https://youtu.be/d8LiQFnkuJY

The protestors seem to be awfully sympathetic to what the police are doing.  Not one of the filthy hippies tries to flank the blocky formations assumed by the cops, they are rather ill-equipped when it comes to protest signs stapled to stout wooden staves, I don’t see any rocks being thrown, and all the flame weapons they use never seem to be much of a threat to any police officer.

So far as the police are concerned, where are the police dogs and water cannons?  How come they didn’t deploy tear gas or pepper spray?  Come about 03:00, some of the rioters closest to the camera actually start slashing at the police shields with some sort of plastic whips.  I’ve never known any police force that would take that sort of abuse and still say “We better not gas ’em, as there are only a few bad apples in this seething mass of hatred and bad behavior.”

But what clinches the deal for me is that there aren’t a bunch of reporters intermingled with the hippies, all hot and eager to get some footage of a rioter getting a well deserved beat down.  Guys with camera rigs on their shoulders should pretty much outnumber the unwashed heathen.

Still, obvious signs of a staged show aside, it is a pretty performance of cop competency.  All we need is some John Philip Sousa and it would be a real crowd pleaser!