3liza: collaterlysisters: “Protect the Person...

collaterlysisters:

“Protect the Person Behind You”

Masked shield corps protester at Occupy Oakland on January 28th with homemade shield and sign. A group of these people protected unarmed and legally-assembled civilian marchers during the Oakland Police Department attack on the action, including catching rubber bullets, baton blows, flashbang and teargas grenades, pepper balls, and beanbag weapons on their shields.

Her Ya Basta sign signals her membership in a long-running leftist group of the same name, who often take it upon themselves to protect vulnerable protesters at actions in this way.

Edit: on a personal note, it’s fascinating to see this kind of brilliant “character design” manifesting in real life. She’s the Space Marine of her time—customized armor, personal touches everywhere, absolutely hardassed and reliable in the face of an overwhelming, alien, indefatigable foe.

In the strange intersection of highly charged media images aimed at people with no real control over how they’re depicted, custom iconography becomes even more important. If you control your visual profile, and build a narrative around that, it resists spin and presentation. When Fox bashes Code Pink, the power of their image still forces them to use the Code Pink name, show the bright colors, and weakens the attempts to trash them.

This is the real power of Black Blocs, the Yes Men, the ELZN, beyond their numbers and activities, their iconography becomes its own narrative, and people interact directly with that, independently of potentially hostile reportage. Just like how even derogatory mentions cement loyalty to your favorite sports team.