But that’s the thing. Shooting unarmed protestors is fucked up even by their standards, they aren’t above it, but they have to hide it and not everyone is having a good time about it, so there is tension and hesitation.
Shooting armed protestors is why they joined in the first place, it’s what they dream of, it’s everything that a cop ever wanted.
And a big portion of population that is not OK with the first scenario is also dreaming of the second one.

If you want for the police to get an excuse to mow you down with a tank that is. They so wish some of you have guns so they can kill you and have a ready and ironclad excuse