It was indeed a rare moment of candor, because the usual saw is that "we were just having a peaceful protest, exercising our rights as citizens, when the police showed up in force and offended us by their very presence, thereby forcing us to riot, the jack-booted thugs."

If there's no threat of trashing things, we ain't showin' up. The line personnel would rather get their reports finished and go home, and the brass would rather not have to spend the money on overtime.

Perhaps it's the basic message that fails to generate enough interest absent the violence and the police response. Perhaps capitalism isn't as inherently evil as some would like us all to believe. Perhaps the ill-defined alternative looks worse to most people; otherwise they could be convinced without the specious martyrdom of pepper-sprayed rioters or the erzatz self-sacrifice of sport utility arsonists.