Preparing for the worst is not a bad idea. If the situation turned sour, I'd love to be in a big group of people prepared for that. But if I did show up like that, I would've been 1 of a small handful with that level of preparedness. It wouldn't have mattered. By far, the most important thing for these protests to be successful is for people to show up in huge numbers. If people feel like they need to be ready for war, they won't show up and the protest won't be as impactful. I'd rather have 10s of thousands showing up in funny costumes carrying instruments and noisemakers than a couple hundred with gas masks.