All Out Against Urban Shield. Shut Down the Warrior Cops.

On Friday, September 9th, at the Alameda County Fair Grounds in Pleasanton, CA, beginning at 8:00 AM, activists from around the state will converge in protest against this year’s Urban Shield conclave.

Urban Shield is a 4-day SWAT training and global weapons expo that will
be held in Pleasanton, CA September 8-12th.

We come in peace ready to blow you to smithereens.Urban Shield brings together law enforcement agencies from across the world – from the State of Israel to the Ferguson Police Department – along with many Bay Area police forces. Created by Alameda County Sheriff Gregory Ahern in 2007, Urban Shield has been hosted by the Alameda County Sherriff’s Office every year since. Although proponents of Urban Shield claim that it provides police departments with emergency response training, the weapons on display, and the training and tactics become normalized and broadly used, such as in low-level drug raids, in simple search warrant searches, and against protesters.

Nationally, Black people are 40 times more likely to be impacted by SWAT raids than white people. Decades since the War on Drugs began, homes, schools, and neighborhoods have become sites for the war on Black communities, and other communities of color. Urban Shield is an example of how the war on Black communities has built a billion dollar industry to roll out military tactics against people here in the U.S. and all over the world.

Locally, it has only been 7 years since Oscar Grant was shot to death while handcuffed at the Fruitvale BART station by police officer Johannes Mehserle. Across the Bay, the family of Mario Woods is still fighting for justice for their son, an unarmed young man who was murdered by a firing squad of 16 San Francisco police officers in front of his own community last year. Demouria Hogg was executed after being found asleep in his car by trigger-happy Oakland Police who, either in spite of or because of the Urban Shield training, could not figure out any other way of dealing with a sleeping man in the driver’s seat with a gun on the passenger seat than to shoot him.

Exhibitors include such companies as

• International Armored Group – “We offer over 75 models of commercial armored vehicles, as well as, a wide variety of special purpose tactical armored vehicles for Military and Law Enforcement.”
• Mile High Shooting Accessories – “Your One Stop Shop For All Your Shooting Needs”
• Gladiator Solutions, Inc – “Hard and Soft Plates, Helmets, and Shields”
• Armor Express
• Point Blank Enterprises
• ProForce Law Enforcement
• Suppressed Armament Systems
• Voodoo Tactical

and vendors such as those who hawk T-shirts such as that shown above right.

Can there be any doubt that the militaristic philosophy endorsed and promoted by Urban Shield is responsible for these deaths, and many, many more?

In 2014, protests and other activism led directly to Urban Shield being thrown out of Oakland, no longer to be held at the Marriot Convention Center in downtown where it had been held for a number of years.

Now it’s time to remove this scourge completely. September 9th is the time to send the message: