If someone says "I'm not condoning their actions but I think I understand where this is coming from" and you hear that as "I condone their actions" then that is your intellectual failing. For you, stage-managed images of Boris with broom and calls for water cannons, the 'natural' economic pecking order and the primacy of property restored, and no lessons learned.

There's definitely a problem with the word 'excuses' isn't there - 'oh you're just making excuses for them'. Actually it's things like 'it's just the fault of the parents/the school holidays' etc that sound more like excuses (expedient justifications) as opposed to any deeper reflection on the causes/context.