We're in a weird spot.
you see ICE pepper spraying or fighting someone and it's easy to think back to Kansas State, jackboot thugs coming in to illegally break up a purely constitutional 1a protest with right to speak and assemble and protest the govt.
but how does that really translate to groups of paramilitary militias that are all on secret signal chats with hundreds of members constantly scouting the entire city to track the whereabouts of federal agents just trying to serve warrants, then track them down, get in their way and alert criminals so they can run, and interfere in any way they can?
i honestly dont know if that is a pure 1a form of protest. its too new to really judge. and im not talking about interference, thats clearly not 1a, and is illegal. but just technology aided mass coordination of tracking and following federal agents? we know filming cops is legal, and we know cop chasing is legal because there's a decade of youtube channel cop watchers caselaw to back that, but does it translate to scale? im honestly not sure, and i wouldnt be surprised if there's state level laws coming to try and stop it that get challenged to scotus eventually. just another great thing social media has brought us i guess....
The government utilizes the same strategy though in contrast to existing law in regards to mass surveillance/data-collection, at least the Feds per Snowdens revelations over a decade back. More legal tools have been things like Thomson Reuters CLEAR which smaller agencies use and tools of the like.
I agree it's a problem, same with judicial moving at archaic speed because 5a blah blah while video evidence instantaneous. Outside of nuance cases or very contextual cases, this opens a lot of latitude for unrest until judicial finishes
Another angle is anonymous data vs PID, but that's another beast of a topic.
This post was edited by RedFromWinter on Jan 28 2026 08:25am