Improve the bracketed part of the sentence by choosing the correct preposition: “The public vent their anger on social media to protest (toward) police brutality.”

Introduction:
This question checks your understanding of prepositions that commonly follow particular verbs in English. The verb protest is frequently used in news reports and everyday speech to describe how people show opposition to something. Using the correct preposition after protest is essential for sounding natural and accurate. The sentence describes people expressing their anger on social media about police brutality, so we need to select the preposition that matches this meaning.

Given Data / Assumptions:

- Sentence: The public vent their anger on social media to protest (toward) police brutality. - Options: for, against, regards, no improvement. - The idea is that the public are opposing or objecting to police brutality.

Concept / Approach:
In standard English usage, the usual pattern is protest against something when you are showing strong disapproval or opposition. The preposition toward suggests direction but not necessarily opposition, and it is not normally used in this collocation. Protest for sometimes appears when supporting a cause, but here the sentence clearly describes resistance to police brutality. Therefore, the best improvement is to replace toward with against.

Step-by-Step Solution:
Step 1: Focus on the verb phrase protest toward police brutality and ask whether this sounds natural. Step 2: Recall common phrases such as protest against injustice, protest against corruption, and protest against policies. Step 3: Compare this with protest for, which is more suitable when supporting something, for example protest for better wages. Step 4: Observe that regards is a noun or verb related to respect or consideration, not a preposition used after protest. Step 5: Replace toward with against and read the full sentence: The public vent their anger on social media to protest against police brutality. This sounds correct and natural.

Verification / Alternative check:
Check usage in real world contexts: People marched to protest against unfair laws or Citizens gathered in the square to protest against rising prices. The consistent use of against with protest in these examples confirms that it is the standard preposition. Using toward in these sentences would sound strange to most native speakers and does not appear in formal written English for this meaning.

Why Other Options Are Wrong:
Option A, for, would shift the focus to supporting police brutality, which is the opposite of the intended meaning. Option C, regards, does not fit grammatically and is not used after protest in this way. Option D, no improvement, would keep protest toward, which is not idiomatic English in the sense of opposing an injustice. Only against correctly conveys resistance and disapproval in this context.

Common Pitfalls:
Students sometimes confuse protest for and protest against because both appear in different contexts. A useful guideline is that protest against is used when you oppose something, while protest for is used when you support a demand or cause. Remembering this distinction will help you avoid preposition errors in similar questions and in your own writing.

Final Answer:
against is the correct preposition, so the improved phrase is protest against police brutality.