Restoring order is a top priority, or should be
[NOTE: Here’s a recommended article by Andrew C. McCarthy entitled, “The President Has the Constitutional Power to Restore Order. He Must Act.”]
We hardly needed any more proof that our society is in terrible trouble. But we’ve gotten it in the failure of government authorities to restore order in riot-torn cities a timely fashion. That’s one of the most basic functions of government, and too many people have lost either the will to do it or the skill to do it.
That loss of will can be a result of leftist ideology (including the cultivation of guilt in those with “privilege”) or of cowardice, although I suppose the two are not mutually exclusive. But civil society requires that people feel a sense of basic safety in their homes, their workplaces, and their property, or it descends into chaos because there never will be enough police to ensure safety in an environment in which those things are not generally respected.
That used to be a universally accepted truth. Not so much anymore.
Some time ago I read an article on the history of the night watchman. Prior to reading it, I had imagined night watchmen to be picturesque figures, lanterns in hand, but I had never thought deeply about their function, which was to be the first policemen back in the days when city streets at night were not otherwise illuminated:
It had been recognized for centuries that the coming of darkness to the unlit streets of a town brought a heightened threat of danger, and that the night provided cover to the disorderly and immoral, and to those bent on robbery or burglary or who in other ways threatened physical harm to people in the streets and in their houses.
The anxieties that darkness gave rise to had been met by the formation [in London] of a night watch in the 13th century, and by the rules about who could use the streets after dark. These rules had for long been underpinned in London and other towns by the curfew, the time (announced by the ringing of a bell) at which the gates closed and the streets were cleared. Only people with good reason to be abroad could then travel through the city. Anyone outside at night without reason or permission was suspicious and potentially criminal…
During the 1820s, mounting crime levels and increasing political and industrial disorder prompted calls for reform, led by Sir Robert Peel, which culminated in the demise of the watchmen and their replacement by a uniformed metropolitan police force.
Note, also, that the cities had gates that could be closed.
Our modern police forces patrol the streets in vehicles, but the police forces’ numbers and training and the politics of blue cities often make the police alone inadequate to deal with a large group of rioters bent on destruction. It doesn’t matter if the majority of people in the crowd are bona fide “peaceful protestors” if a significant and dangerous number are not, and if authorities wink at the violence and allow it to happen.
That endangers everyone – black, white, or purple. It also sends a signal to anyone else bent on destruction that it will be tolerated and then it’s open season on the rest of the population.
It is intolerable that we have people in the desperate situation of the woman in this video, crying because her neighborhood has been destroyed. It didn’t have to be this way. But as soon as the police station in Minneapolis was allowed to burn, that was the sign that told the rioters, the nihilists, the sociopaths, whoever in that crowd was looking to destroy and harm, that there would be no negative consequences and few risks to their own hides from their behavior.
And so, as they used to say, burn baby burn. If anyone thinks he or she is immune because of leftist sympathies, or race, or anything else, think again. The perpetrators do not care.
And the press is actively engaged in the struggle, at least in the sense of words, and they’re not on the side of the enforcement of order. Their support and sympathy for the rioters (unless, of course, they can foster the idea that they’re from the far-right) can be overt, but more commonly it’s subtle. For an example of the more subtle type, we have this AP article published at Politico [emphasis mine]:
Cheering protesters torched a Minneapolis police station that the department abandoned as three days of violent protests spread to nearby St. Paul and angry demonstrations flared across the U.S over the death of George Floyd, a handcuffed black man who pleaded for air as a white police officer kneeled on his neck.
A police spokesman confirmed late Thursday that staff had evacuated the 3rd Precinct station, the focus of many of the protests, “in the interest of the safety of our personnel” shortly after 10 p.m. Livestream video showed the protesters entering the building, where fire alarms blared and sprinklers ran as blazes were set.
Yes, of course there were protests, but those who set the fires were not just “protestors” any more (if they ever were to begin with) when they committed this act. Minneapolis’ youthful mayor later took responsibility for ordering the police station evacuated. At a press conference, when a reporter asked him, ““What’s the plan here?”, Frey answered “With regard to?”, as though it wasn’t obvious what the reporter might be referring to.
