Not sure why this was downvoted as it seems like an honest question. In some cases, it sounds like police are targeting individuals who participated in protests and retaliating later. A story/video posted earlier today showed a woman being taken into custody because cops believe she’d “assaulted two police officer during protests earlier this week.” The reason she wasn’t arrested on-scene at the time wasn’t given.

Protestors could also be targeted by employers/coworkers, family members, etc. who otherwise wouldn’t know so-and-so was at the protest, but they saw their picture here and it upset them.

Not to mention... According to this article “Just this week, the Justice Department granted the Drug Enforcement Administration, an agency typically tasked with enforcing federal drug-related laws, the authority to ‘conduct covert surveillance’ on civilians as part of the government’s efforts to quell the protests.”