"One would like to assume that the rest of the marchers would either converge on the offenders like linemen on an opposing quarterback, or else they would leave the march."

Difference of degree, Tom. As offensive as it is, shooting officers is not the same as harkening back to the darkest days of our country and to an ideology that (with various targets) has killed millions upon millions of people.

"at some point when you lie down with pigs you have to assume you are just as dirty."

Man, I am going to have to get my Fallwell/Robertson/Swaggert/Weinbergher quote book out and go to town on you.

"Now, to be strictly fair, this is labeled as a "breakaway march," "

Uh-huh... and your little still-photo does not show the reaction of the other marchers, either.

Public protest is mostly about free speech and the exercise of. Also, with anti-war, then-as-now, people get A LOT of flak for standing up for their beliefs. As such, I think they [average joe protestor] are very tolerant of the right of other people to say what they want to say and how they say it. As long as they [the offensive folks] don't start grabbing at/yelling at the other protestors, I think people will just give them their space. Its admirable in a way, maybe you should learn a bit from them.

Plus, suppose you have 1000 banners in a protest. 999 of them say: "God Bless our troops, declare peace and bring them home safe right now" or "support our troops but resist the war" and one of them says: "Die Facist soldier boys!". Which one is going to be in the picture for the by-line? Hmmm? 10,000 people protest nicely and sing a song, but 4 yell 'baby killer' and spit on the troops walking by... What will get the national coverage?

The world is not that simple. Not all anti-war folks, or even protestors are that 2-dimesnsional.

Davin