Police in Germany shut down protest against coronavirus restrictions
Source: LA Times
Berlin police ordered a protest by people opposed to Germany’s pandemic restrictions to disband Saturday after participants refused to observe social distancing rules.
Tens of thousands of people had gathered at the German capital’s iconic Brandenburg Gate in the morning before streaming down the Unter den Linden boulevard in a show of defiance against Germany’s coronavirus prevention measures.
Protesters with a wide range of grievances carried banners proclaiming their opposition to vaccinations, face masks and the German government in general. Some waved American, Russian or German Reich flags, while others had T-shirts promoting the QAnon conspiracy theory. Several wore clothing with white nationalist slogans and neo-Nazi insignia, but most participants interviewed denied having far-right views.
Uwe Bachmann, 57, said he had come from southwestern Germany to protest for free speech and his right not to wear a mask.
Read more: https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-08-29/berlin-police-shut-down-protest-against-virus-restrictions
= new reply since forum marked as read
Somehow, somewhere in these people's brains - including the many here who they are apparently emulating and celebrating - they are associating a "mask" as a government-mandated article of "clothing", like a hat or shoes. It's NOT "clothing". IMHO, it is basically "medical equipment". 
It could be that as helpful as they have been, the DIY "masks", which were (and continue to be) made and sold/distributed during periods of shortages of regular medical-grade/safety-related masks, have often been designed to be "decorative", as well as functional, and thus appear to be an article of clothing (vs what their purpose was supposed to represent).
Impressionable idiots exist in every country.
