i'm actually coming to feel that repression comes in varied forms- the overt violence of the state and its mechanisms like arrest and prison and bureaucracy- and the subtle social coercion of politics/society as usual to get things 'under control' and avoid further conflict.... thus erasing the true state of tension between us and our structured surroundings.

the worst part i think is the lie that more control means more organized. like people are saying that they need to get organized, which is totally true.. but that doesn't mean working with the police and criminalizing tactics you don't agree with it should always mean speaking out against police obstruction and building movements IN the ruptures not in SPITE of them.

repression includes enforcing an expectation of how you are supposed to behave or respond to oppression whether by criminalization or social war.

on 'marches' or acts of public 'protest'

in addition to the critique that they are immediately restricted in terms of efficacy if there is any collaboration with the police there is also the problem with protests being built to appeal to a false status quo media audience instead of shaped by the participants. this makes it more of a parade and less of a practice of people power.

however these are some functions i appreciate:

1) they hold space for community energy 2) they challenge the domination of space by corporate entities and the police state 3) they give people a situational empowering outlet to participate in something that actually means something and carries potentiality 4) they can take direct action and blockade spaces of 'power' to be heard or affect the economy 5) they challenge unconstitutional *also fuck the constitution* permitting that requires people be led by the police 

also i think marching is one of many tactics, and should always ignite dialogue and think tanks so that we can employ different tactics with varying degrees of goals- like community caucus's and self defense networks to protect our streets. standing with signs -traditional protest- has been rendered ineffective by the reform 'policy begging' process (that we have to refight over and over again keeping us subordinated and distracted). unfortunately, the amerikan people accept protest actions on the side of the street as part of the status quo falsely constructed democratic process, it allows them to believe HEY look we're being free over there. and they keep driving like good little consumers of political thought. which is why we need to hold space and disrupt 'business as usual' or whatEVER. 

also the reality is that the privileged will always be fearful of the disenfranchised. and groups of empowered people of color will always instill fear; empowerment in the street will always appear a threat to the spectacle and subsequently criminalized as riot. TAKE STREETS.

i'd like to address the question of marching and efficacy of protest but i kinda want to sleep. i'm gonna copy and paste a defense of freewaytaking i put up on facebook earlier cause someone was like saying that protesters broke the law and were unsafe and impede on other peoples rights and the police have the right to arrest and violate people. they also think that marches in the streets are pointless.

i'd say that marches that are peace policed and negotiated with cops are symbolic acts of protest, they can be empowering for some but usually come with a program and demands for reform or policy change by one organization or the other and ultimately only redirect energy toward validating institutionalized power. i find them to be disempowering and restricting of genuine community energy/capacity.

chants change from 'no justice no peace' to 'more justice more peace'... more justice from who? this white supremacist system? the tokenized privilege assigned to people to make us feel as though there has been 'progress'? peace for who? the angry? the poor? the beaten?

Police brutality and repression on 10th/Washington in Los Angeles, CA