There is also the attitude that the people at these protests represent one homogeneous group, rather than a collection of individuals with varying opinions on a topic. The community organizers may advocate peaceful protests, but CNN is going to broadcast the angry people and the inevitable riots will often be started by the violent fridge. At my undergraduate institution, I saw a number of protests co-opted by outsider anarchists who had the time to sit in longer than most students and were more than happy to be the loudest voice in the room, throw rocks at police, and derail a message with ridiculous claims.The optics on this are terrible for those consumed with black pain and rage and wonderful for white people who will bend over backwards not to see what it's about and point to the riots as proof of what's wrong with 'those people'. Happened here in Detroit.
For anybody in the media who cared to know, for months now there have been peaceful protests in Ferguson with organizers actively speaking out against and mitigating agitators with all of their ability. In fact, even if you include the riots last night, the public protests have been overwhelmingly peaceful. Some of these reporters need to get some Black Twitter going in their feed mixed with some of the organizers that are actually on the ground. They might learn something.
i've said this on here already and directed people to those sources. Black Twitter is amazing