@lugh yeah! clown bloc kicks ass! they show up in troupes with flowers and instruments, play upbeat music, and literally clown on fascists. it's a complex tactic that requires a lot of collective discipline, honestly, but it makes a HUGE difference. the black bloc can be kind of intimidating for folks unfamiliar with their role, and clown bloc does a lot to ease those tensions.

@garbados 👀 wherrest do I sign up?

@lugh unknown! a lot of these groups are pretty underground, but have access points through groups like Rose City Antifa https://rosecityantifa.org/

police disinfo came up immediately: that protestors had been throwing rocks, beating officers with pipes, etc., and they repeated these lies for weeks and weeks despite numerous videos of the entire incident corroborating nothing they said. the city's police chief went on a media tour talking with alt-right hosts about how "Antifa Whine & Complain Because They Got Their Butt Kicked" because the cops had been spoiling for a fight the whole time.

here's the police chief, danielle outlaw, speaking with lars larson about the august 4th protest. after some hollow complaints about "rule of law" she compares the protest to a schoolyard fight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcARQXi9vyM

we're not mad we "lost", danielle. we're mad your crew wounded civvies and you're apparently proud of it. we're mad you choose to protect the fash who come from out of town to crack skulls.

@garbados I hate cops so much lol

fascist paramilitary groups like the oathkeepers and 3%ers have a close relationship with our cops, coordinating with them to identify, isolate, and arrest noted activists during protests. dudes in body armor with full-autos show up with decks of cards printed with profile pics of activists mined from facebook. local repubs have contracted these groups as party security.

https://www.wweek.com/news/2017/06/30/multnomah-county-republican-party-approves-oath-keepers-and-three-percenters-as-private-security/

anyway this thread started off about coalitions on the left and became about how our police are in total fascist capture. even city hall is subservient to the police: when the police chief issues a directive, the mayor obeys; when the mayor issues a directive, the police offer only token compliance. they regularly execute the homeless and the mentally ill, they open fire on the unarmed and then lie about it, and when internal affairs conducts an investigation it reliably amounts to nothing

"how to organize against the police" is a big open question for me because they seem like such an overwhelming bulwark: a monopoly on force combined with absolute impunity and no real oversight. if anyone has any thoughts on it, i'm all ears ✊

@garbados i've organized against police & received death threats and harassment *from their family members*. it's a big rotten web.

that said, my group was exploring a wedge. in my cities, the police forces are predominantly white males. i think it's possible to turn that against them because the majority of the communities they "serve" are not white male. many don't live in the towns they patrol, either, so there's a class wedge as well.

@garbados here, a good number of journalists are (sometimes literally) in bed with police--family members, etc. but the puff pieces and hero stories lose a lot of their force if community members believe they're made up.

not saying this is the thing to do or that it's going to have big impact, but it's something i've tried and it had some effect.

@garbados “what is the most unethical, aggressive, abusive thing I can to do to own the libs?”

They can rot