Molotov cocktails have been used by revolutionary forces to overthrow tyrannical governments for nearly a century. The simple ingredients of a glass or ceramic bottle filled with a flammable liquid and preferably topped with a blazing gasoline-soaked rag have been combined to form a formidable tool to level the playing field between those struggling to gain justice and those in power fighting to maintain the systems supporting injustice in numerous coups, revolutions and other protests against tyrannical governments around the world.
The Finnish military originally coined the deadly potion after Vyacheslav Molotov, who led the Soviet Army on an assault against Finland after signing a non-attack agreement with Nazi Germany. Despite Soviet use of T-26 light tanks against the largely unarmored Finnish Army, the end of the war resulted in five Red Army troops dead for every dead Fin and a small amount of land loss for Finland.
I do not condone violence just for the sake of violence. I do not condone escalating situations by use of force to “dominate” situations aside from battlefields.
However, I am a staunch supporter of giving people the ability to defend themselves, protect their rights and their ways of life through knowledge and whatever means necessary.
“Knowledge is power.” – J. Edgar Hoover
“All power to the people.” – Black Panthers slogan
The Milwaukee Police Department has tweeted several photos citing plastic water bottles with unusual ignition devices as evidence of Molotov cocktails being used against police.
During the half-dozen days I have covered the protest groups led by Frank Nitty marching throughout Milwaukee and its suburbs, I have not seen any evidence of any explosive devices carried by protestors in this group or any kind of violence.
Some members of the protests could be seen open-carrying handguns and other firearms, but considering the numerous death threats Nitty has reported on his life and the fact that open-carrying in public is perfectly legal in Wisconsin, there is no reason officers of the law should fear these law-abiding citizens.
Deputies of the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Department were seen guarding freeway on-ramps holding firearms with more tactical add-ons and do-dads than the U.S. military provides the vast majority of its troops. Silencers as long as your forearm and red dot sights are not necessary to stop mostly unarmed protestors who are just trying to walk around their city peacefully.
Perhaps the protestors have violated a few city ordinances, but if those ordinances violate constitutional rights like those granted in the First Amendment, it is the job of the federal government to intervene and uphold the law of the whole land.
U.S. Constitution Amendment I:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
According to the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. A well-regulated Militia is necessary to the security of a free state.
The Milwaukee Sheriff’s deputies who fired tear gas and rubber bullets directly at protestors who were simply trying to walk along the freeway while holding signs and shouting chants demanding justice for George Floyd and all black people as they successfully did on May 29, violated those rights.
One could argue the protestors who were shot were simply demanding officers uphold the most powerful laws in the nation.
The protests in Milwaukee have been organized, vocal and vibrant, but they have not been violent.
The first instance of violence I witnessed involving the marches around Milwaukee occurred when officers on protestors on June 2. Unfortunately, I did not witness this firsthand because this was one of the days I had to work one of my paying jobs, but there are plenty of videos and pictures around the internet that serve as evidence of the incident.
These marches, led by black community activists and other important black leaders who are some of the most organized leaders I have ever seen, remind me of a river.
Milwaukee, a city built where two of the largest rivers in Wisconsin meet and flow into the second-largest freshwater lake in the world, would not be here without rivers. The Milwaukee and Kinnickinnic Rivers brought the life and prosperity that attracted people of all colors, including white European settlers.
Through the years, Milwaukee used its river-based foundation as a source for economic growth, commerce, trade, communication, cleanliness and prosperity.
The one characteristic these two rivers do not share with the vibrant river of people whose current has flowed through the streets of Milwaukee, with sound waves of “No justice, no peace!” echoing through the valleys of houses across nearly every distinct neighborhood of Milwaukee is that of segregation.
East Town, West Town and Walker’s Point have been at odds since before Milwaukee as we know it today was created. Solomon Juneau, Bryan Kilbourn and George H. Walker used the rivers to segregate their communities from each other. To this day, evidence of their rivalry and use of the rivers to divide the people of Milwaukee can be seen by the angled bridges crossing the Milwaukee River, cemented into the very foundation of our city.
While angled bridges and misaligned streets are hardly the biggest injustice against black Milwaukeeans, the borders of the North Shore suburbs that almost perfectly match up with maps detailing redlining and residential security zones of the 1930s paint a more startling picture of the dystopian society our white ancestors created for us to live in.
Installing I43 further divided these systemically lower-class neighborhoods by cementing a line that scars Milwaukee’s North Side neighborhoods, turning once-bustling neighborhoods with locally-owned businesses into a long, slow-moving parking lot.
In 1967 the Milwaukee Youth Council of the NAACP, joined by white Milwaukeeans like Father James E. Groppi, marched throughout Milwaukee for 200 days to fight for fair housing laws. Hopefully we can use our resources and knowledge to change Milwaukee in less than 200 days. The black people who continue to suffer the injustices done unto them by our parents and their parents certainly deserve swift justice.
In contrast to the river of protestors which only gathers more strength as it courses through the city, bringing people out of their homes to join them and grow the power of the river until it cannot be ignored because it is crashing over the barriers that have worked to keep power away from BIPOC folks, Milwaukee is a Molotov.
