Recipes for Disaster: an anarchist cookbook

If there are many of you, escape can be more complicated. First of all, before doing anything risky in a group, make sure your planned method of escape, should that be necessary is something everyone in the group is comfortable with, capable of, and clear on. In case you spHt up during the chase, set a location to reconvene, or have someone somewhere at a telephone who can receive calls from people and coordinate them or come pick them up. Sphtting up can make pursuit more difficult, but it can also mean giving up the chance to help each other or outnumber the opposition. If you're being followed, be carefiil not to lead your enemies to your getaway vehicle or convergence point.

After any larger action that breaks up in flight from the poHce, get back together at a safe location as soon as possible. If you are unsure of whether everyone escaped, make a list of everyone who is unaccotmted for, and set about locating them. Try to verify rumors about who has been arrested and what happened to them. Start collecting a bail fund, if necessary, and consider composing an announcement to circulate over the internet to your community about who has been arrested and what people can do to help. If you don't know all the people involved, get contact information for everyone, in case a court case necessitates that you be in touch with them to agree on a story, request their assistance as witnesses, or make use of any documentation they may have of the events.

Finally, and perhaps obviously, if your escape plans?or any you might need to make on the fly?necessitate athletic prowess, make sure you exercise in advance!

'Twas the night before classes started, and there was a perfect site for graffiti on the campus: an alley between two buildings, invisible from the street, through which all pedestrian traffic in the area was being routed on account of construction work. We'd done some impressive artwork on the campus over the preceding year, so it was good that this location offered high visibility without much risk, as the authorities were actively seeking the ones guilty of free expression. 1 invited two friends to come along as lookouts so 1 could relax and decorate the area wdth the thoroughness it deserved; I made a point of dressing differently than them, in a borrowed patent leather jacket and ridiculous faux-fur hat with my long hair packed up into it. I left my bicycle unlocked for quick access at a rack by the street on one side of the alley, posted one friend there and the other near the other entrance, briefly surveyed the scene, and set to work.

I hadn't even finished the third word when, sensing motion out of the comer of my eye, I turned my head to see a maintenance worker a few yards away, walking right toward me! Talk about bad luck?it himed out there was one door inside the perimeter secured by the two lookouts, and he had just walked out of it. What he was doing there well after midnight, I still don't know. I reacted before he did, capping my spray paint can and sliding it down the sleeve of my jacket as I broke into a steady run. Seeing me do so, he gave chase.

An instant later I passed my friend; our eyes met just long enough for her to sense what was going on. She began walking toward the alley, so as to appear to be a passerby who had not yet seen what was happening. I later learned that the maintenance employee, hot on my heels, asked her which way the person he was chasing had run, and she pointed him in the wrong direction; he looked in that direction, toward a broad expanse of empty campus, saw no one, and stopped to radio the pohce. She passed through the alley, met my other friend, and left the area. Some time later, when it was clear I wouldn't be getting it, one of them returned for my bicycle.

Account

You can save yourself some grief by learning to identify the headlights of local police cars from a distance.

Evasion 239

You can protect your home from

police dogs by laying down a thin

line of cayenne pepper across each

doorway; the dogs will pause to sniff

it on their way in, and won't be able

to smell anything else for a while.