RNC 2008: The "Nomadical Radicals" Openly Plot Mischief Under The Eyes Of Police

Photo by John Hoff, September 1

While bike police look on, helplessly, members of the (so-called) "Nomadical Radicals" meet on the steps of the State Capitol on September 1, before the big anti-war march on XCel Energy Center and plot whatever it is that...

...a "nomadical radical" likes to plot. I had the sense some of this was just theater for the purpose of mind ****ing the police, and nothing was really being plotted at all. If anything was planned, it probably wasn't planned at the last minute on the steps of the State Capitol right under the eyes of a squad of bike cops. (Or was it? It gets hard to distinguish radical politics from the political equivalent of Halloween pranks, sometimes, and one begins to sense the actual plotting may be no deeper than "let's huddle on the State Capitol on the day of the march and figure out what we're gunna do."

The group name "Nomadical Radical" doesn't appear anywhere on the internet as one term, by itself. My previous blog post was the first mention of it in the blogosphere. I get the sense this was a made-up name used for the occasion and then dropped afterward. The young man with the camera in his face, whose unmasked head can be seen just to the left of the sideways "Nomadical Radicals" sign, was functioning in some kind of (non-hierarchical, everything by consensus, we're all equal but some are more important to listen to than others) kind of way.

He reminded the group how to make the "Nomadical Radicals" sign of distress if you get separated from your friends: throw your hands in the arm and make them go up and down like alternating pistons, like pedaling a bike above your head, shouting "Nomadical radicals, nomadical radicals!!!!"

I stood there, videotaping, and thought, "Oh, cool, now I know the secret anarchist distress signal. So if I'm ever in trouble I can just do the signal, and they will come...black garbed, glaring, armed with tire irons or whatever to be my allies and help me take on oppressive, hierarchical systems. Man.

Yeah, this is who the government wants you to be afraid of. These kids will SMASH YOUR HALLOWEEN PUMPKIN, big time. Oh, wait until I tell you about their super-secret "sphere of privacy" in the next post. Very scary stuff!!! How did a bunch of young anarchists from who-knows-where get their hands on this WEIRD ALIEN TECHNOLOGY?

The young man who explained the secret sign--this leader-of-the-leaderless--reminded the group that most of them were designated "YELLOW," which means they were determined to assert their right to march, but weren't going to do something which would bring down the heat. If anybody had a notion to be "RED," meaning you ARE planning something, you should GET THE (EXPLETIVE) AWAY from the rest of the group.

At that point, a female in the group had a question...I think it was some kind of "how do I know which color is which" question, a sort of kindergarten know-your-primary colors question. And at that point, before my very eyes, the Nomadical Radicals entered the "sphere of privacy" to plot their mayhem...or was it just mischief?