Weapons for Street Fighting

Note: while all of these methods can be used as weapons for street fighting, keep in mind that their use will drastically increase your chance of the police using lethal force against you. Consider the use of such weapons very carefully.

Molotov Cocktail
The old European riot standby, nearly any flammable liquid stuck in glass bottles with a rag, soaked in said liquid, tied around the top. A molotov does not require the fuel soaked rag to actually be stuffed into the neck of the bottle, It is better to cap the bottle and tie the wick to the neck, that way the impact should break the bottle causing the fuel inside to come into contact with the burnning rag. It is just as effective as stuffing the rag inside the neck, and considerably reduces the risk to you.

Keep in mind this is very dangerous (both to you and to any targets) and will be considered a lethal weapon in the US, which will probably result in you being shot. European cops are less trigger happy, however. In fact, many European cops won't actually be carrying firearms. In Britain, for example, guns are only carried by Airport security, bodyguards for politicians, etc.

Anti-tire Burrs
These are easy to make, and quite an effective way of stopping cars. To make them, simply bend together two pieces of steel rod and arc weld in a way that no matter which way the device falls one point is sticking straight up. Make sure that these nails are both long(4 inches 10cm or longer) and thick(at least 1/4 inch or 5mm) as car tires have a really thick outer layer (these have the tread on them) as well as woven wire mesh that you need to puncture. Sprinkle these liberally across a road to prevent four-wheeled intruders. They're quite effective, but they take some time to make -- so gather together a few friends the night before a protest. Heavy metal like the thickness of a door hinge at a minimum ground to the shape of a bowtie and twisted in a vice ninety degrees so a point is always sticking up are called caltrops and will flatten normal squad car tires in under a second.

If slitting tires on a parked car go for the inside wall near the bead where rubber meets the steel wheel where it can't be repaired, this is hard to diagnose quickly especially if you also rip out or break off the valve stem, causing the vehicle to remain out of service longer.

Track Team
If you are faced with tracked opposition from bulldozers to battle tanks you can pop the track pins with a short piece of steel railroad track rail. Somehow get the rail under the track just as it is going from fully flexed around the caster wheels to flat as it rides horizontally on top or bottom. these track pins are tough so if the driver is moving slow and is smart enough to recognize a track jam he may just stop the vehicle and a quick reverse may dislodge the jam. Pieces of rail can be found laying around near railroad yards or sometimes around recently repaired tracks, they are very heavy but can be cut using a carbide cutoff wheel, it may take several disks to cut through. The only way to really decommission these vehicles is highly illegal and dangerous- a high explosive shaped charge or a thermite device. Instructions on how to make shaped charges can be found in the Army 31-210 book we provide in DIY Defense. One in the wrong spot might kill the crew rather than the vehicle though so watch out. The thermite will almost surely cause a fire see Other Weapons for instructions.

Of course, being as they're slow moving, you can also just hijack them.

Abrasive Personality
Long term damage of equipment with bearings can be accomplished by using a coarse metal polishing abrasive powder mixed into a grease cartridge and injecting this into the grease fittings on the bearings. This is by no means an instant way to eliminate a vehicle or machine, but does expensive damage and may have an effect within minutes or it may take days or even weeks depending on the speed of the bearing. Look for these fittings on dozer track bearings, wheel bearings, suspension components, universal and CV joints, Drive line parts, etc. Some places don't even need the grease gun, you can just slit a rubber cover and slather your spiked grease onto the sensitive part. This method of equipment destruction was a favorite of resistance fighters in WW-II Europe. If busted the courts and current laws will view abrasive destroyed equipment in a much better light than say arson.

Pigs on Horses
Marbles in large numbers on hard pavement will trip a horse and panic them, rubber snakes are also known to scare some horses. If you can somehow detach the saddle the cop falls off. Horses are over a thousand pounds and deadly, while we want to protect an innocent animal they might become an innocent victim in our struggle for freedom, remember it was the corpgov police that brought them into harm's way by using them as a tool of oppression.

Bike Locks for Pig Bikes
if you can stop a motorcycle cop long enough for this dangerous stunt try running a chain lock or U-lock into a wheel or spokes. If the cop figures out what you are trying he may try to gun the engine potentially injuring you or running into the crowd.

