But where to go, this is the bestial grin of capitalism.

When hiding behind a mask, immoral behavior has less of a threshold. When someone with a violence monopoly (the state or the police) is masked, you can expect the worst possible things to happen.

I support your appeal to unmask all agressors.

Too much sad news from Span these days :(

The situation in Spain right now is a good example of how quickly a so-called democracy can turn into a police state. If one of the American states were to try and secede from the union, these type of strong-arm tactics by the police will be on full display.

Unfortunately, it just seems to be increasing... Here in the states, the present leadership has given the okay for the police to arm themselves with military type gear -- like they don't have enough already...

what's the show that's a lot of people

Luke,

 The images from Catalonia today only reinforce the idea that this is the true face of government.  It cannot be reasoned with.  It cannot be bargained with.  

If they have power they will exercise it and the law will be used to justify the most egregious behavior.

Thanks for the post... I just put mine up, you might find them of interest:

https://steemit.com/politics/@goldgoatsnguns/the-true-face-of-the-eu-emerges-in-catalonia

Upvoted. This shit is unfortunately very possible in every western country. I know it's strange to see this in Spain in 2017, but if it happens in Spain, it can very well happen in Italy, Germany, England or Sweden. 

I mean, violence IS the last resort for governments. They WILL use it. They are in power because they want to be in power. People with lust for power. It's as simple as that. Authoritarian people are the sort of people who seeks power in government jobs, on almost every level. Sure there are some good people too, but a lot of the time there are pretty bad people. 

And when that power is threatened on the highest level, like in Spain today..it means violence. Governments can make you paranoid, they can use threat and the can use violence. And they justify it, because we have allowed them to have the exclusive right to use violence. 

I'm also concerned about robocops and even robot lawyers etc. Some robot who you cannot reason with. No slack, no second opinion. That's why governments are scary. I don't think the concept of governments is compatible with the future that we want. We want technology, but we should have freedom, not authoritarianism. 

I just wish all anarchists and freedomlovers would unite. That we could rally around the concept of voluntarism. That every man should be allowed to chose what sort of society he wants. And that no one can force him to join any society. 

I know thats a lot to hope for..but as long as they keep us fighting each other, I don't think we can win.

This was an orchestrated act of desperation.

Spain has already lost the fight for Catalan.

For the people will not forget...

Nor shall they forgive...

<hr>

As for masks... such is a moot point... The real villains call the shots - and they have faces and names.

Now the way has been paved for the legitimate armament of Catalonians to ensure that this cannot ever happen again - for they who try shall need more than masks to protect them.

I don't know why people just can't get along and live there lives in peace, to much anger in the world

This violence was to stop an "illegal" election.  This will not stop in Spain.

Ultimately it's an act of cowardice. If you are going to try and hurt someone then you should meet them face to face.

Some versions of NAP allow for violence against violence.  Given the surveillance state we live in, it seems like innocents should have masks and government people should be unmasked.

Additionally, it also seems that video of government peoples keeps being masked, unless of course it meets their needs.

Thoughts?

Collectivist thinking leads people to support something "bigger then themselves"; so those who participate in such violence have no trouble with masking their identities. After all they have mistakenly decided to seize their individual sovereignty for their cause.

governments are insane.

Images are from Europe very similar to those of Venezuela that so much criticizes the Prime Minister Rajoy

I do not defend the Venezuelan regime, but I condemn it for its human rights violations, but I see that something similar happens in Europe

The state simply reasons only with the strength of its police

Totally agree. Great post Luke!

Scary fucking people. 
That is for sure!

That was a terrible day! They beat mothers in front of infants people who only wanted to vote. A girl they sexually molested in a voting center and broke her finger one after one making people watch and scream.

For them, the voters are the enemy. It's like the franco era.

Just go there, totally unexpected, with civilized people waiting in line to vote..  And then start beating them like crazy sending 750+ people to the hospital.

That's pure barbarism.

I couldn't watch the videos I've seen being shared today of those people getting attacked for trying to vote. They weren't a threat or hurting anyone, so why do the police think they can beat the shit out of people? Makes me feel ill. I was listening to a podcast by @geechidan that had some interesting points, like police are often ex soldiers so they are in that trained to kill mode anyway. It makes sense when you see these animals beating people often to death.  Makes me mad as hell.

