Courageous hackers march outside the very courthouse that sent them to prison

In 2023, two hackers joined forces after over a decade of federal imprisonment on hacking charges. They met in their 20s while in jail, awaiting the outcome of their respective criminal cases. But now they were much older. They hatched an unthinkable plan: to march outside the very courthouse that had sent them to prison.

Those hackers were Crazy_C and GhostExodus – yours truly.

While we did not establish the Million Mask March movement by any means, together, we founded the Dallas branch. Froz3n-N-Ti.. 3 (aka Frozen N Time), and Master Hacker designed the masks, flyers, stickers – you name it. I obtained clearance from the City of Dallas to occupy the streets, so nobody could remove us from the site, in spite of the message we aimed to deliver.

Getting permission gave us a unique tactical advantage. It ensured we would be protected from retaliation, and not even the police could hassle us, least of all arrest us. We could leverage any person trying to remove us with our printed notice of authorization. No one would be able to destroy the message we came to deliver with accusations of committing civil disobedience.

There is a time and place for civil disobedience, but never at the expense of an important message the public needs to hear. That way, we can overcome propagandists' slander.

Armed with everything we needed to attract others across the internet and physical space, we armed ourselves with megaphones and went to work. For us, this courthouse stood as a reminder of the crimes being committed therein, which have been largely overlooked. But it also reminded us of how it changed our lives and impacted our families.

It was the location of the first criminal case in US history to allow testimony from an anonymous witness in defiance of the US Constitution’s guarantee of Due Process during the Holy Land Foundation trial.

But what few knew was that it was also the site where an unknown actor working in the Courts had intentionally committed Grand Jury fraud in secret. By forging the signature of the acting Grand Jury foreperson on several indictments, many people were kept behind bars and convicted based on fraudulent indictments.

We had a lot to lose going up against this courthouse, but even more to gain by simply being willing to do it in the first place.

I had secretly kept the evidence for over a decade without being caught with it in my possession while incarcerated. It was, after all, hiding in plain sight as I memorized the details, the cases, and the people connected to them. I could have printed off thousands of copies, gone to the rooftop of the adjacent Skyrise apartments, and thrown them from the roof to decorate the streets of Dallas with the evidence.

I digress. While only five of us attended that time, Dallas became our city. Furthermore, irrespective of our message we built a positive relationship with the City. The message was heard.

Judges leaving the building listened as they tried scurrying to their vehicles. The security guards stood outside, reading our flyers, taking photos of them, and listening to the revelations we broadcasted from behind our megaphones. Pedestrians either tried to avoid us or stood on the sidewalk and listened. Several drivers actually got out of their cars to take photos with us.

It’s the little impressions that embolden an idea to endure, especially from small beginnings like ours.

Guy Fawkes – yesterday, today, and forever

The Million Mask March still exists today and shall remain long after this article becomes archived and ultimately lost through the passage of time. In that same vein, the people banding together to facilitate ideas that ultimately leave an impression on history will likewise fade or perhaps pass into legend. But their ideas will never really die.

Ideas prevail by assuming new forms. This is how they survive even the men and women who set them in motion.

The Million Mask March began on November 5th, 2012, in London. Between 5,000 and 10,000 protesters took to the streets wearing iconic Guy Fawkes masks – a symbol intimately associated with both the hacktivist movement Anonymous and the historical figure linked to the Gunpowder Plot of November 5th, 1605.

From that day forward, November 5th also known as as Guy Fawkes Day and Bonfire Night in the UK, took on a whole new meaning, as it signified the beginning of something new adopted from something old. The Million Mask March connected strangers, both from the web and offline, to join together in the streets for a day of solidarity to protest against the establishment, capitalism, and corruption.

A doomed revolutionary or religious zealot?

However idealized today, the origins of the November 5th incident and Fawkes himself are a dark chapter within the annals of English history. To some, he was a revolutionary. To others, he was an extremist, whose death has been celebrated annually.