Helicopters
We all hate the 1984-esque police choppers above us at demonstrations, raids, and other police actions. First off once a helicopter is in the air we don't touch it, that means no lasers aimed at pilots, no chains or cables into rotors, home brew stinger missiles, whatever, these are all out, a crashing helicopter usually kills the crew, that is murder, and the destruction and fire on the ground can easily kill many more innocents!

If you hate that helicopter so much get it when it is parked. Aircraft are made of lightweight material you would be amazed how quickly a sledgehammer, hatchet, bolt cutters, saw, and abrasives will destroy these delicate machines. Damaging or removing the front windshield will render the helicopter 100% unusable. Especially vulnerable are the jet turbine and transmission, open these up and smashy smashy!! Never try sneaky attacks on aircraft, if you are out to destroy make it blatant, hell leave an itemized destruction list, so that there is not any mid-air failure and crash attributed to your actions.

Again once the helicopter is in the air leave it alone, trying to grab onto the skids could cause a crash and many deaths. It is useful to know that smoke will hide activists from the video camera although most smoke will not block the FLIR infrared cameras.

Rolling Road Block
An old junker car is perfect for making a roadblock and causing a traffic disruption to get your cause into the news via a press release claiming responsibility but consider the public backlash. The roadblock is also useful for denying quick police response to your action or funneling their traffic to where you want it. A good choice for a vehicle is one that can be made to run and drive in urban traffic but doesn't cost too much. The road hogs of the 60's and 70's have the size and weight to make removal difficult once you implement you roadblock. Since you will not be getting your car back and don't want it traced pick a vehicle and remove all of the serial numbers especially any VIN tags and parking stickers which are archived, older cars have few tracked serial numbers.

When it comes time to lay down the roadblock you can very quickly stuff blocks or wood under the axles and rip off all of the valve stems from the tires to flatten the tires or even remove the wheels making it hard to tow unless they have a platform tow truck. For more staying power you could have holes cut into the floor and have friends in the seats mixing big buckets of cement to cement the car down to the pavement, hammering a few big spikes into the asphalt or cracks in the road will help secure the connection. Another tactic is to make the car appear to be evidence requiring a long lock-down of the "crime scene" a gallon of cow or pig blood on the seats a butcher knife and bloody footprints from the vehicle plus other creative and confusing "evidence" will surely lead to hours of investigation and a blocked road or highway.

Don't EVER leave a block in the middle of an open highway as a distracted driver may miss the non-moving block and plow into it at upwards of 80 miles per hour, only leave roadblocks in traffic jams where the traffic is already stopped but have a very good plan to escape the traffic lynch mob!

Fuel Adulteration
Linseed oil in a fuel tank is the fastest way to destroy an engine, according to tests at the US Army Frankfort Arsenal. Sugar took many hours and several sugared tanks to produce even minimal results (about as effective as dirt in gasoline). Many adulterants will be stopped by fuel or oil filters, try to find one that dissolves in the fuel. A good way to introduce an adulterant in modern locked fuel systems is to make a sharpened needle type tip for a garden sprayer filed with adulterant, one member of the team crawls under the car and identifies the filler line or fuel line and the other pumps the chemical into the tank. Many of these mixes will cause smoking which will at least take the unit out of service until the tank is drained but will not require an engine replacement. If the fuel line is reachable injecting a few hundred cc of paint will likely destroy the sensors and maybe the fuel injectors taking the unit out of service for a few days, maybe steal most of the fuel for your own use before injecting the adulturant! Styrofoam thickens gasoline considerably and reduces the burn rate, this can easily stop an engine. If you can get at the oil filter remove it jab several holes through the paper filter ruining it then add an alkaline, abrasive, or metal powder, screw the filter back on.

Clubs
Information About Clubs And Their Use.

