据报道，我们的欧洲邻国又传出了更多混乱的消息：这一次是在德国，柏林、科隆、汉堡以及该国金融中心法兰克福均遭到暴徒破坏。
More chaos has been reported from our European neighbours: this time in Germany, where mobs have devastated Berlin, Cologne, Hamburg and Frankfurt, the country’s financial centre.
学生们对学校资金不足、高昂的生活成本以及公共开支削减感到不满，他们原本举行的是大多和平的示威活动，但却演变成了一如过去几周在法国那样的夜间骚乱和疯狂略夺，安全部队被迫出动盾牌、警棍和水炮予以回应。
Mostly peaceful demonstrations by students unhappy about underfunding of schools, the high cost of living and public spending cuts were transformed – as was the case in the last few weeks in France – into night-time riots and orgies of looting, to which the security forces were forced to respond with shields, batons and water cannons.
我们必须问一问，为什么合法且有组织的抗议游行会如此轻易地被执迷于革命战术的激进政治力量所利用。我们也应该感到庆幸——或许是暗地里双手指交叠祈祷——我们的城市在过去几年里经受的许多游行还没有受到类似利用。至少目前还没有。
We must ask why legitimate and organised protest marches are so easily exploited by militant political forces hellbent on revolutionary tactics. And we should be grateful – perhaps with crossed fingers behind our backs – that the many marches that our cities have endured in the last few years have not been similarly exploited. Yet.
极左翼活动分子加入此类示威活动，却只是为了沉溺于只会疏远绝大多数忧虑观察者的暴力行动，其战术中的政治意义实在难以看出。清晰阐述、论据充分且证据确凿的关切表达能够吸引公众支持；向警察投掷汽油弹则永远不能。
It is hard to see the political sense in the tactics by hard-Left activists who join such demonstrations only to indulge in violent action that simply alienates the vast majority of worried observers. An articulate and well-argued, well-evidenced expression of concern can attract public support; throwing petrol bombs at police officers never will.
暴徒的本质和动机可以轻易地被揭露，与其说他们源于对社会公正的渴望，不如说他们更具无政府主义色彩。对于发现自己多年的辛勤工作和牺牲在一夜暴力中付诸东流的小店主来说，社会公正何在？暴徒真正的目标——政客、银行家和大公司——在巴黎或科隆又有一家小企业被大火吞噬时，受到了一丝一毫的影响吗？
The very nature and motivations of the rioters can be easily exposed as more anarchic than born of a desire for social justice. Where is the social justice for the small shop owner who finds that years of hard work and sacrifice have been destroyed by a single night of violence? In what way are the mob’s real targets – the politicians, the bankers and the large corporations – remotely affected by another fire engulfing another small business in Paris or Cologne?
如果说少数族裔可能在抗议针对他们的种族化偏见，那么夜复一夜的暴力和破坏场面究竟对他们的诉求有何帮助，而不是让情况变得更糟？
And to the extent that ethnic minorities might be protesting racialised prejudice against them, how do nightly scenes of violence and devastation help their cause rather than make it far worse?
欧洲大陆（以及必要时的我们）的政客必须避免纵容这样一种观念，即年轻人只有在有合法诉求时才会变得暴力。法国和德国遭受的那类暴力绝无借口可言。只有对肇事者绳之以法，我们才能期盼避免此类场面再次上演。
Politicians on the Continent (and, if necessary, here) must avoid indulging the notion that young people become violent only when they have a legitimate complaint. There can be no excuse for the kind of violence France and Germany have suffered. Only by meting out justice to the perpetrators can we hope to avoid scenes like these being repeated.