Much of the talk, on the street and online, about confronting police officers is just empty boasting, several young men said. Time and again, Mr. Davis said, he has heard people come into his barbershop warning that things will get out of control. But, he said, he has not heard one person say he will actually partake in violence.

For some, the question is not about whether to protest, but how aggressive those protests should be.

When violence broke out over the summer, Richard Clark, 30, said he stayed away because he did not want people to think, “See, that’s what we thought they were — animals.”

But he said he felt that blacks continued to be treated as animals, so the more confrontational approach might be necessary. He was willing to die for the cause, he said, if it meant a better life for his two daughters. Still, he said, he was not sure how far he was willing to go.

“You just don’t know what the hell you going to do until you’re put in that position,” he said.

Brian Curtis, 24, knows exactly what he thinks should happen if Officer Wilson is not indicted. It would mean that peaceful protests were not working, he said, and that a more assertive, even violent, approach was necessary.

“I’m following the crowd,” Mr. Curtis said. “If we don’t get no justice, we got to start taking matters into our own hands. They want to go loot, we can go do that. They want to break stuff out, we can go do that, too. Something got to be done to make our voices heard.”