Hard Core Stress Management

The United Nations has put out a booklet to assist peace keepers in traumatic times. It’s pretty hard core and discusses the kinds of issues those involved with peace keeping under the United Nations banner might face.

UN STRESS MANAGEMENT BOOKLET [pdf]

It doesn’t gild the lily as it were as most self-help works tend to do.

It discusses levels of stress and differentiates between those that are normal and traumatic as well as offering guidelines for those in various roles.

It occurs to me that those who have not been in a protest before might find some of this useful. If one has never been pepper-sprayed, arrested or dealt with police (who are essentially a military force) or seen injured people, all of which has happened already at some protests due to the overzealousness of some police officers, then this work might be helpful.

Also consider that the police force is under this kind of stress as well and there are things that can be done to either add to that or ameliorate it for your own wellbeing if you are in a hot protest zone. So if you are going to try to climb barriers or march on private property it is useful to know how to handle panic when a reaction from authorities happens. I personally advocate neither for or against such actions since it depends very much on the circumstances. Sometimes you need to climb a barrier to escape if there is crowd panic and your well-being is in danger.

This might also come in handy for those who have suffered a natural disaster or who are visiting a region in which such has occurred or in dealing with people who have suffered that. The booklet itself was listed on the website of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees and they have a number of other publications in their e-library such as their Handbook for Emergencies [pdf] [available in several languages through the e-library link] and Managing the Stress of Humanitarian Emergencies [pdf] which could be quite useful in any of the above scenarios.

What got me thinking about this is the article I came across at the Daily Kos Conservative Magazine Brags of its Agent Provocateur’s Role in Provoking Police Action in D.C. Some folks are conspiring to discredit the Occupy protests and using actions to provoke police. They had better be careful as such actions could land them with RICO charges if they keep it up. The RICO Act has been used successfully against certain anti-abortion groups who had planned and committed violent acts as well as against criminal organizations. Violations of statutes include conspiracy to commit those crimes.

So if agents provocateurs are acting in concert with and at the behest of an organization in planning and carrying out acts such as arson (planning to set something on fire?) or obstruction of justice or anything that could be classified as terrorism, the definition of which seems to get broader every day, then they could be looking at 20 years on each count. Additionally lawsuits may be filed on RICO grounds by plaintiffs who have been injured by such actions.

Yes it’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt.
~moms everywhere