Guy Fawkes, the most famous of 13 co-conspirators was a failed revolutionary of his time. He wasn’t even the leader of this attack, yet he became the face of the infamous November 5th, 1605 Gunpowder plot. He was the one found guarding the explosives containing 36 barrels of gunpowder in a rented cellar beneath the House of Lords in the Palace of Westminster some 419 years ago.

The goal was to detonate the barrels during the State Opening of Parliament, aiming to kill King James I, the Queen, and the heir to the throne among other key members of the government – over religion.

These men were radical Catholics and shared a common vision for the future of England, which was to dismantle Protestant rule under King James I due to the religious repression of Catholics. This is the same King best known for commissioning the King James Version of the Bible.

By attempting to assassinate the King’s family – the cornerstone of the government, his ministers, and members of Parliament – in one fell swoop, they hoped the ensuing confusion would present an opportunity for English Catholics to seize control of the country by wrestling it away from the King, creating a power vacuum that could be exploited by installing a Catholic king.

Due to the work of an informant and a mysterious anonymous letter delivered to Parliament member Lord Monteagle the day before, Guy Fawkes was the first to be captured and caught red-handed in the cellar with the explosive gunpowder barrels.

The actual leader of the conspiracy was Robert Catesby, who died in a shootout with authorities three days after their plans failed.

Fawkes held up against torture for several days, maintaining his staunch defiance while still believing in a dream now beyond his grasp. However, in a matter of days, he gave up the names of his fellow collaborators, although many of them had already been identified and captured.

Historically, Fawkes was a failed revolutionary who informed against his brethren during torture, was found guilty of treason, and sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered.

Philosophy centered on the spirit of Fawkes

One could argue that in the film V for Vendetta, V, who embodies the spirit of Guy Fawkes, is a true vigilante who takes the law into his own hands to fight against a dystopian fascist government in a totalitarian future in England, which makes for good cinema.

We fundamentally side with the martyr V, and not with the historical Guy Fawkes, and for good reason. In the film, real people don’t die, and the religious motive is absent. He is portrayed as a villainized anti-hero whose actions serve as a catalyst for revolution.

In this form, the spirit of Guy Fawkes has survived the hangman’s noose. The Anonymous movement idealizes a peaceful approach to vocalizing our rage against the machine rather than radical ideations.

Our goal is to bring people together. Not tear them apart.

Before you protest

I am foremost a hacker and an activist. This means, that preserving the message we carry to the streets is more important than demonstrating any personal disdain for authority. Having tact is a vital strategic approach to ensuring the message isn’t violated by our personal political beliefs.

As activists, it is our duty to ensure we are in the right. Once this goal is achieved, we hold the moral high ground. That way, when the smear campaign is painted with false news, we know we are innocent of wrongdoing while being wrongly persecuted. The nature of the persecuted class often attracts others to their cause, especially when that cause is just.

Last night, the Million Mask March at Trafalgar Square in London, began with non-aggressive acts of civil disobedience, marked by belligerent behavior toward London’s metropolitan police. This was followed by protestors alleging police brutality - simply because someone was detained.

While the number of police seemingly outnumbered the protestors who joined the march, several individuals deliberately chose to violate the Trafalgar Square byelaws and consequently found themselves being asked by police to remove themselves from occupying the protected monuments.

We researched these byelaws and found one fellow Anonymous member had violated at least 7 byelaws. Then, people complained when the police didn’t allow anyone to break the law that day. Conversely, when the police break the law, we organize entire operations to dismantle them.

The unique mindset that we want to hold the world’s governments accountable, but avoid any accountability ourselves is why the Anonymous movement is in a downward spiral. It’s turning more into an idea and less of an actual movement.

For this reason, it’s imperative to maintain the moral high ground.

There will always be people who seemingly don’t know better. But to those who crafted beautiful papier-mâché masks, created inspiring media and advertisements, took to the streets with flyers, distributed malware-free QR codes, built information websites to help organize, designed stickers and slapped them on telephone poles, and held their signs high on the street corners – to the courageous Anons who charged their batteries, powered on their megaphones, and declared their message responsibly, we thank you.

Power to the peaceful.