The United States of Hypocrisy: Authoritarian Edition
DHS says common protest standards are violent tactics while ICE acts like kidnappers
In a chilling internal memo revealed by WIRED this month, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) advised law enforcement to treat ordinary protest behaviors such as wearing a mask, livestreaming events, riding a bike, even carrying a skateboard, as “violent tactics.”
Let that sink in.
Tools of civic participation — masks to protect your health and privacy, cameras to hold power accountable, bikes to move through a crowd — are now equated with criminal intent.
This isn’t about safety anymore. It’s about control.
And the hypocrisy? It couldn’t be clearer. The same government that masks its agents, hides its paperwork, and surveils the public without consent now accuses the people of violence for using the exact same tools.
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The Mask Hypocrisy
In the DHS bulletin, masks were singled out as “evidence” of protestors’ intent to evade accountability and commit violence.
Yet protesters wear masks for obvious, legitimate reasons: to shield themselves from tear gas, to protect their identity from doxxing and harassment, to prevent spreading viruses, or simply because it’s their right. At the height of the COVID‑19 pandemic, just five years ago, masks were mandatory. Even now, many protesters are immunocompromised or care for vulnerable family members.
Meanwhile, federal agents and police routinely wear balaclavas, goggles, and cover their name badges — often while carrying rifles — claiming it’s to protect themselves and their families from retaliation.
“Wearing a mask at a protest is no more criminal than wearing it to the grocery store,” notes the ACLU. “It’s protected by the First Amendment and public health guidelines.”
ACLU attorney Vera Eidelman responded to the DHS memo, calling it “disturbing and dangerous… it chills speech and assembly by treating ordinary protective behavior as evidence of intent to harm.”
We’ll take off our masks when they take off theirs.
The Camera Hypocrisy
The DHS memo warns police that livestreaming and documenting protests is a “violent tactic,” even suggesting it helps protesters coordinate attacks or doxx officers.
This is absurd and unconstitutional. Courts have consistently upheld that filming public officials in public spaces is protected activity. Without cameras, the murder of George Floyd in 2020 might never have come to light. Without livestreams, the world might never have seen federal agents in Portland snatching people off the streets into unmarked vans.
During the George Floyd protests of 2020, under the Trump administration, Australian journalist Amelia Brace and cameraman Tim Myers were assaulted live on TV by U.S. Park Police in Washington, D.C. Brace was struck by a baton and rubber bullets, and Myers was shoved with a riot shield. On the same weekend, CNN’s Omar Jimenez was arrested on air in Minneapolis despite clearly identifying himself and holding press credentials.
Fast‑forward to 2025. During protests in Los Angeles over ICE raids, another Australian reporter, Lauren Tomasi, was intentionally struck in the leg with a rubber bullet while broadcasting live. CNN reporter Jason Carroll was ordered by federal officers to leave a protest site and “not come back”, despite being visibly credentialed.
“When journalists are targeted and cameras suppressed, democracy itself is at risk,” the Committee to Protect Journalists warned after the 2020 attacks. That warning applies even more in 2025.
“This policy treats documentation itself as a threat — which is profoundly un-American,” said Ryan Shapiro, executive director of Property of the People, adding: “If the state fears the truth enough to criminalize filming it, we are in very dangerous territory.”
It’s clear why DHS fears cameras. They document abuses and cut through official spin.
If the government has nothing to hide, why is it so afraid of being filmed?
See our previous reporting on the 2025 incidents here:
The Mobility Hypocrisy
Even bikes and skateboards — mundane objects of transportation and culture — were flagged in the DHS memo as “getaway vehicles” or tools to deliver “incendiary devices.”
In reality, protesters use bikes to get to marches, shield crowds, or form protective lines as bike brigades did during Standing Rock and Black Lives Matter demonstrations.
Meanwhile, police use bikes, horses, ATVs, and even armored vehicles to control and intimidate crowds.
Local advocacy outlet BikinginLA editorialized that DHS’s memo “criminalizes the daily lives of anyone who dares protest — equating a bike lane with an escape route, a skateboard with a bomb. It’s laughable if it weren’t so sinister.”
Apparently, mobility is only allowed when it serves power.
Recently we reported on the use of such vehicles in MacArthur Park:
The Paperwork Hypocrisy
Citizens are told to comply with lawful orders and trust that agents act within the law. Yet agents routinely refuse to identify themselves, hide badges, and decline to show valid warrants.
During ICE raids, masked agents in unmarked SUVs have pulled people off the streets without explanation. In Portland, federal officers grabbed civilians and stuffed them into vans while refusing to say who they were.
