Disclaimer: All the information compiled in this report was acquired through legal means and involves a lot

of idle speculation. We neither advocate any specific forms of action nor suggest any specific actions. For entertainment purposes only.

This report is dedicated to the Tinley Park 5, the Cleveland 4, the Pacific Northwest Grand Jury Resisters and all other anarchist and antifascist prisoners

Introduction
This report is being assembled in order to provide useful information for those that decide to engage to resist the fascist presence in Tennessee during late March and early April. As many of you know, there will be two fascist events in Tennessee within the span of a week, beginning with the rally of the Loyal White Knights of the KKK in Memphis, and then moving to the American Renaissance Conference, which will be held at Montgomery Bell State Park outside Nashville April 5-7. There is a long and proud history of resistance to racist and fascist organizations among anarchist and other antiracist/anti-fascist groups. For as much as liberals will attempt to tell people that the best approach is to ignore them, this approach to fascist presences in our communities is wrong-headed and dangerous. As many of us have witnessed over the years, resistance to fascist organizations, and their public presence, has less to do with rhetorical denunciations of racism and fascism, and everything to do with the ability of communities to defend themselves.

If we listen to the liberal line we would have to assume that these organizations thrive on media presence, and no doubt some of them do think that this is an effective organizing strategy; they are wrong. When resistance is mounted, and a strong message is sent, we provide a material reason for these scum to not attempt to come back into our communities. Their presence is not just about a vile philosophical view that implies ethnic cleansing, but manifests on the streets everyday in bashings, hangings, shootings and beatings that leave dozens dead every year, and whole communities afraid to go out on their own streets. The presence of fascists in our cities is not a question of conceptual politics; their very presence is an act of war, and can only be met in kind. As we have seen over the past decade these pithy little liberal displays of unity and friendship, in some vain and ineffective attempt to garner media attention, does nothing to prevent racist and fascist organizations and their members from feeling free to roam the streets, from organizing in areas, from handing out materials outside high schools and carrying out attacks against our communities. The more we allow them to feel safe, the more we fail to defend ourselves and our communities, the more that they can, and do, feel that they have won a victory. It is only through direct resistance, both to public manifestations, and on a constant basis against their organizational logistics, that we have driven fascists largely off the streets of large parts of the United States. Yeah, a little confrontation may allow them to get some media attention, but, if we learned anything from the experience of Toledo (where two riots drove the National Socialist Movement from the city and destroyed their local organization), these temporary media spectacles, and the attention that fascists may get, are no replacement for the fundamental destruction of their ability to organize publicly and hold events in the future without the threat of overt and militant resistance.

Too many have died in this struggle to just sit back and go to unity fests. We have to draw our line in the sand. This is war; Never Forgive, Never Forget!

The following report will not recommend actions, advocate for certain types of action (although non-resistance is obviously discouraged) or explain how to carry out actions; this is for two reasons. Firstly, this is not for us to decide; all we do is gather information that may be relevant to those that we find political and tactical affinity with, through completely legal means, and then distribute that information. Secondly, each and every tactical dynamic is fundamentally different; this approach, all too common in radical scenes, where we attempt to identify the most effective tactics, in some essentialist way, obscures the dynamics of a particular series of actions, and obscures these dynamics in our analysis. We have to focus on the terrain that action may take place on, and this is where this report will focus. We will focus on analyses of possible police presence, the physical terrain itself, political factors leading up to the actions and possible situations that people may encounter, and nothing more. In taking action we have to be realistic about what we are going to be facing. Confronting fascists (either the ones in hoods or the ones in blue uniforms) is never a safe endeavor. They have been known to attack demonstrators, sometimes causing serious bodily harm, and or/track people down afterward; so come prepared and stay anonymous. The more nave or inexperienced among us must keep this in mind; the strength of your convictions and the assumed truth of your politics will not protect you. What you all do with this information is completely up to you.