Club type weapons besides being mostly non-lethal when used against the leg muscles and buttocks usually have a longer range than concealable knives and are normally able to incapacitate in one or two strikes. Baseball bats are the baseline with short "tire checker" bats used by truckers and C or D cell Maglight flashlight/torches for tight areas, a police collapsible baton is an excellent choice for concealability length when extended and effectiveness in bruising an attacker to the point that they retreat or go to the ground. A Kubaton type weapon is small to fit in the hand and intended to cause pain when used as a striking or pressure point weapon; thick wooden dowel, MiniMag flashlight/torches, and tactical flashlights all have the hard edges needed for striking but the tactical light has the advantage of momentarily blinding your opponent with a burst of bright light. A roadwork stake (the 2-foot long giant steel nail thing) can be destructive enough to take down a small tree when swung forcibly. They are easy to acquire but can cause serious permanent bodily damage.

Addition of nails and wire to a club may make it a little more scary but mostly just increase the danger to yourself in an over swing or miss, they are difficulty to carry, and greatly increase the chance of snagging and loss in the body of your target, it is useless in a non-lethal confrontation and cannot be explained as anything other than a very cruel killing device if found by the police.

Pepper Spray Blaster
Soak a few pounds of crushed or ground dried cayenne peppers in warm 90% grain alcohol for several hours, then evaporate off about half of the alcohol over an electric hot plate outside in an open area away from flames. Filter with a coffee filter and funnel or a coffee press then load the liquid into a cleaned out fire extinguisher with a Schraeder (bike type) air fill valve, be sure to clean the O-ring at the neck, don't get your pepper liquid into the neck threads. Only discharge if you are wearing a gas mask, caution spray is flammable. A modified metal tube on the end of the hose is good for getting under doors or drilled holes in walls. Good for clearing out big corpgov conferences when fogged into the HVAC system of a conference hall.

Paint the ex-fire extinguisher black and paint "TEAR GAS" or something else so it is not ever used in a fire.

Almost any cleaning chemical put into a spray bottle can be used as makeshift pepper spray, the eyes are quite fragile and spraying, say, draino into someone's eyes will blind them (Although possibly permanently, depending on what you use)

Slingshot
From the Greek Insurrection to factory workers in Argentina, the slingshot is back as the weapon of choice for fighting off pigs. To make one all you need is: First, you're going to want to get your hands on a good piece of wood in a Y shape. The most desirable dimensions are 3"-4" wide, and about 10" long. A longer handle can give you greater distance and better lobbing ability but is more conspicuous. Look around woods or in brush piles for y shaped branches, but if they can't be found you can just saw up a two by four or other planks to substitute.
 * A good strong piece of wood in a Y shape
 * 4 Rubber bands: Two long, two short. The thicker the better!
 * Duct Tape

Next, you're going to need to make the cradle, just take some duct tape and layer it on top of itself several times to make it thick and strong. The best dimensions are about 2" long and 1"-1.5" wide. Fold your cradle in half and cut slits in both ends for the rubber bands.

Now take one of your long rubber bands and fit it through one of the slots in your cradle and loop one end through the other, repeat this step with your other long rubber band and the other slot in your cradle. Next fit your smaller rubber bands around the ends of the wood, they should fit loosely around it. Take a short rubber band and twist it so it's in the shape of an 8 with one loop around the wood and another free, fit one of the long rubber bands through the open loop you just made and wrap it around the branch, cover this by putting the loop of the short rubber band over the branch. Do the same with the other rubber bands.

All that's left is to customize it however you want. Make a handle out of duct tape or hockey tape, paint it, decorate it, whatever. Also be sure to test it out to get a feel for how powerful it is and how accurate.

Improvised Street Weapons
Folding chairs and conference tables can be used as improvised shields against rubber bullets. Any kind of hefty rope or chain can be used as tanglefoot for massed riot troops or horses when well anchored off to utility poles or fire hydrants. And of course, a rock or piece of concrete when thrown will cause damage.

Considerations
Be sure to consider the danger to yourself and penalty for carrying and use of a weapon versus its effectiveness and usefulness in expected situations.

Spray Cans
These are a very effective and educating method of property destruction. If a liberated zone has been established or you find yourself on a quiet street away from the thick of things, pretty up the neighborhood. Slogans and symbols can be sprayed on rough surfaces such as brick or concrete walls that are a real bitch to remove unless expensive sandblasting is used.

