Security was there in yellow vests with radios. Allegedly they were supposed to be local activists who were trained by Indivisible in safety and de-escalation, but they definitely looked more like either off duty cops or feds.
They were dispersed through the crowd, and at one point they got together in a huddle to discuss some stuff near the group I was with. We kind of eavesdropped bc they seemed so sheisty, and ended up overhearing them saying they had put detail on somebody in the crowd who seemed suspicious to them.
I’m not sure they were actually with any security Indivisible had trained, but maybe? They also could have been feds who just got yellow vests and were impersonating activist security, but they definitely weren’t “local activists.” I would be curious to know what kind of security people in blue states saw at their rallies/marches yesterday?
Why not?
I find the reply you received entirely valid. They aren’t even denying you your POV, just pointing out that people helped identify astroturfed troublemakers, and what you saw might have been just that. And as they also said, remain vigilant by all means but not paranoid. Just file it under “awaiting more context or proof”.
Nah. It sounds like they wear their hair short and wash their faces. Very suspicious.
Well the first reply I received said that the security they saw looked like a “diverse group of college kids.”
Which would make sense for New Orleans activists, and why I specified what the group I saw looked like. There’s no one size fits all for what an activist looks like, however,
A. I have worked alongside several New Orleans activists groups providing medical care in different neighborhoods in the city. I find it hard to believe that every single one of the “local New Orleans activists” in the group I saw huddled, just happened to be 100% white, mainly men, all in their early to late 30s and 40s.
I know we have to watch what we say these days, but just to make sure nobody thinks I’m being “racist against clean cut white men” I am pointing that out as a white woman in my 30s who also doesn’t look like the average New Orleans activist.
These guys looked like law enforcement. More specifically, given they were all in pretty good shape, the age range they were, and all had the same close cropped hair, they looked like Feds. Not like big muscular bouncer types. Like very stereotypical feds or state-federal partners.
Given that other fusion centers were known to be planning surveillance for No Kings in other states, perhaps they could have been from one of the state agencies in the picture below who partner with DHS and the FBI via our state fusion center:
B. I’ve also done medical and de-escalation training. Maybe they also did some very intense special security training for this event, but it seems weird to have trained bystanders using teams of security detail to follow a protester around.
Feds have always conducted concerning levels of surveillance at government protests, even during normal times. I’m not sure why it would be so far fetched now to suggest there was something suspicious about a group of people that looked like Feds, were definitely not participating in the actual protest, and literally huddled together to talk about putting a surveillance detail on a protester.
However, I would love to hear from others about the rallies and marches held in other anchor cities. I saw some video from Chicago of their march, and I’m not sure if the people leading the march in yellow vests were coincidental or also activists who received the training, but they didn’t look like Feds.
Fair enough. I think you chose the wrong community though.