Lock-on

A lock-on is a technique used by peaceful protesters to make it difficult to remove them from their place of protest. It often involves handcuffs, chains, padlocks or bicycle locks. More complicated lock-ons involve protesters putting their limbs through pipes containing concrete, or a mixture of steel and concrete and is only limited by the imagination and ingenuity of those making the "lock-on". The willing protester can choose between a type that will allow them to willingly remove themselves or a type that requires machinery to remove them.

In American protest movements dating from the 1960s and 70s, the term lockdown applies to a person's attaching themself to a building, object, fence or other immobile object. This was originally done with chains and handcuffs, but other devices have been introduced, including tripods and tubes or pipes with handholds built in to link a person to an object or to create chains of people.^[1]

The safe removal of the protesters necessitates the involvement of skilled technicians, and is often time-consuming.

The lock-on chosen by the protester may be the difference between being arrested or not, or may vary the kind or number of charges brought against them by the police. If a protester can remove themselves when asked to by the police, they may stand a better chance of not being arrested. However, if they can remove themselves and they chose not to, they may receive a charge for refusing to remove themselves from the lock-on. If the protester cannot remove themselves, it is likely that potential charges are not as important to them as what they are protesting about.

"Locking on" is a very successful means of slowing down operations which are in truth or are perceived by the protesters to be illegal or immoral; it is also often used to allow time for journalists to arrive and record the scene and take statements from the group spokespeople.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lock-ons.

• locking on to a gate in the UK
• locked on to the gate
• police specialist removing locks
• tubes in series with three people to close one lane
• online article from the Pittsburg Post Gazette