President Donald Trump has threatened to send in the military to quell growing civil unrest in the US over the death of a black man in police custody. The death of George Floyd, which has led to a break out of massive protests, has also been confirmed as homicide and the officer in charge has been charged with 3rd-degree murder or manslaughter.
The eventual trial, however, seems to have been forgotten in the aftermath of the protests which have seen at least 6 people of colour killed in unprecedented levels of police brutality. This also pales in comparison to a threatened “guilty” president sending in the National Guard as well as calling for an immediate end to any and all protests. Notable artists, African-American and otherwise have come out in support of the movement as popular support continues to grow.
The most notable and surprising reemergence has that been of “Anonymous”, The hacker collective was once a regular fixture in the news, targeting those it accused of injustice with cyber-attacks. After what seems like years of quiet, they’ve reemerged swearing to lay out all the injustices meted out by police departments and high-level government officials.
Who are Anonymous and what have they done?
The "hacktivist" collective has no face and no leadership. Its tagline is simply "we are legion", referring to its allegedly large numbers of individuals. Without any central command structure, anyone can claim to be a part of the group. This also means that members can have wildly different priorities, and there is no single agenda.
But generally, they are activists, taking aim at those they accuse of misusing power. They do so in very public ways, such as hijacking websites or forcing them offline. Their symbol is a Guy Fawkes mask, made famous by Alan Moore's graphic novel V for Vendetta, in which an anarchist revolutionary dons the mask to topple a corrupt fascist government, which has gained them a number of parallels with many claiming the current administration is an equivalently corrupt and neo-fascist government.
Their first major operation was against the Church of Scientology way back in 2008 and they’ve engaged in several anti-establishment movements before with this possibly being the greatest singular movement the “hacktivist” group has ever been part of it. The release of some incriminating documents pertaining to Trump and the popular conspiracy of Epstein has just added fuel to the fire and Donald Trump has become the first president to be taken to the White House bunker without an ongoing external conflict in the wake of protests right outside the White House.
Protestors being tear-gassed to make way for Trump’s visit to the Church and his subsequent address have only fanned the flames as the United States seems to ignore the still-present threat of COVID-19 as protests continue to grow in magnitude. The pre-corona status-quo might never be seen ever again in America with anarchy building in the streets and law enforcement unable to curtail it and in most cases being directly responsible for the same.
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