[smutticus]

> it makes the public safety officials look impotent in the face of real threats.

They largely are. It's incredibly difficult to stop crimes before they're committed, and prior to any terrorist mania it was generally considered to be outside the scope of police work. Mainly because it requires a security apparatus, and authority, that is in direct conflict with an open democratic society.

[s_q_b]

Exactly. I'm saying pointing out government impotence was the purpose of the protest, the payload message it was meant to transmit. That should be clear from the symbolic choices of removing the flags, etc. So naturally the powers that be are responding with anger due to that message, mostly because the protestors didn't show just tell, they showed that message, through the government's inability to prevent or apprehend them.

This is the nerf-ball version of challenge to government authority, so instead of Tahrir you get a few kids changing a flag, and instead of a repressive government crackdown, you get increased police investigation. But the mechanisms are the same.

States, whether they be national or local governments, don't react well to open challenges to their authority, and they use every tool at their disposal to prosecute anyone that commits a crime that openly challenges the authority of the government.