Newswire – Counter Insurgency Study Group

Minneapolis police officers face accusations of ‘slowdown’

Co-In MN — Mon, 09 May 2016 19:50:53 +0000

“…an apparent monthslong work slowdown that has resulted in a 51 percent drop in stops in the Fourth Precinct, along with a 45 percent drop in arrests.

Through May 2, police records show that 8,504 arrests had been made across Minneapolis. That’s compared with a total of 11,879 arrests during the same period last year.

Meanwhile, the number of people who have been stopped, questioned and frisked also has declined nearly 32 percent compared with the same period last year.

…

Officers say they still respond to every emergency call and help every person in need. But some cops are lingering at crime scenes longer than necessary, stopping at every red light on their way to a low-priority call, or refusing to do the type of proactive police work — things like questioning shady-looking people on the street and ticketing bad drivers — that officials say helps drive down crime.”

[Read]

We Lost

Co-In MN — Tue, 05 Apr 2016 00:04:11 +0000

Counter insurgent strategies put into practice on the streets of Minneapolis.

“Besides the police departments, the so-called protest leadership, community groups, and non-profit organizations have had months to hone their tactics and maneuvers. We knew this and yet we let our guard down.”

[Read]

Cars, Guns, Autonomy

Co-In MN — Sun, 13 Mar 2016 19:40:27 +0000

“The St. Louis area has a history of police being shot at, and police are very aware of that. The police know people are armed and willing to shoot. From the beginning of the uprising, rebels made this very clear: one of the first things to happen after they killed Mike Brown was shots being fired into the air.”

[Read]

[PDF]

The Guerrilla Way

Co-In MN — Sun, 13 Mar 2016 19:34:26 +0000

Despite some significant differences in the language used compared to this project, there are some quite useful insights within this zine.

“The Guerrilla Warrior doesn’t take control of space but negates control of space. She disrupts the application of power in space and continuously challenges the enemy to the (impossible) task of proving control of that space.”

[PDF]

Capitol: An Austin History

Co-In MN — Fri, 19 Feb 2016 22:59:24 +0000

Once again, specific to a particular locality (Austin, Texas). It is always important to analyze the histories of our neighborhoods, cities, and regions to better comprehend our current terrain.

“Lamar envisioned not only the capitol, but an accompanying barrier of western forts to protect the interior of Texas from Comanche Indian raids. These raids were ongoing in frontier communities and would continue for decades. According to some historians, the Comanches saw the establishment of Austin for the act of war it was. When Edwin Waller was commissioned in 1839 to plot the city, two of his surveyors were ambushed, scalped and killed by raiders, an act of resistance at the moment of Austin’s birth.“

[Read]

[PDF]

An Enduring Passion For Criminality

Co-In MN — Tue, 16 Feb 2016 02:54:08 +0000

“In addition to subverting the law, illegalist hostility is also a direct attack on the functioning of capital. Such an attack does not reject the means of production, although theft does reject the concept of production as possession, but through direct raids on the content of capital. As such, the illegalist tradition opens to a fundamentally different perspective: illegalism not as rejection-based response to law but as a hostility toward the function of law. As a result, illegalism undermines in a direct, material, strategic, and necessarily insurgent form of the act.”

[PDF]

Enemies We Know

Co-In MN — Tue, 16 Feb 2016 02:44:50 +0000

A short, concise evaluation not of abstract, ideological opponents but of material enemies that we engage directly in conflict.

“1) The police are everywhere present because they are everywhere disguised.

2) If the police function to manage disorder and are present everywhere, then so to is disorder.

3) In order to expose the police when they are disguised, disorder can be maximized. Those who respond attempting to put things back in their place are the police.

4) When the police are in the open, but disorder is disguised, disorder has the upper hand.

5) In order to implicate myself as a force in opposition to the police, I side with disorder, and I elaborate the political techniques of scamming, fraud, theft, property destruction, violence, laziness, and anonymity.”

[PDF]

Also available as a poster series:

Black Lives Matter Stopped Minneapolis “From Burning To The Ground” Says NAACP Leader

Co-In MN — Tue, 16 Feb 2016 02:25:43 +0000

It’s hard to make counter-insurgency clearer than it is here. Historically, convincing certain segments of potential insurgents to police themselves has been the most effective way to stifle unrest. Somehow, this doesn’t discredit these organizations in the eyes of determined revolutionaries.

“‘There was a significant push by government leaders and so-called African-American leaders for us to end the occupation early,’ Levy-Pounds told The UpTake recently. ‘What they don’t understand is that that occupation is the only thing that stopped the city of Minneapolis from burning to the ground. They have no idea about the number of people that we were able to stop from doing things that would have been harmful and destructive out of rage.'”

[Read]

Oakland is for Burning? Beyond a Critique of Gentrification

Co-In MN — Sat, 06 Feb 2016 21:31:59 +0000

Although specific to Oakland and the San Francisco Bay Area, this analysis of development can hopefully inspire similar inquiries in our respective areas.

“Further development will not open space for meaningful social activity and will only constrict it. In the slew of development projects coming down the pipe, residents will be free to consume, travel to and from work, or stay inside to not bother anyone. The possibility for creating space for rebellion will happen in the subversion of the city’s architecture (such as the occupations of vacant houses or the lot at 19th and Telegraph). Even the most hopeful possibilities are rapidly being foreclosed in the proliferation of counter-insurgency-style policing.”

[Read]

London 2016: The Terrain of Struggle in our City

Co-In MN — Sat, 06 Feb 2016 21:26:47 +0000

Although specific to London, this kind of thorough analysis can hopefully inspire others to take on similar tasks in their own respective areas.

“If we want to bring some life and anarchy to the streets of London, it helps to understand the terrain we’re fighting on. This article looks at London’s role in global capitalism, how this drives “social cleansing” and control, and at some seeds of resistance emerging in the last year. “

[Read]

[Abridged]

[PDF]