Horrified.
Ripping off people's masks, gang attacking people for wearing masks, hitting people wearing masks in the head with marbles, citizen's arresting people for wearing masks. These are all quotes from a thread on this site.
I've been involved in some heated and personal debates on this subject, but this is vile.
So if I'm a single parent on welfare and I don't want my welfare worker to see me at a protest and cut me off for not looking for work that day -but I want to go to the protest so I wear a mask, I'm at risk of getting tackled by a gang of ‘pacifist thugs' and turned over to the police?
If I'm an immigrant worker an I don't want the immigration officer reviewing my case to see me on the news and put a permanent mark on my and all my relatives records, but I want to go to the protest so I wear a mask, I'm at risk of being attacked, having the mask ripped off my face and forcefully paraded in front of every camera around before being handed over to the police.
If I'm a union member and my union didn't sanction this protest or picket, but I wanted to go support anyway, so I wear a mask, I'm at risk of being attacked by my own union brothers and sisters?
So I'm at a protest and I don't wear a mask because I'm terrified of being attacked by peace police, then I get on the nightly news and my boss sees it and the next week I'm fired.
There are lots of reasons to wear masks. This violent anti-mask attitude puts people at risk of serious consequences of political dissent -in addition to actually assaulting people for what amounts to a piece clothing.