Memphis: March 30
Background
Early in February a self-identified Klan leader, claiming to be an Exalted Cyclops, stood on the back porch of a house in Tennessee and announced that the KKK would be holding a rally in Memphis that thousands of Klansmen would show up to. Now, outside of the absurd claims of possible attendance, the Klan has been a dwindling organization since the 1970s, it was uncertain, at first, who this person was, having only identified himself as Edward, or whether a possible rally was even going to occur. The rally is being called in response to the decision by the Memphis City Council to rename three city parks (Forrest Park, Davis Park and Confederate Park). Within a couple weeks the Loyal White Knights of the KKK, a growing Klan faction, decided to take control of the organizing and filed for a permit with the city of Memphis, which was granted by the city at the end of February. The permit allows for a rally at the old Shelby County Courthouse (140 Adams Ave), between 1:30 and 4 on March 30th. As of this moment, the security plan is uncertain. What we do know is that the Memphis Police have called in the Shelby County Sheriff's Office and other agencies to help provide extra security at the event. According to the terms of the permit the Klan will not be allowed to conceal their identities, allowing anti-Klan elements a good chance to gather some intel on attendees. It is unclear whether, as in 1998, the Klan will be allowed to march from their designated parking area to the rally site or not, but given the terrain of downtown, this is likely (more on this later). There are going to be street closures that will be announced later, at which point the security plan will become more clear.

The Loyal White Knights of the KKK are a recently revived Klan faction, led by Chris Barker, full name William Christopher Barker (who, by some reports, has been banned from both the Virginia Knight Riders of the KKK and the Virginia Rebel Brigades) from Pelham, NC. (reportedly at 234 Pruitt Rd). Over the past two years they have become increasingly active, holding public rallies in cities across the South, specifically in North Carolina, and a series of events on private land. They have also begun an outreach campaign, with fliers showing up outside Pittsburgh and Atlanta, among other places. The organization represents an interesting and illustrative cross-section of the fourth-generation Klan, drawing largely from both older Klan elements as well as younger skin-heads and Neo-Nazi organizations. They are also known to recruit heavily on Stormfront and other Neo-Nazi forums and websites, and run a series of websites (specifically kkkknights.com, where they run their central membership forum) and hotlines (it is reported that the central hotline number, 336-432-0386 is a pre-paid cell phone registered in Pelham, NC and is directly answered by Chris Barker or his sister

Amanda, who also registered the website under her name). They function much like a series of other Klan groups of the third and fourth generation, specifically the absurd claim that they are not a racist, but Christian, organization (although one look at their website points to the ridiculousness of this claim), but they are different in one important way, they tend to be relatively tech savvy. Also, like other third and fourth generation Klan organizations, the Loyal White Knights tend to incorporate Neo-Nazi salutes, uniforms and rhetoric in with traditional Klan practices of the use of physical assaults, the use of public marches as intimidation (which is all the more reason to drive them from the streets) and the burning of crosses.

The rally will be opposed by a series of groups, each utilizing different tactics. Some church groups have encouraged people to attend alternative events, while others will be on the street. They will likely be accompanied by anarchists and other antifascists, as well as local activist organizations. Also, in a story that has largely stolen the headlines already, a coalition of the United Klan of America and the Grape Street Crips are organizing together to oppose the rally. This may lead to an interesting situation where Klan members appear on both sides of the police lines. This adds an element of danger to the event. Not only are the Klan, regardless of faction, known for violent attacks on antifascists, this specific faction is known for attacks, murders and church bombings, primarily in the 1960s. It also increases the chances that members of the Loyal White Knights may attempt to infiltrate the antifascist crowd. Just stay alert, the Klan, for all the funny robes and ignorant rhetoric, is not to be taken lightly.

