2024 has gotten off to a chaotic and challenging start for those of us who pay attention to, well, just about anything. It’s incredibly easy to allow anxiety to creep into our psyche with the fire hose of doom that sells ads in a 24-hour news cycle. Truthfully, there is plenty to feel deeply concerned about. We’re witnessing a painfully redundant election cycle that has already proliferated violence. Authoritarianism is on the rise nationally and internationally—along with sea levels. The illusion that our judicial system is politically unbiased and a check on the legislative and executive branches has been fully exposed.

The CLDC anticipates 2024 to be a pretty tumultuous year. CLDC’s movement aligned legal support will be more important than ever. Whether it’s in the streets at the RNC or DNC, a march to end the genocide in Gaza, coping with the effects of climate catastrophe, or facing down emboldened fascist thugs, the ingredients for trouble and state repression are present. Let’s do what we can to ease our anxiety, become more effective in our work, and protect ourselves by engaging in threat assessment and harm reduction. Here’s a short checklist to consider when entering the fray, and fighting the good fight. This of course will be an incomplete list, check back on our website for a more complete resource soon, but here’s 3 things to consider that will help you feel more solid and effective in these challenging times.

1) Know your support network—have safety plans!!
Do you have a safety plan?

Who will you call if you’re arrested? Do you have their number memorized (you may not have access to your phone)? How can you help yourself if your phone is taken or missing (look into remote wipe options or factory resets, as well as “find my iPhone” tech). Does someone have a key to your house or car? Who will care for your human and non-human companions?  Thinking through these details (what is the threat, what are your vulnerabilities, and how do you mitigate harm) will make you feel braver.

Do you have a signal text group if you need rapid response help if under threat?

If baddies show up at your home, workplace, etc., and you feel physically threatened, have you and your friends discussed how you will summon each other in an emergency to at least provide witness and mere presence if not something more.  Our communities often cannot rely on, or trust police, so we need to think about, plan, and practice how we can help each other be safer.  Create a local map of “safe” houses or locations you could go to if needed.  Do you have an emergency bag of meds, important stuff, a change of clothes, etc. in an accessible location if you needed to leave your home?

Who knows what you’re up too? Hopefully you’ve already learned the perils of broadcasting your ‘activities’ in ANY sort of public setting, but having your besties, your sweetie, or your deeply trusted affinity group know ahead of time that you’re entering into a potentially high-risk situation can go a very long way if you become incommunicado. Here at the CLDC we text our team when we leave for higher risk activities, and again when we are safely ensconced at home.  Getting into habits like this makes everyone feel like their comrades have their back.

And don’t forget to practice.  Just like those fire drills you had in grade school, you need to practice things if you want to be able to perform them well under duress.  Plans will change and evolve with the times, reassess and revise accordingly.

2) Secure your data!!
Cellphones are our biggest vulnerability when it comes to privacy and keeping your texts, contacts, financial info, photos and much more from ending up in the hands of your adversaries/baddies. We have become a culture that carries our most sensitive information as well as a tracking device everywhere we go. Between police taking phones and plugging them into forensic extraction devices, or far right extremists/fash stealing phones from people they physically attacked, our movements have been harmed by our failure to take digital security more seriously. Check out CLDC’s digital security resources for more: https://cldc.org/expect-the-unexpected-secure-your-phone-against-confiscation-or-loss/

A good digital security threat assessment to run through before you find yourself in a higher risk situation is to ask and answer the following questions:

*What or whom do I need to protect?
*Who do I need to protect it from?
*Who wants my information and how easy would it be for them to acquire it?
*What would happen if they got that information?
*What steps am I willing to take to stop that information gathering?

Take yourself seriously.  Use strong passwords and open source apps and encryption on all your devices (cell and computers). Remember there is no such thing as 100% security.  First ask yourself, should I even be writing this down?  Do I need to use names and details?  Remember to engage in good document retention and destruction hygiene.

https://cldc.org/take-yourselves-seriously-document-retention-and-destruction-policies/

For more recommendations on how to secure your data:  Look Here.

3) Know your rights and risks when dealing with the State.
The CLDC has been a national leader in developing and providing movement aligned legal information and know your rights trainings for over 20 years now.  We have a large webinar library of many of those trainings here.

Cops glean a tremendous amount of information from the fact that rattled people make mistakes (we call this hitting the hive to watch the buzz). You need to practice those magic words so they will come out of your mouth correctly when under stress.

*Am I being detained? (if no, walk away; if yes, ask why you are detained);
*I do not consent to any search (I’m not going to resist you).
*I’m invoking my right to remain silent.
*I want a lawyer.

And then REMAIN SILENT.  Remember even innocuous information provided to the State may cause harm to yourself or others. Political movement participants do not cooperate or snitch to the State– who is often the political adversary.  Know that lawyers may have an ethical duty to relay offers made by the State, including snitch offers.  You are the boss of your lawyer and you make the decisions on whether to throw others under the bus to lessen your own harm.  Know that people who cooperate with the State in the political context cannot return to political activism[1].

4) Resilience for the long haul!!

The fact of the matter is that engaging in any activity that puts you in legal, physical, or emotional peril is stress inducing. Carrying around a major stress load all the time can, and often will, create a two-fold problem as an activist. First and foremost, it may affect your mental health. When we do not recognize our limits, or take care of ourselves, relationships are negatively impacted, mistakes are made, and our quality of life plummets. Secondly, we may experience mental and/or physical exhaustion or burnout for a while. The rate of burnout in the activist world is off the charts post-pandemic. The history of resistance and rebellion against those who choose to wield unjust power, or cause ‘for profit’ harm is as old as our humanity. We are one piece in a puzzle that goes far back beyond living memory. To create positive change in the world we must remain in change-making spaces. Taking wellness and effectiveness seriously, and arming yourself with information and support structures, can and will help you remain in those spaces. Know who you’re working with and trust your gut. If it doesn’t feel right, perhaps your intuition is hollering at your brain. Stop and listen. Unfortunately, there are not a set of instructions that can keep you safe and out of harm’s way in every situation, but preparation and practice go a very long way in determining outcomes in perilous moments. Civil Liberties Defense Center has put a tremendous amount of time and effort into creating a webinar library that does a deep dive into countless topics, along with many written resource materials to keep you safer and more effective. We hope you will utilize and share these incredible activist resources often. As always, we’ve got your back!

https://cldc.org/resources/

[1] We are not saying that providing information as a serious crime victim, etc. is snitching per se.  But naming your direct action comrades to get less jail time is.