Riot police are police who are organized, deployed, trained or equipped to confront crowds, protests or riots.
Canadian Toronto Police Service officers in heavy riot gear—including riot helmets, body armor, gas masks, riot shields, and riot guns—during the 2010 G20 Toronto summit protests
American Beverly Hills Police Department officers in light riot gear, consisting of just riot helmets and batons, during a Trump 2020 rally in 2019
Swiss Kantonspolizei Zürich riot police officers attempting to control May Day riots in 2008
Russian OMON officers advancing on protestors in Moscow during the 2021 Russian protests
A protest is a public expression of objection, disapproval, or dissent towards an idea or action, typically a political one. Protests can be thought of as acts of cooperation in which numerous people cooperate by attending, and share the potential costs and risks of doing so. Protests can take many different forms, from individual statements to mass political demonstrations. Protesters may organize a protest as a way of publicly making their opinions heard in an attempt to influence public opinion or government policy, or they may undertake direct action in an attempt to enact desired changes themselves. When protests are part of a systematic and peaceful nonviolent campaign to achieve a particular objective, and involve the use of pressure as well as persuasion, they go beyond mere protest and may be better described as civil resistance or nonviolent resistance.
Demonstration against the president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, during the Rio+20 conference in Brazil, June 2012
Demonstration in front of the MPR/DPR/DPD building in Jakarta during the 2019 Indonesian protests and riots
Gandhi leading his followers on the famous Salt March to abolish the British Salt Laws
Protesters in the middle of the road in downtown Manama, Bahrain (2011)