this post was submitted on 01 Mar 2024
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[–] Taniwha420 278 points 9 months ago (4 children)

" ... and no identifiable tattoos."

[–] [email protected] 95 points 9 months ago (2 children)

That's exactly what I was thinking lol. Tattoos are way easier to identify than a face so the mask does nothing.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Great red haring though. Not that I ever would but I've also considered using a bald cap if I ever needed to do something illegal. They'll be looking for a bald person and I'll be here chilling with long hair.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 9 months ago (1 children)
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[–] AFaithfulNihilist 83 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Someone should mass print the most common tattoo shapes in temporary tattoos and hand them out at protests or sell them for cheap.

Seems like a great way of just poisoning a lot of data sets

[–] asteriskeverything 54 points 9 months ago (8 children)

Or sheets you can cut to size that are just gibberish to cover up your actual tattoo (or lack of one) like

[–] [email protected] 39 points 9 months ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 223 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (15 children)

Also don't wear any clothing you bought from a unique Etsy store (or any store you physically visited and paid with a card).

The clothes you wear to the protest should also be bought from a thrift store that you visited without your cellphone and paid for the clothing in cash.

Otherwise, yes, your clothing purchases are tracked, and the young lady who torched a cop car during the George Floyd protests was literally found by the FBI searching Etsy purchase records for people who had bought that shirt.

https://www.inquirer.com/news/lore-blumenthal-philly-protests-george-floyd-sentencing-20220728.html

Other options are facial recognition defeating clothing like this:

https://www.dezeen.com/2023/02/07/cap_able-facial-recognition-blocking-clothing/

Or this:

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2496686/anti-cctv-reflectacle-glasses-will-let-criminals-evade-the-law-and-activists-dodge-the-surveillance-state/


EDIT:

But neither of those help when we're dealing with stuff like Gait Analysis.

For help with that, we must turn to the Ministry...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iV2ViNJFZC8

[–] [email protected] 79 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (4 children)

Cory Doctorow has a solution: put some pebbles in your shoes, that will change the way you walk right away.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I remember reading a book about this hacker student kid that would do that to sneak out of the school because they had gait recognition cameras. Can’t remember the name of the book though…

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[–] eethi 48 points 9 months ago

Yeah, the gait analysis is where I am truly fucked because I'm visibly disabled (and have gone to protests where i have been threatened with arrest, but evaded so far). I have been thinking about using my wheelchair at more protests though, so that might be able to fuck it up in the future.

Or everyone just needs to stick a rock in their shoe, or wear one shoes that has a bit of a platform.

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[–] Custoslibera 206 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (5 children)

No phone

No ID

Don’t take private transport or public transport. Use a bicycle if you can and take an unusual route to and from.

Wear very plain clothes of a solid colour (preferable black), no logos.

Do not wear easily identifiable shoes.

Be prepared to throw out your clothes after.

Cover all parts of your body with clothes (use gloves for your hands, wear long sleeves and pants, wear a mask, use sunglasses to obscure eyes)

Do not talk to anyone who approaches you. There will be plain clothes officers and they will attempt to engage you in conversation, just walk away.

Do not talk to people who approach you and ask questions

[–] sfgifz 63 points 9 months ago

Freeeeeeedoooooommmmmmmmmmm

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[–] [email protected] 102 points 9 months ago (15 children)

Gee, people in the US need to be this cautious when protesting? Where I live it's totally fine to just casually show up at protests, take selfies, talk to people and whatnot.

[–] SupraMario 31 points 9 months ago (3 children)

No...we don't. This I'm assuming is showing someone who's idea of protesting is burning cars and businesses down.

[–] steveman_ha 58 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (5 children)

Sounds like someone doesn't know (or care) what can happen to protestors that are protesting the "wrong things"... Like oil and gas pipelines, for example, or training centers for heightened police militarization. Or foreign policy, even, that one has been happening for generations already.

Lol if only they would protest the right way, they wouldn't have to worry about anything, right?

