The purpose of the rules wasn’t to prevent police violence; it was to make it clear that the violence was one-sided. Getting the police to crack the skull of a clearly non-violent non-resisting non-aggressive protester was a win.
“We will not run” came up as much during retreat as advance. Responding to riot tactics (water cannon, horses, dogs, shield walls, tear gas, etc) by, at most, calmly walking away…and, usually, getting mown down in the process.
They weren’t just rules for peaceful protest; they were rules for peaceful martyrdom. Back when that was a concept that brought to mind anti-nuke pacifist Catholic nuns, rather than the current explosive associations of the term.
As I suggested upthread, these tactics are only useful in some circumstances. Historically, peaceful protest has not been particularly successful at halting large fascist movements. Get a sufficient mass of shitheads in your society, and there doesn’t seem to be any better solution than “skeggǫld, skálmǫld, skildir ro klofnir!”.
