‘Protests’

Odd phrasing in the following, I thought:

At the beginning of the pandemic, Garda Commissioner Drew Harris said far right groups were a national security concern and were being monitored. Garda sources said events organised by the far right usually attract small numbers. But they said that may change, underlining the need for constant monitoring.

Gardaí said that despite the modest size of the far right in Ireland, there was still concern that some people, either linked to the groups or acting alone, could become “riled up” at protests and lash out at public representatives or other public figures.

Surely public representatives or other public figures would be behind at least one other group of vulnerable people in all this who might see some ‘riled up’ or ‘lash out’ at them? 

For example:

A Co Kildare man has appeared in court charged with threatening to burn down a hotel in Athy being used to accommodate asylum seekers.

Stephen O’Rourke, a supporter of the anti-immigration National Party, was ordered to stay 500 metres away from the hotel when he appeared in court on Thursday afternoon.

He was also ordered not to contact its staff or residents.

Mr O’Rourke (43), who lives in the town, had been helping to organise an anti-asylum protest planned for Athy on Thursday night, one of about a dozen demonstrations scheduled to take place around the country. He was arrested outside his home in Athy on Thursday morning as part of a Garda investigation into alleged threats to cause damage to the hotel.