In that entire AP article, fires are mentioned many times but quite often there is no agent responsible for setting them. On reading certain parts of the article, a person might be forgiven for thinking that a bunch of buildings in Minneapolis were loaded with old oil-soaked rags waiting to spontaneously combust.
At least one person is quoted as being upset about the fires and the people who set them, and wasn’t afraid to say it:
“We’re burning our own neighborhood,” said a distraught Deona Brown, a 24-year-old woman standing with a friend outside the precinct station, where a small group of protesters were shouting at a dozen or so stone-faced police officers in riot gear. “This is where we live, where we shop, and they destroyed it.” No officers could be seen beyond the station.
“What that cop did was wrong, but I’m scared now,” Brown said.
As well she might be.
The AP writers followed that quote from Brown with this one, which gives you a good idea of the attitude of at least one (and probably a lot more) of the perpetrators:
Others in the crowd saw something different in the wreckage.
Protesters destroyed property “because the system is broken,” said a young man who identified himself only by his nickname, Cash, and who said he had been in the streets during the violence. He dismissed the idea that the destruction would hurt residents of the largely black neighborhood.
“They’re making money off of us,” he said angrily of the owners of the destroyed stores. He laughed when asked if he had joined in the looting or violence. “I didn’t break anything.”
Simplistic leftist rhetoric, and laughter at the plight of the residents. And he doesn’t feel the least bit afraid of what might happen to him as a result.
Why am I focusing so much on the way the article is written? Because it’s symptomatic of the role of the press today, which feasts off the crisis and yet refuses to describe it properly, continuing to play the PC language game for political reasons.
The larger message has already been received, and not just in Minneapolis, but across the nation: most local and state authorities in blue states refuse to do anything effective to stop those who would destroy. And it’s much easier to destroy than to build.
[NOTE: See this for some more choice words from the mayors of American’s blue cities. And the photos that happen to be displayed there are mostly of white “protestors,” many of whom are attacking high-end shopping districts and scrawling anti-capitalist slogans. Antifa-style class warfare.]
Everything gentry liberals touch, they ruin.
And now these leftists have rediscovered the second amendment-sadly for the wrong reason. In any case, they now thinks it’s ok to own guns as it’s ok to do violence against a system that they consider bad and people then consider evil. They are “righteous”. MLK’s peaceful resistance is now passe. On to Revolution or early Civil War. Or as a friend recently said, “and Newsom doesn’t understand why someone would want to own a gun with an extended magazine?” I used to joke to friends “when seconds count, the police are minutes away”. Now I don’t think we can count on them. Best to be prepared.
The gutless mayors and governors have let the violence grow. Innocent people have suffered in the bluest of blue cities and states, and some still parrot the liberal brainwash.
The country was united in revulsion at the murder of Floyd. Now the BAM has squandered that united feeling and been used by Antifa and the democrats (but I repeat myself).
In a country with 300 million firearms, the lack of shootings is the “dog that didn’t ark”. More died of shootings in Detroit and Chicago in a single weekend before Floyd was murdered than in the week following.
That will not long remain the case if the riots continue. I remember what happened in K-Town of LA during those riots. The shop owners defended their livelihood.
As I said. Prepare for the second wave/hit. And the third stage. And the 4th stage, 2020.
Enjoy, humanity. Wake up, or suffer. Up to you.
The press is an accessory to the crime every time they refer to the people breaking curfew as “protesters”. Once curfew falls, everyone outside is a law breakers. In large groups they become rioters, and in specific instances looter as well.
Watching the “festivities” you can see the folks who start the window breaking seldom go inside. Several videos out there show the people dressed in black with crowbars or hammers damaging the windows and moving on as the following sheep and opportunists complete the damage.
I am sure the mainstream media in the US, and other jurisdictions, are hoping that President Trump escalates in the name of protecting the helpless. You know that every death that happens will be laid at his feet and used as a further excuse to cause mayhem and damage.
Is there any injustice in allowing weak liberals to be devoured by the monsters they have themselves spawned? Is there any reason to be concerned with or to make allowances for them when they come running for shelter or refuge after the chickens have come home to roost in their hair?
