- Joined
- May 16, 2019
Damn it why do police always move back after a show of force.
Because they don't actually have enough people to contain a mob with full force. You can't threaten overwhelming force if you don't have the numbers. The more city blocks they advance, the more territority they have to protect behind them, and they get spread too thing. You have to strategically plan what you're going to hold.
If you watch these streams and look at the cop line instead of the protesters, you'll notice that when the cops advance there's always a single point where they stop and step back, because someone issued the command to "re-form the line". They'll wait until whoever they capture is secured, hauled away or released, so that their backline is clear. Then command makes the call to advance another street, or fall back and strengthen a position behind them. It's advance/retreat until they clear the ground they feel they can hold.
If the cops ever get drawn into a multi-street advance, protesters can hide in buildings and get behind them, and you do not want to be a smaller contingent of cops that gets surrounded by these lunatics.