I've just went to my father, & asked him about 81 incidents, to get the true story..
Yes your right it shouldn't have been resolved like that (excessive force) it was a mistake, but do you know who was behind this mistake the one who did all that, he was a senior officer called "Refa'at Al-Assad & vice president Abdulhaleem Khadam" he was the late president (Hafez Al-Assad) brother, they were stupid & took advantage of the presidents illness, but later the president punished them with exile even tho he was his brother, but he caused unrepairable damage.
my father said that he was even gonna hit him in front of all the people of Hama.

Now that's the true, plain and simple (words from my fathers mouth).

Hafez Al-Assad "God have mercy on his soul" & Dr. Bashar Al-Assad were & will always be the best 2 leaders in the history of Syria.