I tweeted a thread back in 2020 with my tips on staying safe at a protest, but want to replicate and update it now that we are living in 2025. I’m offering a mix of practical and technical. None of what I’m writing should be considered legal advice.

This advice is designed for people attending, not those organizing, although the advice certainly applies across the board. Organizers need to attend to some protest-wide safety issues as well that go deeper.

Before The Protest

The practical: Be hydrated and prepare for the weather. I’m in Texas so generally weather means heat and sun. Treat this like marathon prep and start upping your fluid a few days ahead. Apply sunscreen, wear a wide-brimmed hat. Use a soft water bottle (a small hydration backpack can work well) and consider taking snacks that don’t melt. Charge your phone.

If there are medications you need, take a couple of doses and label what they are / how you take them if you don’t take them in a prescription bottle.

Since you don’t want anyone unlocking your cell phone to find an emergency contact, and since batteries die, consider carrying an “in case of emergency / medical ID” note inside a ziplock back or laminated with packing tape or even – hey now – a lamination pouch. If you pin that inside your backpack or belt bag, someone can find it in a pinch.

Wear shoes that don’t give you blisters and that you can walk quickly/run in, but also take bandaids in case you do get blisters. Do not wear baggy clothes or jewelry that someone could grab on purpose or by accident. If you are concerned about surveillance, consider that anything you wear can be used to identify you. This is not the time for wearing your work uniform unless that is part of the reason you are protesting and message you are sending.

The logistical: Know where to park if you’re taking your car. If you’re going with friends, have a meet-up point away from the protest where you agree to meet if circumstances change. Tell someone where you are going and that you’ll check in with them when you get home safely.

Look at the map of where the protest will be held. If you’re not familiar with the area, spend some time on Google maps looking at street views or even drive over to see it. Identify areas you might want to avoid, like alleys or narrow passageways. Don’t park so close to the action that you won’t be able to get out if things go sideways and you need to leave.

I like to arrive a bit early and walk around to get familiar not just with an area, but with how the staging is going. Law enforcement is likely arriving early, too, so you can see how they are preparing and understand the types of preparations they are putting in place.

The philosophical: Every protest has a goal or two, which could be anything from encouraging a group of elected officials to take a certain action or allowing a community to express outrage or grief over an incident. You, too, need to have a goal so that you understand the parameters of what you want to accomplish and what you are willing to do during the protest.

If you want to commit nonviolent civil disobedience during a protest, you need to do a good deal of organizing ahead of time and understand the complete ramifications of an arrest. I won’t go into detail here, because you can search the web for more information about civil disobedience and arrest actions, but to emphasize how serious it is that you plan in advance, consider:

Getting arrested on federal property will yield federal charges. But for any arrest, charges and even conviction are a possibility, and there are serious and lifelong consequences, particularly for felony arrests. You could, in some states, lose the right to vote, lose professional licensure, have a hard time getting jobs or finding housing, and if you are not a citizen (and let’s be real, in 2025 America, if you cannot immediately and conclusively prove you are a citizen), the risks can be even greater.

Civil disobedience is best practiced in groups with lots of planning and outside support. Don’t get swept up in the moment and do something that could put you in danger or change your life for good.

But even before you reach the civil disobedience threshold, consider how far you want to go. This is like everything else in life. If the vibe feels off to you, decide in advance that you will trust your gut and leave. If someone seems unsafe to be around, be prepared to walk away.

At the Protest

Here’s the short list, and then I’ll go into painful detail:

• Commit to nonviolence.
• Use the buddy system.
  • Don’t carry anything that can be construed by police as a weapon. No umbrellas, flagpoles, metal water bottles, 12-inch hair pins.
  • It should go without saying but this is Texas in 2025 so no actual weapons, no matter what you may be licensed to carry.
• Keep your head on a swivel and know where you are and who is around you at all times.
• Don’t make decisions that can affect someone else’s safety or jeopardize anyone else’s commitment to nonviolence. Don’t make a decision that might cause another person to be trampled, arrested, or shot.
• Avoid interacting with law enforcement unless absolutely necessary.
• De-escalate and be a calming presence.
• Respect protest organizers’ goals and their instructions on safety.
• Most people are good, some are not, and it isn’t always obvious who is who, so trust but verify.
• Get home safely. It is always OK to walk away.