What right do the weak and sensitive who have enabled their own depredation have to call on the strong or the prepared for rescue?
Let it burn for awhile. Things will sort themselves out one way or another. The important thing is to make sure the lines are well drawn and stay that way until the day of reckoning arrives.
If the police pull back, and disappear from the scene for awhile, it might be best for all concerned, in the long run. Self-help is the ultimate individual right; and they are just getting in the way at the moment.
“The President Has the Constitutional Power to Restore Order.
Agreed its said it all, He is the top man.
No one hating law & order unless the “menaces”
Interesting article on the Watch – who were originally supposed to be local citizens, but began hiring substitutes, and that moved on to a fully-hired body of police.
Sad to say, “cop” is not an acronym for “constable/citizen on patrol” but derives from a verb meaning to take or seize (as in “cop a feel” if you are Biden or Bush pere).
When they stay out of politics, Wikipedia and Snopes do a fairly credible job of information delivery.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/cop-talk/
However, I am moved to lament, “Where are Vimes and Vetenari when you need them?”
At the bus stop today, I overheard an African-American man say he took part in some looting. He went for the cigarettes, wine and beer as nothing else interested him.
Two Target stores and some other nearby businesses were “protested” against.
@ TJ,
Your exasperated parody [inversion of] of revolutionary rhetoric aside, the answer – if one is looking for clarity to emerge – is, as I see it, to step back, and let it happen.
Conservatives are being continually drawn into participating in activities that only end up prolonging a degenerating status quo which tends to insulate the hand wringing progressive malefactors, talking heads, and political actors from the redounding physical effects of their previous activities and rhetoric.
There is some parallel here with those lines of law enforcement officers who, despised by their own communities, are blamed, yet simultaneously brought in to play as rubber bumpers which the lunatic left is allowed to crash against in some kind of perverse exercise in public theater.
Is it their job to take a beating?
Is it the conservative’s or libertarian’s job to save the progressive from himself by dialoging, and compromising, and offering pro forma expressions of sympathy and understanding, and possibly an existential out, to people who are just about to spring the trap door on themselves after having placed a noose around their own necks? If so, why? What does it buy you but continued subjection to their insanity?
Now, I know that there are lots of self-sacrificing people in the world. And some of them are so-called conservatives, who are just looking for an altar upon which they may lay down their lives as an innocent victim who gave up the ghost while in the act of “saving (or trying to save) annoying or bad people from themselves and the coming blow-back”.
Well, these types obviously have a mysterious power of insight into the heart of hearts of these atheist marxist progressive revolutionaries that I don’t have … as they seem to imagine they see a kernel of something kin-like in these murderous militant totalitarians, AND their progressive enablers, that I can neither see nor infer from their public pronouncements.
And what that mysterious value or virtue might be, which makes them worth saving, completely escapes me.
Back in the day, I had some experiences which caused me to favor Kipling’s “Tommy” Including the implicit threat in the last two lines:
“An’ Tommy ain’t a bloomin’ fool,”
“You bet that Tommy sees.”
Kipling wasn’t the first and today’s front line guys won’t be the last.
Somewhere between Third World and anarchy.
As we speak, local TV is showing one of the major freeways in LA with a crowd across about 5 of the six lanes. (That is an improvement over previous days.) When the aerial shot draws back, you can see dozens of police cars idling on a side street.
Citizens no longer matter.
Meanwhile, politicians are falling all over themselves pandering. I know it is silly to ask, “what is the point?”. The Cop has been arrested and charged. By any reasonable measure the system worked.
PS I do not blame the police. They are following the direction of their political leadership; and there is certainly no incentive to put themselves at risk without the backing of that leadership.
As police dispersed a peaceful protest outside the White House, President Trump spoke in the Rose Garden, calling for an end to “violence and destruction,” saying that he will deploy the US military if state governors do not reign in the protests that emerged in response to the death of George Floyd.
https://twitter.com/i/events/1267542688020066304
For a day by day description of the mayhem in Minneapolis, trundle on over to Vanderleun’s blog. It will provide more insight than you’ll ever get from the media. You cannot fill a prescription now in the Twin Cities area. All the pharmacies have been looted/burned or both.
