Throw the book at the ‘Cop City’ insurrectionists
Washington Examiner
Democrats’ calls to defund the police have had disastrous consequences across the nation over the last three years. They have caused such a shocking increase in crime that many of the same politicians who originally made the calls have since backtracked and restored funding.
After these attacks on police, many jurisdictions are finding that their police officers are bailing out en masse and that they cannot find good, experienced replacements. After all, would you want to put your life at risk working for a municipal government that hates, disrespects, and scapegoats you for all of your city’s problems?
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In the meantime, the defunders have made millions of people living in cities, disproportionately nonwhite people, a lot less safe in their homes and neighborhoods. But at least defunding the police is just a political issue. It may be stupid and harmful to advocate such proposals, but it isn’t a direct incitement to violence against police officers.
Unfortunately, however, many anti-police crusaders want to go a lot further than that. Some have gone so far as to assassinate police officers just for wearing the uniform, or at least to try to assassinate them. In one high-profile case in Los Angeles, anti-police protesters blocked the hospital’s doors, shouting, “We hope they die!”
Most recently, Georgia authorities have charged 23 anti-police activists with domestic terrorism for conducting an assault against a police training facility known as “Cop City” in suburban Atlanta. These so-called protesters allegedly threw Molotov cocktails and bricks at police officers and also set fires at the facility under construction, completely destroying at least one construction vehicle.
Who takes part in such activities? Sadly, they’re closer to the mainstream of the Democratic Party than you think.
One of the accused terrorists is a staff attorney for the Southern Poverty Law Center. Decades ago, SPLC was a well-regarded civil rights organization. Unfortunately, it has evolved into a tool of the far Left to defame people, spread hatred, and even incite violence against mainstream conservatives. The SPLC lashed out in a statement after the arrests, claiming that the arrest of these violent people had been a “heavy-handed law enforcement intervention against protesters.” Arrests for throwing Molotov cocktails are now “heavy-handed?” Sadly, in addition to inciting violence, it appears that today’s SPLC condones it as well.
This is all a very bad sign for the societal consensus that such lawless destruction and violence are bad, whether they are happening at the Capitol, the Portland federal courthouse, or at Cop City.
The behavior of these activists speaks to just how far outside the normal bounds of polite society the Left is willing to wander when its operatives don’t think they are not going to be caught and exposed. It also speaks to a left-wing subculture that literally views policing as a larger societal problem than crime. Never mind that none of the data bear this out — this is about fermenting revolution, not making the world or the nation a better place.
Government’s chief role is to protect people and property from physical violence. After all the failed attempts at abolishing the police and all the misery and violence they have caused, the old lessons must be relearned. Public safety demands strict enforcement, aggressive policing, and long sentences for violent and hardened criminals. Hopefully, justice will be done swiftly and thoroughly in the case of the alleged Cop City insurrectionists.