EDITORIAL - Protests, yes; vandalism, no

Several European countries are now being gripped perhaps we can even say being held hostage by a series of protests.

In France, protests began as student-led demonstrations over teacher shortages and poor school conditions, but those from other walks of life quickly joined in, citing soaring living costs, high energy prices,

In Belgium, people are protesting against government budget cuts, austerity measures, rising education costs, and higher tuition reforms; more or less the same things the French are up against.

In Italy, people are protesting because of the high cost of fuel and shortage of affordable housing.

But some protesters have gone above and beyond just airing their grievances. In Paris, they have looted shops and burned cars. In Limoges, they even burned down a 140-year-old town hall. Shops have also been pilfered in Milan and Turin.

There is nothing wrong with expressing dissatisfaction with how your government is doing, but when you commit willful destruction of government and private property as well as theft then that is something else.

Legitimate outrage should not to turn into theft or vandalism.

The violence must stop. Years from now people will not remember that protesters stood up for what they believed in, they will remember that it was a scary time because people ran amok doing whatever they wanted to do, including breaking the law.

There is another good reason to stop all the unnecessary violence. We are sure some extremist groups are looking to take advantage of the chaos and the hate being misdirected toward certain ethnic groups, particularly migrants, to advance their objectives.

This is also a good time for them to gauge how difficult it may actually be to attack some hard targets and how authorities and different government offices and agencies will respond to certain acts.

We are also sure large groups of people congregating present a juicy target for terrorists. All it takes is just one bomb, one speeding vehicle, one gun to turn a crowd into casualties.