On Wednesday, February 5, demonstrations are being planned in all 50 state capitals. They are organized under the hashtag #50501 and so far they are promised to be peaceful. But if everybody is invited to protest, there is no guarantee that the protest will be peaceful.

Bad Actors

Boogaloo Boys

First on my list would be the “Boogaloo Boys” The SPLC describes them as far-right anti-government extremists, though the Boogaloos themselves claim no ideology. During the George Floyd protests, one of them killed a police officer without cause or provocation in California. Others were spotted damaging buildings in Minneapolis just before those riots got hot.

Anarchist Kiddies

“Anarchist Kiddies” is an unaffectionate term from the Chicago area used to describe young people who want to break windows and watch things burn. Some of them showed up in Indianapolis at an anti-Trump rally after the 2016 election, gave a series of speeches at the Capitol while waving anarchist flags (one of them resembling the “Orthodoxy or Death” banner favored by Serb warlords in Bosnia). Then the speeches ended. One young woman lay down in front of a truck bearing a Trump banner who showed up as a counter-protester. The police tried to get her out of the way, but then other protesters started chanting. A Black Lives Matter organizer saved the day by yelling “Black Lives Matter” and leading them away from the scene chanting “Black Lives Matter”. The march around downtown Indianapolis started peacefully, with even a diner in a downtown restaurant applauding. Then an idiot broke a window. While the official demonstration ended at 10 pm with a group hug, the kiddies continued wrecking things and getting arrested.

Agents Provocateur

These folks show up at demonstrations urging protesters to smash things or people. In some cases, they are sent by the parties being protested: an antiwar protest might encourage a government agency to send APs. At Kent State, APs showed up dressed as hippies to get the people of Kent, Ohio nervous so they could justify their actions against the protest that ended in four people dead and a wave of campus riots nationwide. During the 1990s, not a little of the strength behind the KKK rallies that plagued Indiana came from FBI keeping tabs on the Klan. The most recent case of which I am aware would be against the Michigan militia who planned to assassinate the Governor over COVID restrictions back in April 2020.

Backpacks should be considered red flags. They may contain rocks and other things that cause damage. If a person near you is carrying a backpack during a march, chances are that they plan to use whatever is in it and if you are too close to them, remember that police do not get enough range training to hit their targets with rubber bullets and that tear gas hurts!

Other players, for good or ill.

Affinity Groups

A well-organized group of protesters may self-organize into affinity groups of around ten people. Should somebody start damaging things, the affinity group surrounds and immobilizes them. The classic method is taking them to the cops, or if the police are not trusted, duct taping them to a convenient street lamp. (Pulling the AP’s pants down is not necessary and may expose you to charges of sexual assault or battery.) With only a few days of planning time, the February 5 protest cannot be considered well-organized.

If you do not personally know people who invite you to join their affinity group, do not join them. You have not trained with them, and violent anarchists also like to call their groups “affinity groups”.

The Cops

A positive police presence separates protesters from traffic, tries to keep the flow of travel smooth and sometimes gets gruff and shouty. In such cases, don’t take it personally: in a crowd of chanting people, the police need to speak loudly and chances are good they are tired.

The negative police presence was seen several times during the George Floyd protests/riots. For example, Kyle Rittenhouse asked the Kenosha police to arrest him after he shot at the people he said were threatening him, and killed one of them. The Kenosha police refused. He shot again, claiming self-defense and the jury believed him at least a bit. Then there were the police hanging out in Bobby Rush’s Chicago office chilling as rioters looted other stores in the plaza, or maybe the cops who, ostensibly keeping order, beat people up at Ford City Mall at least ten miles from the actual riots.

My experience is that the cops usually do not want violence, at least before the violence begins. The Indianapolis cops were peaceful until demonstrators morphed into rioters at the November 2016 rally. There are always exceptions, and if the cops want violence, they especially want people to react violently! Please do not satisfy such cops.

Be peaceful and nonviolent!

Project 2025 requires a state of emergency to hasten Trump and Musks’ plan to convert the US into an autocracy at the service of Trump and Musks’ favorites. Do not give them this excuse! The US military is incredibly powerful — at the moment some of them are pushing back but when violence begins, they may no longer push back. While violence is wrong for its own reasons, demonstrators growing violent let the power they protest choose the field of battle and the weapons with which they were trained. Most Americans don’t really like violence — your violence becomes the oligarchs’ best recruiting tool.

Final words

The organizers, at best, do not know what they are doing. There were protests on February 1, and asking protesters to come out again four days later is asking for burnout. At worst, they want things to go down violently to bring on a declaration of emergency. The successful Women’s March of 2017 was linked with local organizing for the 2018 elections, consultation with lawful authority and enough lead time for participants to plan their protest and knit those pink caps. By organizing this way, they helped turn the House in 2018.

There is lots to do and if you are free on February 5 around noon, maybe writing your congressman would be a better use of it.

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