COVID-19 Thoughts Part 42: Steven Olivo challenges the Peaceful Protests.

The next two pieces in this series of COVID-19 Thoughts (coupled with the George Floyd aftermath sub series) I shall be handing it off to my Facebook friend Steven Olivo. I applaud the president. This speech should have been made on Friday but at last its been made. Enough is enough is enough and these riots are too much. Frankly he should have seriously gone after antifa two years ago. Putting it bluntly they are domestic terrorists. Whats more they are millennial terrorists. No that has nothing to do with scruffy 27-year-old guys with man-buns and facial hair who do not a damn thing but hang around Starbucks. A millennial terrorist (i.e. Shining Path al Quaeda ISIS) is a terrorist for whom violence is an end in itself as opposed to a political terrorist (the IRA PLO) for whom violence is a means to a political end. The Constitution protects the right to assemble peaceably and petition the government for a redress of grievances (although that was supposed to be curtailed during this pandemic but I digress). It does not protect the right to destroy property or assault others and that goes double if the ones you assault are those whose duty it is to protect and aid society. I dont understand what kind of sense of entitlement underlies the belief that if you feel strongly enough somehow its all right to do that. I dont know what kind of twisted belief system says there is any kind of value in burning stores destroying museums and vandalizing churches and monuments. Is the ultimate goal to destroy cities and towns so you can rule ashes? If it is feel free to burn down your own home or business but it is wrong and downright evil to do that to others. Im three paragraphs in now and the one name that hasnt come up yet is George Floyd. This stopped being about him before 48 hours were up. I dont think in the first 24 hours there was one person in this nation from the president down to the lowliest laborer who would have said they were not on his side or against the officers who mistreated him to the point where he died from his injuries. I can also tell you as a conservative who is usually very pro-law enforcement that there appears to be a major internal problem in the Minneapolis PD because the shooting of Philando Castile already brought down one mayor and one police chief but that hasnt changed things. A police department in which an officer is allowed to deliberately inflict suffering on a non-violent subject who is already in restraints and his fellow officers back him has a sick culture. Deliberately torturing someone who is helpless is the act of a sociopathic bully. Only a sick culture tolerates that. The only culture I can think of thats worse is the Mesa PD where a sergeant screamed abusive commands at and threatened an unarmed 26-year-old man who was sobbing and begging for his life before another officer shot him five times with an AR-15. But it stopped being about all that as soon as the first window was smashed. It stopped being about that as soon as the first fire was started. It stopped being about that as soon as it spread beyond Minneapolis. Demanding justice was fine. Demanding that the MPD make changes because this is now two strikes was fine. Demanding that this particular officer face the strongest possible consequences was fine - although he still like all Americans has the right to due process. Smashing windows setting fires stealing...not fine. Attacking the police assaulting others no way. Life has to move forward even if you are angry and think you have a cause and it isnt fair that you destroy the ability of others to move forward with their lives for your cause. Peaceful protests? Maybe in some places. Im not too thrilled about the police joining marches themselves when on duty but if its a way to keep the peace ok. Assaults on Brooklyn precincts vandalism of churches tagging the Lincoln Memorial trying to topple statues in Philadelphia etc. are not peaceful protests. Assaulting the White House? Are you kidding me? The last time anyone did that was the War of 1812 when the British sacked DC for the American burning of York. This isnt then and we are not at war with our own people. This is before we even talk about flag burning or attempts to throw Molotov cocktails into police cars. If youre planning to peacefully protest you dont tote along fireworks or gasoline or hammers or other weapons. If you bring things like that along you have destruction on your mind. If you are looking to peacefully protest you dont attack police stations breach buildings or set courthouses on fire. And one thing you dont do is assault the home and office of the president. I dont think they even did that at the height of Vietnam. Apparently some mayors and governors either couldnt believe what was happening or didnt want to deal with it in the manner needed. Finally it hit them and now more National Guard troops have been activated than we activated probably at the height of the War on Terror. They had to deploy a whole brigade 4000 guardsmen to finally end this nonsense in Minneapolis. If they had deployed them sooner maybe some of this destruction would have been averted. It shouldnt have come to this. So much destruction on such a wide basis is one step short of a full insurrection and should have been the signal to take decisive action. Instead they had to be prompted by the president whos now laid it out in clear terms: they need to restore order with the resources they have NOW or he will do it for them with the military. I dont like it. This is going to be messy its going to be ugly and it could be bloody. However it is legal under the Insurrection act and it is necessary. This country isnt going to become Bleeding Kansas and the cities are not going to become Belfast or Derry 1978. And for what? This moved beyond getting justice for one victim of police brutality. This moved beyond the list of grievances that gets pulled out every time something like this happens. This is now about trying to bring down the current president maybe even bring down the system completely and despite the attempts by Walz and Frey to dissemble and blame this on white supremacists antfa is at the bottom of it The president should have gone after antifa decisively after Charlottesville. They call themselves anti-fascists but the fact of the matter is that they are anarchist thugs who do violence for its own sake. As moral people they are no better than the cowards dragged off the Achille Lauro by Italian carabinieri or the bastards the SAS shot dead at Loughall or the cutthroats the Peruvian special forces killed at the Japanese Embassy or the terrorist mastermind who was finally shot square in the face by SEAL team 6. As operatives they are decidedly less deadly in throwing gasoline bombs but incapable of standing up in a real fight. This isnt going to be a replay of half a century ago. The forces of law and order have learned more than a thing or two. This nation has the right to be free from insurrection and lawlessness and were going to make it so. Dont try to defend the indefensible. Like the last Republican president said if you are not with law and order you are with the bad guys. Please visit my Facebook page DNMs World.