I think people overindex on this. It really isn’t surprising. People are protesting what they perceive as their government betraying them. That’s a huge claim and people are really angry. People are people. And angry people do angry things. If the government doesn’t cooperate with the people, they will get angrier and it will get worse. That is just what happens. The social contract takes both sides, and yes, it’s often random people who don’t deserve the fallout who get hurt as a result of not abiding by the social contract.

But it’s extremely myopic to think that protestors are the ones accountable for all the trouble. To people not immediately affected by the governments decision, it is far too easy to miss the fact that it’s the government throwing not just the first punch but many many more before you see this kind of thing happen