What is LAW mixture?
Liquid Antacid and Water. A 50/50 mixture of water and an antacid containing either Magnesium Hydroxide or Aluminium Hydroxide. Used on eyes and skin in the event of a tear gas or pepper spray attack. A small amount applied directly to the affected area should be sufficient to reduce pain once the afflicted person has been moved to a safe location. Application of LAW mixture (especially under the eyelids) can be difficult, and it is advisable for a medic to attend training sessions by established street medic groups. If LAW mixture is not available, milk can be used as a stopgap in the event of a tear gas or pepper spray attack.
What is Rehydration Mixture?
Hydration in a high-energy environment is extremely important, and often overlooked. A medic's most important job will often be to make sure participants in civil action do not wear themselves out early. Side effects of heat exhaustion can include euphoria, rage, “wooziness”, irritability, panting, red flushing of the skin, and “spaciness”. These symptoms can also lead to poor decision making, violence, and an inability to judge danger or to retreat from dangerous areas. Untreated heat exhaustion can turn into the more serious condition of heat stroke. A 50/50 mixture of water and a sport drink (or fruit juice) will be sufficient. A small pinch of salt should be added to the mixture, to replace sodium lost through sweat. Fill and label several small bottles with this mixture to pass out to those in need. If using sport drink for your mixture, avoid sport drinks with Red 5 food dye, as there is research to suggest that it can trigger manic episodes in people with certain conditions such as ADHD or Bipolar Disorder. The number of bottles carried should vary, depending on the medic’s weight limit. See more on the treatment of heat exhaustion below.
3. How to Treat Various Common Protest Injuries
Please note that this section, for the most part, does not cover injuries and treatment methods typically covered in most first aid courses. This section is specifically for injuries and ailments more specifically sustained during protest action.
Tear gas is often propelled by special fitted charges which, when detonated, can sound extremely similar to gunfire. Don’t panic. Look up to try to spot the arc of white smoke, and attempt to warn any protesters within the anticipated blast radius. Tear gas canisters, once detonated, become extremely hot and are not safe to handle without protective gloves. This is one reason that it is important to bring or wear protective gloves to protests. Police officers using tear gas will be outfitted to protect against its effects, so throwing or kicking an active canister back into police lines should not be considered a violent or harmful action, merely a defensive one. Spotting police in these outfits can also serve as advance warning of an impending tear gas attack, allowing you to warn your fellow protesters before the canisters have actually been fired.
The initial effects of tear gas, which if left untreated will persist for up to half an hour after exposure, usually include pain in the eyes, nose, mouth and skin, profuse watering of the eyes and nose, blindness, difficulty breathing, disorientation, and panic. Again, tear gas is not intended as a weapon so much as an agent to disperse protesters and create fear among them, making it possible for an affected party to remain within the cloud so long as they maintain a clear head. Once removed from the area of the gas, the symptoms will subside on their own within approximately thirty minutes, but it is still important to act quickly to ensure the well-being of the afflicted party, if you wish them to be able to continue normally.
Though it is called a gas, tear gas is actually an aerosolized acidic powder. Designed to cause fear and pain, its acidic nature makes it relatively easy to counter with the use of a mild alkaline solution, and the powder form is easy to wash off. The easiest method in this circumstance is to use the LAW mixture, noted above. After removing the affected party to a safe location outside the field of effect, a squirt of liquid on the skin and in the eyes should serve to both neutralize the acid and wash the dust itself away completely. A mouthful of solution, swirled and spat, will serve to quickly clear the mouth. Care should be taken not to swallow, as tear gas introduced into the digestive system could have potentially harmful effects. To clear the nose, strong exhalation should be enough. The LAW mixture is not a cure-all, and will not instantaneously remove harmful effects. Remember: Tear gas is a compound specifically designed for this purpose, and countering it will always be a challenge.
To further compound matters, once a person has been coated with tear gas their clothing is contaminated until it can be washed. It will continue to be harmful to wear or handle, and should be removed and quarantined as quickly as possible to avoid causing more damage. A mild castille soap (like Dr. Bronner’s), which contains fewer chemicals to potentially interact with the acid, will be enough to clean the contaminated clothing and make it suitable for future use. Instruct all affected parties to avoid touching their face or eyes until they have had a meticulous shower.
