In light of the actions that happened last month, I wanted to encourage everyone to revisit this post. Many of the points made about riotous moments apply to clandestine action as well.
If the people at 890 Memorial Drive intended to burn the vehicles, it was not a good idea to smash windows. Not only does this increase the risk of leaving DNA, breaking a window is very loud and likely to attract attention from passerby — which is exactly what interrupted that action, according to police. As demonstrated in this video, a firestarter cube, placed directly on a front tire (or the rear tire on the same side as the gas tank), is sufficient to assure the destruction of the vehicle. Once lit, it takes about five minutes for the firestarter to fully ignite the tire, which is plenty of time to leave the area unnoticed in most cases. Firestarter cubes can be purchased or racked at any grocery store. Cottonballs covered in vaseline can also work as a firestarter.
I’m not sure how long of a time-delay the people who burned the motorcycles were aiming for. It seemed like they used delays that were not sufficiently tested, which resulted in at least one failed incendiary device being recovered. Unless it was important to have a longer time-delay, I think that placing firestarters directly on the tires would have worked better. This method is much less likely to leave DNA traces because there is no need to construct an incendiary device or to carry accelerant at all. This is the beauty of targeting vehicles with rubber tires! Fuel tanks can be punctured or the hoses that run from them cut for another source of accelerant.
Incendiary devices with long time-delays are better suited to heavy machinery with treads, or to structure fires, so I encourage everyone to keep working on their designs! But in the meantime, let’s not overcomplicate things. I’d like to issue a friendly challenge to all individuals and AGs in the movement to take a little break from internet discourse, get outside, and set some shit on fire!
Don’t forget to take all reasonable precautions to minimize DNA evidence. And please be careful about surveillance footage, although avoiding it completely is almost imposssible in Atlanta.
Submitted Anonymously Over Email
via: scenes.