Literally optics.
The Left drools and furiously masturbates over the dream of war crimes, police brutality, and killings. It's no coincidence that the most heavily militarized police departments are in Democrat held territory. They want to be able to wail and cry and point at dead bodies and blame Republicans and now Trump. Everyone knows it. The Left will push and push then switch the narrative up to ensure everyone views the dead as dindus.
Look at Kent State. Those fucking hippies had it coming big time, but the press reported it as the college kids didnu muffins.
If the feds cut loose and kill even one of these idiots, it'll be all over the news, all over the internet, and it won't matter if the person killed was cutting a baby out of pregnant woman's stomach with a machete, it'll be all about how they dindu muffin and Ebil Twump and ReTHUGlicans.
The only hope is that Joe Sixpack and Mary Rottencrotch have seen enough of the rioting to understand that when the bullets start flying, the insurgents have it coming.
Both sides are playing a dangerous game and the only one who really realizes the stakes are the Feds.
The insurgents are all convinced that they won't catch a bullet in the throat and be left on the pavement gurgling blood, they'll be the ones streaming it on Twitch and getting on the cover of Time as they pose over some poor dying bastard.
One side knows the stakes and how dangerous this one-upmanship is.
The other thinks that they can't be touched, can't be told no, and nobody is allowed to hurt even their feefees.