These images are more than a little pathetic. There's a reason the Constitution calls for a well trained militia - there's no plan of action, no command and control evident here.
While I'm not condoning any of the below actions (see my closing comments) - I'd think taking downtown Oakland would be a breeze if the demonstrators followed a few basic tactics.
A cursory read of US Army Field Manual 3-06: Urban Operations offers a wealth of options for an insurgent force to employ in an urban area. No doubt this is the basis for police planning and doctrine in preparation for engaging OWS, and highlights the anticipated tactics any urban insurgency might employ. Re-reading this manual the other night (amazing what insomnia can lead you to) got me to thinking - what could Oakland (or LA, or NYC or ... but you get the point) OWS do if they took the time to study the insurgency they're engaged in?
So what words of wisdom does the US Army, after 10 years of counter insurgency in Iraqi and Afghani cities following a decade of occupation in the Former Yugoslavia where urban warfare ground both sides to a halt, have for OWS?
Threat Objectives and their Implications for OWS
What follows are the seven "threat objectives" that military commanders have learned insurgencies or occupied countries employ in Urban areas, along with implications for OWS. You can follow along for yourself in the manual, pages 3-2 to 3-5:
1) Control Access - for OWS - identify the choke points that the police will have to navigate to respond to different threats. Deny police access to these points as they deploy, harass their command points as they've been established. Threaten multiple points simultaneously as they respond to major action elsewhere denying them the ability to concentrate their forces or move them in response to action.
2) Negate Technological Overmatch - in the manual they contemplate "hugging" friendly (in this case police) assets to deny the use of superior firepower. This may be a tactic to employ when faced with flash bangs or gas, but ONLY if OWS resources are employing gas masks themselves. Dangerous here as, should police forces resort to violence there is no reasonable response for OWS resources other than to escalate to similar tactics, something to avoid in seeking to accomplish tactic # 5 below
3) Control the tempo - define the timing and pace of engagement - in all these videos the protestors literally walk, seemingly unprepared, into a confrontation or trap the police have engineered for them. Consider the use of mobile scouts (bikes, cars, on foot in buildings etc) equipped with radio devices to communicate police movements and intent in advance of OWS main body movements. Choose your point of engagement to your advantage rather than walking into the trap that's been laid for you. Speed up engagement or movement in one location, only to shift to another, keeping police assets constantly moving to an action which has already faded away. See tactic one additionally.
4) Change the Nature of the Conflict - rather than engaging in predictable marches, en masse, to a pre-communicated location, adopt more fluid maneuvering tactics. If Oakland has two or three high value locations to occupy, consider occupying secondary locations. Change tactics from occupation (relatively easy for police to address with their superior weapons and tactics) to hit and run operations aimed at disrupting key infrastructure points including Mass Transit, major Freeway choke points, and other places where a brief occupation would make a credible and lasting statement, allowing OWS assets to deploy, engage and achieve more limited objectives, and fade away before massive police assets can be brought against them. Perhaps more dramatic would be to eschew marches and demonstrations entirely for some other, previously un-utilized demonstrative effort, shifting the movement from direct confrontation of "establishment" forces to something else. (No, no bright ideas today, other than direct confrontation is a slippery slope that violates the non-violence mandate I lay down at the end of this post)
5) Cause politically unacceptable casualties - This one is almost too easy, as the police have shown a tendency in both Oakland and LA to violate constitutional mandates (reporters' First amendment right of access to the situation), use uncalled for violence in apprehending protestors (violating the protesters' Fourth and Eight Amendment rights), as well as abuse prisoners once in their control (again violating protestors' Fourth and Eight Amendment rights). Here OWS can make engagement politically too costly for the police to undertake through some simple tactics that they already are employing:
- Embed reporters in OWS groups to live cast police excesses and work on popular opinion. While this may take months, it ultimately is the best approach to break establishment and police will to action, and in all likelihood the police will engage in some atrocity which, when publicized, will change the political calculus significantly in OWS' favor. (see LA reports of prisoner abuse, UC Davis pepper spraying of peaceful protestors and other numerous abuses of power and trust by police forces nation wide)
- Engage celebrities in participating in, or more effectively simply being present to witness and comment on the events which occur. The American public show an amazing deference and interest in this class of people, use them to your advantage.
- Enlist publicly elected officials to attend protests, as Supervisors in San Francisco did prior to OWSSF being shut down - this will make police action less likely, or, when undertaken, more likely to be restrained and within legal parameters
6) Allow no sanctuary - Deny police access to staging points. Based on planned OWS action, identify their likely staging points and set in on them before / as their transport arrives - if they're afraid to dismount OWS will deny them the ability to accumulate tactical assets on the ground, and they'll have to withdraw to staging areas further away, and less responsive to the tactical situation. Converge on individual police assets - this will longer term have the effect of forcing them into less nimble large groups in self defense. NOTE- OWS must recognize the near certainty that human intelligence agents (HUMINT) have no doubt penetrated OWS planning activities and therefor must assume any plan of action is already known by police entities prior to engagement. See point 4 above
7) Conduct Decentralized and Dispersed Operations - This is one tactic OWS universally seems to have not understood or learned. DON'T march en-mass - it's too easy to trap or side track a large mob on the streets. The police are well trained, have the advantage of weapons and prepared tactics. Instead employ guerrilla tactics - small bands (15 - 20 say) to roam and act independently. Harder to target and control. Appear and dissolve into the city - keep the police wondering where you'll appear next - if they can't accumulate overwhelming force they'll hesitate to act or deploy. Their tactics will become cumbersome and not timely. Use fluidity to flow in and out of their sights.
Implications for protest participants
POLICE
Police agents reading this should ask themselves - are we prepared to engage if faced with these tactics? Perhaps most importantly, do you understand the damage you do to yourselves, as well as to the current government's legitimacy when you allow individuals and units to engage in the atrocities that have come to light to date. Remember that it is the consent of the governed which determines your own legitimacy and you're doing harm.
OWS
OWS planners should consider whether any or all of the US Army's recommended tactics for them are applicable to their short and long term objectives. Additionally, they should develop plans to contain the more violent of the participants in future demonstrations as their actions do not achieve their political objectives of winning the minds of the American People.
Nonviolence Mandate
In closing, I must highlight that it is my strong belief that non-violent protest is the only way to raise the American People's awareness of the OWS' political-economic platform for change. OWS are dangerously close to reaching violent measures in recent videos. The use of "shields" is one step closer to more violent actions including assault, arson and other means that I believe would be both deleterious to their effort, as well as inappropriate. As Gandhi and Martin Luther King proved, non-violent protest is extremely effectual in achieving societal as well as regime change.
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