Crowd dynamics are one of the most unused tools of the protest movement and one to which the police pay most attention.
Our understanding of our 'crowd' and the dynamics we individually bring to it can help tactically in actions and demos. Or it may see you get in a hell of a ruck with the Millwall, West Ham or Yeovil. You will be aware where the most pressing need for kaos is. Viva la resisdance
Our understanding of our 'crowd' and the dynamics we individually bring to it can help tactically in actions and demos. Or it may see you get in a hell of a ruck with the Millwall, West Ham or Yeovil. You will be aware where the most pressing need for kaos is. Viva la resisdance
We as a protest movement need to take on board the psychology at play within crowds and the influence they have over public order policing and seize the initiative back. .
It can depend on the demo / action etc but as a general rule when for example, as a substantial colletive mass of say a couple of hundred individuals then we can usually have a massive tactical advantage, but only if acting as one. We are all responsible for the momentum.
Not many demos get to one on one policing. At Most we will always have the ascendency of numbers.
If we give up our individual identity and submerge in the collective, then not only are we becoming the thing police fear most, ie crowds but we are also now assuming this collective power. We look around and exchange glances with comrades, names not always known or necessary, and we are strengthened, Our pace of walking can quicken, moreover this is of prime importance in sustaining crowd advantage, and the groundswell of feeling can take over. As in many things in nature it is probably exponential
This is magnified in crowds where the majority of people know each other. The buzz, heightened.
If we want to walk through police lines when we have every right to continue our peaceful protest, then a row of twenty or thirty in a single line of plod ought not deter people. In double formation, whatever. Numbers is numbers. But it is in how the crowd walks through that will determine the success. When unsure, the crowd will not succeed, if many dither at the start them momentum is lost. Know your purpose, have a vision of what you want to do.
Staying close , walking quick with intent helps protect the crowd and its purpose , sheer volume of numbers mean a break in police lines, dont stop if you cannot offer assisstance without further weakening your position, do not listen to pigs, do not talk to them unless absolutely necesary, no eye contact.
Studies of crowd behaviour during the break up of certain east european countries last century shows the otherwise passive, well dressed, obviously wealthy individuals in a crowd around a tank before and during its seizure and they move and swarm in distinct patterns before finally closing in and on the tank to disarm and capture the occupants.
We have the power
They fear our power
We, truth and love
They, lies and hate
We disperate individuals, many and growing
They ancient and inbred, few and decaying
We, Fighting for rights
Dance through the nights
Tomorrow is ours,
So is today
It can depend on the demo / action etc but as a general rule when for example, as a substantial colletive mass of say a couple of hundred individuals then we can usually have a massive tactical advantage, but only if acting as one. We are all responsible for the momentum.
Not many demos get to one on one policing. At Most we will always have the ascendency of numbers.
If we give up our individual identity and submerge in the collective, then not only are we becoming the thing police fear most, ie crowds but we are also now assuming this collective power. We look around and exchange glances with comrades, names not always known or necessary, and we are strengthened, Our pace of walking can quicken, moreover this is of prime importance in sustaining crowd advantage, and the groundswell of feeling can take over. As in many things in nature it is probably exponential
This is magnified in crowds where the majority of people know each other. The buzz, heightened.
If we want to walk through police lines when we have every right to continue our peaceful protest, then a row of twenty or thirty in a single line of plod ought not deter people. In double formation, whatever. Numbers is numbers. But it is in how the crowd walks through that will determine the success. When unsure, the crowd will not succeed, if many dither at the start them momentum is lost. Know your purpose, have a vision of what you want to do.
Staying close , walking quick with intent helps protect the crowd and its purpose , sheer volume of numbers mean a break in police lines, dont stop if you cannot offer assisstance without further weakening your position, do not listen to pigs, do not talk to them unless absolutely necesary, no eye contact.
Studies of crowd behaviour during the break up of certain east european countries last century shows the otherwise passive, well dressed, obviously wealthy individuals in a crowd around a tank before and during its seizure and they move and swarm in distinct patterns before finally closing in and on the tank to disarm and capture the occupants.
We have the power
They fear our power
We, truth and love
They, lies and hate
We disperate individuals, many and growing
They ancient and inbred, few and decaying
We, Fighting for rights
Dance through the nights
Tomorrow is ours,
So is today
