This paper extends the scope of the Cognitive Linguistic Approach to Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) by incorporating Langacker’s model of Cognitive Grammar in a critical analysis of press reports of violence in two political protests. In doing so, it addresses issues recently raised against CDA concerning cognitive equivalence. The paper presents an analysis of the alternative conceptualisations of violence invoked in online reports from The Telegraph vs. The Guardian of two recent political protests. Systematic differences in construal are found across several parameters of conceptualisation, including schematisation and various ‘focal adjustments’, which, it is suggested, represent potential sites of ideological reproduction.