The Slingshot
This is probably the ideal street weapon for the swarms of little Davids that are out to down the Goliaths of Pigdom. It is cheap, legal to carry, silent, fast-loading and any right size rock will do for a missile. You can find them at hobby shops and large sporting goods stores, especially those that deal in hunting supplies. Wrist-Rocket makes a powerful and accurate slingshot for $2.50. The Whamo Sportsman is not as good but half the price. By selecting the right "Y" shaped branch, you can fashion a home-made one by using a strip of rubber cut from the inner tube of a tue as the sling. A few hours of shooting stones at cans in the back yard or up on the roof will make you marksman enough for those fat bank windows and even fatter pigs.

Slings
A sling is a home-made weapon consisting of two lengths of heavy-duty cord each attached securely at one end to a leather patch that serves as a pocket to cradle the rock. Place the rock in the pouch and grab the two pieces of cord firmly in your hand. Whirl the rock round and round until gravity holds it firmly in the pouch. When you feel you have things under control, let one end of the cord go and the rock will fly out at an incredible speed. You should avoid using the sling in a thick crowd (rooftop shooting is best). Practice is definitely needed to gain any degree of accuracy.

Keep in mind that slings are potentially very dangerous to the user and you can easily shoot one of your own eyes out.

Boomerangs
The boomerang is a neat weapon for street fighting and is as easy to master as the Frisbee. There is a great psychological effect in using exotic weapons such as this. You can buy one at large hobby stores. On the East Coast you can get one from Sportscraft, Bergenfield, New Jersey, for $2.69, and on the West Coast from Whamo, 835 El Monte St., San Gabriel, Calif., for $1.10.

Tear Gas and Mace
Personalized tear gas and mace dispensers are available for self-defense against muggers. Well, isn't a pig just an extra vicious mugger? Write J.P. Darby, 8813 New Hyde Park, New York, N.Y. 11040 for a variety of types and prices.

Tear gas shells are available for 12 gauge shotguns and .38 Special handguns, but it is highly inadvisable to bring guns to street actions. A far better weapon is a specially built projection device that shoots tear gas shells. Hercules Gas-Munitions Corp., 5501 No. Broadway, Chicago, Ill., sells compact units complete with cartridges for $6.95 that will fire up to 20 feet. Penguin Associates, Inc., Pennsylvania Avenue, Malvern, Penn., also has a variety of tear-gas propellant devices including a combination tear gas-billyclub item. All these companies will supply a catalogue and price list on request. Some states have laws against civilian use of tear gas devices. New York is one of them, and unfortunately, these companies will not ship to states that forbid usage. If you want any of these items, and your state has restrictions, have a sister or brother in a neighboring state order for you. Just latching onto these catalogues can be a trip and a half in terms of getting your imagination hopping. For example Raid, Black Flag and other insecticides shoot a 7 to 10-foot stream that burns the eyes. You can also dissolve Drano in water and squirt it from an ordinary plastic water pistol. That makes a highly effective defensive weapon. A phony letterhead of a Civil Defense unit will help in getting heavier anti-personal weapons of a defensive nature.

Anti-Tire Weapons
Don't believe all those bullshit tire ads that make tires seem like the Superman of the streets. Roofing nails spread out on the street are effective in stopping a patrol car. A nail sticking out from a strong piece of wood wedged under a rear tire will work as effectively as a bazooka. An ice pick will do the trick repeatedly but you've got to have a strong arm to strike home. Sugar in the gas tank of a pig vehicle will do nothing. Use water instead.

Authentic Pig Game
If you really get into it, you'll probably want to be as heavily prepared for trashing as are the pigs. Wouldn't you just know that the largest supplier of equipment to police in the world is in Chicago. Kale's, 550 W. Roosevelt Rd., Chicago, Ill. 60607, will send you, on request, the most complete catalogue you can get for trashing. Actual police uniforms, super-riot helmets, persuaders chemical mace, a knuckle sap, which is a glove with powdered lead, billy clubs, secret holsters, a three-in-one mob stick that spits Mace, emits an electric shock and allows you to club to death a charging rhinoceros. You can also get the latest in handcuffs and other security devices. This catalogue is a must for the love-child of the 70's. If we want to get high we're going to have to fight our way up.