When armed, masked men in unmarked vehicles storm a workplace or home and refuse to show paperwork, how are people supposed to know they’re not criminals?
If officers can’t prove they’re acting lawfully, why should the public assume they are?
The Global Hypocrisy and the Norms We Wrote
The U.S. helped write the rules it now breaks.
After World War II, the U.S. helped draft the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR, 1948), which declares: “Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.”
Later, the U.S. signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR, 1966), a binding treaty, which states: “The right of peaceful assembly shall be recognized.”
The U.S. has funded and trained NGOs worldwide to teach activists how to organize, livestream, and document protests, skills that DHS now calls “violent tactics” when Americans use them.
State Department reports condemn China for banning masks in Hong Kong, Russia for arresting journalists, and Iran for suppressing livestreams.
UN Special Rapporteur Clément Voule said, “Freedom of assembly is a cornerstone of democracy. No government can claim to defend democracy abroad while crushing it at home.”
We wrote the norms. We trained the activists. We praised the tactics. And now we criminalize them.
How We Got Here
After 9/11, the government created fusion centers, regional intelligence hubs meant to coordinate federal, state, and local efforts against terrorism.
But over time, these centers turned inward, surveilling citizens instead of foreign threats. Senate investigations have called their intelligence reports “irrelevant” and “often inappropriate,” noting that they target peaceful activists and journalists.
Today, fusion centers churn out bulletins like this one, warning police that cameras, bikes, and masks are signs of violence. This is not about security. It is about pre‑emptively criminalizing protest.
What This Signals
We have crossed a line, from reacting to violence to assuming it. From protecting the public to protecting power from the public. This is not about stopping crime. It’s about chilling dissent before it even happens.
When the government redefines ordinary tools of civic life as weapons and then uses those same tools against us, it’s not preserving democracy. It’s smothering it.
“If the government can call a camera a weapon, a bike a crime, and a mask an act of violence — it’s not protecting the public anymore,” writes the ACLU. “It’s protecting itself from the public.”
We’ll take off our masks when they take off theirs.
Until then, we should call this what it is: the United States of Hypocrisy: Authoritarian Edition.
What You Can Do
Democracy depends on more than indignation. It demands action. Here are three steps you can take today:
Call Congress: Dial the U.S. Capitol switchboard at (202) 224‑3121. Sample script:
"I’m calling to urge [Senator/Representative] to investigate and stop DHS and local law enforcement from criminalizing masks, cameras, and other peaceful protest tools. Please defend our right to assemble and document freely."Support watchdogs & grassroots organizations: Groups like the ACLU, Protect the Protest, Committee to Protect Journalists, and Movement for Black Lives are fighting these battles every day.
Show up & document: Attend protests, know your rights, and keep filming. Your presence and your camera protect us all.
If we don’t stand up now, the masks will never come off.
We just hit 17,000 subscribers—thank you!
Get exclusive access for just $1/week or $52 a year.
Get exclusive analysis and fearless reporting you won’t find in corporate media.
Bibliography:
“America’s Mask Bans in the Age of Face Recognition Surveillance.” ACLU, July 17, 2020.
“I Was Beaten by Police at a BLM Protest, an Australian Journalist Tells U.S. Inquiry.” The Guardian, June 30, 2020.
Committee to Protect Journalists. “U.S. Police Target Journalists during Protests across the Country.” CPJ, June 2, 2020.
Human Rights Watch. World Report 2021: United States. HRW, January 2021.
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Adopted by the United Nations General Assembly, December 16, 1966. United Nations Treaty Collection.
“9News Australia Reporter Shot by Rubber Bullet While on Live TV Covering L.A. Protest.” CBS News, July 2025.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Adopted by the United Nations General Assembly, December 10, 1948. United Nations.
“DHS Tells Police That Common Protest Activities Are ‘Violent Tactics.’” WIRED, July 10, 2025.
“Australian Journalist Testifies about Being Struck by Police at Black Lives Matter Protest.” ABC News, June 29, 2020.
“Australian Radio & Cameraman Assaulted by Police During George Floyd Protests.” Australian Associated Press/ABC News, June 2, 2020.
“Homeland Security Labels Bicycling a ‘Violent Tactic’—and Someone Please Buy Malaysia Some Time Trial Bikes.” BikinginLA, July 11, 2025.
 | A guest post by
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The act of filming or photographing is also an act of "witness" in the nonviolent Quaker sense, and obviously must continue to be our right.
Many of the ICE agents were 6 participants