[5trokerac3]

> The masked person can look but not be seen—an enormous and liberating power particularly in today’s age of surveillance.

It's only liberating if the masked person acts ethically. As we've seen in Portland, when masked "protesters" commit violence against civilians, it's the antithesis of "liberating". Remember that the anti-mask laws in the US south were enacted to limit the nefarious actions of the Klan.

IMO, HK has gone so far that the masks are a fake sense of security. The police will drag you off, mask and all, and know exactly who you are. Either the HK people have to accept using guerrilla tactics or they will eventually be swallowed by the CCP.

[baud147258]

Here in France, at most protests you'd find groups of masked 'protestors' who usually have nothing to do with the protest and are just here for acts of violence against the police and random acts of degradation and looting

[5trokerac3]

Don't forget masked "protesters" who are actually police infiltrators attempting to turn a protest violent.

[dobleboble]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent_provocateur

[hajile]

Those people are NEVER the problem.

If 50-100 violent masked people show up and the police want to arrest them, nobody in the peaceful protest are going to get in the way.

The politicians CHOOSE to allow the violent group to discredit the entire protest.