Oakland, California: These Activists Are Building Shields to Prepare for Whatever Comes Next

These Activists Are Building Shields to Prepare for Whatever Comes Next

On this warm October afternoon, 30 people have gathered for a shield building party in West Oakland’s Lil Bobby Hutton Park. 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. 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. The shields are a project of the Oakland Builders Collective, a volunteer ...

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https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/11/activists-protesters-building-shields-police-violence/