"They are an annoying distraction from talking about the actual issues..."

Well you certainly hit the nail on the head there. We've spent the last forty or fifty years "talking about the issues" and DOING next to bugger all about them. Carbon dioxide emissions still rising year on year, for example. I think I read somewhere this morning that the UK has the draughtiest, most poorly-insulated houses in Europe... All the talking-about-the-issues is just hot air. Literally. These folks are DOING something. The long history of protests is that if you do them quietly or politely or by signing a petition on Change.org you get ignored.   

So tell me of any cases you know of in which someone has suffered or died in an ambulance at the protests. Do you think that if protesters let ambulances through we would even get to know about it? I have my doubts...