Deadly assault and destruction of a federal building is a protest to you?
The ones that agree with my sensibilities are protests. The others are riots.
I don't have a fully coherent argument why the two are different, but intuitively I think they are very different. For example, one was a response to unchecked executive power (killings by police), while the other was incited by unchecked executive power (the president).
I am not referring to any real life events.