The effects of tear gas can be avoided to some extent by covering the mouth with a bandana soaked in vinegar. Apple cider vinegar will be the easiest to breathe, and several such bandanas can be prepared in advance and kept in a plastic bag to be handed out to those nearby. This method is useful only for purposes of escape, and a medic should not attempt to enter a tear gas cloud without wearing a fitted and filtered military-grade gas mask.
Pepper spray, like tear gas, is a lachrymatory agent--a compound designed, usually for riot control or self defense, to cause extreme pain, blindness, and disorientation. Pepper spray is often deployed at protests in areas where the police cannot risk the use of tear gas, such as heavily populated areas. It is usually contained in handheld canisters, though a mode of deployment known as the “pepperball” has become increasingly common in recent years. The pepperball consists of a load of capsaicin (the active ingredient in pepper spray) combined with a powder dye, packed into a small hard ball which is fired from a device not unlike a paintball gun. The ball breaks and explodes on contact, causing both the immediate pain of being shot with a projectile with the debilitating effects of pepper spray. This allows the police to use pepper spray from much longer distances, as well as mark individuals (via the powder dye) for later arrest.
Though not as common, another documented method for deploying pepper spray is a thick pepper foam, deployed from a device like a fire extinguisher. It is currently unknown how widespread these devices are. Further deployment methods include backpack dispensers, explosive aerosol canisters, and helicopter drops.
Treatment methods for pepper spray exposure are largely the same as those for tear gas, and the LAW mixture will serve you approximately as well as anything else. However, because of its concentration and the way it directly attacks nerve endings, pepper spray can continue to have an effect for up to two hours after initial exposure, even with treatment.
Environmental factors are always a serious consideration when one intends to undergo hours of strenuous outdoor activity. Hypothermia, frostbite, exhaustion, and heat stroke are all possibilities depending on the weather, and a medic should take care to amend their equipment accordingly. Keeping an eye on one’s fellow protesters for signs of illness should usually be enough, and gentle suggestions to take some water, or to temporarily remove themselves to more agreeable climates, will usually be appreciated.
3a. Signs of Heat Illness
Heat illness (a general term encompassing a variety of heat-related ailments) is an extremely common problem in civil action, due to the long periods of exertion protesters put themselves through with little to no hydration. Body fluids are lost through sweat and respiration, and if they are not replaced, the core body temperature can rise dangerously. Frequent rest and rehydration are usually enough to prevent symptoms, but be on the lookout in the event that they are not:
Heat illness is not difficult to prevent, provided one pays sufficient attention to the body’s needs. It will often be a medic’s job to pay attention on behalf of other protesters, as they will likely be preoccupied. The United States Occupational Safety and Health administration provides the following guidelines for preventing heat stress:
In colder environments, it will be your job to keep watch over your fellow protesters to ensure their safety against the elements. Hypothermia, much like heat exhaustion, is relatively easy to combat: Minor preventative actions can be taken to avoid it, but after it has taken hold the afflicted party can simply be moved to a more agreeable climate and given easy remedies. In this circumstance, the remedy can be as simple as a warm blanket. Medics should take care to look for the following symptoms, ordered according to increasing severity:
Anyone displaying symptoms past "shivering" should be removed to warmer environments immediately, with increasing urgency as more symptoms appear. Given time and warmth (blankets and warm liquids help) they should make a full recovery.
4. Basic Bandaging
Bandaging and wound treatment are taught in first aid courses. The following is extremely basic, common-sense advice but does not replace first aid training in any way. If you wish to offer serious flesh wound treatment to your fellow activists, please attend a first aid course before considering yourself capable of dressing wounds beyond a band-aid level.
Sterile bandages are ideal for this task, but in an emergency, any type of clean cloth will work. A variety of types of dressings and bandages are necessary to address injuries of different size and location, making a properly stocked first aid kit a priority for any medic.
This method should be sufficient for most simple scrapes and scratches. More serious flesh wounds should be cleaned out with alcohol and wrapped to protect and stabilize them to the best of your ability, while you are getting the injured person to help and safety in the meantime. Wounds that look like they could require stitches (deep, gaping, or large wounds; wounds that don’t stop bleeding on their own within a couple minutes, and so on) should be disinfected and covered to the best of your ability, after you have ensured emergency services have been called.
