There was a worldwide fallout from the American's setting up 'Free Speech Zones' that all our supposedly free countries tried to imitate to squash dissent.

Even with constant stories in the media about how angry the corporate serf population was with blocking traffic in the morning for Critical Mass rides 'Why can't they do this on Sunday afternoon when nobody is around?' they were unable to set up these freedom crushing zones as the supreme courts ruled them unconstitutional, so instead they passed laws creating emergency national security buffers around consulates and government buildings, and in various high end retailer and business district areas that were designated emergency response routes, and a freedom killing law banning face masks during protests. Islamic protesters were solely blamed in the media for this new law, even though none of those protests were violent, and none of them were even protesting the government they were going after foreign consulates. The real threat of protesters with masks was anti austerity protests that turned into riots. They all started wearing masks when peaceful protesters attending anti austerity marches had their faces plastered all over the media while some pundit ran a slash piece about "lazy protesters". Some of them were fired from their jobs once their face was in the media, of course not because of protesting but for some other minor reason so the company wouldn't be sued. Some were also targeted by extremist right wing groups and had their houses lit up by molotovs.

When they did this every propaganda pundit was on the media arguing 'Why do you have to hide your face if you aren't a criminal?' and the serfs let it be passed with standing ovation because of Islamic boogeymen and the handful of anarchists that rioted. National security was a concern, the freedom zones and identity concealment had to be enforced.

This lasted for a few years until even the corporate serfs with total apathy towards anything the government was doing to squash dissent started being arrested or denied entry while attending major events like the Olympics or G8 zones wearing hats, scarfs, or even sunglasses as they were declared 'identity hiding'. So many people defied the national security zones the police were unable to arrest them all then finally the party who brought in the law was tossed from office, the police chiefs quietly resigned with full pension for squashing human rights, and the identity law and security zones were repealed by the supreme court.

Now they are back to promoting these free speech zones and identity hiding laws again, claiming they are necessary to prevent two opposing political rallies from meeting each other on the street and starting a riot and to prevent vandals. They also want all protests to submit their entire strategy/plan of action to the police for approval first (yes, police approval) and of course the new police chief swears up and down he has no cares at all about crushing dissent he only wants an orderly population to prevent costly overtime and traffic problems. Nothing to worry about. They already swooped in and arrested the leaders of a Critical Mass ride who submitted fake protest routes to the police but they successfully sued for false arrest, so now they want a permanent law.

The same media pundit hacks are back on the air ranting at the lazy and entitled population for protesting and causing their commutes to be delayed. The exact same disinfo mocking identity concealment is being played out like these laws didn't already all go to hell a few years ago.

If at first you don't succeed, keep trying to squash dissent because the media has limited memory and of course isn't talking at all about the first time they tried to do this and failed.