Humanity is being forgotten it's sad to see where the world is going . Instead of helping others we tend to go against one another instead

@lukestokes  - **I am in no way supporting autocratic and violent measures against peaceful protesters.  However,  I think I do understand the need for uniforms and facelessness  of the foot soldiers of governments.   I have seen too many situations during my travels in the world where the so called 'peaceful' protest turn into a violent mob in a murderous frenzy.   The forces to be equipped to deal with such eventualities is but natural.  What matters is how and when the 'use force' directive is effected by those in power.  I do not blame the foot soldiers!.     
Also -  for a single law enforcement man,  identifiable by the dark forces he fights against,  the strength required for taking actions can only come from some comfort that his authority is symbolized by his uniform  (signifying some 'support' by the government for those actions) and some mental comfort that brothers-in-arms who wear the same uniform, support him.  The anonymity afforded by face masks is not desired by the foot soldiers necessarily but brings solace to them that their actions, taken in the line of duty - will NOT end up in being a nightmare for their families -  Cases of negative elements seeking revenge on identified cops and law enforcers are too frequently seen around the world...**
So, I guess what I am trying to say is that in such law enforcement situations,  it is not shame or guilt that prompts the face masks and armor but in the case of the anti-social elements,  the face masks are totally due to those reasons which you have stated.  We perhaps can not weigh these two circumstances in the same balance.    

Again - I totally agree with you that balance is the key and violence against peaceful protesters is utterly deplorable.  Especially so in this particular instance mentioned in your post where innocent mothers with infants, waiting peacefully to vote were beaten up!!    I condemn such actions!      However,  the factors driving the need/desire for anonymity could be different in different circumstances,  depending on whether that is necessary in the line of duty or prompted by cowardice and guilt of actions.  

Thanks for speaking up about this aspect.   It does mandate debate.   Upvoted full.

Regards,
![](https://steemitimages.com/DQmaJ2HfMDXuvpZTno49rP8v8wu4YfC82iWMULLUjZJKv3b/image.png)
@vm2904

Violence is everywhere.. don't know why people don't understand that nothing is there in violence... How they react in and how they just get involved in that.. I have seen that in India where that ram rahim case happened... People were burning cities insanely at that time and what they got? nothing!! but also got arrested and did lots of loss of government things and people's earned cars and buildings.. what they earned by their hard work of years and those stupid people just burned them in few seconds. That is violence.. and people were afraid  to speak about a single word against them.. that is violence.. and that violence gives birth to terrorism... Government try their best many times to stop them but when they are not trying themselves to get over it, it can never m be stopped.. they believe those fake saints who inspire people to follow them but in reality they are just making their own army of stupid followers... That is violence.

Hey brotha man. Hope you are well. Did I fall out of grace from the auto upvote? :D

You're so right... communities (markets) could mitigate a lot of this violence if these faces were visible. Markets give a person the ability to buy and sell and to gain the esteem of his or her community. Seeing the faces committing violence would empower their communities (markets) to mitigate that violence simply by providing a disincentive regarding the perpetrator's ability to function normally within said community/market.

The bad thing for me is, robots in such riots could be soon reality. But soon is relative.. We have such a pace of development in fields which are supporting each other like
- AI
- robots
- quantum computing
- autonomous driving
- deep learning
- nuclear fusion
- blockchain
- nanotechnology
- mobile computing

Everything gets more intelligent, faster, much cheaper in large scale. It is said we live in times of exponential growth and nearing us the singularity which no one can describe exactly. But the development is so fast that we speak today of probabilities of the usage of robots in such scenarios and months later maybe in Japan or China that is just reality.

A robot could be
- more reliable not driven by emotions
- stronger to reduce the number of units for controlling a riot
- much cheaper need no salary, just initial investment and some maintenance
- intelligent with swarm intelligence supported by air and ground units

..and the controlling people behind disconnect their emotions after pushing the red button.. because the robots did.. and the robots need no cure of souls after harmed or killed people. 

What holds people back today i think is the high price for such machines and that the technology is still far away to act independendly. For me it's more a question of time not if that happens. It could be 50 or 10 years, or just 5.. but i think for the dystopia it needs much time and i hope that we as mankind are conscious of each step in such directions and to avoid a world completely controlled by machines as i wrote in a [post about robots and ai](https://steemit.com/technology/@onetin84/why-we-fear-robots-and-ai) long time ago.