https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/06/17/police-targeting-street-...

If you are protesting the police, you should have every possible form of armour on that you have access to, even if you are protesting peacefully.

> the dude who got arrested has a helmet on. Why's that needed in peaceful protests?

Same reason why people wear helmets when riding a bike: even if they're not intending on smashing their head, accidents happen, so it's better to be protected. Protests do occasionally turn violent, so that's not too unreasonable. Also keep in mind there are protesters that open carry assault rifles, so in comparison a helmet us relatively tame.

>That's an attachment to break car windows:

It looks like a black stick to me? What's it supposed to be?

I couldn't identify what he had on his left side from that video. How did you come to the conclusion it was meant to break windows?