Take this at face value, call me a glowie, or kiss my ass. Either way...

I can't speak to the individual security practices of the DC police. But I can speak to some of the technology that may be deployed. If you plan to take torches and pitchforks into DC, you already know the risks, but let me advise you of the following:

1. It sounds like the president will be addressing the crowd. The Secret Service is not your enemy, particularly in the context of our visit to DC, they protect Trump and will do so with deadly efficiency. Please do not make their lives harder or distract them, we need Trump safe.

This means:

If you are carrying any gear they would object to, do not try to see the president speak in person, be outside of that "zone" as there will be extensive security screening, much of which you won't see. If you try, you will very probably be caught, have a difficult 10+ yrs ahead of you, and you will not be doing any of us any favors. Street level screening points are probably easily noticed and not passed, but screening points will probably also be at exits to the metro / mass transit, and it's a lot harder to say "oops" and turn around at that point without a spotlight being on you for being the only dude turning tail in a crowd all headed one direction.

Advice: Walk the end, don't take the metro to the last leg(s). Use good judgement. The SS wouldn't be doing their jobs if you could easily sneak past security points, anything that looks like an easy bypass is probably not there by accident.

Just watch on the jumbotrons or stay on the outskirts of DC as backup.

If it were me, I think I'd lean first toward "acceptable" tools, such as a very solid versatile flag pole, and bear spray combined with protective gear/clothing... with the more objectionable stuff deeply hidden and disguised back in the car, hotel room, etc. that can be retrieved if the tides shift and it were required. Unless you're in a very large organized and trained group, my best advice is to play it safe, at least at first.

Good Luck Pedes

Take this at face value, call me a glowie, or kiss my ass. Either way...

I can't speak to the individual security practices of the DC police. But I can speak to some of the technology that may be deployed. If you plan to take torches and pitchforks into DC, you already know the risks, but let me advise you of the following:

1. It sounds like the president will be addressing the crowd. The Secret Service is not your enemy, particularly in the context of our visit to DC, they protect Trump and will do so with deadly efficiency. Please do not make their lives harder or distract them, we need Trump safe.

This means:

If you are carrying any gear they would object to, do not try to see the president speak in person, be outside of that "zone" as there will be extensive security screening, much of which you won't see. If you try, you will very probably be caught, have a difficult 10+ yrs ahead of you, and you will not be doing any of us any favors. Street level screening points are probably easily noticed and not passed, but screening points will probably also be at exits to the metro / mass transit, and it's a lot harder to say "oops" and turn around at that point without a spotlight being on you for being the only dude turning tail in a crowd all headed one direction.

Advice: Walk the end, don't take the metro to the last leg(s). Use good judgement. The SS wouldn't be doing their jobs if you could easily sneak past security points, anything that looks like an easy bypass is probably not there by accident.

Just watch on the jumbotrons or stay on the outskirts of DC as backup.

2. There are passive technologies that can detect items on a person. Specifically, it detects differences in density. If it "sees" flesh, and something on top of it much more (or less) dense, it shows up like a light bulb on the scanner. I'm about 5yrs out of date, but last time I had exposure to this technology, the device could be contained into an big briefcase sized enclosure, which could be out in the open, or concealed in things like trash cans, door frames, walls, etc. The point being, they can scan very large numbers of people, and the people will have no idea it's happening.

Again, the technology I'm referring to is passive. It doesn't require you to walk under an archway, or have something obvious to pass around you like at the airport (although what it detects and how it works is similar in nature). Basically, it's a lot like a camera.

I did not have opportunities to try to defeat the scanners when I was exposed to them so what follows is speculation... but hopefully useful advice.

You can't have a can of coke under your shirt, it will be seen unless they're comfortable with you having a coke can shaped object under your shirt and let you through. If they use this, items under clothing will be detected. And I would bet a lot of money that the SS will have technology such as this (probably far more advanced by now), but I don't know if the DC police will... such things would be affordable to them, and considering the number of protests they deal with, it is highly likely. If I were them, I'd have it deployed in key choke points to scan people in the crowd passing by.

Again, covering clothing won't help you, a very dense trench coat type thing might... but that would probably make you an even bigger target to be "randomly" screened as they won't have been able to see your body or what's under the coat.

Advice: You'll need shielding that makes sense, that has plausible purpose. Meaning a trench coat or bag lined in aluminum, or a sheet of aluminum foil over your flashlight won't help, because why would a person have a big square bit of dense material on their waist or a bag that was entirely lined in something they can't see through?

But if your torch or pitch fork were inside a water tight bag, and centered inside of a hydration pack on your back. (water is dense), you might have a chance... and it would be plausible that someone (or many people) would be wearing a camel back, which happens to be hard to scan through (and on the opposite side of your body).

If you have a larger tool, perhaps you can temporally separate the pitchfork from the handle so it's smaller overall... if that were placed between your body and the hydration pack(s), you might have a chance provided bits of it weren't exposed past the density of the water bag. Carefully cut yoga mat type foam is useful to keep such things in place and aligned where they should be. There can't be a strap or anything other than what should be there for your backpack or hydration pack, or it will show up and be an anomaly.

Devices that actually scan you actively (low level Xray, etc.) such as again, stuff the SS might use, will bust you immediately even if that shit is up your ass. So please, pretty please, don't try to go past SS checkpoints.

3. Video Analytics. Cameras are everywhere in DC, and machine learning has become remarkably good and only continues to improve. Beyond facial recognition, there are behavioral analytics that will look for things that are "unusual" based on what a specific camera normally sees. "Unusual" can be subtle gestures, or actions you are probably not even aware you're doing. (raising your belt, adjusting your shirt, looking up and roof tops vs. those around you) They generally won't peg you as a "Bad guy" but can quickly mark you as a person of interest, and you can be observed and automatically tracked by distinctive colors / shapes you're wearing. As far as the behavior part, my best advice would be to do your best to forget about any torches or pitchforks you have. Out of sight out of mind. They need to be literally out of reach and out of mind, and not something you try to actively "hide" or "fidget" with or with or remind yourself to keep hidden. If you're the only dude looking right while everyone else is looking to the left, or the only guy fanning out your shirt, you'll stand out and the analytics will tag you.

4. Drones: Don't do it. I can guarantee that those things have kept people the SS up at night worrying, and they have extensive countermeasures and ways of immediately finding you. Don't even think about it anywhere there may be people being protected. Double... triple so... if it's large enough to carry any kind of payload. Please don't... even if it's just surveillance and trying to see what's going on on roofs or to get video for your streaming channel... bad fucking idea in that main DC area. 100x if there are VIPs around.

5. If shit goes bad, like mega bad, there are people on roofs with impressively unpleasant things. But they can only focus on so many things at once. If you're the one standing out, you'll probably be next in line. Get to cover, keep your head down, and try not to be exposed and have anything drawing attention to you and/or your position. A hand held flashlight on the ground won't do much against their spotlights. Try not to be to be visible (get in a building, under something very big... I don't know. But GTFO ASAP.

If it were me, I think I'd lean first toward "acceptable" tools, such as a very solid versatile flag pole, and bear spray combined with protective gear/clothing... with the more objectionable stuff deeply hidden and disguised back in the car, hotel room, etc. that can be retrieved if the tides shift and it were required. Unless you're in a very large organized and trained group, my best advice is to play it safe, at least at first.

Good Luck Pedes