Protest Masks

Minor reason - I'm a bicyclist, and they're protesting the lack of pro-bicycle conditions in major cities. As a planet we're facing toxic strangulation and environmental depletion... and all governments, at all levels, should work harder at realizing that they need to do something to help stop the tick of the unwelcomed doom.

Major reason - I believe in the First Amendment, and that people should be granted a voice, or even a shout when they need it. The 10,000+ people who make up any particular Critical Masses are not doing so to gain pleasure from annoying people stuck in traffic (although there's probably some assholes who join Critical Mass just for that benefit). They're doing it because they actually feel there's something worth protesting - better safety, a better environment, a better world.

This goes for most peaceful, albeit annoying, protests.

Sadly, I think that these protests are going to start disappearing within the next decade.

The only thing that stops the police from arresting all the traffic violators (and other misdemeanor scale civil disobedience) is the lack of power. Were they able to teleport all the participants of Critical Mass into jail, you'd bet that's what they'd do... and then those same protestors would be cooling their heels, awaiting the slow processing of 10,000 traffic tickets.

In the next 10 years, though, we'll be seeing computerized recognition brought to whole new levels -- and I'm not just talking about the hundred-fold level of processing power that Moore's law will give us. I'm talking about all sorts of new digital image processing advances, such as downloading the search parameters and processing to the individual cameras.

Any large protest that happens in public will be under surveillance, and all those present will have their presence verified. Even if the cameras aren't the advanced ones (that work best when trying to spot one face out of a thousand), the picture will keep. And just as people are now getting photo's of their cars running intersections and getting tickets in the mail; in the future protestors will be getting a blow-up of their face in a crowd, along with a ticket for whatever infraction they were breaking (from jay-walking in Critial Mass, to rioting and destruction of public property in various WTO protests). Remember, if you wanted to get a driver's license or passport then your picture is already in the system.

Sure, you could always wear a mask to a demonstration, but heck, that in itself it probably going to get you grabbed by the first police officer that sees you, even before he starts taking pictures of all your unmasked allies: