I'd like to step in here and defend the demostrators.
In the current political climate demostrating is the only way that people can get themselves heard. Elections are only held every few year, and with all the major parties having fundermentally similar policies (and of course there's no guarantee at all that the policies of the winning party will bear any relation to what they claimed for the election).
All major media outlets, that's the TV and radio stations, newspapers and many news websites, are owned and controlled by a small number of rich people who are not afraid of pushing thier own political views in the news that they report.
All this adds up to a situation in which ordinary people are extremely alienated from their leaders, and mislead about what is going on in the world (either through misreporting, not reporting certain things, stressing specific factors in a news story...).
In such a situation, taking to the streets waving flags and making speechs is simply the only way to be heard by others.
True, these demostrations turn violent; but when they are hounded by a gang of armed thugs employed by the government, armed with shields, clubs, pepper spray, water cannon and tear gas, there's really only one way it can turn out, and it ain't pretty.
The media, controlled by the aforementioned small group of rich people, often attempt to portray these demostrations in a bad light.
Take the French riots last year mentioned by Tulac, the media portrayed them as a group of gangs on a crime spree. In reality, it was a group of people who had been repeatedly crapped upon by the government and by the country as a whole and were trying to get thier voice heard. A few violent elements took over and the media concentrated on this and on the typical police overreaction.
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