The police response to this event will largely be informed by the last appearance of the Klan in Memphis in 1998. During this event the Klan gathered in a police protected parking lot on N 4th St and Adams, where they were met by an angry crowd. Police numbers were relatively low, and reinforcements were called to the area to escort the Klan to their rally site, on the southeast stairs of the courthouse. Another anti-Klan crowd gathered at N 2nd and Adams, where they rushed and broke through a police line. This crowd was met by a police line on Adams, between N 2nd and N 3rd, comprised of a line of police in light riot gear, backed by a line of mounted police, which were situated in front of a police bus that provided the final barrier between the crowd and the Klan. As the afternoon proceeded the anti-Klan crowd grew angrier, and the police ended up resorting to teargas, and evacuating the Klan back to their parking area, where another crowd was gassed by the police. The crowd reacted by attempting to rush the police line, and in response to the brutality of the police, a riot broke out in downtown. The police response to the event was characterized by low force concentrations, frantic attempts to compensate and, finally, over-reaction, which sparked a riot. We can assume that, in the lead up to this event, that the

contingencies that led to the riot in 1998 will be studied carefully, and the same mistakes will likely not be made.

Terrain
Rally location will be along Adams Avenue, between N 3rd St and N 2nd St, at the Shelby County Courthouse. There are two sets of front stairs on both the northern and southern edges of the building, and given the low numbers we can expect, we should assume that they will be allocated one of these stair cases. The site is on the Northern edge of downtown, which runs along the Mississippi River, between I40, to the north, and I55 to the south. This area of downtown is characterized by a high density of administrative and governmental buildings, as well as a series of churches, with the main commercial areas of downtown existing to the south of this site. There is a prison, as well as the headquarters for the for the Shelby County Sheriff and Memphis Police on Poplar and N 3rd St (201 Poplar Ave), which is a block Northeast of the site.

The area is dense, meaning that there is not a lot of room move in the case of dispersal. It opens up to the South and West, but one must be careful dispersing to the West, as the Mississippi River is only 3 blocks to the West. Along the river there is an open park area, that may provide some sanctuary if necessary, but one also risks being boxed in along the river. Also to the west is City Hall, which has an open area in front of it called Civic Center Plaza. To the North of the site is I-40,which forms the northern edge of the downtown area, with most roads leading to the interstate. Also, to the North, two blocks there is a bank of open parking lots. There is also a large park on Court Ave and N 2nd St, two blocks southwest of the site.

This area of the city is largely flat, with a series of relatively tall buildings in this area of downtown. To the east and north are residential areas, with eastern edge of the downtown area beginning after N 4th St. This area exists within the South Main Police Precinct, which has a precinct station on S Main St, around 5 miles from the rally site. However, the headquarters of the Police Department, Sheriff's Office, as well as the main court and prison complex, faces the northern side of the Shelby County Courthouse, and will likely serve as the anchor point for the security operations.

Police
The event will likely be secured by Memphis Police, with assistance from the Shelby County Sheriff's Office and likely the Highway Patrol. The Memphis Police have around 2,100 active duty, full time police, broken up into 9 precincts. If we assume that they run a three shift rotation, then we can assume that there are 700 personnel able to respond to any specific event, with a large portion of those being held in reserve and able to patrol the remainder of the city. If they switch to an emergency/special event schedule, in which there are only 2 shift rotations per day, then this increases the number of personnel on the streets to over 1000, allowing them to maintain usual force logistics and operations, while still allocating 250 police to the site. They will likely be assisted by the Shelby County Sheriff's Office, which has around 1800 full time personnel. Of this number a large number are allocated to positions within the prison and court complexes.

Given the response to the event in 1998, and current operating procedures and tactics, there are a series of things that we can expect in the streets around the event itself. Firstly, it is likely that they will attempt to close a significant number of streets, likely the route from the parking area to the courthouse, and any streets that intersect these streets for at least a half block in either direction. It is also likely that, like last time, the Klan will likely be surrounded by police as they come to the rally area, and will be separated from the counter-demonstration by a distance that is at least 75-100 meters, or the maximum projectile range of the average person. Also, given the tendency for Klan cars to be vandalized while parked, if left unguarded, it is likely that a security detail will remain around the parking area. This is the primary reason that it is likely that the parking area will be across the street from the Police/Sheriff Headquarters/Court/Prison complex, which is at 201 Poplar Ave, but really stretches between N 3rd and N 4th St east-west and Washington and Poplar north-south, taking up an entire city block. This area provides maximum police support with minimal supply length, and allows for heavy surveillance, both through the cameras on the Headquarters itself, as well as the series of mobile dome cameras that are used by the police on a daily basis.

