You're not wrong. Protestors can face retaliation which causes paranoia and is an obstacle in growing organizing efforts. There are some arguments in the comments about what the specific items are, but there are more explanations that fit their defenses. For example, it could really be a vest under the shirt, but maybe it's a disabled person's cooling vest and not a bulletproof vest. I urge yall to still be cautious of strangers, including waryness of people who look like they can be the correct demo for cops, without also running off people we don't really know anything about with our bad attitudes.

IDK but seems probable if anybody on earth can take large amount of casualties, might be the Russians