Free speech has never existed in the form told to us in school and on TV. Every liberation fight has faced violent state reaction and required compensatory resistance on the part of the people actively fighting the system. There has never been a turnaround on marginalizing policy that happened due to peaceful, state-protected debate in the marketplace of ideas. It's all been precipitated by hard fights that inevitably found enemies in the cops and the feds.
This applies to every Western country, especially those most desperate to cling to their chauvinist myths.
If you know this, you can protect yourself and others by knowing what response your actions will receive and therefore how to avoid unnecessary risks.