Arrest con men roughly provoking protest (12)
I believe the answer is:
remonstrance
'protest' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'arrest con men roughly' is the wordplay.
'roughly' indicates anagramming the letters.
'arrest'+'con'+'men'='arrestconmen'
'arrestconmen' with letters rearranged gives 'REMONSTRANCE'.
'provoking' is the link.
(Other definitions for remonstrance that I've seen before include "Strong protest" , "petition" , "complaint" .)