“Have you taken hostages?” the Emperor asked.
“It’s useless, Majesty,” the Baron said. “These mad Fremen hold a burial ceremony for every captive and act as though such a one were already dead.” – Frank Herbert, Dune

The reaction of AntiSec participants to the apparent arrest of LulzSec member Topiary has been, as one might expect, internally incoherent. Independent spokespersons for AntiSec – such as the clearinghouse / cheerleader @AnonymousIRC and the movement’s presumed (informal) leader Sabu – have, on the one hand, been demanding Topiary’s release. They have taken to promoting a “FREE TOPIARY” banner on Twitter avatars, derivatives of the “FREE BRADLEY” banners in support of Bradley Manning that are still seen on the avatars of  Wikileaks and Manning supporters. They have promoted tweets of solidarity under a #FreeTopiary hashtag. They have described him as a political prisoner. They have claimed (with data irrelevant to the assertion) that Topiary has the support of the people. They have asked for Bitcoin donations, ostensibly to be used to somehow help him “should Topiary be in need”.

And they have declared him to be dead.

That awkwardly-written eulogy to Topiary has been making the rounds right alongside calls to defend him. Now, perhaps this contribution has simply struck the poetic fancy of some of AntiSec’s more retweeted self-appointed spokespersons. Maybe people are responding more to the feel of the piece than the words in it. If it turns out, though, that this depiction has evoked a resonance among AntiSec participants, what are we to make of it?

I just have questions rather than answers; movement responses to arrests of their participants for direct action is not my specialty. Some things to read up on in the literature, if there is any literature:

Is this “if you’re captured you’re (honored) dead to us” attitude common to the hacker movements and subculture that AntiSec is emulating? (Not obviously so, considering that hacker critics of AntiSec have been condemning AntiSec / Sabu, accusing them of using and then disposing of impressionable and/or young and/or autistic followers.)

Related: Has Topiary transgressed by getting caught? Calls for support have been dependent upon the odd confirmatory outing of one of their own at the same time: a “yes, that’s our co-conspirator, officer, you got him”. I’m reminded of mourning heretics as if they are already dead.

Is this common among movements that glorify illegal direct action? Eulogy like this is not universal, at least: contrast it with animal liberationists’ valorization and Mumiaization of saboteur Walter Bond, who in prison is now more of a movement presence than ever now that NAALPO publishes his rambling communiques.

Have some insurgencies treated captured comrades as if they are dead as a strategy? As the introductory quote suggests, I’m remembering a fictional example but this seems vaguely familiar and useful for guerrilla groups – as long as no one talks or has any knowledge to talk about.

What might this illuminate about movement tactical choice and public relations generally? The “Free Topiary” campaign, blatantly, seems incompatible with a “mourn the social death of Topiary and continue in his honor” sentiment. This choice, though, does not appear to be unique to AntiSec. With several of their participants facing campus disciplinary action or criminal charges, for example, several California student groups of the “Occupy Everything!” variety redirected a great deal of their internet outreach toward self-protection, updates such as the live-tweeting of obscure disciplinary proceedings often seeming to overwhelm their initial activist mission. Animal liberationists, with their wider range of outlets and their far stronger familiarity with operation security, seem to instead balance their (notably less individualistic) mission with their condemnation of their saboteurs’ treatment by the crime control system. Many activist collectives, when their participants eschew civil disobedience for attempts to pull off direct action without getting caught, face the conundrum of how much to go on the defensive when authorities catch up with them.