When You Are the Target : Coping With Activist Intrusions and Threats

The aggressiveness of activism is intensifying. While the threat of terrorism is no where near as great in the United States as it is in other parts of the world, direct activist action against individuals and their families is becoming a routine tactical choice.

These threats are intensifying because decreasing public and media interest frustrates current activist causes. That means the tactics selected by activists today must create ever larger disruptions to gain the necessary leverage of fear and embarrassment that attracts media attention and potentially builds groups of activist followers.

This monograph focuses on learning how to successfully cope with activist intrusion threats by reducing or eliminating the news media component, which in turn reduces a target's attractiveness; and ways to outsmart and outmaneuver activists, thus denying them the psychological, ceremonial, ritualistic, and public attention successes they need to achieve their objectives.