Masked men intimidating women.

[porridgecake]

I was just looking up the rights of police to enforce the removal of face coverings at marches and protests.

A feature of the "Let Women Speak" gatherings has always been the screaming, baying mob of masked men (and women) drowning out the women.
I hadn't realised that the police have the power to enforce removal of masks and other equipment used to conceal identity.

Why don't they do it?

If I was feeling generous I'd say lack of police resources and time. Officers would have to go up to each individual and tell them to remove their face coverings and arrest each and everyone who refuses, then transport them to a police station and process and bail them all. We know the type of men who come to womens talks/rallies/protests with their faces covered and we know that they will refuse to remove them and will kick off requiring extra police officers.

In reality its to much like hard work and the women brought it on ourselves by not being kind and having opinions

I think they would probably only have to do it once or twice tbh. Essentially they are cowardly thugs and might think twice if they thought they were going to be identified.

Mask wearing used to be confined to the anarchical, anti fascists, then when american ANTIFA got hold of the idea then they employed it all of the time, and as a consequence so now do British 'progressive' protestors - as a routine.

To be fair, so do fascist and racist mobs. See Belfast for instance.

What grounds do you think the police have to force people to remove face coverings? People making a noise wouldnt be grounds surely.

A mask seems to be a must have accessory for protesters nowadays, and I agree it's more copycatting of the USA.

There's always been a small element in every protest who have decided to get up to no good and have wore masks because of it, it just seems that element has grown from small to everyone. I think there maybe a 'beat the facial recognition software' element to it and Covid normalised mask wearing.

As for the police dealing with it, it's not practical to expect them to order everyone to unmask at the large protests, but I see no reason they can't do it for the flash mob protesters who disrupt LWS events and on Uni campuses.

I suppose threats and abuse, holding up signs threatening decapitation of women should count. I don't know. It hasn't counted so far I know.

Pretty sure they used to before Covid when they demanded everyone hide their faces for the best part of two years. The legislation has been around for a while afaik.

This is from a quick google searching existing legislation:

"Concealing identity at a protest
Current legislation gives police the power to direct people to remove face coverings in designated areas and to seize face coverings where they reasonably believe people are wearing these wholly or mainly for the purpose of concealing their identity. Individuals may therefore follow the direction of an officer to remove their face covering but then move to a new area and put the face covering back on. In some circumstances, using a face covering to conceal identity may be used for the purpose of avoiding conviction for criminal activity in a designated area".

I agree, the covid/mask wearing policy muddied the waters. I never agreed that mask wearing outdoors was appropriate. In enclosed spaces - hospitals, surgeries, crowded buildings, fair enough.

Incel Ninjas. Probably the closet they'll ever get to a woman. Sad wee scones.

Why do you assume the protestors in Belfast were fascist and racist? A local man had his eyes gouged out and an attempt was made to cut his head off. For my sins I accidentality saw this incident (details not blanked out - too quick to stop so that for an instant I saw it) and his face was covered in blood, whilst his alleged assailant sat astride him with a knife. Someone mercifully took a hurling stick to the alleged assailant apparently. If that happened on a street near you then getting up a violent demo might well happen. That the mob attacked local immigrants is wicked and wrong and I don't condone it and those who attacked must face justice. But how did we allow the attack to happen in the first place?

The "local man" was not in the parts of Belfast that were rioting. Previously a "local man" from the part of Belfast that WAS rioting had participated in an extremely violent attack on the same victim. Arguably just as barbaric as the stabbing You can look it up but basically the poor guy was vulnerable and had many traumas in his life. Of course the first attack doesn't make the second any less horrid but it tells me:
a) That extreme violence isn't an "alien culture" foisted on the poor simple Ulster folk. There are many good people in Belfast but violence isn't an unheard of phenomenon
b) the UDF/UVF didn't feel the need to riot in the streets when one of their own drug dealers community members did something horrific to the same guy. I doubt they cared that deeply for him.

The masked men in Belfast burning people out of their homes were from the far right. I recommend this podcast (which is unequivocable in saying that these thugs were men).

Newscast - Who’s Causing The Violence In Belfast? - BBC Sounds