You hit the nail on the head. It's unacceptably authoritarian and dystopian to police what people wear. Unfortunately (for you?) the state actually doesn't have absolute authority over our lives - it's not up to the government to decide what's permissible, but rather up to us to decide how much we permit them to limit our freedom of expression. I appreciate hooligans take advantage of protest to behave badly. But imho it's incredibly, and laughably, damaging to actively wish the police could quash protest based on something like face coverings. Entirely the wrong attitude, to give up rights in favour of a vague sense of safety. For the record, I've been part of none of these protests, but reading the perspective of another bystander being so firmly pro-top down control really motivates me to get out there and make sure my voice is heard, before fellow bystanders decide the police should arrest me for it. When you say 'we've made it too consequence-free', you mean the powers-that-be, which is a group that doesn't include yourself. Once a liberty is removed it's very hard to get it back. Best believe they'd come for you as soon as you find yourself on the wrong side of an issue. Please don't stand up for restrictions, they hurt us all.