The gasoline inside the bottle is suspended above the darker motor oil at the bottom of the bottle, much like white people in Milwaukee are given privileges which allow them to effortlessly maintain their status over black people. In this combination, they can be volatile when ignited and stay burning longer and more intensely than either one its own. This combination can be used to start fires to provide warmth, and removed from their captive bottle and allowed to permeate the world on their own, they can be used in an almost infinite number of ways to benefit society.
The bottle itself represents the various boundaries as a result of redlining and other segregations that scar the Milwaukee landscape. Outsiders peer through the tarnished glass to witness the volatile liquid inside, just as newcomers to Milwaukee bear witness to the most segregated city in the land of the free through their own lenses. The glass is fragile, just like the racial tension has been in Milwaukee for centuries through wave after wave of immigrants seeking refuge, freedom and justice.
The cloth wick atop the bottle represents the kindling of the fire and the patchwork torn from the patchwork quilt that truly represents the United States of America and all of its citizens. A patchwork quilt made up of all the smaller pieces of other, plainer quilts. From larger pieces of fine silk to the tattered threads hanging on for dear life, every single fiber represents the people of the United States of America, and the black threads have been disappearing into the darkness of the night of our quilt for far too long. It is time to light the way and save them. Our quilt simply does not have the same livelihood, style, flair, protection, warmth and culture without black. Without black the quilt is not complete.
The fire, the most important part, represents the fire growing inside the hearts of people waking up to the injustices which have placed BIPOC folks at a disadvantage for centuries. The smaller fires in the hearts of many protestors who have just joined the fight to end systemic racism pale in comparison to the raging torrents of inferno blazing within the chests of organizers like Frank Nitty and Khalil Coleman, two of the most prominent and skilled protest organizers in Milwaukee.
All of these fires are crucial to act as a catalyst for the larger event in a Molotov cocktail’s predicted life. The large and prominent flame atop the bottle, while impressive and frightening at the same time, represents just a taste of what lays ahead when the bottle bursts and a fireball eclipses the original flame, engulfing whatever it is aimed at. But without that original flame to ignite the whole combustion, the Molotov is nothing more than an extremely poisonous drink with a makeshift stopper.
While covering these peaceful protests over several days, another analogy comes to mind.
Perhaps the police who assaulted protestors were the Molotov cocktail and the wave of peaceful protestors was the true Milwaukee River coming to extinguish the danger and dismantle the individual pieces of the concoction so they can serve a more productive than destructive purpose.
To take the fire away from the police and give it back to the people so they can light their own paths, warm their own hearts and spread hot justice amongst other Milwaukeeans.
To take the cloth wick away from the police and sew it back into the patchwork quilt, because in union there is strength.
To take the bottle away from the police so that they can sober up to the injustices and we can all break bad in the most Milwaukee way possible.
To take the volatile concoction inside away from the police so that we can work with its contents and reallocate them as effective resources.
No matter what, the police do not have the right to use Molotov cocktails against protestors, especially as red-herring ploys to justify their violent ways.
However, if the lives of these beautiful protestors continue to be threatened by a tyrannical government who seemingly does nothing to stop the death threats against black people vital to the Milwaukee community like Nitty and Coleman, I can offer some of the blunter tools of revolution and the fight against oppressors.
Another purpose served by outlining exactly how to build an effective molotov is to educate the police.
While the contents of the following field manuals may be outdated in many cases, Molotov cocktail technology has not progressed in any significant way and the vast majority of armored personnel carriers used by police ride on rubber, flammable tires. Both of these military field manuals can be found for free online with some basic searching.
U.S. Army FM21-75-H-1,2: There are many weapons that you can use to destroy a tank or an armored personnel carrier. The weapons most frequently used are LAWs, Dragons, TOWs, mines, and high-explosive dual-purpose (HEDP) rounds of the M203 grenade launcher. There may be times, however, when you will not have these weapons available. In such cases, you may have to use field expedient devices.
These devices are used to obscure the vision of a vehicle’s crew and to set the vehicle afire. The burning vehicle creates smoke and heat that will asphyxiate and burn the crew if they do not abandon the vehicle.
Molotov cocktail. This is made with a breakable container, a gas and oil mixture, and a cloth wick. To construct it, fill the container (usually a bottle) with the gas and oil mixture, and then insert the cloth wick into the container. The wick must extend both into the mixture and out of the container. Light the wick before throwing the Molotov cocktail. When the container hits a vehicle and breaks, the mixture will ignite, burning both the vehicle and the personnel around it.
U.S. Marine Corps. MCWP 3-35 F-16,18: The Molotov cocktail (Figure F-16) is an expedient device for disabling both wheeled and tracked vehicles. It is easy to make because the materials are readily available. The results are most effective because of the close engagement in built-up areas. The objective is to ignite a flammable portion of the vehicle such as the fuel or ammunition that it is transporting. The following materials are needed to make a Molotov cocktail:
- Bottle or other glass container
- Gas (60 percent)
- Oil (40 percent)
- Rag for use as a wick.
The gas and oil are mixed thoroughly (60 percent gas to 40 percent oil). The rag is soaked with the mixture, then the mixture is placed into the bottle. The rag is then inserted in the Military Operations on Urbanized Terrain F – 17 opening of the bottle as a wick. When a target is sighted, the wick is lit and the bottle is thrown hard enough to break.