These are Americans exercising their right to free speech, according to progressives and the media:
The Ferguson and the St. Louis County police departments, the MO Highway Patrol, the MO governor, virtually all the authorities in MO, as well as Barack Obama and Eric Holder, went out of their way to call these mobs “peaceful protesters” and to school law enforcement officers to take care not to infringe upon the First Amendment rights of these “protesters.”