The force used by the police at sit-down demonstrations surprised many of the demonstrators, which, with the Committee's insistence on nonviolence and the use of pre-emptive arrests for conspiracy, discouraged many, and support dwindled. The Committee's plan to "fill the jails" by means of mass civil disobedience, and thus compel the government to respond to their demands, was frustrated by the authorities imprisoning a few important members and ignoring the rest. The harsh sentences on the Wethersfield Six "brought home to the Committee its inadequacy when faced with the might of the State," and some of the Committee's leaders were not willing to "fill the jails", mounting strenuous appeals against conviction or, in the case of Pat Pottle, going on the run.