I mean, they won't just happily do _all_ of that. You're exaggerating a bit and using extreme cases as if they were the norm. In particular you may say this with a straight face only if you're unaware of how this actually is the common reality of other countries.

We've all heard of cases of police running over crowds in some circumstances, or of the odd shooting (actually when?). But that's not what the average protester in the US will realistically, honestly deal with on the average protest.

I've participated in quite a bit of peaceful protesting. I've never been shot at, but the number of times I've been teargassed for being in a park or on a sidewalk during the "permitted hours" and in the "designated zone" is much higher than the expected 0.

At least 830 documented incidents in 2020 including over 140 police violence incidents against journalists specifically. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_police_violence_incide...

There have been 104 incidents of vehicles driving into protests between May 27 and September 27, 2020, with two fatalities in that time period https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_vehicle-ramming_incide...

While police violence is a problem, this comment is wildly off base.

I don't think it's wildly off base: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IS-RWsl7l5c

This is a noteworthy outlier that received significant criticism. It is not normative. And while pepper spray is non trivial, it is a far cry from:

> happily beat you up, run you over, or shoot and kill you for disruptive protests.

Be fair. They'll do that for peaceful non-disruptive protests. Usually the term riot is applied after the cops start tear-gassing and the news can re-frame footage of people running away as "dangerous rioters".

Fun fact: most people arrested at protests end up arrested because they try to follow police instructions to disperse. The police keep directing them into a closed off area (aka bottling) and then arrest them in for failure to disperse.