Signs, Banners, Flags

The most important point here is that you should not use anything to carry, hoist, or display your sign / banner / flag that the police could claim is a weapon and use as justification either to arrest you or physically assault you.

This is deadly serious. At the last rally I attended, there were vendors selling flags on little sticks, those dowels you can easily snap in half with one hand. To a police officer intent upon causing you problems, even a 1/4 inch diameter dowel can be construed as a weapon. And to be fair, even a tiny stick can be used to put an eye out, intentionally or on accident.

If you must take a sign or banner, consider using cardboard tubes from wrapping paper to give you some height.

If you intend to hang a banner, and want to weight the bottom so that it hangs, do not use rocks or anything solid. Use sand or have grommets in the lower corners you can tie down. Long zip ties work faster than rope for attaching things and require just a reinforced slit not a huge grommet.

This might make me sound paranoid, but then again, this post is about being aware, so consider checking your ego. If you make a great sign, lots of people will ask for photos, or will just take them. So remember that you have to go to work the next day, or wherever else, and plan accordingly. Don’t be afraid to ask that someone not include your face if you don’t want to be identified.

And don’t get lulled into conversation with someone you don’t know because they start to compliment your sign. 99 times out of 100, it is another protester who is bored / excited / eager to talk with someone who shares their views. But I anticipate lots of undercover law enforcement, or people who have deputized themselves to be the same, will be showing up at protests in these times. You don’t know why they might be pumping you for information, and flattering your sign-making skills is a great way to get you to let your guard down.

Photographs & Filming

I wrote a whole ‘nother blog post about this, so read it here. It’ll open in a new tab. The highlights:

• Consider that your photos posted publicly can be used against you or others. They can get you (or someone else) in trouble, fired, or targeted for doxxing. And they can be manipulated to create a false narrative.
• Don’t film faces, and definitely don’t film people’s kids.
• If you are filming or photographing as part of doing legal observing and documentation in case of lawsuits, take precautions and definitely read my other blog post on how to film.
• It isn’t just the photos, but the meta-data in the photos that can get you in trouble. Learn how to strip it out.

The fact is, you need to have a high level of situational awareness at a protest, so best to keep your phone or camera in your pocket.

Scan This, Sign This

We are getting pretty comfortable scanning QR codes to get information. But just because someone says ‘scan this to get to our page,’ you don’t have to. You can ask for the name of the website and navigate to it that way. Why risk linking to malware?

Similarly, just because someone has a clipboard and a cool t-shirt, think twice before adding your name and email to a list. If the protest is being organized by Group X, and there’s a table with a Group X tablecloth and signage and people in Group X t-shirts, you can probably sign up at that table. But random clipboard people? Ask if they can give you the info to go to their website later. Better safe than sorry.

People You’ll Encounter & What They Are Doing / Not Doing

Protest organizers: These are the people who pulled the permits, selected speakers, and created the message and goals. They have a plan and in general, you should either follow their plan or leave.

Law enforcement: They are there to do a job but they are not in charge unless they perceive that laws are being broken or public safety is at risk. Don’t chitchat with them. Give them space. Know that some may have less experience protesting or less maturity in the face of rising tensions than you do.

Do not provoke them, because maybe you’re tough and you can take it, but you don’t know who else they might go after and you don’t get to make that call for another person.

It is OK to follow their instructions if they are benign, like a reminder to stay on a sidewalk or that a certain area is private property.

