discarded photocopy toner. They only knew it when the sun rose and they saw each others’ blue faces.”
-“Squatters of Rome”
Be Prepared Even if you’re just squatting the place for the duration of the dance, bring a first aid kit and a fire extinguisher and mark the fire exits if applicable. Invite your street medic friends; ideally, someone should have first responder training. If you’re creating a situation in which anything can happen, and you want it to be a good experience for the participants, make sure you really are prepared for anything to happen. This is part of being capable of maintaining truly autonomous spaces.
Lastly, and unfortunately, you should consider how to handle the authorities. Prepare a plan for dealing with the police if they come to your event. Go over this together with all the other organizers so everyone agrees on how to respond and feels prepared.
Rule number one: if the police show up, don’t let them in. They’ll pretend that they have a right to enter; they might say they “just want to check it out.” Don’t fall for it! Don’t let them in. Give them an inch and they’ll take a mile. If you have to, play for time—you could give them the number for a voice mail or a burner phone with a friend on the other end of it representing the owner of the space. Generally speaking, you want to volunteer as little as possible, to avoid things getting more complicated.
Consider having your vegan straightedge friends work the door so if the cops show up, there are sober, assertive people prepared to keep them out. They still might manage to get inside somehow, so prepare an emergency plan in advance to deal with that scenario. If there is an impromptu bar or something like that functioning inside, make sure people are ready to disassemble it and rush everything out a back door at a given signal. If there are people in more vulnerable legal situations—undocumented, on probation, etc.—make sure that they are able to exit safely, too. You should also have a plan to get the speakers and other expensive gear out of there!
Things can get unruly if the police show up but that’s a subject for another article.