Plotting to lose--I know how!

One of the stupidest, most ineffective, maladaptive approaches is very common in Portland, Oregon, which is to dehumanize and vilify cops. ACAB is a common spraypainted bit if poor activism and when it is chanted at cops it's just beyond a loser practice. It's the sort of thing that an undercover cop would do as an agent provocateur in order to make sure the campaign fails.

I've worked with the Serbs who overthrew Milosevic and they went out of their way to draw police and soldiers to them, which they achieved in three ways. 

One, cops stopped beating them. 

Two, cops got out of their way. 

Three, at the end, cops and soldiers joined them. 

The nonviolent campaign to overthrow Augusto Pinochet in Chile did the same thing. It was brutal, the campaign worked to recruit the armed agents of the state, and the beatings and arrests stopped even as--after a three-day stalemate in which the people knew they had voted out Pinochet but he remained in the presidential palace while the streets filled with demonstrators--the other generals announced that they accepted the vote of the people. 

This sort of dynamic is part of many of the stories of successfully defending democracy against autocrats. I would mark it as the most important sub-theme of defending democracy against election theft.