Interesting thread. "Situationist" is right about one thing - reading Crimethync discriptions about the various skill sets that can be used in DA is a far cry from actually utilizing them, and integrating your experience into practice.

Let's take one example. - "Situationist" seems enamored of the use of body armor - made famous several years ago by the Wombles [ www.wombles.org.uk/ ] and others during previous clashes at WTO, G-8 and WEF summits - think Genoa, Evian, Davos, Gleneagles. ( most of the folks wearing body armor in Quebec were preemptively arrested by the cops well before reaching the fence perimeter. Folks wearing visable body armor or who were masked up in Miami were often detained by police the moment they were spotted - often miles away from the protest they were headed to.)

Situationist apparently didn't get the memo cautioning folks on the use of this tactic -- based on real protester experince with riot police tactics at these actions To wit: Homemade body armor helps when you face riot baton strikes, but becomes dangerous when you are faced with OC (oleoresin capsicum) and other chemical weapons -said agents coat your armor, which, depending on construction materials, relative absorbency and method you use to fasten them on, can soak through ( avoid duct tape ) encasing you in a saturated shell of pepper spray - and if not removed fast enough - hard to do when you're running - leaves your torso a nice sizzly lobster red.

Indeed, OC weapons -particularly the pressurized 'Seattle Soaker' [ www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/call/call_00-7_ch2-11.gif ] tank dispensers have a range of almost 20 meters and have over the years become the weapon of choice for the discerning robocop confronted with 'armored' Womble style massed surges against a police line. And yes, the local gendarmes have these, - they were on display three years ago at Chicago and Michigan on M-18, and earlier at the TABD protest.

But in really freezing weather, water cannons do as well, as European anti-globalization protesters at Davos found out.

(check Black Cross Health Collective's website for more details on OC )