Were they? It's all well and good to say, "oh, no, our people were there by the light of day and those other awful people were there at night" but it looks a lot more like the event and the protests began during the day then continued into the night. The problem isn't simply people standing there insulting others, the problem is a US Congressman publicly accusing those others of "destroying America" while a city councilwoman refers to them as "pure unadulterated evil" and notes that her son and other Marines would be happy to "assist them to paradise". Sure, the First Amendment gives everyone the right to free speech; it does not give anyone the right to suggest the military murder people because their religion is evil, and the spectacle of a government leader doing so publicly is cause for alarm.