[vkou]

I think that the legal definition of a riot is incredibly relevant to this conversation.

It's one that's applied in practice, as justification for police violence, over and over again.

In practice, a lot of the time, peaceful protests turn into 'clear, unambiguous riots' after police violence starts. Generally speaking, protesters try to police themselves - but when you're half-blind, stumbling away from clouds of teargas, you aren't going to do anything to stop the idiots who took advantage of the chaos to start throwing bricks at store windows.