An observation, to add to a chorus: the vast, vast, vast majority of protest I saw yesterday was peaceful. Like, hugely vast majority. The ones who aren’t are the stragglers toward the back/sides of main groups.
Something I’ve been mulling over: When the marches are tight, other protestors are nearby, and are immediately jumping in and holding others accountable, often putting their own safety and freedom in peril. Saw so much of that. That needs to be said, over and over and over again.
Things obviously escalate when the marches start to fracture. But I noticed this repeatedly yesterday: police are using the geography of the city to divide groups, and the tenor immediately shifts: people get confused, tense and scared (rightfully so).
For example, at Canal and Church, cops arrested one protestor (unclear why, I didn’t see). Dozens of riot cops poured into the intersection, basically pushing what was one cohesive group into three side streets. My rudimentary sketch: 
The group splinters, and minutes later, you get this: as a larger group of protestors is kneeling, peacefully in front of riot cops, a small group behind them lights trash/scaffolding on fire. One of the leaders pleaded with people to get up and keep moving away from that area.
Minutes later, cops did the same thing at a nearby intersection again, charged one group back a block and split a bigger group into three.
Anyway I don’t know what exactly I’m trying to get at it but seeing cops use this multiple times was striking to me. I’ve been thinking a lot on this, from @SkinnerPM. “We have to stop treating people like we’re in Fallujah.” newyorker.com/magazine/2018/…