Predictions
From the information already compiled, as well as an analysis of the events from 1998, it is possible to make some predictions as to the structure of the security situation on the day of the event. However, while these sorts of predictions can be useful, keep in mind that these are merely hypothetical possibilities. The police response in 1998 was characterized by a

low concentration of police, and miscalculation. During this event the police had the Klan park at N 4th and Adams, in a small parking lot adjacent to the Central Garage. They had anticipated that the counter-demonstration would gather at the allotted spot, at N 2nd and Adams but a crowd grew around the parking area, and the situation got more and more tense. As a result, the police relied on the use of barricades, police cars and police called in from around the city for their security plan. After the police, and sheriffs, had hit an adequate concentration, they a cordon around the Klan and marched them down to the courthouse. Around the courthouse the police formed a two line cordon, and used metal detectors at the entrance to the zone allocated to the counter-demonstration. The first line was a block away from the Klan, in the initial area allocated for the counter-demonstration, while the second, more robust line, farther up Adams, between N 2nd and N 3rd, with a bus backing the police line between the Klan and the counter-demonstration.

Tear gas was first deployed against the counter-demonstration on the southeast corner of Adams and N 2nd, when some demonstrators attempted to climb a tree, and was deployed from a fogger. This was followed by the release of three canisters of gas into the crowd, which retreated, but then recovered and surged forward. As the crowd surged the police shot more tear gas into the crowd and then escorted the Klan away from the courthouse. This set off around a half hour of rioting in which people fought police, smashed windows and drove the Klan out of downtown and back into their holes. As the Klan got back to their parking area another crowd had gathered at N 4th and Adams, and began charging the Klan, now surrounded by riot police who fired more tear gas into the crowd.

The police response will be assuredly different this time. The same rally site has been chosen, but this time the Memphis police will likely respond differently. We can expect that the police, if they are going to provide the Klan with escort to the rally site will, as other cities, most notably Toledo, have done, then the Klan will be asked to either park in an undisclosed location away from downtown, or a secure location within downtown. Like the last Rally, the Klan could rally on the southeastern steps of the courthouse, but this would require a longer walk from the secure parking areas. They could rally on the northern side of the building, likely the northeast stairs, as it is closer to secure parking areas, and faces the Police/Sheriff/Court/Prison complex. It is also likely, that, given the 1:30 start time for the permit, that the Klan will likely already be on site at this time, and that any roads that will be blocked will likely be blocked, and security cordons set up, at least an hour before the permit begins, with patrols in the area before this.

Given the dynamics of the 1998 rally, which occurred at the same site, and in which the Klan had to be escorted out, it is justifiable to assume that this sort of escort will likely occur. If they were to be allowed to park in a secure location downtown it is likely that they will be told to park at the Central Parking garage on Washington Ave and N 4th St, a block away from the site, to the north and east, and immediately across the street from the prison, criminal court, Shelby County Sheriff and Memphis Police Headquarters complex. They could also park the Klan in the parking lot behind the Election Commission building, on N 3rd St between Washington and Poplar, or at the same lot as the 1998 rally, or even on the street immediately surrounding the rally site, likely N 3rd, between Adams and Washington or on Washington Ave itself. The parking area will likely be chosen based whichever is determined to offer the shortest and most easily defended path from the parking to the rally. Given the history of fascist's cars being vandalized during rallies, it is likely that they will have them park on the streets around the courthouse, likely opting for a more easily secured lot. The path between the lot n N 4th and Adams, where the Klan parked last time, is the longest of the parking areas within proximity of the courthouse. The shortest paths are either the Central Garage, which would likely take the Klan down Washington to the northeast steps of the courthouse, of down N 3rd St from the parking lot behind the Election Commission building to the northeast steps of the courthouse.

