Peaceful protestors and violent rioters have a symbiotic relationship.

In this HotAir article, the author makes a point I've been trying to make to people for a while.

When you see protests turn into riots, you always hear people (ideologues) talk about how it was just a few violent people in an otherwise peaceful protest. It's the "few bad apples" argument.

This argument no longer applies, and if you read the article in the link, you'll see why.

These days, and in days past, violent rioters ALWAYS preferred to embed themselves into otherwise "peaceful" demonstrations, and the so-called peaceful demonstrators KNEW this. They acted as figurative shields for the rioters to hind behind in the arena of debate.

If you have a hundred "peaceful" protestors chanting and holding signs, and you have five people among them throwing rocks, then is the protest peaceful? What if the peaceful ones KNEW what those rock throwers planned to do?