Exclusive: Inside the Summer of Heat's Jail Support System

Protests during the Summer of Heat on Wall Street campaign provided crucial jail support for hundreds of arrests throughout the summer, ensuring protesters' safety and emotional well-being.

By Claudia Gohn

Miles Gorman holds a sign from her jail support notebook that reads "We Love You!" for arrested protesters to see as they're escorted out in handcuffs by police. 

Thursday, August 22, 2024 — “We need clean air. Not another billionaire,” protesters clamored while blocking the doorway at the Citi Headquarters in lower Manhattan. The activists stood face to face with a wall of law enforcement officers, who informed them that, if they didn’t move, they would be placed under arrest.

The protesters remained steadfast in their pursuit. Six were arrested and brought to a police station several blocks away.

Both before the protest and long after it ended, the jail support team—a group tasked with making sure organizers stay safe and that those who are arrested have all the resources and help they need—was there to monitor arrests and to welcome the arrested with open arms once released from jail.

Miles Gorman, a jail support leader, arrived in Manhattan earlier that morning, knowing that more than one protest was planned in front of the Citi Headquarters as part of a campaign called Summer of Heat on Wall Street. Like many other days this past summer, she took the train into the city, arriving just after sunrise. She joined a small gathering in a park with familiar faces and an impassioned sense of purpose.

The Summer of Heat on Wall Street campaign targets corporations—mainly CitiBank—by protesting their use of fossil fuels and overwhelming contribution to climate change. Throughout the summer months, activists from various climate-focused organizations—including Planet Over Profit, Climate Defenders, NY Communities for Change, and Stop the Money Pipeline—joined the campaign to organize protests, rallies, and demonstrations throughout the city. Several of these were held in front of Citi Headquarters.

The Summer of Heat message resonated with Gorman, who has participated in climate activism since she was only 11 or 12. Years later she has ascended to more leadership and responsibility within the movement—which is rapidly growing a younger base as climate change intensifies.

Now, at 17 years old, Gorman struck a deal with her family that she could participate in protecting Summer of Heat organizers if she promised to be on the train back home by sunset.

The jail support role is day-long, tedious, and includes keeping track of logistics and safety of those in and around the protest. But jail support is crucial to the operation of an action—especially those where arrests and law enforcement presence are expected in advance.

“We take everybody's names and make sure everybody's safe, make sure nobody's hurt, make sure handcuffs aren't too tight,” Gorman said.

Day actions are often broken up into several “phases:” pregame, phase one, and phase two. Pregame is the preparation and planning before the protest begins. Phase one marks the beginning of the protest, and with it, heightened risk for arrest. Phase two consists of the support team waiting for those who are arrested to be released and making sure they are taken care of afterwards.

One of the protesters, Danny Hanson, put it simply: “Arrest is easy. Jail support’s hard.”

PREGAME: MOBILIZING JAIL SUPPORT AND PROTESTERS

The jail support members, including Gorman, gathered in the park at dawn for the “pregame.”

Even though the summer-long campaign is now completed, some of the names of parks where protesters regrouped were withheld from this story, for the security of protesters and organizers involved. Organizers face threats to security, even when they aren’t actively holding signs or chanting or blocking an entrance. The police may keep tabs on where they are, including trying to identify their location at the beginning of the day if there is an anticipated protest. Because of this, meeting points for protesters also remain fluid during an action.

Around 8:30 a.m., the jail support group held a meeting to provide pointers and systematize the course of actions that would follow in the coming hours. Gorman announced to the crew that they were expecting protesters to be arrested and charged with harassment violations and even misdemeanors under the New York Penal Law. The group expressed a collective hope that the number of misdemeanors would be limited. Misdemeanors can be punishable by jail sentence, which is much harsher than the violation counterpart.

Gorman reviewed the list of questions to ask those being arrested, ranging from the basic “What’s your name?” to more pointed “Do you need prescription medication?” She also reviewed the rights of arrested protesters.

To close out the jail support huddle, the team put their hands in the middle and shouted, “Nemo Resideo,” which means “leave no one behind” in Latin.