It’s long but well worth the read.
http://americandigest.org/minneapolis-by-ad-reader-gordon-scott/#more-17778
Reasonably honest representative government and private property protected by courts and laws is the equation for a successful economy. The Democrats have forgotten that it is the business owners who pay the taxes that pay their salaries and fund their SJW schemes. Business owners are not going to forget that these Democrat mayors and governors have failed to protect them. The customers who can no longer get their groceries and medicines in their cities or neighborhoods are not going to forget this. If Trump can make good on his promise to stop the violence, there will be a red wave in November.
The “protesters” are lucky they dont have the kind of government they wish they had, otherwise, undertakers would be making a lot more money than with just Covid (if not, then the worms would not go hungry this year)
“…are not going to forget…”
One might wish to think so, but there will be a ferocious Democratic Party-driven campaign (amplified by the corrupt media) to blame Trump and the Right for this mayhem.
The pathetic (if audacious!) attempt to deflect the riots onto extreme Right-wing elements is just the start of it. There will be even more intense media saturation of “the message”, of “the truth” of Trump’s (and his supporters’) criminal, racist culpability.
(And don’t forget the 1619 project. Won’t take much to resurrect that sublime work; nor will it matter that it’s entirely bogus.)
The question, therefore, is whether “the people” will actually (continue to?) buy it.
One hopes that an utterly corrupted MSCM (and Democratic Party) will reveal their true colors to those who may not already be aware of it.
Barry Meislin on June 2, 2020 at 12:20 am said:
“…are not going to forget…”
One might wish to think so, but there will be a ferocious Democratic Party-driven campaign (amplified by the corrupt media) to blame Trump and the Right for this mayhem.
The pathetic (if audacious!) attempt to deflect the riots onto extreme Right-wing elements is just the start of it. There will be even more intense media saturation of “the message”, of “the truth” of Trump’s (and his supporters’) criminal, racist culpability.
* * *
That’s already started of course, as you say.
Once again — as with the virus travel bans, most recently — the President will be criticized by the Left if he cracks down on the rioters, and by the Right if he doesn’t.
If he doesn’t crack down, though, he will still be criticized by the Left just as if he had, so do the math.
Gordon Scott at the American Digest post J J linked nails it, I think.
“The thing is, all of these “protesters” are the Democrat base. Perhaps more the Bernie base than the Biden base, but Dems through and through. So Governor Walz and Mayor Frey are absolutely terrified of anyone in authority harming one hair on the protesters’ heads. Now if these people were wearing MAGA hats, then things would be different.”
Scroll on down to Gordon’s final comment (to date) — you can see where the seeds for lawless disorder were planted.
http://americandigest.org/minneapolis-by-ad-reader-gordon-scott/#comment-38046
I spoke to my brother’s widow. She lives in Minneapolis near Lake. Her daughter told her of looking down the alley in the back of the house and seeing someone had stockpiled accelerant . She also told me that it was “white supremacists who did it”, so just remember the left owns the “news”.
There was evil planning behind this. Not saying his death was planned, but evil men were prepared to take advantage. Our problem: They have 40,000 “soldiers” who take orders from those who would destroy America. It is war, but only a “little” hot now.
My fantasy is that there is evidence to tie Soros to the communist “antifascists”, and his money is confiscated to pay victims. I can hope…But that is not my true Hope.
What worries me is if true hot civil war hits America, the world suffers even more than we. No food for China. Everyone takes advantage to fight their wars of revenge. Think how Jimmy Stewart’s character’s absence changes things in “It’s a wonderful Life”. My current estimate is 2 billion dead, “only” 150 million Americans. Be very careful of wishing for the current civil war and attempted coup to go hot. You may get that wish, and die. I am behind enemy lines. I never post with my true name. I expect to be an early casualty. In 1861, no one knew the horror they were about to endure. The left seems determined to push us over the abyss.
My faith keeps me from fear. My favorite hymn is “How firm a Foundation”, so many great lines to remember in times of trouble. “Be not afraid, for I Am with you…” Read the 22nd Psalm, aka “David’s complaint”. It is OK to complain to God in times of trouble.
