In short, these protests were ultimately hijacked. When the violence and destruction reached its apex, it was no longer students who were on the streets asking for their rights but instead, miscreants and vandals, who at that point showed little regard for our nation and its citizens and went about their fulfilling their own agendas of fostering fear and terror within the populace.
It goes without saying, therefore, that identifying those responsible for all the vandalism, arson, and violence should be top of mind for our authorities concerned.
Peaceful protests will always have a place in any democracy. However, when such protests are then weaponized to execute the disgraceful destruction of public property that was on display, it becomes a problem that, as we saw, hurts the entire nation.
The events of the past week or so have left the entire nation reeling, and it is imperative that collectively, we come together to heal as a nation. For that to happen, it is vital that those who made it their mission to aggravate the situation and further their own nefarious agendas be identified and brought to book. We must ensure that we never see a repeat of such loss of control that we witnessed.