The protesters were split into different groups for the day. One was jail support, which on this day was larger than normal, and the other was the demonstrators. The demonstrator group also divided themselves into categories: green, yellow, and red. Green protesters do everything they can to not risk arrest while still protesting. Yellow takes it a step farther by taking on more risk for arrest while still not willing to be arrested. Those who decided to “roll red” knew and accepted that they would likely be taken to jail that day.

Action leader Ethan Wright brought the two groups together and talked through some of the more big picture challenges and protocols of the day. Some were unique, like that there were less reds than usual. Other talking points were standard, like instructing “greens” to leave when the cops arrive.

These distinctions were necessary not only as part of the organization of how the demonstration’s events would unfold, but also in planning for who needed extra attention from the jail support team that day—be that through preparation for the action or anticipating who might end up in jail for a few hours or longer.

Citi employees surround the building as protesters block the entrance.

PHASE ONE: DEMONSTRATION AND ARREST

Wave One

The protesters left the meet-up location at 9 a.m. and made their way towards Citi Headquarters.

A couple of jail support team members split off from the rest of the group, taking cell phones and the personal belongings of reds with them, in the likely chance that subsection of protestors would be arrested. The rest of the team arrived at Citi Headquarters, carrying posters and chanting “Off fossil fuels, Citi! Off fossil fuels!”

The group also bore four separate large white signs, one with each word that formed the phrase “Stop funding fossil fuels.”

Unlike other day-long actions, phase one was broken up into components. Chanting in front of Citi Headquarters did not mark the end of the day’s events. Leaders organized a multi-wave demonstration set up where protesters would chant and block doors in front of Citi, and then leave before the police arrived.

But when the police came, the group swiftly exited and dispersed to several different locations. The goal was to avoid letting a central location be identified, which would compromise the nature of the protest.

Sitting under the trees of a nearby park, Gorman said that she didn’t know how long they would wait for the next steps of the protest. As Gorman put it, they were “waiting for the coast to be clear,” she said.

Another jail support leader, F, whose first initial is being used here for security purposes, was waiting with Gorman. They were assigned to be on “clipboard” which meant that they took down names of people as they were arrested—a key part of accounting for protesters as they are released later.

“I made a list of all of the reds and concerned yellows. And so I put their name if they need meds, if they too are too tight or if they have other needs, which I'm going to take down here,” F said. “I also have a column for where their van number will be and where, which precinct they'll go to. I won't know that until later.”

Gorman reminded them and others in the park to remember to ask arrested protesters if they are in pain.

There are other roles within jail support, as well. There are spotters, which watch for police cars and overall be the eyes and ears for the person on clipboard. This role is different from intel, who watches specifically for police presence. Some leaders in jail support do collection, which means they keep track of protesters’ personal belongings. Gorman has held several of these positions in the past.

Before the group began the second wave of protesting, the activists reconvened altogether at a different nearby park, to decide the timeline of the next wave as well as touch base on how everyone was feeling.

Protesters put stickers about Citi's fossil fuel use on Citibikes. 

As the sun got higher in the sky, the team realized that their multi-wave intent was going to be limited to only two waves of risking arrest. Originally, the protesters had planned to do three.

“The plan was originally that we were going to show up at Citibank, blockade the doors to stop employees from being able to enter into the building, and then once police arrived, we would follow police orders and we would leave the building, which we did successfully for the first wave,” Wright explained.

But because of the continued police presence, they had to change their strategy.

“The issue is that we wanted to do that continually throughout the day, so we would wait for police presence to disappear at the plaza, and then once they have all left, we would go back and blockade the doors again,” Wright said. “However, it doesn't seem like the police are going to be moving away from the plaza anytime soon. So the plan has changed too. We will just go back and we will blockade it one more time for as long as we can.

As they regrouped, Wright talked about the intent, expectation, and goal of the door blockade during this protest, especially given that there had already been so many protests throughout the summer.

“They've had a very large crackdown on their security and everything, and it's been able to help us do our blockades even more effectively,” Wright said. “So the more that we can keep them on their toes, the more effective that we can blockade and we can hopefully get a result out of what we're doing here because we're here for a reason.”

