History suggests this pretty clearly. The small army of police being friendly and respectful as the demonstrators are being entirely peaceful. Demonstrators wh

History suggests this pretty clearly. The small army of police being friendly and respectful as the demonstrators are being entirely peaceful. Demonstrators who are going out of their way to get arrested, and who have complained enough have not been yet. How did the civil rights protests achieve change? By civil disobedience. Which two deprived regions of England got most immediate help, and a regeneration programme led by Heseltine, during the 1980s deindustrialisation? Why the two that had riots of course - Toxteth and Brixton. Not the regions hardest hit or the only deprived or affected regions. For a more violent protest you might not even need as many police. They would no longer need to be quite so considerate and use 4 officers to carry away each lying down protester, or other friendly methods of control and containment. In many ways the extinction rebellion protests have been truly heart warming - in the nature and scale of protest and also in the police response. Mainstream media is finally discussing the issue properly. Funny that.