While we’re on the subject of horrifyingly unsafe protest tactics, be CAREFUL about who you’re trusting and sharing info with — for example, I’ve heard from multiple people that Insurgence TV works with cops and intentionally incites conflict at protests. Be careful !!!

Like, yes we need to make room for new organizers, *especially* youth, but we also need to understand that the best strategy law enforcement has for shutting this movement down is flooding the arena with new, competing organizations and overwhelming everyone

SLCPD especially will do *anything* to avoid having to use force on protestors, or generally get any bad press in any way. That doesn’t mean they’ll leave us alone, it means they’ll be sneaky about how to break people apart, so seriously — be careful who you trust

Anyway y’all can yell at me if you want but I am going to remain extremely wary of any adult-led protest-focused organization that just cropped up in recent weeks !!!! sorry

Also like, organizers should care about the potential risk they’re leading people toward. They should know what that risk looks like and how to effectively deescalate, or at least get people out when things heat up. This is irresponsible bullshit

You don’t deserve reverence nor deference just because you putt a damn facebook event together. Organizing people is a *responsibility* and everyone’s safety has to be more important than your 15 minutes of fame

John Sullivan also posted video of protestors moving police barricades at the public safety building (you can clearly see prople’s faces) and refused to take it down even after being approached privately by organizers to explain the danger of filming and posting direct actions

Can’t really emphasize enough how willing the police are to retroactively charge people whenever they have the opportunity, and how irresponsible it is to frame yourself as a storyteller but use your platform to put your community at risk

That video of the police barricades is still up, by the way, and can and will absolutely be used to build a case if the police decide to charge anyone

Coming back here to underline that we all need to be careful about Insurgence. They are an aspiring media company attempting to build their profile, they openly work with police, and their priority is clicks and views, *not* your safety

You don’t have to give me the benefit of the doubt but I will continue to take issue with someone who has repeatedly put protestors at risk to boost his media platform

Plenty of black folks on the ground have talked about John Sullivan and Insurgence and how he is insistently putting people at risk in the name of “journalism” like this is not an original idea I’m having