General Discussion

I'm not going to assume that you haven't ever protested before, but it sounds like you haven't, well I have, as the day goes on things get hotter, people get angrier, and mistakes and oversteps start to happen, and people start getting hurt, and in general protest leaders don't have the experience necessary to cool things down, or they don't have the control to cool things down, overall the goal of the day is to protest and make a difference and then go home without an issue, and it's the protest leadership's responsibility to try and maintain that goal for all of the protesters on their side, whom by the nature of leadership, they are responsible for.

That's an Arrest. A cop taking someone somewhere else against their will is an arrest.

No an arrest isn't an arrest until the arrestee is taken to get processed, at any time in between the site of the incident to the station or jail the officer's can absolutely just let the arrestee go, because it's at the officer's discretion to follow through with arresting a person.

So my point isn't an arrest, sure the person is detained, but that doesn't mean arrested, the officers can let that person go at any point prior to processing them for an arrest. So again, just a cool down period, some time to get that person hydrated and cooled down, and the officer involved explains to them why they are detaining them and how they can avoid being detained by not doing whatever they were detained for.

Also if they're not a violent threat sounds like no crime is being commited.

There are escalation patterns to violence, when you're screaming in someone's face for hours, or vice versa, it can cause you to lose your objectivity and lose yourself to anger. Micro aggressions happen throughout days of protesting, and as that stuff builds up in your mind you lose yourself to your anger.

So some examples of an escalation of violence that is violence:

• Pulling on the officer's or protestors shields, signs, or other accessories
• Throwing stuff
• Aggressively Invading an officer's or protestors personal space
• Physical intimidation attempts, including fidgeting with possible weapons, as anything can be used as a weapon

Again these aren't necessarily crimes, so no arrest needed, but they can help cause things to spiral chaotically if protest leaders or officers let them lead to violence.

Also all of this all also applies to officers as well, if you've got Sgt. Hothead getting wound up and aggressive he and all who are following his cue need to go take a timeout before they're the reason why the protests spiral out of control.

Now this all just applies to actual protests, when it comes time for direct action, like the burning of the police departments during the George Floyd protests, all gloves are off, the cops weren't playing fair or nice so they fucked around and found out by having their departments burned down and having a much much more angrier group of protestors who were turning into rioters. Riots only happen when protest leadership fails to keep the bad actors from leading a mob, or when the police are so out of control and abusive that the only recourse is to destroy their shit and physically harm the cops.

Does that clarify my point for you?