It is also likely that the route from the parking area and the rally site will be short and well secured, with a significant police escort along the march route, and likely barricades at the intersections to prevent crowds from infiltrating the march route. If the rally is on the southeast side of the building, we can expect that the security cordons will be along Adams, and if they park at the same lot as in 1998, they will likely stretch from Adams and 2nd all the way to Adams and 4th, with all the cross streets blocked. If they park on the northern side of that parking complex (the lot they parked in last time is on the eastern edge of the Central Parking complex, separated from the garage by a building on the northern side of the block and one on the southern side of the block, with buildings running behind the garage on the southern side), or in the garage itself, then they will likely escort them up Washington, blocking the streets between 4th and 2nd, with a likely buffer zone blocking off 3rd, between Adams and Washington. The police will likely be approaching this as a blocking action, concentrating force along the route from parking to the rally site and at the rally site itself, rather than spreading out and chasing actions, as many of us have seen in a summit protest context or during regular street actions.

There are numerous possible sites for action. The obvious site, and the only known site, is the rally site itself. However,

this site is likely to be well secured, and exists close to concentrations and logistical sites for the police/sheriffs. But, given that the local Klan and Sons of the Confederacy are opposing the rally, even if not materially (this is yet to be seen), most of those coming to the rally will be coming in from out of town. This stretches the terrain of action into the logistical basis and movements of the Klan. There may be a local site for housing (check in on local contacts for the Loyal White Knights). If this is not the case then many of those attending the rally will likely be spending the night in hotels in the area. This means that they will have to secure this housing, and then transport themselves into the area. Given the wide dispersion of hotels that attendees are likely to stay in, with most if not all staying outside of downtown, and possibly in other surrounding cities, this may be a tactically advantageous terrain. The highest concentration of security will likely be immediately surrounding the rally site, with it tapering off quickly as one radiates outward. It is possible that they will set up some sort of free speech zone, do not go there; when we get fenced in we lose the ability to act and make tactical decisions.

Faction: Loyal White Knights of the KKK kkkknights.com http://who.is/whois/kkkknights.com http://who.is/whois-ip/ip-address/68.180.151.76

Memphis Police http://www.memphispolice.org/ Precinct Map: http://www.memphispolice.org/precincts%2004.htm

Shelby County Sheriff http://www.shelby-sheriff.org/

Memphis Police and Shelby County Sheriff Dispatch Scanner http://www.broadcastify.com/listen/feed/215/?rl=rr

Montgomery Bell State Park: April 5-7

Background
The weekend following the Klan rally in Memphis the American Renaissance Conference will be occurring 45 miles southwest of Nashville. The American Renaissance Conference is organized by Jerrod Taylor and the editors of American Renaissance magazine, under the name The New Century Foundation, a registered 501C3 organization. The organization, and the conference, is based in the racialist (read racist) pseudo-academia surrounding white-collar racist organizations, such as the Council of Conservative Citizens , and paleo-conservative organizations, and argues for a hierarchical concept of race division based on junk science, anthropology and sociology; it is largely a collection of racist-apologists that hide behind academic rhetoric on order to make their message more palatable. Between 1990 and 2010 the conference was held every other year, but with the shutting down of the conference in 2010 and 2011 by antifascists, AmRen began to be held every year. Past attendees have included David Duke, Don Black, founder and admin for stormfront.org (the largest internet meeting place and forum for white nationalists in the US and Canada), Virginia Abernathy, one of the spokespeople for the campaign to pass SB 1080 in Arizona, and various Neo-Nazi skinheads and Klan members.

But, for as generally innocuous as AmRen may seem, attempting to play itself off as a gathering of bigoted, old, former academics and business people, it is anything but innocuous. American Renaissance is one of the largest gatherings of people from different fascist organizations that occurs every year, and is a primary site through which connections are made and projects planned; it is not just a conference, it is one of the most important logistical supports for the fascist movement in the US. Specifically, the groups that tend to gather around American Renaissance exist largely within the factions of the fascist movement that are attempting to infiltrate mainstream Republican Party politics. Attendees at these gatherings were very active in various Tea Party organizations, militia groups, the Minutemen and associated groups, and various legislative campaigns targeted at immigrants and people of color. This mainstreaming faction is specifically dangerous. While we may have to deal with the isolated attack from the more vanguardist organizations within the fascist movement, like the Hammerskins or the National Alliance and its offshoots, this faction of the fascist movement can, and already has, passed policies that have led to generalized police repression of Latino persons in Arizona, the militarization of the border and a series of other extreme conservative positions.

