Many repressive techniques are effectively mitigated by a simple maxim: the best defense is a good offense.
Mass digital surveillance is impossible if the Internet backbone has been taken offline by cutting fiber optic cables. Video surveillance depends not only on network connectivity, but also on physical cameras that are too decentralized to effectively protect against sabotage. A witness can be intimidated into not testifying in an upcoming trial if the car outside their house is torched while they sleep. Informants and infiltrators can be immiserated and attacked in countless creative ways. Increased police presence somewhere means the possibility of decreased police presence somewhere else. Forensic labs can go up in smoke. Police communications depend on TETRA[1] and P25[2] antennas, and police operations depend on the integrity of their vehicle fleets, stations, and individual officers' feelings of safety. The possibilities for attack are limited only by one's imagination.
Techniques addressed by this mitigation
| Name | Description | |
|---|---|---|
| Alarm systems | You can attack alarm systems or the communication lines they use to send alert signals. For example, you can destroy alarm systems or jam alert signals with a jamming device. Some alarm systems operate by sending signals periodically or continuously, even when nothing abnormal is detected. In such cases, if you attack an alarm system in such a way that its signals are interrupted, this may be interpreted as an alert and trigger an intervention. | |
| Guards | Before or during an action, you can incapacitate guards to prevent them from interfering with the action. For example, in their actions on logging companies machinery in so-called Chile, Mapuche people have neutralized guards by disarming them[3], tying them up[4] or shooting at them[5]. | |
| Increased police presence | If you expect the police to increase their presence at a public demonstration, you can organize to make sure the crowd is large and fierce enough: decentralized and autonomous forces are more agile than the rigid chain of command that police agencies rely on for crowd control. For example, despite years of planning to militarize Hamburg, Germany, for the G20 summit, rioters were able to liberate a neighborhood from police occupation for an entire night[6]. | |
| Infiltrators | You can attack infiltrators when uncovered or years later[7] to discourage the practice — police infiltrators are likely to be less enthusiastic if there is a local precedent of violence against them. | |
| Informants | You can attack informants when uncovered or years later to discourage others from becoming informants. | |
| Mass surveillance | ||
| Civilian snitches | If a civilian follows you after an action, you can scare them off with threats or pepper spray. If a civilian tries to call the police, you can destroy their phone. | |
| Police files | You can destroy cabinets that store police files on paper and data centers that store them digitally. | |
| Video surveillance | You can disable surveillance cameras. | |
| Physical surveillance | ||
| Aerial | During a demonstration, you can take down drones with fireworks, hack them, or blind them with lasers. See also 5 widely accessible ways to take down drones. | |
| Police patrols | The police can disturb an action. To mitigate this, you can distract them by launching a near-simultaneous attack on the other side of the neighborhood, or disrupt their communications by burning the cell tower used for police communications. The police can follow you after an action. To mitigate this, you can use techniques designed to stop them or slow them down, either preventively or during the pursuit: crow's feet or spike strips, gunfire, barricades, stones, fireworks, etc. | |