Yes, these tactics would cause a massive backlash by those in power, since the status quo would be seriously threatened. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing! I mean, it sucks that it has to happen (because people will suffer), but the fact is that an backlash will inevitably be caused by any serious resistance. No backlash means there is no resistance, no opposition to the death march of this culture.
And as we are already seeing, the backlash is what is motivating many of the people to get off their asses and take a stand. The resistance starts with the few who are motivated to take action, the backlash begins, and then the resistance is joined by more and more people (and the support of the wider society). This is exactly why non-violence works at all as a strategy for resistance - the violence of the state against non-violent people is the very thing that gains the resistance mass public support, and as the repression escalates, the more people join the resistance and start fighting back.
As long as the police stay “friendly”, and the protesters stay non-confrontational (acting within the parameters allowed them by the state), the movement will not grow, and it will have no effect on the status quo. This spells death for the movement, because when people see their actions having no effect, they will get demoralized and will give up and go home - ending up even more disempowered than before. If the movement doesn’t continue to escalate its tactics, while there is momentum to support it, the movement will die (just like every movement that has come before it). It truly is now or never.