Keith Bradsher, writing for the New York Times:
The peaceful nature of the 2003 demonstration was dictated, to a considerable extent, by the participation of people of all ages. Many of the 2003 protesters — like Paul Chan, then a 45-year-old construction worker, and Sarah Ng, a 67-year-old seamstress — had never attended a demonstration before, not even the large Hong Kong protest in 1989 in response to the Tiananmen Square crackdown.
How big and representative does a protest need to be before it has its desired effect?