For a series of years the conference happened in the area around Washington DC, close to Jerrod Taylor's home in Reston,

VA. This trend was definitively ended in 2010 when anarchist and antifascist groups organized a campaign that resulted in the conference being thrown out of 5 different hotels in the course of 3 weeks, critically damaging the ability of the conference to be held at all. This was specifically unsettling for AmRen, who was attempting to keep the location of the conference quiet until a couple days before attendees would arrive, but, each and every time antifascists found out the location and organized mass call in campaigns and direct action to force the hotels to cancel the event. Following this trouncing, where they were literally run out of DC, AmRen began to attempt to organize the conference in an undisclosed location outside of Charlotte, NC, and a similar scenario played itself out, with AmRen being thrown out of a series of hotels, and blacklisted from others. Beginning in 2012 AmRen moved to Montgomery Bell State Park, outside of Burns, Tennessee, with the events being held, and the attendees staying in, the Montgomery Bell State Park Inn and Convention Center on scenic Acorn Lake. They will be returning to this location for their conference in 2013, having the sense that this is a relatively safe place for them to spew their racist bullshit and organize attacks on our communities.

Terrain
Montgomery Bell State Park is a medium sized state park within the Tennessee State Parks system, that is 45 minutes southwest of Nashville, between the towns of White Bluff, Burns and Dickson. The facilities at the park, which include hiking trails, a golf course, the convention center/inn, some cabins, camping areas and a restaurant, were build by the Civilian Conservation Corps, with the park officially opening in 1943. The park is named after Montgomery Bell, an iron industry capitalism and major slave owner, as well as the wealthiest man in the South before the Civil War, and is managed by Pat Wright, with events booked through Robert Martineau. Most of the 3,782 acres of the park is heavily wooded, with clearings made for the golf course, restaurant, cabins and convention center, that has a series of trails that run through the park.

The convention center is off Hotel Ave, the main road through the park, and bordering Acorn Lake, which on the northern edge of the park. There are only two primary access routes to Hotel Ave, I-70 and Route 47, both of which intersect with Hotel Ave at the entrances to the park. The road to the convention center, Hotel Ave, branches off from other roads within the park to the northwest of the hotel complex, and close to I-70. The area around Acorn Lake, and the convention center is heavily wooded, with a series of paths running through that part of the park. The convention center is a large complex that has housing and catering facilities, making it unlikely that any attendees will be leaving the complex during the conference.

There is a single access road to the convention center parking area, which is a continuation of Hotel Ave. Therefore, it is likely that, if there is going to be a security cordon, that it will be at the edge of the parking area, at least while the conference is in session, with possible road checkpoints just within the park entrances off I-70 and Route 47.

Police
It is highly likely that outside forces are going to be called in to secure the event if there is the possibility of an antifascist presence. The towns immediately surrounding the park are small, and therefore, have small police departments. The largest of these towns is Dickson, which has about 14,500 residents and is the county-seat, has 46 police, as of data dating back to 2011. The two closest towns, Burns and White Bluff, only have 3 and 5 police respectively, and both police departments are having internal discipline issues; in White Bluff a cop was just fired for 4th Amendment violations, while in Burns the last police chief was fired for sexting someone on his city issued phone, he succeeded a chief that was fired for ticket fixing, and the recent chief, only appointed in December, is under active investigation by the military for a rape that occurred while he was deployed in Iraq with the Army Reserves. The area is also covered by the Dickson County Sheriff's Office and District Three of the Tennessee Highway Patrol. The Dickson County Sheriff's Office is also relatively small, with 40 personnel to cover a county that stretches 490 square miles. The Highway Patrol has 942 personnel in 8 Districts statewide. So, some quick math, that equates to around 117 for District 3, if we assume a completely equal distribution statewide. District 3 covers Davidson, Cheatham Dickson, Humphreys, Rutherford, Williamson, Montgomery, Stewart, Houston, Wilson, Sumner and Robertson Counties, with Troop A covering Davidson, Cheatham, Dickson and Humphreys counties, an area of over 1,880 square miles. Primary responsibility will fall to the Parks Rangers, who do have law enforcement powers, and some training, but there are only around 290 for the entire state, as of the 2008 Department of Justice Law Enforcement Census.

