Should protesters be allowed to cover their faces?

Not to do with masks but to do with police powers. Did you know that the police can enter a home and destroy a protest poster in the window during the Olympic Games?

Annobel...who protected the miners from these imported, unnumbered police.

In the past I have demonstrated with my face exposed but now it would depend on the issue.

Special Branch always kept records of protesters but they had to expose themselves.....I was once on a picket line where the real news reporters pointed out a couple of men with cameras who where not reporters. Now with the advent of cctv, email tracking etc they can monitor any of us and arrest us under the draconion terrorist laws. Recently a lady in Bridlington was arrested under the terrorist laws because, in a conversation on facebook about the fact that no person from Bridlington actually carried the torch in that town, she jokingly suggested that she would take a water pistol and squirt it at the flame.

Times have changed. We may not be an open police state yet but the system is in place should the government decide we should be.

Re the wearing of sunglasses, I just ask people to remove them when talking to them - friends aside of course. I just think it's rude to talk to people you don't know wearing them - especially the mirrored ones.

I find even people wearing dark sunglasses are intimidating to try to talk to. You can't read their expressions.

What about women wearing burquas that show only their eyes?
Perhaps protesters who cover their faces fear that they will be subjected to harassment - i.e being stopped frequently when driving.
The saying 'If you are doing nothing wrong you have nothing to fear' brings a hollow laugh to all those people who have been wrongly convincted of various crimes.

The face covering by protesters seems to have come about since the widespread use of CCTV cameras. Makes me wonder how many are genuine protesters and how many are rentamob.

I don't remember the women at Greenham Common covering their faces. They were proud to 'Stand up and be Counted'.

I am of the opinion that if you cover your face you mean me harm. Historically the hangman/executioner would cover his face, highwaymen and the like covered their faces etc. I feel uncomfortable in the presence of anyone covering their face - you cannot "read" their intent.

However, if only people wearing masks in the street are being arrested, there appears to be some discrimination otherwise everyone covering their face would be arrested.

The Anti-terrorism laws have been used in totally inappropriate situations. I don't think that because things are worse in other countries we should relax our vigilance about oppressive practices - why should the police be taking photographs of people exercising their legal right to protest? Why should they be able to stop people photographing them, unless they are exceeding their powers?
I hope the revelations about the Met's connections to Murdoch et al have given people food for thought.
I am cynical because 40 years ago my brother-in-law got weekly visits to his scrap yard from the local CID. He paid them a regular sum to stop them 'turning over' his yard - he swore he did not buy stolen metals (well, he would, wouldn't he?) but said the disruption to business, and the threat of being 'set up' was so great it was easier to pay up.

It might be praiseworthy to stand up and be counted, but there is no law that says you may not wear a mask.

If you really lived in a police state (Apartheid South Africa, Pinochet's Chile, for example), you wouldn't put Britain in the same sentence. I think it's true that police imported into Yorkshire during the miners' strike used to take off their numbers to protect them and their families.

I think it's still a long way from a police state, but I do think some of the police, most noticeably the Met, have got far too big for their boots. People have also been detained and had photographs deleted for taking photographs in a public place or for taking photographs of the police themselves. We've also had people refused entry to or ejected from places because of a slogan (not obscene or racist) on their tee shirts.

Well, I say, if you've got something to say, say it. And put your identity right up there with it!