I'm skeptical that the government has learned the wrong lesson. What it should have learned is that rioting needs to be put down — no ifs, ands, or buts. But, apparently, rioting is okay. The state isn't interested in that, so much as it is in setting up a Big Brother infrastructure.

I say this as someone who fully recognizes that a legitimate protest will sometimes attract hotheads. A protest can get out of control. It can turn violent. And then, opportunists may decide to take advantage of the breakdown of law and order and indulge in the impulse to loot. I don't like it, but I recognize this as somewhere within the bounds, or just over the bounds, of normal. What I have a problem with is the following.

When people go home from their riot, have a bite to eat, nap, maybe watch a little TV, and then decide to go out the next night and do it again — and this happens day after day, with the government doing nothing to restore law and order — that is not normal. That's a broken government.

Government's first job is maintaining law and order. That doesn't require pervasive, high tech surveillance. Maintaining law and order in the face of a days-long insurrection is a solved problem.

Our government is broken. This "shadowy surveillance" is not an accident, or an honest mistake.