirr it with a mortar (can use blender) for 10 minutes.
    C] Now add 0.5 c"m of baby oil and mix for 2 minutes.
    D] Filter the mixture with a piece of cloth
    E: just find a little spray bottle like lens cleaner spray bottle, and you're ready to go.

    You will end up with this nasty solution that will keep any attacker away from you

    How to Escape From Plastic Handcuffs

    How to Unlock Handcuffs with a Bobby Pin

    2008 Greek riots

    On the night of Saturday, December 6th, two Special Guards of the Greek police clashed with a small group of young men. The exact details of what took place are still unclear, but it is known that one of the Guards fired three shots, and one of those bullets caused the death of 15-year-old Alexander Grigoropoulos - whether the injury was made by an accidental ricochet or deliberate shot remains to be determined. The two Guards are now in jail awaiting trial, the shooter charged with homicide. This incident sparked an immediate and widespread response in the form of angry demonstrations and riots in many Greek cities that have continued at varying levels to this day - though dimming in intensity recently. Alexander's death appears to have been a catalyst, unleashing widespread Greek anger towards many issues - police mistreatment of protesters, unwelcome education reforms, economic stagnation, government corruption and more. (37 photos total)


    Firebombs fly in fierce clashes over Greece dump site

    Athens on Fire: Cars torched in fierce Greece street battle


    Video of Greece strike turning violent in Athens