As conflicts between riot police and protesters over the G8/G20 Summit in Toronto wane, a Vancouver activist considers the effectiveness of drawing attention to a cause with violence.

Alex Mah helped organize a protest in Vancouver on Saturday to show solidarity with demonstrators out east, where a few of his friends were among the more than 500 people arrested in the streets.

"It's a policy making summit which really clearly furthers a neo-liberal ideology," he said of the summit. Despite the rioting reported in Toronto, Mah insists that the vast majority of demonstrators are "people who really care about the environment, about other people's well being, and they want to see a change in the system."

But have the relatively small faction of protesters using Black Bloc tactics, which include dressing head-to-toe in black, damaging property and provoking police, overshadowed any cohesive message?

The violence did make international headlines online and in print, from Yahoo! News to the New York Times, but protesters' grievances were often ignored. Mah acknowledged the rioters had dominated media attention, but did not condemn their tactics as ineffective.

"It's really hard to say what the best strategy is around creating social change," he said. "I feel like my question is more about not the tactic that's used, but why people are so upset."

The violence in Toronto parallels an anti-Olympic rally in Vancouver last February, where Black Bloc marchers tore through the city's downtown. About 100 participants hurled newspaper boxes, broke windows, and spat on police.

Public backlash over the destruction had a chilling effect on protest activity for the remainder of the Games, and many wrote off violent demonstrators as apolitical thugs.

Retired RCMP Insp. Bill Majcher says protesters who turn to physical aggression care less about activism than they do about mayhem. "A lot of them are criminals who like to hide behind a cause," he said. "These anarchists couldn't even spell G20, let alone tell you what it's about."

Hours after violence broke out in Toronto on Saturday, protesters were being parodied online. One photo posted online showed a man dressed in black clothing, kicking in a store window. In his backpack was a Gatorade bottle, and the man is dressed in brand-name ski goggles.

The caption reads: "the Black Bloc -- raging against the very corporate machine you bought your supplies from."

Meanwhile, among Sunday's most popular comments on Twitter read: "Neither Ghandi nor Martin Luther King, Jr. smashed windows or burnt police cars, yet they got the point across better than Black Bloc."

Whether the aggression has helped the protesters' cause or hindered it is unknown. For now, Mah says he's more concerned with taking care of his friends who remain incarcerated.

"Most correspondence has been around getting legal support in line," he said. "Getting fundraising happening to post people's bail, just to make sure people are supported in the aftermath."

With a report from CTV British Columbia's Norma Reid