I think there is a world of difference between being "annoying" or not "respectable" and being threatening. Being annoying can be quite beneficial to a protest

I think there is a world of difference between being "annoying" or not "respectable" and being threatening. Being annoying can be quite beneficial to a protest. It brings attention and forces people to think about you. There is a point after which it turns people off, and becomes a net negative, but you usually have to be very annoying for that to happen. Being scary is entirely different thing though. When people are afraid they tend to become closed off to new ideas, and look to strong leaders. You absolutely don't want that in a protest. > The protest has to be disruptive enough to affect the powerful, and approachable enough for sufficient people to join. I think the ultimate point of a protest is to reach the ordinary people who aren't part of a movement. Movements succede and fail not by how much they convince the die hard supporters, but by how much they convinced average uninvolved people.