I'm planning on taking a bus to a pro-Palestine protest in DC. What should I bring?
I'm planning on taking a bus to a pro-Palestine protest in DC. What should I bring?
I've never done this, so I'm not really sure what to expect. I won't know anyone but it's organized by my local PSL chapter so I assume they will be welcoming. Can anyone give any advice?
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A camera that's not built in to a phone, and a faraday bag for your phone.
Is turning off my phone or just like... lining a bag with aluminum foil for my phone good enough?
turning it off probably is good enough for most devices, but its easy to bump the button and turn it back on. DIY faraday bag is possible but not as trivial as it sounds. You'd want to test it carefully and make sure it wasn't getting signal in the bag, probably by doing things like calling it or locating it from a computer with "find my". There are probably more ways to test but that's a start
Keep your phone turned off, yes. Also make sure it only unlocks with a strong password and not your thumb, face, etc. Police can compel you to provide thumb, face, etc but not to enter a password.
Lining a bag with foil won't make things worse, but it's not sufficient on it's own. Make sure your phone is put in airplane mode with all radios turned off, then turn the phone off. We don't fully know what kind of information snooping tools the security forces have right now so it's better to be paranoid/precautionary principle.
I understand the faraday cage/bag, but what's the camera needed for? Seems unnecessary unless you're like, a journalist or a blogger.
evidence of malfeasance by police or counterprotesters?
Idk tho. seems like a mixed message. Ideally you'd plan what sort of actions you will or won't take in advance and bring what's appropriate. If your plan is to stay legal, bringing a camera to film the potentially violent response from the state and counterprotesters could be a good move. If you're planning to bash the fash or join a riot or engage in some extralegal direct action, then any photos/videos, especially on a regular camera with no capacity for encryption, are much more likely to be used as evidence against you and your comrades than the other way around.
If your plan is to stay legal, bringing a camera to film the potentially violent response from the state and counterprotesters could be a good move.
Yeah, this was my perspective in my earlier comment. I think we all need to be journalists (in the pure job-description sense) these days. Anyone on a corporate payroll won't help us, as Upton Sinclair famously said. When the persecutions happen we only have ourselves to be witnesses. Social media is colossally flawed in so many ways, but at least it's accessible to the masses and difficult to moderate. Truth can slip through to millions easily. And for now it's still relatively easy to throw up a basic blog website.
You're certainly right about not bringing a camera when doing potentially self-incriminating things. I mean, I'm not passing judgment, people do what they do in the heat of the moment, things happen, human psychology, fight or flight, etc etc etc. But if a comrade was to accidentally throw a molotov into a big corporate fast food franchise that treats both employees and source animals with equal empathy, then that person would be more likely to avoid complications if everyone knew to just not bring cameras beforehand.
so that if you feel the need to take a picture or record video, you can do it without removing your phone from the faraday bag and completely negating any opsec
Ok, then secondarily if you don't have money for a camera or don't feel you'll need to take pics, remember not to take your phone out for pictures.