Guides to understanding, protest, and reform: a collection of resources

Originally posted Jun. 7, 2020. Updated Jun. 13, 2025. (Also available on Substack.)

This post is part of my anti-racism study guide, On microaggressions, privilege, and systemic racism: A resource for white people.

Some of the the linked information goes back to the 2020 George Floyd protests. With the exception of a few details, the older articles continue to be relevant. Also, while I've done what I can to organize it by topic, a lot of the articles cover multiple aspects of protesting.

Events and organizers

• Protests, boycotts & demonstrations: A calendar (Includes information about organizers.)

General advice for protestors

• Protest safety tips, a page of the Indivisible SF website, Feb. 4, 2025. ("[W]rite the arrestee phone number for the local NLG (National Lawyers Guild) chapter on your forearm in Sharpie.)

• Staying Safe While Protesting & Organizing, a downloadable, printable PDF by Alexis Danzig, ACT UP & RIse and Resist. (In addition to explaining our legal rights, Danzig includes de-escalation tips and tactics.)

• Silent Signal 2.0, a panic button. This is not a recommendation. I'm posting it for your consideration only. The only recommendation for wearing it at protests comes from the manufacturer: How To Safely Prepare for a Political Protest or Rally. It's not cheap at $59.99, and personally, I have reservations about its digital security. However, for some protestors, the benefits of wearing a panic button might outweigh the risks.

  • RELATED: For a product review by a non-protester: I tried a physical panic button for 48 hours — and this tiny device already makes me feel safer.)*

• Be aware of suppression tactics. You Need To Know This Tactic ICE is Using Against American Citizens, uploaded Jun. 28, 2025 to Angela Baker's Parkrose Permaculture channel on YouTube. (Key points: "Know your rights. We all need to be documenting. We need to show up as a community, have rapid response teams ready. Game out these situations so we are prepared." TW: The video includes footage of three ice agents using their body weight to press a protester against the ground.)
  RELATED: In the video, Baker refers to this article: Felony charges against BLM protesters are 'suppression tactic', experts say, by Adam Gabbatt, The Guardian, Aug. 16, 2020.

• A Guide to Safe, Nonviolent Protesting, by K. Starling, WE (the People) dissent, Jun. 8, 2025. (This article links to information about safe, effective protesting, including "Learn De-Escalation Techniques," "Learn How to Calm your Fight or Flight Response," and "Understand and Spread the Word about the Principals of Nonviolent Resistance.")

• Tips for Preparedness, Peaceful Protesting, and Safety, a page of the Human Rights Campaign website. (Offers tips for preparation, and what to watch for at a protest.)

• What You Need to Know About Safe Protesting in 2025, by Liam Clymer, Pride Source, Jan. 13, 2025. ("LGBTQ+ activists share essential strategies for protecting yourself while making your voice heard.")

• NoVoiceUnheard Code of Conduct, a page of the NoVoiceUnheard website. (This code addresses everything from "Commitment to Nonviolence" to "Post-Protest Responsibility: Once the protest is over, assist in cleaning up the area if possible. Leave the space as you found it.")

• How to Protest Safely: What to Bring, What to Do, and What to Avoid, by Louryn Strampe and Lauren Goode, Wired, Jun 24, 2022. (A lengthy practical guide covering "What to Bring (and Not Bring) to a Protest," "Before You Leave," "Know Your Rights," "While You're at the Protest," "What to Avoid," "What to Do If …," and "After the Protest")"

Advice for non-citizens

• 10 Things Noncitizen Protestors Need to Know, a page of the Immigrant Legal Resource Center website, May 15, 2024.

Protect your fellow protesters

• When you go to a protest, don't document the event by posting photos online. If you do, law enforcement can use them to identify protestors. (Source: Real Talk on Activism: a compilation, uploaded Feb. 12, 2025 to the Parkrose Permaculture channel on YouTube.)

Safe protesting in the heat

• Stay Cool and Protest Safely: Essential Tips for Displays of Advocacy During Summer Heatwaves, a page of the Crowds on Demand website, 2024.

• Safe Protesting in the Heat, by Bob Callen, Peaceful Bluegrass Resistance, Jun. 26, 2025.

• Protesting in the Arizona summer? What to bring so you don’t die, by Morgan Fischer, Phoenix New Times, Jun. 18, 2025. ("A baseball cap might be your thing, but a cowboy hat or sun hat might provide more shade.")

