sleeping dragon

English

A circle of people who are attached to one another by sleeping dragons

Noun

sleeping dragon (plural sleeping dragons)

1. A tube-shaped device that protestors attach their hands to the inside, particularly when it results in them being attached to a large object, so that they are harder to remove them from an area.
   • [2000 September, Thomas R. King, “Managing Protests on Public Land”, in FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin‎^[1], →ISSN, page 11:

     More ambitious acts include locking themselves to one another or to special devices, including a "sleeping dragon," a pipe cemented into a road bed into which the protestors can lock their arms.]

   • 2009, Mike Roselle, Josh Mahan, Tree Spiker‎^[2], page 245:

     The blockade was centered around four college students forming a human chain, their hands encased in containers of hardened cement, the old sleeping dragon trick.

   • [2014, Hank Johnston, What is a Social Movement?‎^[3]:

     Figure 5.1 depicts a small example of tactical technology called a sleeping dragon.]

   • 2016 September 21, Mark Rendell, “'We're protectors, we're not protesters:' Northerner talks about Dakota arrest”, in CBC News‎^[4]:

     According to a Morton County peace officer's affidavit, filed with the state of North Dakota, "[Daniel T'seleie] used a sleeping dragon device to secure himself," […]

   • 2021 October 5, Hilary Beaumont, “Revealed: pipeline company paid Minnesota police for arresting and surveilling protesters”, in The Guardian‎^[5]:

     The Hubbard county sheriff’s office sent a “code red” to the Beltrami county field force extrication team, which had received training from 2016 to 2020 to remove protesters who used sleeping dragons.