100% agree. I’ve had to cut off social media communications with a police officer friend of mine because he just refuses to grasp the concept that his comments dismissing concerns about his fellow officers reflect extremely poorly on him. I would never have grouped him in with the “bad cop” crowd before, but now I have to wonder.
The big difference between protesters being lumped in with rioters and the Thin Blue Line cops is that the cops are doing something to assist the bad cops. The protesters are (for the most part) being taken advantage of by the rioters. Blaming non-violent protesters for shielding the rioters is not valid IMHO, while blaming the cops for not turning in their bad brethren is. Of course that would change if the protesters were somehow aiding the rioters, but there’s very little evidence of that.
I’m not sure how much the difference had to do with violence, and how much with the number of protestors. Kaepernick was for the most part out there all alone.
And all moral people would oppose any lynching of any non-criminal on principle. I’m not sure this can be sensibly disputed, even by people who do support capital punishment of a cruel and unusual variety.