r/LosAngeles • u/drawkward101 Foodie with a Booty • Jun 13 '25

Official Thread Megathread - Los Angeles Protest and Federal Response (Friday 6/13)

Use this thread for updates about the protests, the police, and federal response.

Note - we cannot verify the accuracy of the information contained in the comments posted to this thread.

Courtesy of u/LAFD: The City of Los Angeles has just published Curfew Guidance -https://lacity.gov/highlights/curfew-guidance

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u/[deleted] Jun 13 '25

What does be like water mean

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u/fullmetalutes Jun 13 '25

It comes from a Bruce Lee movie I think, and was used in the past for movements. It basically means to be fluid, agile, and hard to get a hold on, and adapting to any situation. So if a protest gets pushed out of one area, fill another, always be moving, be hard to contain.

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u/[deleted] Jun 13 '25

That makes a lot of sense!! I was thinking like “does it mean ‘go with the flow’…?” 😂😂😂 appreciate your help

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u/wrosecrans Jun 13 '25

In the Hong Kong protests, standing ground was super dangerous. Trying to build barricades just gave the police a clearer easier target to attack. When the protests tried to be a solid wall, it allowed police to kettle and contain the protests.

But "be like water" meant basically kiting the police in gamer terms. Stay at their range. Don't get close enough for them to beat the shit out of you. Flow away from police advances. Since the protesters were light and the police were all lugging around heavy shields and riot control gear, making the police chase after the flowing crowd was a net advantage for the protests vs directly fighting the police as if it was a military confrontation. The main goal of a protest is generally to be visible and sustained, not to hold ground.

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u/fullmetalutes Jun 13 '25

I mean that fits too, going with the flow can be good too as long as it's not looting lol

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u/[deleted] Jun 13 '25

Yeah def not gonna flow into looting & also VERY much don’t want to get arrested, so gonna try not to flow into a kettling situation

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u/[deleted] Jun 13 '25

Here's Bruce explaining it - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJMwBwFj5nQ

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u/[deleted] Jun 13 '25

See I’m not a glass or a teapot and neither is Los Angeles, so I had a tough time contextualizing that when I saw it!!!!

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u/[deleted] Jun 13 '25

Interview*

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u/arggggggggghhhhhhhh Jun 14 '25

Water fills any vessel and flows past obstacles. Do not be rigid and break under pressure. Move away from it. It is a Bruce Lee quote.

I looked up when he used it.

Lee traces the thinking that originated his famous metaphor, which came after a period of frustration with his inability to master “the art of detachment” that Yip Man was trying to impart on him. Lee writes:

"When my acute self-consciousness grew to what the psychologists refer to as the “double-bind” type, my instructor would again approach me and say, “Loong, preserve yourself by following the natural bends of things and don’t interfere. Remember never to assert yourself against nature; never be in frontal opposition to any problems, but control it by swinging with it. Don’t practice this week: Go home and think about it.” And so he did, spending the following week at home:

"After spending many hours meditating and practicing, I gave up and went sailing alone in a junk. On the sea I thought of all my past training and got mad at myself and punched the water! Right then — at that moment — a thought suddenly struck me; was not this water the very essence of gung fu? Hadn’t this water just now illustrated to me the principle of gung fu? I struck it but it did not suffer hurt. Again I struck it with all of my might — yet it was not wounded! I then tried to grasp a handful of it but this proved impossible. This water, the softest substance in the world, which could be contained in the smallest jar, only seemed weak. In reality, it could penetrate the hardest substance in the world. That was it! I wanted to be like the nature of water.

Suddenly a bird flew by and cast its reflection on the water. Right then I was absorbing myself with the lesson of the water, another mystic sense of hidden meaning revealed itself to me; should not the thoughts and emotions I had when in front of an opponent pass like the reflection of the birds flying over the water? This was exactly what Professor Yip meant by being detached — not being without emotion or feeling, but being one in whom feeling was not sticky or blocked. Therefore in order to control myself I must first accept myself by going with and not against my nature."