Unabomber Chic and the Low Rent Domestic Terrorist

Unabomber then and now

Remember the Unabomber? That weird, reclusive domestic terrorist guy holed up in his cabin with nothing but a copy of Al Gore's "Earth in the Balance" and a box of crazy flakes, as he plotted which of his fellow citizens he had to kill in order to save Mother Gaia.  While he was out saving the environment through better bombing, he wore a mask. Even though he was nuttier than squirrel poop about the environment, he didn't want to get caught!

I noticed a certain fashion sense that Ted Kaczynski shared with many of the people we find in our streets today, on the avant-garde of protests, as opposed to American protesters in years past. When I started writing this, I was just going to highlight the differences between the Civil Rights marches of the sixties, with marchers in coats and ties, holding America flags (right side up), not wearing masks to hide who they were, and contrast them with the low rent domestic terrorists prowling the streets today.

When Milo Yiannopoulos was denied the opportunity to speak at UC Berkeley, it might have been dismissed as a unique occurrence,  the assaults, the vandalism, setting fires and rioting in the streets, but since then there have been at least three more instances of conservative speakers being denied the opportunity to speak, accompanied by assaults, the vandalism, setting fires and rioting in the streets. Mask clad thugs roam the streets of Charlottesville, St. Louis and Berkeley, spreading violence in their wake, even attacking disabled vets and grandmothers (who must look like Nazis in ways I cannot even comprehend!)  And don't get me started on the masked individuals in the pro-illegal alien/open borders rallies!
An exception to the rule, however, occurred in Berkeley, of all places, when Ben Shapiro spoke recently. The school spent by some accounts $600,000 for additional security: officers from all of the UC system campuses, salaries, transportation, overtime and the erection of concrete barriers...most of which, turned out, were not necessary.

That's not to say there wasn't any violence. At least one young lady, was stabbed in the neck for holding a sign supporting Shapiro. Not that it wasn't inflammatory! There was a peace sign on it, a heart and the word "shalom".

To a murderous Antifa thug this translates loosely to "Stab me, I'm a Nazi".

But there wasn't any widespread rioting, due, in my humble opinion, to two things: one, the officers were authorized to use pepper spray. This meant that there were immediate consequences to any bad actions by the crowd. But secondly, and more importantly IMHO, was that the police required that the protesters remove their masks.

They say that sunlight is the best disinfectant, well that seems to have proven true here. Stripped of their anonymity, and faced with the prospect of being identified and incarcerated for any felonious activity, most of the felonious activity ceased.  Whodathunk it?

I know that a number of municipalities have laws on the books about wearing masks at public demonstrations, although they are not always enforced. My recommendations to limit street violence are twofold:

One, if your city does not have an ordinance on the books regulating/prohibiting the wearing of masks at public demonstrations, write one. There are many cities that have them, Washington D.C. for example, you could copy theirs.
Pineville KY recently passed an ordinance:

The law, which took effect Wednesday, bars anyone over 16 from publicly wearing a hood, mask, false whiskers or other disguise that conceals the wearer’s identity. It has exemptions for Halloween, people in theatrical or circus productions and people who wear masks for work or health reasons.

Washington D.C. has had an anti-mask law on the books since the early 80's:

§ 22–3312.03. Wearing hoods or masks.
(a) No person or persons over 16 years of age, while wearing any mask, hood, or device whereby any portion of the face is hidden, concealed, or covered as to conceal the identity of the wearer, shall:
(1) Enter upon, be, or appear upon any lane, walk, alley, street, road highway, or other public way in the District of Columbia;
(2) Enter upon, be, or appear upon or within the public property of the District of Columbia; or
(3) Hold any manner of meeting or demonstration.

Second, enforce the law. Taking the masks off these cowardly thugs is a variation of the "broken windows" theory of law enforcement. Enforce the seemingly minor laws to see a reduction in major crimes.  Force these cowardly miscreants to show their faces in public or leave.

Oh, and if you have to arrest any of these fine upstanding citizens, photograph them and fingerprint them, so that when they go to some other town to make trouble, police will have a record of their participation. I'm sure we can think of an appropriate "participation trophy" we can give them all!