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Modern riot cops tactics are based to some extent on Roman Army tactics of 2,000 years ago, with clubs replacing swords. They are not exactly the same but similar enough that one UK Roman Army re-enactor who is also a riot cop said his LARP gear was the same equipment he used in his day job except twice as heavy. The classic shield wall is relevent whenever shields are used in a group formation. Weakness in holding one together may be the real reason you see so many reinforced banners used instead of individual shields.

What impressed me the most about the umbrella charge was that it was more than a few isolated folks escaping. Usually when the trap is closed a few fast and alert folks escape, I've done it several times and so have others.

At the Fall 2001 black bloc at what was to be IMF protests until it was retasked as an antiwar protest after Sep 11, cops kettled a hollow and mostly unequipped bloc of about 800 people in front of the World Bank. Twenty-nine people in football helmets, baseball bats, and trash can lid shields immediately charged through and escaped, taking only one arrest, but nobody else joined the charge. In the end, the cops force-marched the rest of that kettle to the 27,000 person ANSWER march and released them there.

At the 2004 GOP Convention, I was in the Sun 29 Bike Bloc that was kettled. Dumbass cops set up at the bottom of the hill. I stood in the saddle and sprinted at them, letting my posture and face warn of the ramming attack to come. I aimed at the corner where the last cop was-and he stayed out of the way as I zoomed past at maybe 40MPH(I used to train for sprint). I rode straight to the main march and re-engaged from there. NOBODY followed me and most riders were arrested. Had everyone rode with me in that charge, the outcome might have been much better, but we had not organized for that, nor trained as a group in cavalry tactics as adapted to bikes or motorcycles. Probably I would have wanted to use a single-sided echelon formation (instead of a symmetrical wedge aimed at the center) as the front line, with my own charge at the corner as the point. The echelon would need to be wide enough to open a hole that could not be shut in a few seconds, with everyone else filling in from behind. Anyway, any arrests is a life-threatening experience for me, so the stakes were those of war and I meant very serious business.

In 2007 I saw a heavy bloc of about 800 mixed SDS and anarchist marchers with tower shields on the front line catch the US Capitol police on motorcycles out of riot gear. The formation held together and pushed the cops from 3ed st all the way up the steps of the US Capitol before halting there. The motorcycle cops disappeared when they ran out of space, no doubt having had to withdraw. Months later, a similar bloc broke through two lines of riot cops at the Pentagon before stopping at the 3ed as the offensive had been pushed too far ahead of the support offered by the main rally. That bloc too stayed in formation.

All three of these reports concern events over a decade ago, the statutes of limitations long passed.

Interestingly, the fash with all those shields at Charlottesville let their shield wall fall apart almost as soon as their charge reached the counterprotesters. Had this been a medieval battle with edged weapons and fully trained units, the fash would then have been slaughtered on the spot and the fight would have been over. You can see it in one of the first videos that came out of that fight, with the fash trying to get their line with the round "Confederate X" shields back in some semblence of a row after first contact got rougher than they expected.