Let's face it, come hell or high water, the Police will always be the villains of the peace no matter how they manage these situations.
They're either too heavy handed, totally uncaring, completely manipulated by "big brother", absolutely apathetic towards the democratic right to protest etc etc. Not my opinions, but this is what we hear all the time when these demonstrations take place.
The thing is that the numerous detractors of whatever way the Police carry out their duties never have a so called solution or alternative which, if any actually existed, would have been implemented by the Police long before now.
The truth is that in these situations, once the novelty of the protest has worn off, there is always that element who are only there in the first place hell bent on anarchy and violence, and unfortunately the innocent and peaceful demonstrators are always caught up in the maelstrom because the troublemakers are literally ensconced in the middle of them stirring up as much trouble and violence as possible to which the Police are duty bound to respond.