by Ram Narayanan
Have you participated in a protest march, a demonstration or a picket line recently? If so, you were likely listening to various high-energy speakers, chuckling at the interesting and witty signage, and getting motivated by the surrounding crowd. You probably were not thinking about the various ways that things could go sideways, ranging from inattentive motorists to disruptive counterprotestors.
IEB and other like-minded organizations have had a significant presence at countless political and social events over the years, more so during the Trump era. Fortunately we’ve seen very little disruption at any of these gatherings. One reason, to their credit, is because most Bay Area participants have been consciously non-violent and are not there to cause anything but “good trouble”. Another important reason is that there is usually a team of individuals, often representing multiple organizations, working in tandem to help ensure that these events remain peaceful and that attendees stay safe.
One of these teams is the IEB Safety Team, which has been deployed at many East Bay events in recent years. As issues in our society have become more controversial and personal, as individuals have become more radicalized and violent, and as crowds have grown larger, it became clear that IEB needed to develop or be part of a systematic, non-violent process that would maintain peace and avert disruption and chaos at activist gatherings. This need led to the creation of the IEB Safety Team.
I had a chance to speak to Chris Geiger and Maria Shanle, two co-leads for the IEB Safety Team, who are looking for additional people to join this thriving team. Here is a summary of my conversation with them:
What does the IEB Safety Team do?
The team’s main charter is to make events safer by managing traffic, de-escalating conflicts and counteracting disruptors. Members wear yellow vests, making them highly visible—which is especially helpful at events such as No Kings or May Day, where 50 or more IEB Safety Team members often participate. The Safety Team is on the lookout for disruptions and is trained to proactively step into conflicts and de-escalate any tense situations. Their presence creates an environment for participants to feel safer and makes the event feel more structured and organized. Because the Safety Team represents “the face” of IEB at these gatherings, members are trained to follow strategic non-violence principles.
Safety Team members also answer protestors’ questions and provide customer service. If a participant needs medical assistance, directions, route information, the timing of events, or simply wants to find the nearest restroom, they can reach out to a Safety Team member.
What type of training do IEB Safety Team members undergo?
The Indivisible East Bay charter emphasizes non-violence, a first principle that carries over to the IEB Safety Team charter. Training and skill development for the Safety Team specifically includes training in non-violent de-escalation, communication training and walkie-talkie training. Some trainings are conducted by 3rd party experts who have extensive experience managing public safety for a variety of direct actions — including protests, picketing, blockades, and civil disobedience.
In what types of events does the IEB Safety Team participate?
In addition to gatherings of tens of thousands, such as No Kings and May Day, the team also supports many smaller events. The cadence of the various activities is not always predictable, but the team is typically involved with some type of event or action every couple of weeks, sometimes more frequently in the case of multi-day protests. Recent examples include:
- Marching to a local Home Depot store and working with a coalition of immigrant rights groups to disrupt business and pressure the store to stop collaborating with ICE raids.
- Picketing the law firm Paul, Weiss, which was the first major law firm to cave in to Trump’s demands and ultimately offered millions of dollars in free legal work in order to maintain its government contracts.
- Other activities, such as the Tesla Takedowns, the Oakland Airport May Day event and last year’s Labor Day event at Oakland’s Lake Merritt (supporting Bay Resistance).
What practical benefits does the IEB Safety Team offer for Indivisible members?
- IEB members are often motivated to join the Safety Team because they want to get more directly involved in IEB activities. Because the IEB Safety Team plays an active role in IEB’s main events, many members feel that their participation is a meaningful and immediately tangible way of giving back to the community.
- Members of the Safety Team are often “in the know” with IEB activities and events so there’s an opportunity to be more connected with what’s going on throughout the organization. There’s also a sense of community among members that builds trust and camaraderie in the service of a common purpose; many friendships have been born among Safety Team members who work and train together.
- The safety training and skills that IEB Safety Team members receive are highly valuable and transferable to other activities. With this training, team members have been able to support many non-IEB events across the Bay Area.
What are some misconceptions about the IEB Safety Team?
- To be clear, the IEB Safety Team is NOT a security organization. Team members do not carry weapons. They never resort to physical force and are not in a position to threaten, detain or forcibly remove attendees. The Safety Team does not collaborate with any law enforcement agencies; members are required to forward any inquiries from the police to the dedicated IEB police liaison.
- Because it is easy to confuse nonviolent de-escalation with security, some people may feel intimidated and reluctant to join the team. But it’s really not hard to be part of the team. There’s no need to be big or strong. The most important requirements are the ability to remain alert, keep a cool head, and be helpful, respectful and peaceful.
- Although the Safety Team operates as a separate entity from the event it is supporting, its individual team members are not isolated. At each event, each member is paired up with a buddy. And each pair is typically assigned to a subgroup so that leadership is decentralized. This process helps members feel connected, safer and less vulnerable.
IEB Safety Team impact and success
- A group of about 50 to 70 IEB Safety Team members have usually been deployed at No Kings and other large events. While additional team members at these events would certainly be welcome, it’s nevertheless impressive when a group of this size is consistently able to successfully support tens of thousands of marchers. The team has been able to efficiently scale its resources and has learned how to coordinate safety procedures, march routes and street blocking with BADASH (Bay Area Direct Action Support Hive). BADASH is a group of protest marshals that provides services comparable to the IEB Safety Team, except that its members patrol the events on bicycles. The Safety Team often partners with BADASH, especially at large events. IEB provides the pedestrians and BADASH provides the bicyclists, who can leap frog ahead and provide forward-looking coverage until the IEB Safety Team catches up on foot.
- To event participants, it may look like the people in yellow vests are just milling about, but there’s a lot of coordination involved behind the scenes—with event organizers, subgroup leads, communication leads, bicycle marshals, medics, march leaders, etc. This is where IEB training has proved to be very valuable. Team members are grouped into subteams with different responsibilities, usually based on geographical location—some to the front of the march and some to the back, for balanced representation. The IEB Safety Team has stopped drivers from inadvertently careening toward marchers and they’ve connected protesters with medics for sudden health-related issues such as heat stroke. It may seem trivial, but even distributing bottles of water and granola bars can be a surprisingly effective means of de-escalation, particularly when a marcher seems psychologically stressed out or is not doing well physically.
- It’s important to note that the IEB Safety Team (with BADASH) regularly provides input into the routes that protest marches are scheduled to follow. IEB has been an integral part of the planning process with event leaders at No Kings and May Day for example.
- A marker of success is when events, large and small, are peaceful from start to finish. And thus far there have been no noteworthy incidents at any of the events where the IEB Safety Team has participated—no altercations, no violence, no serious injuries, no drama.
Why is it an important time to join the IEB Safety Team?
If you’ve ever thought about joining the team, now is the time to do it! The role of the IEB Safety Team will become more important than ever as we approach the midterm elections this November. Trump has made it plain as day that he is going to do everything possible to make it harder for voters to register and cast their ballots; for polling stations to collect those ballots; and for counting centers to tally the votes. He is determined to cheat.
In response, Indivisible has been working at the national and local level on Election Defense. The IEB Safety Team will be part of the IEB Election Defense operations and ready to respond if and when a red line is crossed. Election Defense planning is starting now and the Safety Team is looking for more members to step up and get trained. In the event that there’s an emergency related to the election, there will likely be mass actions – like No Kings but announced on very short notice. There may even be multiple actions in different locations and/or multiple days in a row where the IEB Safety Team is involved. Help protect our elections and our democracy. Get on board today!
Being part of the IEB Safety Team team is a very rewarding experience. You’ll get a hands-on opportunity to do something good for the community and good for your country while learning valuable skills.