• How to Stay Safe During Extreme Heat this Summer, a page of the American Red Cross website, May 27, 2025. (General heat-related advice. Of particular interest are the symptoms of heat cramps, heat exhaustion, and heat stroke.)

• Heat Safety Tips and Resources, a page of the National Weather Service, (Of particular interest: Heat Cramps, Exhaustion, Stroke.)

  • NOTE: The original .gov version is still available. I just don't have any confidence that it will stay that way.

Digital Surveillance

•  Protest Smarter and Safer: Get On Signal, a page of the Indivisable SF website, Jun. 10, 2025.

• Safety, Security, and Digital Preparedness for a Second Trump Administration, a page of the Indivisible website. *(Includes advice about working with law enforcement in advance of a protest.)*

• From the ACLU: How do you protect your privacy at a protest?, uploaded Jun. 3, 2020 to the ACLU channel on YouTube. ("Technologist Daniel Kahn Gillmor offers straightforward tips to protecting your phone, your information, and you identity from the government at protests and rallies.")

• Why you should turn off face ID and thumbprint recognition on your phone, uploaded May 14, 2025 to the Parkrose Permaculture channel on YouTube. ("There is a significantly diminished expectation of privacy if you have a biometric identifier on your phone.")

• Protesting in an Age of Government Surveillance, a page of the The International Center for Not-for-Profit Law website, February 2023. ("his briefer examines how new types of technology used by the government to surveil protests can lead to abuse and deter demonstrators from exercising their First Amendment rights.")

• How Governments Spy On Protestors—And How To Avoid It | Incognito Mode, uploaded Apr. 16, 2025 to the WIRED channel on YouTube. (WIRED editors Andrew Couts and Lily Hay Newman "discuss the technologies used by law enforcement that put citizens' privacy at risk—and how to avoid them.")

• Why You Should Change Your Phone Settings Before Protesting, by Meghan Jones, Reader's Digest, Jul. 21, 2021.

  RELATED: How to Protest Safely in the Age of Surveillance, by Andyt Greenberg and Uly Hay Newman, Wired, May 31, 2020. (Includes advice on how to choose a burner phone and minimizing your surveillance risk.)
  RELATED: The Phone Settings You Need to Know Before Protesting, by David Murphy, Lifehacker, June 2, 2020. (A thorough list of instructions for locking down iOS and Android phones.)
  RELATED: You Need This iPhone Shortcut if You're Protesting, by David Murphy, Lifehacker, Jun. 1, 2020.

• Attending a Protest, a page from the Surveillance Self-Defense website, Feb. 1, 2023. (Includes advice on protecting your phone and dressing for anonymity.)
  Surveillance Self-Defense offers a printable download: Pocket Guide: Protecting Your Data During a Protest.

Interacting with law enforcement: Your rights

• Your Rights While Protesting, a page of the CAIR website. (Includes practical advice for how to conduct yourself if you're being detained, as well as your rights after being arrested.)

• Know your rights: Protesters’ Rights, a page of the ACLU website. (Includes detailed information under the following scenarios: "I’m organizing a protest," "I’m attending a protest," "I want to take pictures or shoot video at a protest," "I was stopped by the police while protesting," and "I want to share this information on social media.")
  RELATED: The ACLU offers this information in the form of graphics suitable for social media.

• Safety, Security, and Digital Preparedness for a Second Trump Administration, a page of the Indivisible website. (Includes advice about working with law enforcement in advance of a protest.)

• New WITNESS Tip Sheet for Filming Acts of Hate, a page of the Witness.org website.

• Protests & Public Safety: A Guide for Cities & Citizens, Georgetown Law's Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection. (This is a very detailed, downloadable guide.)

• A Free “Safer In The Streets” Guide For Protesters, Current Affairs, Jun. 15, 2020. (A printable PDF in color or b/w, offering "advice on how to keep safe from cops at protests.")

• Which Law Enforcement Tactics Violate Protesters' Civil Rights?, by E.A. Gjelten, AVVO, Jun. 9, 2020. ("[P]olice officers have broad latitude when deciding whether to arrest protesters for violating the law. That’s true even for minor offenses, and even when the laws themselves (including executive orders issued as part of emergency declarations) might be unconstitutional, such as overbroad curfews and “no-protest zones” or “free-speech zones” that keep demonstrators out of the way where their message can’t be heard." But at what point doe their use of force become excessive?)

• Protesters: Know Your Rights!, a page of the Ohio ACLU website. (The Ohio ACLU also offers a printable PDF, "PROTESTERS: Know Your Rights!")

