Trump’s FEMA to Train Local Police for “Field Force” Crackdowns

Unicorn Riot

Unicorn Riot has obtained a federal training manual, Field Force Operations, from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Center for Domestic Preparedness (CDP). The federal government uses this document to train local law enforcement in techniques for quelling protests. It was acquired during our reporting on direct actions against the Dakota Access Pipeline when we filed a records request to the North Dakota Department of Corrections.

An email from the cache released in response to our request shows a copy of this course being forwarded to state correctional employees, presumably in an attempt to bring their personnel up to speed with crowd control techniques after the onset of #NoDAPL protests earlier this year. The manual appears to be very recently revised, having been updated with references to Occupy Seattle “anarchist” protests and the Ferguson crackdowns.

A news clip from 2014 shows Alabama State Troopers practicing crowd control maneuvers as part of the Center for Domestic Preparedness Field Force Training. This FEMA / CDP Field Force Operations manual we are releasing is part of the curriculum for the same training. In the video below, a retired police officer states:

“When they deal with large scale events and crowd management, they have to learn to do work together as a team, very disciplined. So we run it very para-military, they learn to follow strict orders of command and control.” – Thomas Johnstone, Retired Law Enforcement Officer

The 135-page guide has eight sections, covering “Mass Arrest“, “Team Tactics“, “Protester Tactics“, “Crowd Dynamics“, “Riot Control Equipment” and “Riot Control Agents and Less Lethal Munitions“. An appendix has lists of standardized riot control weapons, now commonly found in local police departments across the United States.

This manual summarizes tactics often spotted in recent years, as multi-jurisdiction task forces have utilized these approaches to reassert physical control over restive American communities. During campaign season, President-elect Donald Trump made it clear he wanted to execute policies involving millions of deportations, the cancellation of federal abortion rights, nationwide “stop and frisk” and many other proposals.

After the election Unicorn Riot covered large protests directed against issues like these in Denver, Minneapolis and St. Paul. Activist networks should expect similar tactics against many US communities in 2017 as they resist such policies.

Trump characterized recent protest crowds on Twitter as “professional protesters, incited by the media, are protesting.” The label of “professional protester” is actually formalized in this FEMA training document. In Module 6, FEMA trains local police to believe that “professional protesters” are not like “everyday citizen” or “anarchist” protesters, and take action accordingly.

Module 1 covers pacification strategies to deflect direct goals of protest actions, including:

• Avoid donning police hard gear as a first step. Also avoid the appearance of militarization of law enforcement. [emphasis added]
• Coordinate with demonstration organizers prior to an event to reinforce law enforcement’s role as facilitators rather than confronters
• Isolate, arrest, and remove law violators from a crowd as quickly as possible
• Mutual-aid agencies should receive proper training prior to deployment to the field (Police Executive Research Forum, 2011, p. 34).

A critical fact of the demise of 2011’s Occupy camps was that nationwide police chiefs used Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) conference calls to plan the final wave of raids. PERF here, provides FEMA the imperative for preparing more multi-jurisdiction forces to control the population. PERF’s 2011 “Managing Major Events” guide is heavily referenced. (See more OWS crackdown docs)

Module 1′s Annex A. references a lot of previous protests in detail, including the 2008 Republican National Convention. [MORE]