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in riots there are no peaceful protesters...its a media mirage...During Viet nam the (peaceful) were white, and they peacefully bombed building, killed people, set universities on fire, and now they are in office in Washington. During the Detroit riots the peaceful protesters were black and set the inner city on fire as they did with other cities...During the democrat convention in Chicago back in the 60's the peaceful protesters were white and it only stopped when the mayor sent in the national guard....that riot police were pelted with rocks and one of their tactics was to push large nails into tennis balls to toss at the cops, threw bags of urine at the police, threw feces etc....how do I know this, my friends brother was part of the police force.....yet according to the media, it was the peaceful protesters that were the victims. Its never the fault of anarchists that love a good riot...The media of the day never mentioned their tactics just like they don't today... some things never change...

Ghandi had it right and the early civil rights protests were peaceful and were effective. Excluding the violent protests, of course which there were a few.

The key component is the press. Without it, passive resistance is ineffective. And it is a double edged sword. A video or pictures can show a person being unfairly abused, or the protesters abusing someone else.

Vietnam is a perfect example (the 60s). At the time the press was pretty limited to newspapers. Now, everyone has a camera on their phones and we have the Internet. And almost instantaneous news. I think that this helps.

I'd like to think that showing the rioting and looting will give the peaceful protesters pause. To any reasonable thinking person, it doesn't look good. I think that they are embarrassed by it and realize that it doesn't help their cause. But the violence must be shown as a way to stop it.