• The National Lawyers Guild Presents....Shut The Fuck Up!!, uploaded Jan. 29, 2023 to the Dani Hensley channel on YouTube. ("The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) is a progressive public interest association of lawyers, law students, paralegals, jailhouse lawyers, law collective members, and other activist legal workers, in the United States.")
  This YouTube link was posted by Joyce White Vance, who notes: "This is truly the best legal advice we can give." The discussion below her post is equally important, because it highlights the difference between advice for white protestors, an advice for people of color, as well as reminders to get out your phone and start recording. I recommend you read the whole thing.
  RELATED: And why is it vital that you say absolutely nothing? @ImmigrationStation4U explains. (His message is for immigrants, but the advice applies across the board.)

• The Alt-Right on Campus: What Students Need to Know, (PDF) Southern Poverty Law Center, 2017. ("The Southern Poverty Law Center examines the alt-right, profiles its key figures and exposes its underlying ideologies. We also recommend ways to deconstruct and counter its propaganda, mount peaceful protests, and create alternative events and forums when alt-right speakers are invited or come to your campus." Includes a section on white supremacists.)

• Get prepared for what is coming, uploaded Mar. 5, 2025 to the Parkrose Permaculture channel on YouTube. (As always, Angela Baker is spot on in this video, so I encourage you to listen to the whole thing. But in particular (at 2:55), she offers very specific advice for preparing our "muscle memory," so that, if we're detained, we know automatically what to say and how to handle ourselves.)

• How to spot a kettle, graphic plus explanation, found on tumblr. (A visual description of how police surround and detain large groups of protesters.)

Allies: Be knowledgeable about immigrant rights

• USC Agents of Change establishes hotline to help move immigration hearings online: 888-462-5211, by Sophie Sullivan, USC Annenberg Media, Jun. 18, 2025. *(Services are available in Spanish and English. (The Agents of Change hotline was mentioned in a Jun. 27, 2025 YouTube upload by ParkRose Permaculture (Angela Baker). Baker explains why online hearings matter.)

• Know your rights: Immigrants' Rights, a page of the ACLU website. ("Regardless of your immigration status, you have guaranteed rights under the Constitution. Learn more here about your rights as an immigrant, and how to express them.")

• Know your rights: 100 Mile Border Zone, a page of the ACLU website. ("The Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects people from random and arbitrary stops and searches. Although the federal government claims the power to conduct certain kinds of warrantless stops within 100 miles of the U.S. border, important Fourth Amendment protections still apply.")

Video and photo information

• New WITNESS Tip Sheet for Filming Acts of Hate, a page of the Witness.org website.

• How to Take Photos at Protests Safely—and Responsibly, by Jaina Grey, Wired, May 12, 2022. (Includes practical tips like this: " If you aren't using a tool like Image Scrubber to eliminate location metadata ... [p]ost screenshots of your photos so there’s no location data in the image file.")

• 19 Tips For Anyone Who Plans On Protesting, by Ajani Bazile-Dutes, BuzzFeed, Jun. 1, 2020. (This list includes "suggestions of how to avoid being digitally tracked — something many are concerned about as they worry about being marked for potential retaliation or just want to keep themselves as low-profile as possible for general safety.")

• Know your rights: Protesters’ Rights, a page of the ACLU website. (Information for protest organizers and attendees, your rights to photograph or video at a protest, and how to handle being stopped by the police at a protest.)

If a protest turns violent

• How to Stay as Safe as Possible While You Protest, by Sarah Jacoby, Self, June 2, 2020. (See "Know that police violence is a possibility" and "If you’re injured or there’s an emergency, don’t hesitate to flag down a street medic.")

• How to Survive a Riot, by Carlton Wolf, How to Survive Everything, Apr 8, 2024. ("Surviving a riot involves more than just reacting spontaneously. It requires foresight, calmness, and a well-thought-out plan.... This survival guide offers detailed strategies for staying safe if caught in a riot.")

• Stampede and crush survival tips, a page of the Risk Prevention Mitigation and Management Forum website.

• Crowd Safety: How to Survive a Stampede, a graphic from All India Radio News.

• How to stay safe in a stampede: Follow these tips to avoid getting caught in chaos, by Raj Shekhar Jha, The Times of India, updated Feb. 18, 2025.

• After DC Pride scare, how to protect yourself in a crowd, uploaded Jun. 19, 2019 to the ABC News channel on YouTube. *("ABC News' Matt Gutman shares tips for staying safe in a stampede after a gun scare at the Washington, D.C. Pride parade sent seven people to the hospital.")

