The following reportback was submitted to us anonymously for publication:
“On the evening of June 14th, 2025, a mostly-Anarchist “demonstration” was planned on Phoenix’s Roosevelt Row. While details of the events were left sparse, the location and a time of 8PM were disseminated widely on social media as well as at other local protests earlier that same day.
This is a report-back of someone on the ground and in observance of this action.
WHO: The initial group of planners was a fairly large group of folks who, for the most part, did not know each other but shared a left/post-left association through a loose network of Valley inhabitants.
WHAT: This action was continually touted as a “demonstration.” The definition of that term was never decided and the direction of this action was left intentionally vague as to allow fluidity depending on the number of demonstrators that showed up to this action.
WHEN: 8PM, 06142025
WHERE: Roosevelt Row, Phoenix, Arizona
WHY: The demonstration, occurring on the same day as the “No Kings” protests throughout the nation, was to occur as a more aggressive, violent (as opposed to non-violent), autonomous action as a counter to the highly organized, very liberal, “non-violent” “No Kings” protest. The ultimate reasoning, per social media posts made, was “Against ICE, Against the Border Regime.”
TIMELINE OF EVENTS:
I’ll start with planning:
The planning for this demonstration was sudden. The planning occurred rapidly and over the course of maybe 3-4 days. It was done completely remotely, over chat-based communication and was completely unstructured. The chat in which the planning took place was left completely open. A public link to the chat was shared widely and, while the link did have admin approval on for new chat members, there wasn’t an instance I witnessed in which vetting was done. Further, the chat had (and continues to have, but more on that later) 3 admins who are ultimately able to dictate security and entry.
The plan was to have a demonstration at 8PM on 06142025 at a particular intersection on Phoenix’s Roosevelt Row. There was a push to disseminate social media posts through any accounts that were willing and dissemination of leaflets at the earlier-in-the-day “No Kings” liberal protest. Suffice it to say, the security level of this protest was zero.
The plan was for everyone to commit to whatever autonomous action they wished, by themselves or with their affinity groups, and to wait and see how many people arrived to determine what the demonstration would end up turning into. Talks of marching down Central Ave. to the local ICE Field Office were had, but nothing was ever determined because we “need to wait to see how many people show up.” Frequently, it was said that the demonstration was “going to be pretty big” because of how much it was traction it was receiving on social media.
The action and its consequences:
I arrived to the area ~8PM. I drove around the area several times doing usual operational security checks, looking for escape routes, and checking the temperature of the protest and its onlookers. At this time, considering it was just to have begun and anarchists are never on time, there were about 20-30 people on the sidewalks of the proposed intersection. A few were marching around from corner to corner, making sure to follow pedestrian traffic laws, of course!
Having parked in my designated safe area, I walked over and arrived to the intersection around 8:15 or 8:30PM. Most of what was occurring was standing around. There was a speaker playing music, someone on a bullhorn, many signs, and some chanting occurring. Observing, I stood around for ~30 minutes waiting to see if more people would arrive and what this might turn into. It was very obvious, upon arriving, that there was not enough of a mass for anything to actually be done. But, within ~30 minutes, the numbers existed to take the street and, perhaps even enough to march down to the field office.
Taking the street:
I noticed a single individual rally up a crowd of mostly wide-eyed, unsure demonstrators to the point that enough people entered the intersection at a greenlight to take the street while barricades (mostly found) were set up and the intersection was taken. Without her urging, it is likely that the entire crowd would have stayed on the sidewalks all night shouting at cars and one another. I will include myself in that crowd as I also did not have the assertiveness to get this larger group of people (50-60 by this point) to actually go and do anything.
What then?:
Nothing. Nothing truly occurred after that point. If we consider taking another block and then inching the barricade against our own interests “something,” then I suppose that’s something. But, by all accounts, nothing else happened after that point that would be considered a “win.” Life should not be measured in material accomplishments, but we’re fighting The Leviathan and all that occurred was taking an inconsequential intersection. The same individual mentioned earlier, who rallied the crowd enough to take the street, also attempted to get the 50-60 people to start marching towards the ICE Field Office. But there was no cohesion. No one should have needed to lead that, but folks were also just unwilling. There were excuses made. “We don’t have enough people.” “This is a pretty big win for us already.” “That seems dangerous.”