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[–] [email protected] 40 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Well the police can declare an unlawful assembly at any time for any reason, which tends to stir up even peaceful crowds. Not to mention being face to face with militarized thugs in riot gear, drones, helicopters, armored vehicles, mounted police, tear gas and "non-lethal" rounds. If I had a gas cannister lobbed at me, why wouldn't I toss it right back. Fuck em. ACAB.

You might have no intention of causing trouble, but still get rounded up. Happened almost every day in my city for several months during BLM protests. Mass arrests of people in the wrong place at the wrong time. The countless live streamed videos don't lie, each protest was non-violent until police agitated the crowd.

I don't go looking for trouble but I have my limits just like anyone else.

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[–] Shialac 29 points 9 months ago (1 children)

You should take the same precautions in most european countries too, cops here are known to identify protesters and randomly raid their homes or arrest protesters under false pretense

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 9 months ago

I live in Canada and there is a university professor that had police visit his house because he took some pictures of an oil project that was being protested while he was on a walking trail near the university.

It was an interview on the cbc several years ago. He was a prof at SFU, I assume it was the trans mountain pipeline expansion.

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[–] [email protected] 92 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Gen-X here. Gen-Z answers a question I had as a teen. "What the hell children will the extreme sports, tech-centric, video gaming, gangsta rap, grunge, rage against the machine, angst filled 'slacker' generation raise?"

[–] [email protected] 72 points 9 months ago (1 children)

It's fucking beautiful, right?

[–] [email protected] 55 points 9 months ago

It sure is.

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[–] Duamerthrax 60 points 9 months ago (5 children)

Just saying that a lacrosse stick would work well for launching back teargas grenades and could be used for the protest sign.

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[–] DevastatedBungHole 58 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Cover up all destinguising marks.. Like tattoos

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[–] knolord 46 points 9 months ago (49 children)

sadly, masking yourself when protesting is forbidden here in my country :c

[–] [email protected] 28 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Facepaint? Some designs can confound facial recognition systems

[–] rtxn 26 points 9 months ago (9 children)

But it won't protect against tear gas or rubber bullets.

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 9 months ago (9 children)

I'm not american. Why not bring your phone? Around here as long as you have a legion of people pointing cameras at cops they'll not outright beat you senseless since it'll be impossible to lie about some bullshit justification about how you did something first.

[–] [email protected] 60 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Why not bring your phone?

Your SIM/IMEI are tied to your ID. The police can visit you at home later. Details depend on the country.

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[–] ysjet 41 points 9 months ago

Because they can use the phone company records to say "We think you were here when this "violent riot" happened (actually just a protest that police started shooting at protestors because they know they'll get away with it), you're arrested". And cops don't care if you're recording, they'll either break your phone or shoot you anyway and then claim it was self defense.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 9 months ago (5 children)

One, it'll get smashed anyway. Two, if you manage to get away, they'll work with your provider or location based apps to prove you were there and arrest you. Or, force you to unlock it so they can arrest your contacts. Filming them barely helps, there's so many videos of cops beating the shit out of people with no justification, who have been identified and never faced any repercussions

[–] [email protected] 26 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

Further, cops have learned to just play copyrighted music (say the Frozen soundtrack) when they see they are being recorded, that way if people upload it to the internet, they can rest easy that Disney will hit that video with a copyright strike and the video will be taken down before anyone can see it.

Thankfully for protestors, audio editing exists, and certain AI tools have become very good at stripping certain audio from videos while keeping relevant audio. Leave it to cops to choose a "brute force" solution every time when finesse is all you really need to bypass their brute force.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 9 months ago

cops have learned to just play copyrighted music (say the Frozen soundtrack)

I hope they've secured the proper licenses for a public performance of that music.

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 9 months ago

Phones are easily tracked, and police generally can get that info. As for the beatings, in the US police commonly aren't held responsible even when they've clearly broken the law. Often, they aren't even charged.

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