Field guide to agent provocateurs

Did so again yesterday and looked again today.

First, the author's caption claims something to be a "boot" which doesn't go above the ankle. But look, it isn't a Vibram (yellow dot) sole. I thought the Vibram trademark was how we know ...

Those are the exact shoes that my brother wears every day to work, and you often see him just wearing them around too. That could be any guy who happens to have a job in a semi industrial setting that requires certain types of footwear.

Again, i'm not disputing informants provoking violence. It should be assumed. And as i said, i would look for other cues. But the "shiny" in that caption is contradicted by the guys first picture based on the Vibram claim where the boots are duct taped and spray painted.

It's just not enough. And i think there'd be a lot other, better cues. Shined, possibly. My guess is that if you're paying attention, an undercover is going to have physical, posture, and verbal tells that are not very common in Anarchists.

Let's say that my brother decided to be an anarchist black bloc member as a hobby. He might wear a brand new pair of work shoes to the meeting (because people like us get them paid for regularly being that they're required). So he's got spiffy black shoes that look like what this theory says indicates an informer. But he's not going to hold himself, talk or move like a cop. And while the cop will be trying to not look, sound and move like a cop, it's difficult to change your engrained behavior and make it look natural. Just like it would be really hard for my brother to pretend, convincingly, that he was a cop.

So, no, i'm not convinced that you can tell an informer by nothing more than his shoes. That's the equivalent of a cop telling someone's a drug user by the length of his hair. It doesn't work well enough to be even a rule of thumb.