If a protest is big enough, there may well be plainclothes officers in the thick of things. Sometimes they are obvious, but not always. They also have surveillance tools like drones and technology that can tweak the phone signal. So assume law enforcement is watching and behave accordingly.

Legal Observers: These are people documenting what is happening as it happens to gather evidence should it be necessary to defend actions or people in court later. They are not necessarily lawyers, and they are definitely not there to give you legal advice or to talk to law enforcement on your behalf. By design, they are taking a step back from the action, so do not try to rope them in.

Media: They have a right to be there, and will identify themselves. You have a right not to talk to them. They will respect that. Do not speak on behalf of anyone other than yourself unless you have consulted organizers in advance and are authorized to speak on behalf of the protest itself.

Professional journalists aren’t trying to trap or trick you. You can ask them to explain what it means to be on the record compared to on background or anonymous, and they will explain.

Medics: Like legal observers, they are ideally stepping back from the action to monitor the situation and help keep people safe. They are often actual medical professionals, like EMTs or RNs, but they may simply be calm people with a little first aid training and a big bag of supplies. They are there to help. Do everything you can to make sure they go home at the end bored. You don’t want them busy.

Message Hijackers & Provocateurs: There are people with sincerely held beliefs who show up at any and every protest because they truly believe that their issue is the core issue / their solution is the core solution / their view is the only real, true, and beautiful one. They are sometimes super-annoying and it is safe to ignore them, not accept their literature, and not get drawn into a long conversation that takes your attention away from your surroundings and the larger protest.

Then, there are actual provocateurs. These are people who either in an organized fashion (maybe with law enforcement’s input) or as individuals who like to monkeywrench will try to pull you across whatever line you might not want to cross. If someone slides up next to you and says hey, I saw a pile of bricks around the corner, a few of us are going to go bring some over here, unless you are eagerly trying to get arrested, ignore them and walk away. No telling what their agenda is but it is NOT yours, so don’t lend your credibility, time, or body to it.

There are also provocateurs who pose as journalists and bloggers who play to your ego to get you to say things they can twist and use against you or the cause. If someone identifies themself as a member of the media, ask what outlet, and if you are not familiar with it, check it out before talking to them. And search for Project Veritas if you wonder just how nasty someone can get.

Be a Good Person, Use Common Sense

Treat the protest site like a campsite – leave it cleaner than when you arrived. Don’t trample flower beds (unless chaos breaks out and you are trying to get safe quickly – I value your life over the roses), don’t litter, don’t use paint or permanent markers to deface property. Chalk the sidewalk if you need to leave a mark – it washes away.

If someone falls, help them up. If someone sits down because they are feeling faint or dizzy, help form a protective circle around them while someone goes to find a medic.

Don’t tone-police. People protest for different reasons and have different tolerances for what they want to say and how they want to show up in public.

If you take your kids, that does not give you the right to tell other people how to behave. It does give you the obligation to keep your kids safe and monitor what they are doing so they do not cause problems for themselves or someone else.

Don’t get swept up in the moment. Be safe, don’t put yourself or anyone else at risk. Stay focused on the goals and message.

Protest is patriotic and deeply important and valuable. It is your right. Your rights are never unlimited, however, and these are terrifying times when key people in government seem willing to ignore decades of legislation and jurisprudence if it suits them.

Resources for Deeper Reading

ACLU Know Your Rights – “The First Amendment protects your right to assemble and express your views through protest. However, police and other government officials are allowed to place certain narrow restrictions on the exercise of speech rights. Make sure you’re prepared by brushing up on your rights before heading out into the streets.”

Electronic Frontier Foundation Digital Security Tips for Protesters – Written in 2016 but some parts are still relevant, particularly the suggestion to use Signal for secure communications.

ACLU – DC – How to Defend Against Police Surveillance at Protests – quick bullets that you can use as as starting point to search specific topics.

Indivisible – Safety, Security, and Digital Preparedness for a Second Trump Administration – Pretty comprehensive. Scroll to the bottom for great links to other resources.