The right to assemble and protest is enshrined in American law, but it can still be dangerous to hit the streets to make your voice heard. Your devices are a treasure trove of information about you, and you may not always know who’s collecting that data. Take a few minutes before you go to assess your digital and physical safety. Even if you have nothing to hide, you don’t want to accidentally give law enforcement officials any information you didn’t intend to share. Follow these tips to lock down your phone before a protest or other peaceful assembly.
Its not the device cracking that’s the problem; its the “your device was identified at the protest we have labeled a riot and has been tracked to your home, which we will now raid in the middle of the night”.
Has this regime already done this or are you just saying what the next steps might be if nothing changes?
For the “already done this”:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO
For the modern technology making it significantly easier:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMSI-catcher
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stingray_phone_tracker
TL:DR, if you’re at a protest and your signal drops to 2G, your device is being monitored and tracked. Whether or not anyone acts on that data is a whole other thing.