Life In Interesting Times
What is YOUR kidnap protocol?
Personal & Organizational Safety Consults, on September 16th, made overt something that I hope is easily discernible - I make myself available to those who have … unusual … security problems. This month a thing happened, and while it turned out OK, I do want to talk about it, because it’s something that is extraordinarily difficult to MacGuyver in the moment.
As the tag line says, What is YOUR kidnap protocol?
Attention Conservation Notice:
An exposition of some (but not all) things that apply to those who are under heightened threat in 2025. This will be a mix of talking you down … and tuning you up on how to face IRL hazards.
Premise:
ICE are grabbing people who even look like they might be Hispanic. Our entire security apparatus has been turned to immigration enforcement, leaving the door wide open for every other problem we have. This Saturday will be the No Kings protest. Antifa, which is an ideology, has been declared a terrorist organization.
I am surprised there was not a wave of violence after the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Finding Out Starring Nick Fuentes was my take on what the response would be. I have heard, but can not confirm with a public link, that Laura Loomer is getting a smackdown. Trump is in terrible shape, and the minute he’s gone, she will be on the outs with everyone who has a chance of prevailing in the succession struggle.
There are a LOT of red arrows on that map, it’s been so energetic that I started watching, after having come up to speed on Nick Fuentes’ position.
Big picture - this is an environment where things can happen and they might not even get investigated.
Personal:
If you guys have read the masthead of this Substack you know that federal informant James McGibney has been harassing me since this time in 2012. I was named in a frivolous lawsuit in 2014 along with five other individuals, all but one of whom were new to me. One of them was murdered in 2021 and the case remains unsolved. McGibney claimed 5th Amendment privileges, saying he was a suspect, and this delayed the resolution of my precedent setting 1st Amendment case by two years.
That delay has proven to be a blessing in disguise. California has accorded me a great deal of personal protection, without requiring the extraordinary burden of a protection order application. Given my extensive experience dealing with corrupt law enforcement working hand in hand with violent extremists, I have a lot of wisdom to offer those here who face similar hazards.
This month there was an event. Among the people I’ve spoken to over the years, one of them who is never out of sight for more than a long holiday weekend was incommunicado for two weeks. We were at the point of hiring a detective for a health and welfare check, because the police in their location are part of the problem, when they finally reappeared. Something HAD happened, but the individual in question is someone I would describe as a hardened, reactive target. I suspect a much needed lesson was delivered, but I did not care to hear the particulars.
Protocol:
So here’s what must be done. Your patterns endanger you, so conceal them. This does NOT mean you conceal them from the people who are going to act first when you do have trouble. There should be a couple people who are in charge when there is a problem. There’s a primo example of how NOT to do this in last spring’s Speaker For The Dead, in which an American, who surely knew better, did not have a procedure in place.
You need a regular check in period and an agreed upon amount of time when you’re out of sight before your absence is treated as a problem.
The people in charge should either be known to the rest of your associates, or they should have a contact list to notify AND some way for those notified to know what they are told is legitimate. Failure to do this means that people who are not up on the particulars may do something that runs counter to what is needed. If you’re dealing with police corruption and have gone to ground over it, the last thing you want is a health and welfare check initiated by a cousin who isn’t aware of your predicament.
You need a duress notification method. Pick a topic that would NEVER come up in regular conversation, something totally innocuous, but which is known to your responders. If you close an email by suggesting that you and your friend go for tiramisu the next time you’re together, nobody reading it would guess, but your friend will know immediately. If in conversation you ask about some personal thing, a thing which does not exist, but which was agreed upon in advance, that should set a response in motion.
If your phone has an emergency contact, that should also trigger incident response. If it’s a family member it MUST be someone who will understand they have a duty to immediately notify someone in your circle of trust, even if they don’t know precisely why. It’s better if your contact DOES know, because leaving this to someone who will be in distress is rolling the dice with your life.
There are a variety of enhancements and modifications, but this is the foundation. You are where you are, when you are, and if you are not, that’s a problem with a defined response. If you are in trouble you have to be able to communicate this without tipping off anyone who might be observing. That is all.
Resources:
I don’t know who Covert Operative Guide is, but there is a lot of what seems like good sense to me in their writings. I keep meaning to take a weekend and read it fully, but life tends to take my weekends. Some day I will probably come to regret that. This is … my skills are mostly cyber, while this is all meat world stuff.
If you are out & about with these protest movements, or more likely if you read here, helping to coordinate, you should review the Digital Security Checklist for Activists. Amnesty International’s Digital Security Resource Hub For Civil Society is also good. I think Activist Handbook used to have a different, more provocative name. This one I want to review before strongly recommending but it is in the zone.
This is a stack of books on my night stand. Nobody ever went wrong reading Michael Bazzell.
Conclusion:
The conditions here at the end of 2025 are such that I think pretty much everybody would benefit by spending time trying to become a hardened target. This means you already know What Hunts You? and you’ve got countermeasures in place.
Once upon a time I was a hardened, reactive target. Those who Fooled Around, at least in the online realm, were liable to Find Out, from me directly, from one of my associates, or from an opponent seeking to fuel the conflict. That last bit is a tricky superpower to have and modulate to your advantage. You have to be doubleplus focused on the hardening if that becomes a feature of your life.
I often reach for bits of popular culture when I’m trying to convey experiences most of you have never had. There’s a scene in Blackhawk Down where general Garrison is listening to the radio chatter when Dominick Pilla, the first casualty of the battle is reported. He sits alone in a dimly lit room, knitting his fingers together behind his head and leaning back upon hearing the news.
I just want to make it clear that none of you have permission to make me play this scene.
What is happening in this country is not an event, it’s a process. If you feel something is out of place, trust your instincts, and sit it out. Just over six thousand days have elapsed since the long ago phone call that set me on the path I walk. There will be plenty of things to see and do as the years go by, don’t let FOMO be the end of you.
stay safe