"Excesses"? The Germans Really ARE a Tolerant Bunch!

I like to give the benefit of the doubt to someone whose words I can only read in translation.

I have no German outside of a few art song phrases.

So when I read that after what some think is too long a period of time, (might one say, an "excessive" delay...?) a German bishop has spoken out about the organized gangs of molesters and thieves that plagued New Year's celebrations in their country, and he is quoted as decrying the disturbing and intolerable "excesses in Cologne and other large cities," I figure something was lost in translation.

But here is the German:

Die Exzesse in Köln und anderen Großstädten sind für unsere Gesellschaft zutiefst verstörend und können in keiner Weise toleriert werden.

"Excesses," to me, implies that which in moderation is perfectly acceptable, no?
As if a little bit of pickpocketing and grab-ass with unwilling victims would have been fine, all fun and games? but the perpetrators just went a bit too far?

Ah, the Germans....