"the government "respecting peoples' right to peaceful protest"."

Rather grudging respect I would say.

"On the other hand, a significantly smaller number decide that they want a few freebies (encouraged by the media AND the police in my opinion) and we're still debating today what the causes were, what can be done to prevent future riots etc"

And there should be no suprise if powers introduced to curb the latter can easily be used against the former.