“There’s so many more cops than shields.” But as Sasha watched people run from the police, they could see how the marchers might have held their ground if they’d had more shields and better training-which is why they’re here making shields today.Īs millions of Americans came out to protest peacefully after George Floyd’s killing in May, police in many cities responded with batons, pepper spray, tear gas, and projectiles. “I don’t even know what I’m gonna do with this,” they recall thinking. A hundred or so people had intended to march peacefully, but when someone smashed windows at a Whole Foods, police in riot gear moved in and declared the gathering an “unlawful assembly.”įear and confusion splintered the crowd, and someone handed Sasha a plywood shield. One night in August, Sasha had arrived in downtown Oakland with a toolbelt loaded with granola bars, herbs to clean wounds, and a spray bottle filled with Maalox and water (a tear gas remedy). Even with the help of dozens of volunteers like those who have come out today, it is “already beyond capacity,” says F., one of the group’s founders, who requested that his name not be used out of concerns around doxxing.Īmong the shield builders is a 29-year-old nonbinary farmer and medic I’ll call Sasha, who first used a shield at a racial justice protest this summer. So far, the collective has provided custom-made shields to more than 10 activist groups in 5 Bay Area cities. The shields are a project of the Oakland Builders Collective, a volunteer crew that has spent the past few months making 500 shields for protesters to use to protect themselves. The shields are hefty, but are easily carried with one arm through the straps that are being attached to each one after it’s painted, along with a strip of foam to protect the forearm of someone carrying it for hours. They kneel on a tarp splotched with spray-paint and glitter, stenciling slogans onto 2–by–4-foot plywood rectangles with rounded corners that have been buzz-sawed in batches of three. On this warm October afternoon, 30 people have gathered for a shield building party in West Oakland’s Lil Bobby Hutton Park. Sign up for the free Mother Jones newsletter. Get a daily recap of the facts that matter.

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