People who live contentedly in a wealthy democracy will never understand the irrational hatred some people have for liberty, wealth, and a republic.
Since the founding of socialism and communism, its victims—and today that is America—despite the examples in Russia and Germany, continue to think that its proponents will listen to reason, look at reality, and come around to believing that blessings of liberty are worth respecting.
There is zero chance that Obama (either), Ayers, Boudin will ever want anything other than mass murder, brutality, tyranny, and oppression.
” Business owners are not going to forget that these Democrat mayors and governors have failed to protect them. The customers who can no longer get their groceries and medicines in their cities or neighborhoods are not going to forget this.”
Maybe; I’m NOT so sure. The Dems will blame Trump, the news will blame Trump, college experts on TV will blame Trump, the low-info customers who can’t buy stuff will be told, ad nauseum, that “it’s Trump’s Fault”.
The path to Dem victory is to falsely blame Trump for bad things that happen; and encourage the bad things to happen and bad results.
There needs to be more drones with cameras watching, and more undercover police as part of the protesters watching, and far more and better methods of identifying those who start throwing bricks.
More arrests are needed. Like those Dems in NY who tried to murder cops.
Last night was the first curfew in ny in over half a century
Tonight the curfew moves to 8pm instead of 11
The ‘protestors’ looted shops up and down madison ave
and they did a big number in SoHo, and other very left liberal enclaves
IT may turn out surprising after this… that the people who played i support the revolution games may start to realize that this revolution will not leave them untouched, and will not make them more secure. It will destroy their dreams and all they worked for, and leave nothing and no means to get back to it or to work in those dreams again.
How many left liberal socialists have boutique shops and galleries and so forth in SoHo, and other areas of the village in NY? how many of the same wealthy versions had shops on Madison?
As the newsies are finding out, their position of fealty to the cause went completely unrewarded… they blew through their businesses and attacked them when it was opportun without regard to that prior support. SAME with these boutique busineses in ny, in which people with this revolutionary patina worked for decades to put together the cash and open these things up and have their dream of a clothing shop they made clothes for, skateboard shops to be a part of the miniverse they loved, and on and on…
while i am quite doubtful, there may be a blowback to the left..
there may be a realization that when that revolution comes you hold your fist up for, its not going to come without destruction, fear, uncertainty, and definitely without the businesses and means you worked for and dreamed of creating to serve other like minded people.
This was the way of the two revolutions in Russia, in which everything was destroyed, turned over, and razed to the ground never to return. That to continue using your cash to help these causes is to insure, one day, they will come for you and your capitalist business, your jobs, and if you have some nice home, come for that too…
I hope they wake up to the result of their desires and GET REAL
Here in Snohomish County, the authorities got an intel report that the Antifa thugs were planning to come here. Preparations have been made. Armed citizens are taking up positions in store front areas. A reporter asked one citizen with a long gun why he was escalating things. His reply was that his gun was a de-escalator – that it prevents riots and violence from starting. True.
The Tulalip tribe, that has several large stores and a mall on their reservation, is ready for anything. They have tribal police, county sheriff’s deputies, and state patrol on guard. The rioters may come, but they will face determined resistance from the start.
People in neighborhoods are sitting out on their porches in the evenings with phones and firearms at the ready. Snohomish County is about 50% red neck. It’s run primarily by Democrats, but there are plenty of conservative thinking people here. The county sheriff is a conservative and a law and order man. He will not stand by and watch “protests” turn into riots of looting and arson. More counties and cities need to be prepared. Antifa primarily strikes the unprepared, the soft on crime places. When the first person to break a window is arrested or shot, it sends a message. They may be “tough guys ” and thugs but they don’t want to go to prison for a long sentence or die.
IMO, it’s going to take citizen involvement and readiness to push back to stop the Antifa thugs. Best to stop them before they get started. The Boy Scout motto is “BE PREPARED.” It certainly applies to this situation.
“Snohomish County is about 50% red neck. It’s run primarily by Democrats, but there are plenty of conservative thinking people here” – J J
I would ask the obvious question, but there are far too many mostly-conservative areas where the Democrats wriggle into power by various means. A lot of Texas (cities-on-the-plains) is like that.
