Protests in general should be heavily armed and (more importantly) well organized. Whether it's the Nazis or the cops (insert 'same picture' meme here), they're scared of an actual fight
Yeah but the cops have been scared of a real fight forever. They're cowards who like to attack people who can't or won't fight back, but shy away from anything where they might meet organized resistance; the Black Panthers proved it, long before I was even born