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FROM VOLUME IV
When I view the landscape of protesting and rioting in America, I see a clear and escalating arms race between the tactics of dissent and the technologies of state surveillance.
On one side, I see protest movements that have grown significantly more tech-savvy since the unrest of 2020. The primary tool for coordination is now end-to-end encrypted messaging. Apps like Signal are standard issue, used to organize logistics, share intelligence on police movements, and disseminate legal aid information. This is a fundamental step up from the open forums of the past.
We've also seen the normalization of commercial drones as a protest tool. Activists are using cheap, off-the-shelf drones to get a real-time aerial view of their environment. It's a simple but effective tactic for tracking police formations, finding escape routes, and documenting instances of excessive force from an undeniable vantage point.
On the other side of this equation is the state, which has responded to the last decade of unrest with a massive investment in a pervasive surveillance apparatus.
On the ground, we have the Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) networks in nearly every metropolitan area. These systems create a searchable, time-stamped log of a vehicle's movements, and by extension, those of its owner. This data is often fed into fusion centers where powerful analytical software, like that famously developed by Palantir, can connect it with an individual's social media posts, property records, and other digital footprints.
In the air, we have an array of FBI and DEA-operated Cessna aircraft. These planes, equipped with high-resolution video and signals intelligence gear, can circle for hours over protest sites, providing a persistent, high-powered surveillance platform.
In the RF spectrum, court records have confirmed the widespread use of IMSI-catchers, or “Stingrays,” by both federal and local law enforcement. By mimicking a cell tower, these devices can force every phone in a given area to connect, logging its unique identifier without the user ever knowing.
This is the real-world state of play. A contest between encrypted apps and data fusion centers, between consumer drones and government spy planes, between protestors trying to guard their anonymity and a state determined to eliminate it.
The current tactics of dissent are primarily defensive. In my opinion, a purely defensive posture is always a losing strategy in the long run.
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