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AOC’s guide to protest safety (screenshotted from her instagram)

Here are some more “ambiguous” phrases which courts have found DO NOT invoke your right to a lawyer:

“Maybe I should speak to my lawyer first.”

“I might like a lawyer.”

“I think I should have a lawyer present for this.”

“Could I speak to my lawyer first?”

“How long until my lawyer gets here?”

And perhaps most egregiously – “Get me a lawyer, dawg – ‘cause this is not what’s up.”

Here are the magic phrases which you need to know if you want to invoke your Miranda rights:

1) “Am I free to leave?”

It’s worth asking this even if the answer is obvious. Even if the officer does not let you leave, by forcing them to admit that you are not free to leave, you are creating a record which your attorney can use to prove that you were in custody. Miranda rights only apply if the interrogation is custodial, meaning that police officers will frequently claim that their suspects were “not in custody” to get around their Miranda rights.

2) “I am invoking my right to remain silent.”

Simply staying silent will not invoke your right to remain silent. As absurd as this is, you must explicitly say that you are invoking your right to remain silent in order to invoke that right.

3) “I am invoking my right to an attorney.”

As stated above, you must be not only clear and unambiguous, but clear and legally unambiguous. Don’t get cute. Don’t get sassy. And on the flip side, don’t get intimidated and use verbal ticks to minimize your request. Say the line with those words exactly – say it clearly, and say it once, and then say nothing else.

Because even after you’ve done all this, the police can still try to get you to talk. They’re not supposed to interrogate you, but they’re allowed to make casual conversation, and if that conversation just happens to circle back around to the thing they wanted to question you about, well, that’s really your fault for talking after you said you wouldn’t, isn’t it? Can’t possibly fault the poor officers when you initiated – if you really wanted to have your rights respected, you wouldn’t have talked to them in the first place.

The police know this, and they will mercilessly exploit this loophole. So, once you’ve successfully invoked your Miranda rights, any and all conversation you have with police officers will put those rights back into jeopardy. 

Putting it all together:

Ask: “Am I free to leave?”

If they say no, say: “I am invoking my right to remain silent and I am invoking my right to an attorney.”

And then shut up and do not say a single thing to them for any reason whatsoever until you have actually spoken to an attorney. Yes, even if it takes hours. Yes, even if they start talking to you about something else.

Finally, a very important disclaimer:

wear a scarf or bandana to cover your nose and mouth (assuming you don’t have access to a gas mask, dusk mask or other kinds of filtered masks). cover up identifying marks like tattoos. 

tie up your hair and cover it as best as you can (tear gas can and will get into your hair and become tricky to wash out, you risk repeated exposure if you touch your hair and then your face etc).

wear goggles (swimming goggles or ski goggles work pretty well, sunglasses are not as good but they are better than nothing).

COVER YOUR SKIN (tear gas irritates the fuck out of your skin so cover up as best as you can. wear gloves. especially in warmer months sweat or other kinds of moisture on open skin eyes and lungs will react to tear gas and it will burn).

carry cold water with you to wash your face upon exposure, make sure it’s sealed so it’s not contaminated. hot water will open your pores and likely exacerbate the situation, so try to only use cold water.

prepare a separate spray bottle and fill it with a mixture of baking soda and water, this will help neutralize some of the effects of the gas. 3 tsp to every 250 ml seems to be a good rule of thumb. you will spray this into your eyes and mouth as needed. 

do not wear makeup, sunscreen, creams, or contact lenses. 

upon exposure: 

try not to panic, running blindly will overexert your lungs and make things worse, and might make you hyperventilate faster. move quickly but safely to get away from the cloud. get to higher ground if you can. if you’re in a building that has been gassed, immediately exit the building.

if you do inhale it, DON’T PANIC. it feels horrible and kind of like you might die but for most people it’s not lethal. (if you have asthma or other respiratory conditions or you’re elderly it’s far more dangerous for you to be exposed. infants are at greater risk also.) don’t rub your eyes or your face. you might vomit. your eyes and nose will stream like crazy. cough and spit as much as you can to get rid of the mucus build up. you might feel dizzy and disoriented. that’s normal. use the spray bottle on your eyes, face and throat as quickly as possible and escape the area. the immediate effects will likely wear off in an hour or two but you might feel the burning/irritation for days afterwards. 

take care of yourself first and help others after. remember that touching exposed individuals with bare hands will contaminate your skin also. 

if a gas canister lands next to you DO NOT TOUCH IT UNLESS YOU’RE WEARING HEAVY DUTY GLOVES. you will get second degree burns. the traffic cone method that HK protesters have been using seems to be the safest option to neutralize the canisters, but unless you’re sufficiently prepared to do this your only priority should be to get away from them. 

when you get home: 

take off your shoes outside so you don’t track particles into your house. wear gloves while handling contaminated items. 

take off all of your clothes. everything, down to your underclothes will likely be soaked in gas. if you’re able to, hang them outside to air them out on a balcony or in a yard for a few days.

wash your face with cold water as many times as you can. do not stand over a sink and do this; kneeling down and tilting your head back to pour water over your face and into the inner corners your eyes is more effective. flush your eyes out one by one, try not to cross-contaminate particles from one eye into the other.

wash your glasses and goggles with soap and water. 

take a cold shower with soap. do not take a bath. you will probably have to take multiple showers until the burning on your face and skin subsides. 

wash your contaminated clothes separately – you will have to put them through multiple wash cycles or failing that, discard them. wear gloves while doing this.

gas particles can stay active for 4-5 days so do not wear the same clothes if you are heading back out.  

Motivation comes from figuring out your WHY. Ask yourself why you want to do these things. It could be simply that you want to cross something off your to-do list, if it’s work, your motivation could be getting paid or if you are motivated from the feeling of productiveness then focus on that.

In these pandemic times, everyone’s productivity and motivation have been affected so be kind to yourself and understand whatever you can get done is enough.

the minnesota freedom fund is standing by to bail people out, and please donate to them if you can. https://minnesotafreedomfund.org/