• Awoo [she/her]
    ·
    edit-2
    4 years ago

    Have you ever been hit by a horse? Those fuckers weigh a tonne, kick and bite. Our cops come in swinging batons, headwounds from baton attacks is not uncommon.

    https://youtu.be/hLWm60hEgRU

    Horse charge. Oh, people haven't actually scattered? Horse charge fails miserably to achieve its intended purpose and one cop is paralysed from the event.

    Police charges in Paris:

    https://youtu.be/4cgnEQ3Nf8Y?t=48

    Foiled by not scattering. Having barricades. Actually fighting back. Don't tell me the French cops are soft, they're absolutely not, they beat people to death whenever they get the chance.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7isLhaNYgkU

    This charge/scatter attempt half-works but because protesters are actually fighting back and mounting a real defence the police are unable to continue pressing without reforming their line and protesters didn't realllly scatter, they just retreated in on single direction.

    One thought I'm having is that I can't actually tell who the hell is there to seriously protest and who just wants to have some fun shouting at police and recording video, this results in the protesters who are actually there on the scene not really knowing who is going to stay grouped -- the result of not knowing if you have group solidarity or not is that everyone scatters in self preservation. There's a whole lot of gawkers.

    Either way from what I've seen spectating often is that Seattle and Washington seem way better at their shit than the Portland crowd. Portland is out there every single night but when Seattle and Washington are out there they're out there for reals. I'm just dead surprised Portland don't seem to be getting better in any way or paying attention to how they're getting wrecked by the same tactic night after night with zero adaptation. Put up a small barricade they have to run around/split during a charge and they'll think twice about charging or something. Be more prepared, it's the same scatter over and over.

    • Baader [he/him]
      ·
      4 years ago

      This! Us police doesn't use any new tactics. There is a reason for black block tactics.

    • LangdonAlger [any]
      ·
      4 years ago

      Portland has struggled to keep numbers up. The city is much smaller than DC, Seattle, NYC, or just about any other metro area. Small numbers plus nightly dozens of arrests means fewer veteran protestors to hold the line.