>Also, why'd they bolt? They had the numbers and shields and poles… could it be that they're that desperate not to get de-masked?
My take is that their objective is to present the image of dangerous conservatives ready to fight, not actually doing any fighting. So getting in a fight would actually make it harder to achieve their objective, as they would be dealing with arrests and increased press scrutiny. It also makes them look easy to beat, encouraging any potential Antifa types to believe they could be a hero by fighting them off.