The case for covering your face protests, made as part of a new campaign by Netpol: The Network for Police Monitoring.
The campaign launched by Netpol last week,
which is seeking to challenge attitudes towards greater protection of
protesters’ privacy, has sparked considerable feedback about the ethics
of wearing a face covering or mask.
Some have argued an established position that
protest is fundamentally about making a public stand in support of
individual beliefs. Wearing a face covering therefore removes, not least
in the eyes of the courts, a level of personal accountability for how
you act in support of those beliefs.
Others, notably some anarchists, have insisted the option to ‘mask
up’ is hardly new and there is little evidence to suggest a wider group
of protesters, who have repeatedly resisted ‘black bloc’ solidarity
tactics and are unwilling to actively frustrate oppressive policing,
will suddenly embrace it.
There are merits in both of these positions, but both assume that
face coverings are intrinsically linked to public disorder – either as a
protection against police violence or, conversely, somehow emblematic
of the use of violence by protesters. We think, however, that the growth
of police surveillance has made the need for greater anonymity a much
bigger issue, for everyone who takes part in any protest.