Conservatives don’t fight as hard for elective office and non-elective positions because they aren’t interested in wielding that much power over their neighbors.
Leftists fight all the time, because that’s their only objective.
Must-read by Victor Davis Hanson, interviewed by Carlson.
https://www.redstate.com/elizabeth-vaughn/2020/06/02/gov.-cuomo-the-president-is-calling-out-the-american-military-against-american-citizens/
For Presbypoet and others with left-liberal friends who only know what they hear on CNN: the white supremacists are not involved — according to the SPLC!
https://www.redstate.com/bradslager/2020/06/02/narrative-disintigrated-new-york-times-and-the-southern-poverty-law-center-shoot-down-claims-of-riots-caused-by-white-supremacists/
Why I picked on CNN for this:
https://www.redstate.com/bonchie/2020/06/02/cnn-is-basically-infowars-now-as-don-lemon-has-a-mental-break-on-air/
Restoring order – a great example!
https://www.redstate.com/nick-arama/2020/06/02/these-rioters-who-wanted-to-mess-things-up-got-a-big-surprise-from-ufc-star-jon-jones/
Watch the videos of Alburquerque citizens uniting to protect and clean up.
Amidst all the violence and lies, there are so many uplifting stories of people like Jones and other unidentified citizens stepping in to stop the activists — Red State has several and they can be found easily outside the MSM.
“These riots effectively are the largest Joe Biden for President rally on record.”
I pulled that out of Tucker Carlson’s monologue because it’s pithy- short and true.
However, he rightfully excoriates leaders and followers of all political and ethnic factions. (transcript)
https://thefederalist.com/2020/06/02/tucker-carlson-this-is-how-nations-collapse/#.XtZgu1_FGHg.twitter
You can pick your own favorite lines.
Artfldgr:
Leftist revolutionary dilettantes say “NIMBY.”
Question – is the new nom ArtfldgrUselessNothing our old friend the Artful Dodger under an alias, or someone different?
I want to tailor my reaction according to the answer.
AesopFan: “I would ask the obvious question, but there are far too many mostly-conservative areas where the Democrats wriggle into power by various means.”
Yes, the conservatives here are people with lives. They work, fish, climb mountains, ski, have barbeques, build things, go to church, etc. They are live and let live sorts. Politics is way down on their list of priorities. The Dems are obsessed with politics. It’s their life. And all; the local media is progressive. So, they win elections. But we elected a conservative sheriff in the last election. Crime was getting out of hand and the old sheriff was dong nothing about it. Enough people noticed and voted for Sheriff Fortney. Of course the Dems are hard at work trying to smear him as a storm trooper. That’s what they do. Still, this is not a county where Antifa will be able to run wild. At least that’s the view I’m seeing.
J.J. —
I live in Seattle proper, down by White Center (for the non-Washingtonians, White Center is an unincorporated area that is heavily minority and heavily ethnically diverse, with a historic gang and crime problem, although it’s been gentrifying in the last few years).
There hasn’t been a peep of unrest. Neither am I hearing anything about protests and/or rioting in the heavily black neighborhoods. It’s all in (white, hipster, urbanite) Capitol Hill and downtown.
Hm. I wonder why that is?
/sarc
Dwayne said,
Once curfew falls, everyone outside is a law breakers.
In Seattle last night, there was a great outcry because the cops dispersed a large crowd with pepper spray and tear gas, more or less without warning.
Of course, what everybody complaining about conveniently ignores is that it happened at 9pm, four hours after the official curfew.
People don’t seem to realize that “curfew” is code for GO HOME NOW, WE MEAN IT. After that, enforcement of the curfew can come at the government’s discretion and nobody has anything to complain about.
If you think curfews are unjust, then “civil disobedience” means you accept that you might be punished to one degree or another, and you don’t get to complain about the punishment except to point out the law is unjust.
On the other hand, if curfews are unjust in the face of civil disorder, then why aren’t the lockdowns in the face of Covid? Because I swear that the same people out violating curfew were scolding everyone about wanting to kill Grandma a week ago.
I don’t know about you folks, but I fully support the goals of Black Lives Matter. They don’t want the cops in their neighborhood. Good. Send them to my neighborhood!