Even if a protester has been seriously injured, it is entirely possible (and precedented) for the police to refuse emergency teams access past their lines into “unsecured areas”. Though street medics have been known to act as liaisons between protesters and police and negotiate passage for ambulances or injured persons, the possibility that advanced medical help could be denied to an injured party is always there.
Note on Directed-Energy Weapons: With the advent of massively inflated Homeland Security budgets, many police departments around the country have seen fit to invest in questionably legal crowd-dispersal equipment. This equipment is most often presented in one of two forms: the Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD), and the Active Denial System (ADS). Both are truck- or tripod-mounted directed energy weapons, using acoustic and microwave energy, respectively. Both are specifically designed to cause pain, panic, and incapacitation when used against biological targets.
While a street medic cannot be reasonably expected to deal with superior firepower along these lines, they can remember to be on the lookout for them, and be prepared to direct protesters away from their field of influence. For more information and pictures of what to look out for, consult your local Internet.
We also announce (via Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, etc) what we will be wearing, including any specific medical insignia, to familiarize the activists with our appearance, and make us easy to find in case of injury.
Street Medics are important not only because of the physical services they provide, but because of the moral and psychological boost that the presence of support personnel imbues in a group. It is important that the other protesters feel they can rely on you, even if it’s just for backup and encouragement. This is why it’s vital to be very clear about your level of competency and training: the worst case scenario is that you are expected to deal with an injury that you cannot handle, and then fail to do so, discouraging your fellow activists and losing trust in street medics generally. Do your best, but never bluff or bluster. Help people as much as possible, but never get in over your head. Keep your mobile phone handy in case you need to call emergency services--sometimes just being there with someone, able to calmly relay information about their location and condition to a dispatcher, is a service no one else can render.
A note on the Anon Medic ‘uniform’: during opBART, the Anon Medics wore clean, stylish, well-fitted black pants and jackets, with red crosses, black gloves, and the Anon Medic signature: matte black Guy Fawkes masks. The black masks identified them as Anonymous, concealed their identities from the press and police, and separated them from the naturally-colored masks of non-medical anon protesters so that they could be found easily. The red and black color scheme is professional, while still being clearly counter-cultural. And lastly, this ensemble proved popular with the press and photographers. More pictures means more visibility, more visibility means more people hear and see the protests, and the presence of Medics makes our cause look like a force to be reckoned with. Join Us, the medics say, We’ve Got Your Back.
We encourage new Anon Medics to adopt whatever clothing they see fit. However, if medics are interested in being visually associated with each other, the color scheme, general silhouette, and especially the flat black mask are worth consideration. In our age of constant surveillance, photo ops, and live feeds, presenting a united visual front is invaluable. The SF Anon Medics were stopped a dozen times by people with cameras, and had many opportunities to discuss our cause with the citizens.
This being said, practical and environmental considerations should always be a top priority for a medic assembling an outfit. Wearing bulky or dark-colored clothing to an operation where 100º temperatures are expected will see you out of action relatively quickly. Adapt and modify as concerns warrant.
Additionally, it is worth noting that masks, particularly black ones, are both intimidating and alien. When treating an injured person--particularly one who may be suffering from psychological trauma, or who is panicking--letting them see your face, particularly your eyes, may be important. Use your judgement.
WARNING: street medics are often targeted specifically by police. The police “disperse a crowd” via fear, injury, incapacitation, and arrest, and medics provide the means for protesters to get back up, and keep marching, even after tear gas or pepper spray attacks. This can make medics priority targets to police. During the April 2001 protest of the Free Trade Area of the Americas agreement in Quebec City, police shot chemical-weapons canisters directly at the medics themselves after they realized the medics were re-commissioning activists who’d been taken out with tear gas. Additionally, police departments make a point of publishing the names and photos of arrested protesters for reasons of shaming them, and discouraging new activists from joining future protests.
A note on arrest: being arrested in furtherance of a cause or for solidarity with one’s fellow protesters is, generally, a noble act. That being said, a medic who intentionally subjects themselves to arrest to prove a point only prematurely removes themselves from action, and deprives comrades of future treatment, should they become injured. In the event of your arrest, it is generally advisable to remain completely silent until you have the opportunity to request and speak with a lawyer. Writing the phone number for your organization of choice on your arm with a marker is also a sound course of action, as it is unlikely the police will facilitate your forgetfulness once you are in their custody, and strip searches and appropriation of clothing/personal items is common during arrests. Police are known for capriciously adding as many additional charges as they can for protesters who cause them trouble (that is to say, all of them), making struggling, threats, or false names ill-advised. Barring extenuating circumstances, one can expect to be cited out of jail within a matter of hours after their arrest.
