I&I Editorial
When a group of black bloc “protesters” arrived over the weekend at a Fort Collins, Colorado, neighborhood that was hosting a pro-police rally, the locals turned back the troublemakers. It wasn’t a particularly vicious encounter. But it was a foretaste. We’ll be seeing more violence in our streets unless elected leaders start doing their jobs.
Everyday Americans, seeing the savagery committed without consequence by Antifa, and in the name of Black Lives Matter, are fed up. They’ve seen the looting, the destruction, the assaults, and the death that the “mostly peaceful” demonstrators are leaving behind. They understand the difference between constitutional, peaceful protests and barbaric riots that are intended to destabilize and crack apart our society and Western civilization. And they’ve watched elected officials not only approve of the violence but in some cases encourage it.
But if those elected officials don’t soon take back the streets from the criminals, everyday Americans might soon do the job for them. We leave it to columnist and Hoover Institution fellow Victor Davis Hanson to make this point far more eloquently than we can:
There will be a counterrevolution because without one there is not much of America left. And about 250 million people liked the America prior to March 1 and finally, in extremis, won’t so easily give it up.
In addition to law enforcement supporters in Fort Collins forcefully marching the “protesters” out of their neighborhood, a 77-year-old Portland woman pleaded last week “with anti-police protesters to stop the destructive vandalism amid weeks of unrest in the city – only to have paint dumped over her head,” according to the New York Post. She said she “just got heated under the collar” and felt she had to defend her neighborhood.
Over the weekend, Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best’s neighbors, some with guns, challenged a menacing-looking dressed-in-black group that appeared to be “walking in the direction” of the chief’s home.
“Neighbors worried what might come next,” the media reported.
Police Chief Best might have been able to make a difference early on had she not been handcuffed by politicians. Now she has no chance. Best announced her resignation Monday evening, effective Sept. 2, after the Seattle City Council voted to reduce the police force by as many as 100 officers, and cut its budget, as well as the salaries of Best and other high-ranking officers.
As unpleasant as things appear to be now, they will only grow worse if elected officials continue to pretend the violence and destruction is part of 2020’s “summer of love.” Street justice will be meted out summarily by Americans weary of riotous mobs destroying, swarming and assaulting innocents, illegally (and menacingly) blocking streets and sidewalks, wrecking public and private property, and, in some cases, killing. It will be a regrettable chapter in our history.
In fact, the introduction has already been written:
- In late July, weeks after the riots began, Best sent a letter to business owners and residents, telling them that a city ordinance restricting police operations to control crowds “gives officers no ability to safely intercede to preserve property in the midst of a large, violent crowd.”
- The Portland Police Association has told Mayor Ted Wheeler and District Attorney Mike Schmidt, another prosecutor who appears to be in office to avoid prosecuting crimes, that if city hall continues its laissez faire policy toward riots, “Portland is lost.”
- Meanwhile, “a record number” of retirements appears to be running through the Portland Police Bureau. There are multiple factors behind the departures, says PJ Media’s Victoria Taft, but “on balance, it’s the riots and attacks on police officers and budgetary ‘defund the police’ antics that have demoralized the cops, causing them to get out.”
- One-third of the force in Minneapolis, where George Floyd died in police custody, might leave “by the end of the year with no replacements in sight,” reports HotAir.
The pullbacks not only embolden rioters, they encourage other felonious behavior.
“In two cities where the police have pulled back from urban areas, they’ve been replaced by armed gangs demanding protection money, increased violence and, yes, prejudice against people who ‘don’t belong,’” law professor and Instapundit blogger Glenn Reynolds wrote in Tuesday’s USA Today.
When law enforcement won’t or can’t do the job, then it falls to others. We can almost guarantee that when civilians impose sentences on the rioters, the outlaws will be treated much more brutally than if the police were keeping the peace. It won’t be pretty but it will be effective.
— Written by the I&I Editorial Board
Using these vague “policy violations,” Google is now threatening to demonetize us. It’s part of Big Tech’s effort to silence conservative voices.
If there’s a resort to vigilante justice, it will have been brought about – as you point out – by the supine politicians in Portland, Seattle, Minneapolis, Chicago and elsewhere, all of whom declare themselves proudly progressive. Nevertheless, those politicians were put in office by their now angry constituents.
If, as you say, the people are becoming angry and disgusted, will that mean that those political enablers will be removed from office at the next opportunity .. if a next opportunity is allowed to occur? Or will they be defenestrated by angry citizens who’ve seen their lives threatened and their property destroyed because the people they elected to work in their common interests have utterly failed in their jobs?
Cynic that I am, I foresee the “mostly peaceful” demonstrations ending shortly after the November election if Biden-Harris should win. Otherwise, if Trump wins, they will continue unabated and will, if anything, become more violent. And, at that point, the violence of the extreme left will be met with violence from the extreme right. And Joe Six-pack will be where he always is – in the middle and holding the bag,wondering just what the devil happened.
For myself, I won’t go looking for trouble. And, although I hope the day never arrives, I am prepared to meet any violence directed at me or mine with appropriate force.
I see the Covid insanity ending shortly after November 4. I expect the street violence to ramp up significantly.
Keep electing Democrats, and there’s no end to the Detroitification of American cities.
I seen the Fort Collins video. Good for the Patriots taken back their neighborhood! They asked Antifa to leave and they chose to continue with their drama. So, the Patriots taught them a lesson. Also, I seen the video of the elderly lady that got paint thrown on her face. That was gut wrenching to watch. Surprised she made it out alive because a large group of them was surrounding her. Yes, elected officials have to step up. If their apart of the group, then that meets the definition of treason. Many have earned with their words and actions to be tried for treason.
There are many of us just looking to connect and organize with other like-minded individuals right now.
Gab
@andystern
I used to keep most of my guns at home. The only one I typically carried with me was my little 380ACP, and it lived in the center console of my car.
Now, the .380 sits in my front pocket everywhere I go. My 9 mm is in a backpack in the trunk. And my AR-15 is in a duffel bag next to the 9 mm.
I specifically built the AR to run silenced, and I have a silencer, as well as a brass catcher so as not to leave anything behind. I will not be stopped. I will not be attacked. I will be an active participant in any engagement Antifa-BLM wants to have.
And unless I’m caught by surprise, I won’t be engaging on video. And it’s my expectation that there will be no video evidence of my presence. The cops aren’t there to help us anymore. Their job is to persecute us for defending our lives and the lives of our families.
They have knelt in fealty to Antifa-BLM, and for my tax dollars, I’m 100% in support of #defundpolice. Why should I pay you to betray me?
Organize, Americans. Get proactive. Save our country.
Vote in November like your life depends on it.
It does.
Antifa’s core beliefs are shared by the cultural elite and the government. They work for the government, they’re an NGO who do what the government itself doesn’t yet dare do. Sort of a domestic Blackwater. So anyone who wants to push back against antifa will have to push back against the government, and that’s not going to happen. Middle America is just too soft and weak and suffering from comfort-caused decadence and decay. The Democrats lock on the immigrant vote ensures that they will be competitive politically no matter what happens on the street, so there’s no political solution. Not with a bang but with a whimper. If the Democrats win it will all go away overnight, antifa having fulfilled their mission of putting middle America in its place.