Increased police state, more ways to identify people who are protesting...I think we have some sort of bad announcement coming from the various countries!

they have been accumulating in their surveillance of all of these protests...

will send this law to the shredder quickly, and that not too many people have their lives ruined before then.

This was in Los Angeles, and they all wore brown paper bags over their heads.

They were conscripted into the Iranian Air Force.

They carried signs that said "Down with U.S. Imperialism in Iran."

They wore the bags over their heads because they had family back home that would be tortured or killed if their identities were known.


Fuck.

Fibreman ‏@TheFibreman

@Anon_GovWatchCA @Libra_Media
Because if you wear a mask it stops surveillance building a profile on you. Anonymity is their nemesis.

How to Beat Facial-Recognition Software
(with pics)
http://www.technewsdaily.com/3684-beat-facial-recognition-software.html

...masks play hell with facial recognitin software.

Law enforcement has been finding the protests very hard to deal with because of their leaderless, hivemind nature. There were reports at the height of Occupy Wall Street that the cops were photographing people who seemed to be taking a leadership role at protests and then deliberately singling them out for arrest during the next demonstration. But that's pretty hit and miss, because somebody cheering others on may just be a general loudmouth and not a planner. And of course the use of masks makes it even less effective.

Surveillance of communications is a related law enforcement tool. They hope to be able to map out protest movements and learn who communicates with whom and who seems to be a nexus so they can take them out. Even if the planners aren't out on the streets themselves, they can get them for conspiracy, which is what they pulled on Earth First! back in the early 90s.

They were taken by surprise when all this started two years ago, but that doesn't mean their methods aren't well-honed and effective once they get them going. If the movement wants to survive a wave of serious repression, it needs to get its defenses in order now.

And I'm not even talking about agent provocateurs. I'm talking about uniformed police in masks. because I've seen quite a few of them at protests.

. . . each wearing a Guy Fawkes mask?

Or better yet, a Stephen Harper Halloween mask?

... have enacted such a sensible, equitable, and necessary law.

Or perhaps not. You never know.

-- Mal