For well over a week we have watched two groups tensely eye each other in the streets in nearly every major city in America. No, I am not talking about the police and protestors, I am talking about the protestors and the criminals.
Protestors against the terrible death of George Floyd enjoy and are exercising one of the most important rights in America. And there have been many, true instances of these groups peacefully, expressing their genuine emotions over Mr. Floyd’s death. This has led to reasonable discourse about police conduct and calls for reforms.
The guilty policeman and his accomplices have been arrested. Whatever the truth, I believe justice will be served here in accordance with our laws by juries of the officers’ peers. Minneapolis is making policy changes, as will many other police forces around the country. Whatever you think of their arguments and their goals, the legitimate protestors they are succeeding in ensuring that some change comes of this.
But increasingly those sincere protestors are overshadowed and their cause risks disappearing entirely under a tidal wave of criminality and pretenders. As the days go on, less and less of what you see on TV appears to be connected to
the terrible death of Mr. Floyd. Instead we see shameful, deplorable acts instigated against every element of our society.
Burning, looting, disrupting society and assaulting nearly everyone in sight, they are a mob. Their only real diversity is they represent both domestic terrorists and self-interested violent criminals. These groups do not want “better” policing, they actively seek no policing because their goals are lawlessness and destruction.
The sincere protestors are calling for us all to come together, to mourn tragedy and to learn and become better for it. But that message is undermined by another call. The groups in the streets call for anarchy and self-interest. They actively seek to tear us apart. They do not want to see the “us” in the U.S. they only want to see a chaotic landscape of “the other.” Everyone is the enemy of this group. They seek no ally because they seek no progress. They only want to watch the world burn. And steal some shoes and maybe a TV.
American remains a country of laws and people should be arrested for crimes and treated as terrorists. We need to stand up and say that this is not now, nor has it ever been the way Americans promote change.
I support President Trump in saying that it is time to end this. The mayors and governors who fear acting because of what Twitter will say about them are abdicating their sworn duties. We need long term jail sentences for anyone destroying businesses and stealing.
The people of this country cannot stand for this terrorist activity. They hide their true intentions behind well intentioned activists. The group supporting this should be disclosed and the leaders should be arrested and dealt with as the domestic terrorists they are.