A lot of the extra support will likely be called in from Nashville, the largest city within proximity of Montgomery Bell State Park. Given the incredibly sparse population, and consequent low concentration of police in the immediate area of the conference outside help will have to be called in for security. The Nashville Police have around 1300 police spread out into 7 precincts. Given that most police departments work on 3 shift rotations, this means that, unless they go into an overtime schedule, in which shift rotations are usually reduced to two, that there are around 430 police on duty at any given time. If they do shift into a two shift rotation schedule, in order to bolster security on site, then this number will increase to around 650 police on duty at any one time, allowing them to deploy up to 220 police to the site and still maintain a normal force level. However, if this is not the case, then any deployments will severely stretch their capacity, with a number of police around 45 miles outside of the city. It is likely, therefore, that they will either deploy force out to the area, if they do chose

to do so, under the assumption that there will not be actions in Nashville itself, which is the state capitol, or that they will go into, at least, a partial overtime mode. If they do choose to go into partial overtime, then they will either have to rotate forces back to the city at some point, to prevent exhaustion, especially if the actions have some duration or constancy to them, or they will begin to tire quickly after the first day. Davidson County is the county that incorporates Nashville and surrounding areas. Beside the Nashville Police, State Highway Patrol, local police forces and Park Rangers, this is the most likely place that reinforcements will be pulled in from, given the size and training of a big-city sheriff department like this. The Department, itself, has around 900 employees, of which an estimated 2/3 are involved in law enforcement on some level or another. This involves a significant portion that are allocated to prison guard and courthouse duties.

Predictions
This event presents two problems for those attempting to develop a security plan. Firstly, they are going to have to resort to outside forces that will either have to maintain long supply lines. Even if they have a local staging area, which I would assume that they would, likely at the Ranger station at the park, they are going to have to bring in supplies and personnel from off site. Then, if they are not staying on site, these personnel are either going to have to make the choice between only providing temporary security or having to do shift rotations from cities that are miles away from the site. This means that supplies could run low, and personnel could tire easily, if they have to put contingency plans, or pursuit procedures, in place during the conference, a dynamic that will become more pronounced as actions move in to days two and three. Secondly, unlike a city, where space is generally static and difficult to move through, except on well defined and relatively narrow paths and roads, a park presents a different set of issues. Roads are easy to secure, they only require a sturdy enough barricade to be able to repel any attacks that may present themselves. The forest is open space though, and a space in which visibility of dramatically cut down. To secure the woods around the space would literally require hundreds of police, stationed in static locations, or at least dozens of teams on patrol, and patrol teams never catch everything.

With so much open space, it is likely that the perimeter around the space will be tight. We can easily predict that the area around the entrances will be patrolled on the first day, as attendees are arriving, and cars will likely be checked at a checkpoint to the road leading to the parking lot of the convention center. But, because this will still be a functioning park during these events, it is unlikely that they are going to set up road checkpoints at both of the entrances to the park, opting for patrols to spot any possible attempts to take action on the roads. This also means that, outside of any Highway Patrol

that may be on the roads, the roads outside the park, specifically I-70 and Route 47, will be largely outside of any security operations.

During the conference itself it is likely that security coverage will be relatively light, most likely immediately around the conference center itself, with light foot patrols in and around the space. It is also possible, given that outside forces will need to be brought in for security, that some out of town police will be staying in the convention center. Also, we will likely see increased security during the end of the conference, when attendees are leaving. Now, we must keep in mind that this security will likely collapse around identifiable points, the entrance to the parking lot, roads and the convention center; it is unlikely that, given the distance support forces need to travel and the length of the event, that there will be a constant presence in the woods and on the paths of the park. To cover this amount of space thoroughly, as mentioned earlier, would require at least 2 shifts of dozens of police in patrol teams, and that is unlikely to be mobilized to protect around 100 bigots in a conference center.