5. Join the Anon Medics
Anonymous has evolved.
Originally a nebulous collective dedicated to waging electronic warfare against disparate groups, Anonymous moved our actions into the real world with the advent of Operation Clambake, an anti-Church of Scientology information and protest movement in 2008. The Chanology protests simultaneously assembled thousands of Anons all over the world to voice our objections to the corrupt and exploitative practices of Scientology.
Now, following the rise of the Occupation protests, Anonymous is expanding again. It now stands in direct opposition to armed government institutions such as the NYPD, SFPD, and other police departments around the country and world.
Confronting a paramilitary force--which has repeatedly shown itself to be both erratic and violent in response to imagined threats--means that Anonymous itself must change to meet the challenges of street-level activism. Every army has its medical corps, and we are the Anonymous Street Medics.
Like other branches of Anonymous, we have no hierarchy. There exist no central figures to report to, no council to approve your actions or review your application to join. The guidelines here represent what we, as founders, would have this branch become, but ultimately it will be the will of the collective that decides what is or is not acceptable conduct from an anon medic.
Anonymous has a relatively poor reputation in the eyes of the general public, due to the tendency for independent cells to attribute their actions to the group as a whole, so the existence of a purely defensive, put-together, well-spoken faction could be important for large-scale perception of the group as a whole. It is our sincere hope that those identifying as Anon Medics would hold themselves to a higher standard of civil conduct and intelligent discourse.
Just as street medics themselves are not a viable replacement for emergency services, this guide in no way approaches a replacement for actual first aid and street medic training. It exists to serve as a basic introduction to both the idea of street medics, and to the Anon Medic branch specifically. For further information on street medic training in your area, contact the following groups:
PORTLAND, OR
Rosehip Medic Collective - http://www.rosehipmedics.org/
Black Cross Collective (Currently inactive) - http://www.blackcrosscollective.org/
SEATTLE, WA
Seattle Street Medical Collective - http://seattlemedics.org/
OLYMPIA, WA
Olympia Street Medic Collective - http://blog.olysmc.org/
SAN FRANCISCO, CA
Bay Area Radical Health Collective - http://barhc.w2c.net/
DENVER, CO
Denver Streetmedics - http://streetmedic.wordpress.com/
EAST COAST, US
Mutual Aid Street Medics - masm@riseup.net
CHICAGO, IL
Chicago Action Medics
BLOOMINGTON, IN
Heartland Action Medical Resistance
MINNEAPOLIS, MN
North Star Health Collective - http://northstarhealth.wordpress.com/
BOSTON, MA
Boston Area Liberation Medic Squad - http://www.bostoncoop.net/balm/
WASHINGTON, DC
District Action Medical Network - http://damn.mahost.org/
NEW YORK, NY
Medical Activists of New York - http://www.takethestreets.org/
Star of Resistance Medics - http://www.freewebs.com/stormnyc/
PITTSBURGH, PA
Three Rivers Action Medics
PHOENIX, AZ
Phoenix Urban Health Collective - http://puhc.wordpress.com/
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA
Activist Medics Network
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA
NSW StreetMedics
LUDWIGSBERG, GERMANY
Demosaniteter.de - http://www.demosanitaeter.de/
BERLIN, GERMANY
Strassenmedizin - http://www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/sanis/index.htm
MANCHESTER, ENGLAND
UK Action Medics - http://www.actionmedics.org.uk/
CHANGELOG
8/27 v1 - Initial Release
9/27 v2 - Many small changes to grammar and phrasing. Expanded on equipment section. Expanded LAW mixture section. Reorganized section order. Removed some nonworking links
10/17 v3 - Minor revisions to phrasing and alternative equipment. Relocated section on Anonymous to the end. Added a stern disclaimer. Replaced isopropyl alcohol in the equipment list and "basic bandaging" with saline solution, which is less abrasive. Added xeroform/adaptic pads to equipment list. Rewrote hypothermia section to be more clear. Added sections on Directed Energy Weapons. Included a note on essential oil allergies and scientific medicine.