sent anonymously to x.com/rw_pw
“In the early afternoon of January 18th, anarchists and street militants gathered at Riverfront Park, on the occupied lands of the Sp’q’n’i people, shortly before descended on the ICE facility and engaged in some chaotic self-defense. The call to action followed the Crimethinc “Day of The Forest Defender” and the murder of Renee Good in Minneapolis, circulated initially by the Spokanarchists collective.The action began with a collaborative demo on de-arresting* and the martyered Tortuigita and the Stop Cop City movement. Comrades came prepared with reinforced wooden banners, fireworks, drums, and a burning rage at the Mercenaries of the Fascist regime.”
“After descending on the ICE facility, the crowd began blocking the front door of the building and daring whatever facility staff were inside to meet the crowd. Soon, a realization grew that the building was probably left empty. The door was forcefully shut with a pile of wood between door handles.
The crowd’s attention was then moved to the parking lot. The facilities parking lot, locked behind a sliding metal gate, was the site of the first major street battle between progressive forces and ICE – an (unsuccessful) attempt to block a convoy moving kidnapped teenagers from spokane to the Northwest Detention Center in tacoma. Understandably, the crowd began moving whatever they could get their hands on to block, damage, and otherwise render the parking gate and cars within inoperable.
Concrete parking barriers were lifted off the asphalt and stuck inside the parking gate and nearby decorative boulders were moved in front the exits.quickly, the crowd discovered a nearby park maintenance facility had left their lot unlocked. wooden beams, cinderblocks, speed limit signs, and whatever else wasn’t locked down was soon thrown at the gate and the parked cars. The idea was, failing anything more meaningful, to send a message to the scabs that keep the facility open. With 5 or 6 cars smashed by falling cinderblocks and shot by roman candles, the message was made very clear.”
“The temporary distraction of chasing down a confederate flag draped bootlicker heckling them, the crowd lost steam with destruction. A heavy debate arose within the crowd between those wanting to block the nearby road and those who were scared of any further escalation. The crowd split, and the pro-blocking faction took the south-bound lane of North Washington street. The reinforced banners gave the crowd confidence, though this was hampered by the loss of around 2/3rds of their numbers. At this point, SPD made their first appearance.”
“Two squad cars parked north of the intersection, and three pigmobiles parked a block south, began diverting traffic without addressing the crowd at all. Exhausted from earlier, and especially weary of a potential police kettle, the crowd dispersed. Followed by a SPD car, the group disappeared into an alley way somewhere in the downtown maze before debloccing and connecting on signal”
Takeaways
“The first major mobilization of spokanarchists, the event suffered from a lot of basic failures. Lack of Preparation prevented the crowd from more meaningful action, namely, a seizure or breach of the building itself or of a long term occupation of nearby roadways. confusion hampered an understanding of both the physical location of the facility itself* and of any shared intent upon arriving. to summarize, the crowd was not prepared to take full advantage of the almost free reign it had over the area. additionally, The dispersal of the street medic team(a product of the liberal reformist mutual-aid organizing circle) that had mobilized in support of the action almost as soon as property destruction began should also be a lesson to anarchist militants how fickle our “allies” on the organized left are, at least in the current moment, not to mention the fear-mongering by liberal indivisible types before the action began.”
“The fascist regime can only focus the brunt of its violence in a few cities at a time, right now, this is Minneapolis, earlier it was Portland, and before it was Los Angeles. Anarchists outside of major cities should take advantage of this and go on the offensive. Any ICE agent assigned to protect their field office in spokane/eugene/insert-city-here is an ICE agent that can’t be deployed to kidnap your neighbors or redeployed to Minneapolis.”
“Solidarity Means Attack.”