• 4 Strategies to Stay Safe in a Stampede or Crowd Crush, by Maddie Cohen, a page of the Umbrella Security Services website, Mar. 29, 2022.

• Stampede: What to Know, by Shishira Sreenivas, WebMD, Nov. 20, 2024.

What do do if someone is injured

• Eye Safety During Protests, by Kierstan Boyd, American Academy of Ophthalmology, Apr. 03, 2024. (Includes steps to take if your eye is injured by a rubber bullet or other projectile, or if you've been exposed to tear gas or pepper spray.)

The system CAN be changed.

• New WITNESS Tip Sheet for Filming Acts of Hate, a page of the Witness.org website.

• Indivisible: A Practical Guide to Defeating MAGA, a download from Indivisible.org.

• From police traffic stops to qualified immunity for officers, 5 ways to reforming policing, a USA Today editorial, Aug. 1, 2021.

• What's Needed to Achieve Real Policing Reform, by Joe Domanick, KCET, Jun. 14, 2017.

• Qualified immunity: 8 myths about why police need it to protect the public, by Diane Goldstein, USA Today, Sept. 16, 2021.

• What the Federal Government Can Do to Help Fix Policing in America, by Lauren-Brooke Eisen, Brennan Center for Justice, Jun. 16, 2020

• How to reform American police, according to experts, by German Lopez, Vox, Jun. 1, 2020.

• 6 Things You Can Do to Reform the Criminal Justice System, a page of the Heddels website, by David Shuck, Jun. 1, 2020.

• #8CANTWAIT, “a campaign to bring immediate change to police departments,” is a project of Campaign Zero.

• We can end police violence in America, a page of the Campaign Zero website. (Campaign Zero “is focused on ensuring that the current systems harm as few people as possible while we work to build new systems and structures that work at scale to make people’s lives better.“)

• How Camden, N.J. Disbanded And Rebuilt Its Police Department | MTP Daily, uploaded Jun. 8, 2020 to the MSNBC channel on YouTube.

• What Exactly Does It Mean to Defund the Police?, by Amanda Arnold, The Cut, Jun. 12, 2020.

• The Sentencing Project (“We recognize that ending both mass incarceration and the ineffectiveness of our current criminal legal system cannot be achieved without addressing the rampant racism that supports it. This racism costs lives, inflicts atrocities, and prevents the United States from functioning as a true democracy. As The Sentencing Project works to expand our impact, we are guided by a strategic focus on racial justice and a commitment to amplifying the work, voices and leadership of directly impacted individuals, families and communities.”)

• Making Police Reforms Endure: The Keys for Success by Trent Ikerd and Samuel Walker, Community Oriented Policing Services, U.S. DOJ, April 2010.
  I've vetted every article in this list — except this last one. Maybe there are useful ideas in it, and maybe there aren't. But just look at the date: 2010. If they were capable of reforming themselves, doesn't it seem like 11 years is long enough?

Protesting during the pandemic

• What 10 Public Health Experts Want You to Know About Protesting in the Middle of a Pandemic, by Carolyn L. Todd, Self, Jun. 18, 2020. (Although the worst of the pandemic is supposed to be over, the information in this article is still relevant in 2023.)

How to help if you can't protest in the streets

• Beware of Burnout: Sustainable strategies for activism, by Tatiana Mac, Jun. 8, 2020.

• 5 Ways White People Can Be Helpful Right Now, by Anna Borges, Self, Jun. 2, 2020. (Includes a section with specific advice for White people who want participate in a protest, plus ways to donate, and provide aid to protesters.)

  Opportunities to contribute financially

  • National Black Trans Advocacy Coalition. ("Established in 2011, The National Black Trans Advocacy Coalition is the only social justice organization led by black trans people to collectively address the inequities faced in the black transgender human experience.")

  • 168 Ways to Donate in Support of Black Lives and Communities of Color, New York Magazine, updated Apr. 21, 2021.

  • Black Lives Matter: Fund the Movement. (This fundraiser is not currently accepting any donations.)

  • Donate to The Bail Project. (Charity Navigator gives The Bail Project a four-star, 98 percent rating.)

    RELATED: To better understand our broken bail system, watch John Oliver's 2015 segment on the subject.

  • To find a bail fund near you, start here. To search Charity Navigator ratings for individual funds, go here.

See also On microaggressions, privilege, and systemic racism: A resource for white people.