Authoritarian tactics to suppress protest typically intend to have a chain of effects like this:
- protest will decrease
- those who protest will protect themselves better, legally (in terms of planning and considering how to avoid charges)
- those who protest will protect themselves better, physically (in terms of not being detained and overcoming the police)
- in the second scenario, police will then be able to depict the protests as “violent” and call it an “insurrection”
- consequently, they can press heavier charges against anyone they do manage to detain
- organizing a protest becomes dangerous
- participating in a protest will be perceived as dangerous
- people with families and a job and elderly people will fear to participate
- protest will lose effect due to few participants
- that will prompt some individuals to anonymous protest and actual sabotage
- nobody should want that, yet that’s where the path leads to
The solutions?
- fixing the problematic laws via political process, adding a freedom-of-protest agenda to other goals
- disputing the problematic laws where the legal system allows (appealing to constitutions, conventions and charters)
- bypassing the laws after analysis, protesting in ways that cannot be criminalized
- in rare cases where it’s worthwhile and there is exceptional mass support, just ignoring the laws, because if there’s a million people blocking streets for some reason, cops are powerless
All of that won’t be doable in every country, and in some countries, something else might be doable instead.