Although there are teams and groups that fragment the protesters as a cohort, they all make decisions together. At around noon, they decided to head back over to Citi for wave two of phase one.

Wave Two

There were far fewer protesters blocking the front doors during the second wave, when arrests were most likely to happen. Only the members of the red group were left.

“Hey Citi, get off it! Put planet over profit,” protestors chanted.

While the protest unfolded, Citi employees, none of whom agreed to be interviewed for this article, lined up to get into the building. Citi representatives passed around a paper statement saying that they are “supporting the transition to a low-carbon economy” according to a statement passed around to those at the protest.

Organizers were hauled into police vans. F held the clipboard with the names of each person being arrested. F, along with Gorman, watched vigilantly, making sure that police didn’t overstep boundaries or violate their rights. They also asked where the protesters would be taken and held.

Then came one of the most difficult parts of the day: waiting for them to be released.

PHASE TWO: THE WAITING GAME AND REUNION

At yet another nearby park, the jail support team settled in, ready to wait for at least a couple hours. A couple people went to grab some snacks and drinks. Gorman sipped on a root beer.

The end of a protest can be an anxiety-provoking time for organizers while they wait for their arrested friends to be released. They don’t know yet what the exact charges are or when their upcoming court date might be scheduled. They don’t know if the jail will have a clean place to sit. And most pointedly, they had no idea if or when they might even get out of jail.

Eric Arnum, a member of Planet Over Profit and a long-time real estate journalist, smoked cigarettes and paced restlessly. But for Arnum, the anxiety of jail support work is worth it—it’s an integral part of the activism process.

“Going to jail is never easy or fun. We make it fun. It's a perverse twist on what's normally the worst day of your life is the day you went to jail. We turn it into one of the best memories you could ever have,” Arnum said.

Arnum has been part of the movement for a long time, and has collected priceless knowledge and experience about protesting — especially related to effective jail support. Gorman is one of his proudest “trainees.”

Gorman carried a purple rulebook around all day with phrases to show protesters and others on jail support throughout an action—like “J.S. TEAM: PHASE ONE NOW” and “WE LOVE YOU” which she shows to protesters while they are arrested.

Pages in Gorman’s jail support notebook.

This is one of the only places where the jail support process is documented in writing. Interestingly enough, while jail support is a core component of a protest, it’s rarely written about. The function and operations of jail support are carried through a collective memory among activists.

Most of the jail support practices and processes — and protesting in general, for that matter — are carried through an oral tradition. Gorman didn’t learn what she knows through books or articles. Her jail support knowledge and ability comes through practice and what older jail support and action leaders have taught her.

“There's not a lot of standardized procedures and stuff that gets written down and whatnot,” Gorman said. “It’s all just oral history. The only way we remember things is through each other.”

After a couple of hours waiting, Gorman got out a speaker and blasted Chappell Roan’s “HOT TO GO!” to boost the team’s energy.

Shortly after, the six arrestees trickled out of the precinct one by one. When they saw the first person released, F and Gorman turned up the music volume and ran up with open arms to welcome them. They continued to sing and dance and cheer until everyone was together again.

Jail support team (Gorman right) cheering as an arrested protester comes out.

Although Wright was the action lead that day, he had also been arrested before and knew the importance of jail support on the side of being an arrested protester.

“I have a very specific memory of the first time getting arrested and then coming out of jail and having everybody there and clapping and smiling for me and getting me pizza and just being there for me after getting out of jail. It's a very powerful thing to know that you have those people behind you when you're doing those kinds of actions.”

After everyone was out, Arnum took jail support and the arrestees to get food at a nearby diner. After an afternoon of no food, they were able to rest and get something to eat. Together, the protesters smiled and laughed over their meals.

As Gorman enters her final year of high school, she’ll be applying for colleges. While she isn’t making trips into the city multiple days a week for protests, she speaks about her activist community with care and respect.

“They come to keep people safe, and they're the unsung heroes.”

Claudia Gohn is a co-founder and co-editor-in-chief at Grassroots. She can be reached at claudia@grassrootsmagazinenyc.com