I stayed and assisted where I was needed until I couldn’t anymore; until it became apparent that this was it. There was nothing else to be done and folks were content with how far they’d gone. Then I left.
Notes from throughout the evening:
There’s a number of things I need to address about the planning beforehand, the demonstration itself, and what’s occurred since.
- Opsec:
I’ve already noted the opsec nightmare chat that, to my understanding, is still going. I’ve also noted how widely this action was disseminated. I should also note here that there was at least one (possibly two) undercover cops within the crowd the entire evening. When brought up to folks later, this seemed like a surprise. It is clear that surroundings were NOT being watched. Further, phones were out and recording the entire night. There was at least one person live streaming the entire event, unmasked, using a gimbal. Their livestream wasn’t spur-of-the-moment. This person brought the equipment necessary to film an autonomous, anarchist demonstration. And no one said a word. On top of that, we had other demonstration goers filming and taking pictures throughout the evening. These are folks who are anarchists or at least (should?) understand the absolute need for operational security. If you want to put your own shit out there, more power to you. But perhaps consider the risk you’re putting everyone else in when you’re filming and taking pictures at events like these. Leave your phone at home or at LEAST leave it in your car. - Purposelessness:
Autonomous actions are wonderful. There should be more of them! We should continue this long tradition of popping up events and actions that are disassociated from any sort of organization. “Leftists” love having a branded and advertised protest with their own peace police and rules and permits and they all suck ass.
However, autonomy doesn’t mean “let’s all show up here and see what happens and maybe if we have the numbers to do something we’ll do something.” Clear direction at the event should have been agreed upon. What is “taking the street”? What does any of that mean if we were hardly an imposition to capital and barely bothering traffic? Life is not measured in material gain, but what at all did we gain from this action? We’re fighting ICE, DHS, the feds, the state, the cops… and taking 2 blocks of Roosevelt Row for 2 hours means we won? If this is a starting point for something larger, it’s a slow start. - Misdirected violence towards onlookers:
At least twice throughout the evening, there was misdirected violence perpetrated against fellow neighbors who, while not a part of the demonstration, were not trying to impede upon our demonstration.
The first of these was a person attempting to do their job by picking up the Lime scooters that we were using as barricades (but did not need to use as we had enough barricades). This person came up and several folks became confrontational with them, continually throwing the scooters as they tried to put them into the back of their truck. People should do as they wish and if they found this purposeful, cool. But, matter-of-factly, it was not.
Second, a bike taxi rode through the barricade in an effort to park where they would usually park. What seemed to upset people is that this bike taxi driver did not respect the anarchists borders. lol. lmao even. After some folks hit and kicked the bike a few times, the driver got confrontational and this resulted in a standoff amongst a few people. Thankfully, this situation was deescalated by some cooler heads in our crowd and some patrons of a bar that was on the street we were occupying. But the escalation was unnecessary.
Afterwards:
As previously mentioned, it’s been reported that the chat used for planning is still running for future demonstrations. People are still in there that had their phones at the demonstration. No one has buttoned their shit up at all and, from what I’m told, opsec is not being taken any more seriously.
Further, what has also been reported to me is that certain primary planning members are so absolutely stoked about their huge “win” that they posted a “Victory Statement.” I’d beg the question, “what win?!” What was done? Further, what is your CRITICAL analysis of the evening. What went wrong, what could have gone better, and THEN what went right? What is the next step? What are you going to do to actually affect some change? What are you going to do to button your opsec up? What are you going to do to make sure that your next event is cohesive and meaningful? Because this one was neither of those things.
I’m excited to see shit happening in Phoenix. I’m excited to see that many anarchists in The Valley. And I’m excited that they’re excited. But one person with a hammer can do more in 15 minutes than those 60 people did in 2 hours. So, what if we all got hammers?“