Who Was that Masked Man?

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Some colleges and universities are restricting the ability of students to wear masks and face coverings during campus protests, but federal law enforcement personnel are under no such mandates.  When ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) shows up at your place of employment, mandatory immigration-related court appointment, doctor's office, school, church, or home, they are often carrying big weapons, dressed in full battle-rattle, and masked.

Law enforcement wants the ability to see the faces of protesters and film them for identification purposes, but they do not want the general public to have the same easy access to their own identities.

The standard line that is used to mask the government agents is that it is for their self-protection - to keep their true identities and personal information - such as telephone numbers and home addresses - from being posted on-line.  The reasoning is that if the public knows who they are and how to find them, the agents and their loved ones would be at risk.

Also, wearing masks helps to stem the risk of pesky lawsuits in the unfortunate event that a member of law enforcement overreacts and, say, chokes a person to death with his knee during a routine arrest.

But there is, of course, more to it than that.   Large men coming at you carrying guns and clad in combat clothing and body armor, are scary, but put masks on them and the scene is even more terrifying.  The mask carries the message that the targeted person is about to be removed and nobody will have any idea of who took him, or to where, or even why.  An already marginalized person is about to be erased.

There is something about wearing a mask that gives a person some sense of increased size, dominance, invincibility, invisibility, and anonymity.   They are superheroes (or in some cases, supervillains) out on the streets restoring order and building a world where their type of people can do well.   Their super power is the strength of the state, and it is cloaked in anonymity, much like that of Superman and Batman.

And if there is one thing that a superheroes do not need, it is to come up against someone they are trained to hate who is strengthened by their own cloak of righteousness and anonymity.  Level playing fields are for losers.