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The ultimate result of this futile resistance will be replacement by Axon, or something worse, and more sophisticated technology and implementations built-in to civil infrastructure, eg streetlights, traffic lights, not only placed farther out of reach, but carrying greater legal consequences when tampered with.
I am indifferent to the vandalism itself, but the results will be something worse, for those who think it's bad now. However justified the sentiment might be, it is not the way.
We have spent the last half century divesting from citizen involvement in governance, and this cannot be compensated for by tantrums. The only way is the hard way, which is, unfortunately, playing largely by the master's rules, and for those rare few capable, redefining those rules, officially.
"Resistance is futile" is the iconic catchphrase of the Borg from the Star Trek franchise. But is it in this particular instance?
Look at what I wrote. I am not sure why I'm so selectively read around here, but going with the friendlier interpretation; you missed the part where I define what I think real resistance would resemble.
But to answer directly, YES, I do think the particular form of resistance we are seeing here is futile. It's not the 1980s. Technocrats are not stupid. Technology is advancing daily -- asymmetrically to the general public. It's simple to correct for vandalism. They may even want it. It opens doors to things that might have seemed excessive prior.
Now if society breaks down, and we see normalized extremes, maybe that would be different. But as things stand, it might be worse than futile.
I see your point. Actions like this may well be false flags to trigger a response that goes beyond what was in situ.
That, and the uncomfortable fact that our society has kind of crossed the rubicon of inefficacy on such matters. Ask a random person for their best idea on tackling a complex civil issue. Ignorance and indifference will be the most common finding, followed by essentially everything but something that would work.
Meanwhile, the processes behind the most promising routes to actual change, are increasingly obfuscated on both sides; one being real bureaucratic complexity, and the other an ignorance + learned helplessness loop. Naturally when tasked with a complex problem beyond one's ability, hammers and angle-grinders become tempting tools.
They even got the poles. It's pretty impressive that they managed that without anybody catching them at it. And without getting themselves caught on the cameras themselves. That must have required some planning and practice.