Protesters confronts riot police in front of a burning police car during a protest against police brutality in Miami, Fla., on May 30, 2020. (Adam DelGiudice/AFP via Getty Images)
Not So Civil Disobedience
Written by Marc Ruskin
#twill #tcot #sbalich #riots #maga leadright @danproft @tomilahren
Commentary
American values, traditional individual liberties, were resurfacing as the pandemic curve flattened out. A barber in Michigan and a hair salon owner in Texas were emerging as symbols of traditional, principled, and independent-thinking business people.
Americans with true grit.
The pandemic wasn’t having the expected effect of diminishing the president and destabilizing society as claimed by some.
However, the tragic, brutal, in-custody death of George Floyd has resulted in a destabilizing element in our country, as peaceful protests were hijacked by anarchy and rebellion.
Peaceful demonstrations are, of course, a fundamental right in the United States. However, when manipulated by agitators, they morph into something malevolent. Cynics may suggest that the stage had been set prior to the incident that ignited the flames of passion.
There’s some irony in the denunciations of demonstrations calling for the lifting of work bans—on the grounds of virus-related contagion issues—contrasted with the virtual absence of such charges when thousands of rioters burn police cars and loot stores, disregarding nationwide admonishments to wear masks and maintain social distancing pursuant to Centers of Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.
Not content with the prosecution of the police officers directly involved in the Floyd death, the anti-Trump forces have ratcheted-up the stakes to a point where their efforts will lead to self-destruction.
First, they have chosen, ostrich-like, to disregard and minimize the widespread mayhem, in the hope, perhaps, that by ignoring the unpleasant truth, it will dissipate and eventually be talked away. The anarchy has now taken root, as seen in Seattle, where an entire district has been annexed and removed from the control of elected civil authorities, and from the protection of public safety officers.
Next, has come self-abnegation—with the humiliation that is the necessary byproduct of virtue signaling—by taking a knee in self-abasement. The lead was set, yet again, by the example of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), along with Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and other Democratic lawmakers, who, “swathed”—as described by Doreen St. Felix in The New Yorker—”in identical kente stoles … intent on conveying solidarity with their constituents, only made themselves models of obtuseness.”
Repeated in history, the assumption of guilt for the transgression of others, displays of weakness accompanied by abject pleas to be pardoned for any and all charges—be they based on religious, political, or social grounds—has led to contempt, aggression, oppression, and, all too often, annihilation.
The kente ceremony was conducted prior to formally unveiling the Justice in Policing Act of 2020—congressional legislation promulgated to further limit police powers, while not providing the funding to implement programs that would be mandatory were the bill to pass (adding insult to injury).
It’s unlikely that this complex piece of legislation was drafted over the week preceding its introduction. No doubt it had been ready, sitting in the “pending” files of the Democratic legislators, awaiting just the right incident, providing just the right environment, to enhance its success.
The title of the act belies its true nature, intended essentially at further restricting the scope of police effectiveness, and further endangering the lives of all law enforcement officers. The bill would ban “no-knock warrants,” even though signed by a neutral magistrate, thus forcing arresting officers to advertise their presence before entering to arrest violent felons.
And just as federal anti-police legislation is being proposed, the “Defund the Police” movement has arisen on the municipal level. Roughly translated, the defund movement equates to replacing the police with a new authority, something akin to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
That is, a revolutionary guard that the progressives would control, the advocates of the defund movement being composed exclusively of Democratic-majority elected local officials and city managers. We already know what they think of the Constitution. Existing police officers have all sworn to uphold the Constitution, so best to be rid of them, along with their antiquated notions of justice.
Improbable as this scenario may appear to most, one need only listen to Minneapolis City Council President Lisa Bender respond to CNN’s Brooke Baldwin when questioned as to the options available to homeowners who are being burglarized. In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio has disbanded the NYPD’s plainclothes anti-crime units, the municipality’s principal bulwark in the protection of the innocent from armed aggression in the streets and subways.
This new revolutionary guard, in all likelihood unfettered by the Bill of Rights, would be empowered to arrest individuals and shut down businesses for a host of new political offenses. Reeducation camps would no doubt be the next step, along with the encouragement of spying and informing on one’s neighbors and parents, in the event that they make inappropriate remarks.
The best of the Chinese Cultural Revolution and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard is what we have to look forward to if swift action isn’t taken for a return to civil discourse and core constitutional values.
Marc Ruskin, a 27-year veteran of the FBI, is a regular contributor and the author of “The Pretender: My Life Undercover for the FBI.” He served on the legislative staff of U.S. Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan and as an assistant district attorney in Brooklyn, N.Y. Follow Marc on Twitter @mhruskin.
