A clampdown on masked English protesters has arrived with remarkable speed, while identical scenes involving other groups were ignored for years.
The shift says more about politics than public order, and it is stirring old memories of how the British state reacts when certain faces are behind the balaclavas.
England is in another row over protests, this time about men in black turning up at anti-immigration marches in Dover and Portsmouth.
The Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, says these men are uniquely threatening and disruptive. She claims their clothing and face coverings send out “malign intent” and justify new restrictions.
Anyone who has watched London’s streets over the last few years will struggle to believe her.
Masked men in black have been a regular sight at pro-Palestine marches. In places like Tower Hamlets, groups in balaclavas and black fatigues walked openly through the streets. They blocked traffic. They marched in formation. They covered their faces.
Yet nobody in government raised an eyebrow. The police barely turned up. Newspapers treated it as part of the scenery.
Now the same clothing is suddenly a national emergency because the men wearing it object to mass immigration.
Mahmood insists the Dover scenes were “different.” They weren’t. The only difference was who was under the masks.
When the marchers were Muslim, the state looked away. When the marchers were English, the state reached for new powers.
England has a long history of reacting to identities rather than actions. During the Troubles, the sight of masked men in black was associated with paramilitary groups like the IRA, whose violence left deep scars. Back then, the uniform itself was treated as a warning.
Today, the same look is tolerated from some protest groups and condemned when worn by others. The inconsistency is hard to miss.
The government now wants police to crack down on anti-immigration protests this weekend. Officers are being told to treat balaclavas and black clothing as signs of threat.
Yet these same items caused no alarm when worn by pro-Palestine demonstrators.
People notice this kind of thing. They notice when rules are applied to one group and not another. They notice when ministers discover a “fear factor” only when certain voices are raised.
If the state continues to police protests based on who is protesting rather than what they are doing, it will create the very confrontation it claims to be avoiding.
England’s problem is not masks. It is credibility. And once that goes, public order goes with it.