It does bother me to insist on framing it as a parade, even when talking about something that involves tear gas used against people. I associate parade with meaning celebration and good times. I understand not all protests are like this and perhaps for some of them, parade would be a more appropriate framing of them.

i “protested” my state’s governor over whatever bullshit they were up to 15 years ago and it was literally just a parade around the capitol building.

i have since seen “protests” that are even less efficacious than that. at least parades usually fuck up traffic for a couple hours.