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January 10

Military and police face covers

I've noticed that many soldiers and police officers across various countries (from Ecuador to Azerbaijan and Russia) now often cover their lower face parts, also on some propaganda posters from social media as well. To me this looks like a relatively recent trend (wasn't that frequent say 10 or 20 years ago). Is it a known noted thing? Brandmeister^talk 22:59, 10 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The gunmen who stormed a TV studio in Ecuador during a live broadcast were committing a criminal act for which they, if identified, could expect to be prosecuted.^[1] The fear of retaliation after having been identified has also become a factor for members of regular personnel participating in violent enforcement operations. Before everyone was going around carrying a camera cum video recorder the risk was minimal, so no precautions were needed. --Lambiam 09:31, 11 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

That was my guess exactly. Somewhat amusing how this fear started to transcend many countries. Brandmeister^talk 10:21, 11 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Not sure how that's amusing. The fear of retaliation by someone using a facial recognition system to take a screen grab from a news report and find you on Facebook or Instagram seems easily doable. 20 years ago - not so much. 41.23.55.195 (talk) 14:16, 11 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Well, if police starts to hide faces fearing own citizens during ordinary protests or routine patrols that's amusingly odd and rings some bells for the government IMO. But face covering when confronting armed criminals instead is perfectly understandable. Brandmeister^talk 17:04, 11 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It has become common that first responders reporting to an incident are attacked.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} Amusing? --Lambiam 17:26, 11 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

IANAL but, in Spain, riot police cover their faces. To provide some degree of accountability, they carry an alphanumeric identifier on their riot vests. Hopefully, in case of misconduct, they can be identified and investigated. es:Ley Orgánica de protección de la seguridad ciudadana (2015) forbid taking pictures of police officers (riot or not) on duty, but, according to the article, the Spanish Constitutional Court toned it down. --Error (talk) 09:57, 12 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

In some countries, there need be no identification at all: Unidentified Federal Police Prompt Fears Amid Protests in Washington. Alansplodge (talk) 12:23, 12 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

A more accurate headline for that article would have been, "Unidentifiable Federal Police Prompt Fears Amid Protests in Washington". --Lambiam 10:15, 13 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]