This was not a riot but a peaceful protest that was covered by multiple camera angles (including the POV or a camera that got punched by a cop/fed/whatever while they brutalized journalists). Civilian riots in the next town over do not justify police riots to enable a tyrant to walk across the street to take pictures of an upside-down bible in front of a church while that same church's pastors were tear-gassed.

What makes my fellow citizens my enemy in a riot?

Not quite. The techniques the military uses to attack enemies are not the same as the techniques of law enforcement, nor should they be. This is why militarization of the police is generally frowned upon, and the use of military forces to quell civil unrest is also not a good idea.

>It sickened me yesterday to see security personnel—including members of the National Guard—forcibly and violently clear a path through Lafayette Square to accommodate the president's visit outside St. John's Church. I have to date been reticent to speak out on issues surrounding President Trump's leadership, but we are at an inflection point, and the events of the past few weeks have made it impossible to remain silent.

Who in Lafayette Square was a rioter?

The disabled veterans, the people standing around doing nothing, or the elderly female Episcopalian ministers?