"Masses of Minneapolis Police from all precincts, including SWAT and a State Patrol surveillance helicopter, swarmed a protest for the police killing of Tyre Nichols as it was about to start in SE Minneapolis in single digit temps. No officers were seen getting out of their vehicles & no arrests. Crowd dispersed."
I think there's a really good chance that Mr. Nichols had been murdered in July things would have popped off and we'd be in the Cool Zone right now. January is just a bad time for mass movements.
RE: Get better at repression; The same thing happened after the Battle of Seattle. The cops all got together and came up with the new operating doctrine that was used at the 2003 Miami RNC. They came up with the novel innovation of passing laws that were blatantly unconstitutional and shamelessly engaging in widespread civil rights violations, knowing that the courts wouldn't do anything about it until days, weeks, or years after the repression had been accomplished. I wouldn't be at all surprised if the police, military, and intelligence agencies at every level have been analyzing 2020 extensively and working out how to crush any further dissent.