They should have just called them riots, then. "I remember hearing that in certain protests a couple years ago" or "I remember hearing that in certain riots a couple years ago" would both work. The wording as-is is provocative for no actual benefit to the point.

Whether you agree with their position or not, it's not really relevant to this discussion to draw attention to the ethics of those protests/riots.

The comment didn't need to mention it at all, especially considering that it was preceded by "I remember hearing." It didn't add anything to the point about security and it goes against the spirit of the site.

Using quotes is sarcasm and mockery.

It is not a good look.

It costs nothing to be polite. Even if your political beliefs revere rudeness, leave it at home here.

Here's a thought: if there is both protesting and rioting going on, we don't have to say this is either protesting or rioting. This implies the venn diagram of the protesters and rioters is a circle. It could be, but there also could be no overlap whatsoever. Pretending it is necessarily a circle -- they are one and the same -- is asserting a political point of view.

(Also, this makes it easy to delegitimize any protest: send some looters. As soon as anyone loots simultaneous with and adjacent to the protests, it is now a riot.)

It's not that it's a controversial political view, it's that it's really not relevant to this discussion.