“Some people may consider the title of this small book hyperbolic. It isn’t. It was confirmed by the New York Police Department in December 2014. Although the number of unarmed or noncriminal citizens killed by cops that year was 593, and countless citizens were tear-gassed or beaten by cops, the perpetrators didn’t admit it was a war. But, when a mentally-disturbed, apolitical man shot two cops as they sat in a car in N.Y.C., the cops declared that they now considered themselves at war.”

The U.S.A. is now a country where the police are a racist gang who shoot and kill unarmed people of color as a matter of routine, and where the police themselves have said they are at war.

It is the duty of engaged Buddhists to stand against a system which permits such atrocities—but how do we combat hate without hating? And how do we protect ourselves from becoming the latest names on the list of victims?

In this short handbook, Zen teacher and activist Dogo Barry Graham lays out activism as Buddhist practice, discusses the important of being an opponent and not an enemy, explains your legal rights when facing aggressive police officers, and offers guidance aimed at getting you home safely at the end of the day.

This book is for Buddhists who feel called by their vow to enter the war zone in order to stop the war, not further it. It is aimed at, wherever possible, stopping tragedy.