Two entrances into the Park, one off I-70 and one off SR-47. Close to the towns of Burns, White Bluff and Dickson. Convention Center/Hotel is in the middle of the park, on Acorn Lake. It is likely that a lot of police will be called in from the outside, and that they will set up a relatively tight perimeter around the convention center, likely using road checkpoints as their primary form of crowd control, and likely a major checkpoint at the entrance to the Convention Center parking area. There is too much open space to cover thoroughly with a small to medium sized force; for a conference of 150 racists they are not likely to allocate hundreds of police. The likelihood of low force concentration, and lots of open space where movement can be concealed, makes this event a tactically sympathetic terrain for those that may wish to take some form of action. As the days wear on, and the resistance moves in to day two or three, we will likely see one of three things happen. Either the security for the event is going to get increasingly worn down and less effective, making over-reaction or miscalculation more likely, or they are going to have to call in more reinforcements. At the point where more reinforcements are called in one of two things, or both, will likely occur. In past experience, it has become clear that when reinforcements are called in, this is a temporary force allocation, and the situation must be ended quickly. In this situation it is likely that there will be some sort of crackdown on the counter-demonstration, if there is a centralized site and presence, or the conference will be forced to end early due to an increasingly precarious situation; it is likely both may occur.

Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation tpra.net Special Ops Response Team: http://www.tpra.net/sortteam.htm

Nashville Police Scanner: http://www.broadcastify.com/listen/feed/8601/?rl=rr http://www.nashville.gov/Police-Department.aspx

Dickson County Sheriffs http://www.dicksoncountytn.gov/government/sheriff/index.html Scanner Frequencies: http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?ctid=2449

Tennessee Highway Patrol District 3, Troop A http://www.tn.gov/safety/thp/districtthree.shtml

Conclusions
For those that are going to be in Tennessee to fight against fascism, there are few terrains that are more complex than Tennessee. There is a history of both extreme racism and a powerful and determined resistance. From Pulaski, where the Klan was founded, to Memphis, where black sanitation workers and their supporters finally transcended pacifism on the days leading up to, and after, their beatings by the police and the killing of Martin Luther King Jr, to fight for their ability to control the conditions of their lives. In many ways, Tennessee is the embodiment of the complex and tragic history of race and racism that formed the United States, a country who's economy was largely based on slavery, dispossession and genocide. When we go out to fight fascists we can never forget this, let alone the tragic history of fascism and anti-semitism in Europe, or the tragedies of colonialism in the Global South and Canada. To confront fascism is never easy, or safe, but it is necessary.

This is not a conceptual fight, a fight against ideas that we find repugnant, ideas that spring from intolerance and ignorance. Rather, all we need to do is look at the economic segregation of our cities, the racist beatings handed out by the police everyday, and the rhetoric of politicians to see that racism is alive and well. The fight against the underground manifestations of racism and fascism are not just about these meta-questions, this is literally a fight based in self-defense. Fascism, and racism is a form of fascism, is based in the attempt to construct deterministic limits to existence, requiring a constant mobilization of police force in everyday life; fascism is a state of perpetual war. This manifests in every act of the police, every law passed by politicians, as well as every lynching, every cross burned on someone's front yard and every Trayvon Martin shooting. To fight against fascism is to fight for the possibility of having control over the conditions of our existence. Every act taken by fascists, whether they wear hoods or blue uniforms, is an act of war, and that can only be replied to with actual action.

To allow fascists to gain one inch is to fundamentally retreat from our own existence, to give way, to surrender, and that is an unacceptable fate. Though confrontation and conflict may not be safe, we must engage in it, otherwise we allow the fascists to have control over the streets, over our streets, and to do so gives them a toe-hold in our communities. This is not a fight to police thought, this is a fight to defend our existences, our communities and ourselves. We owe it to all those that have died to continue this fight, until the fascists are run off the streets for good.