Hmmm. This guy may have a point. Is it a 'riot' or a 'protest' depending on the ethnicity of the rioters, ahem, protestors?

The best catch may be this lede from the NYT ...

A routine traffic stop of a 75-year-old Hasidic driver in Brooklyn escalated into a protest last night by hundreds of Orthodox Jews, who surrounded a police station house, chanted "No justice no peace," lighted bonfires and set a police car afire. The driver and two other men were arrested, but no serious injuries were reported.

"Escalated into a protest"? That combination of diction and grammar seems a tad strained, doesn't it?

Sorta like, 'What started as a minor infection spiralled into a full-blown inconvenience.'

And once you set a police car on fire, isn't that a riot?

Thoughts?