{"id":1793,"date":"2020-08-11T12:44:34","date_gmt":"2020-08-11T19:44:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=1793"},"modified":"2020-08-11T14:57:20","modified_gmt":"2020-08-11T21:57:20","slug":"are-riots-cause-by-police-or-by-rioters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=1793","title":{"rendered":"Are Riots Caused by Police or by Rioters?"},"content":{"rendered":"

You would think that question answers itself, but the Left’s dismissive belligerence in lying about the causes of rioting is so persistent that, in some quarters, it has taken hold.\u00a0 Thus, it was only last week that Portland’s mayor was telling us that it was the introduction of federal agents (to protect federal property like courthouses), not the hoodlums who’ve spent weeks bringing violence and disorder to his city, that were the real cause of Portland’s continuing problems.<\/p>\n

As the Wall Street Journal explains today<\/a>, this was all nothing more than the usual aggressive tripe.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The WSJ’s editorial speaks for itself:<\/p>\n

The press has been playing defense for Portland anarchists for weeks, suggesting riots and arson against a federal courthouse were provoked by federal agents protecting it. When the Trump Administration lowered the profile of its agents in an agreement with the state government, the media\u2019s protest cheerleaders were eager to report that the real cause of the violence had gone away. \u201cTrump ordered federal forces to quell Portland protests. But the chaos ended as soon as they left,\u201d\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0a July 31 Washington Post headline.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

So much for that. Over the weekend Portland police were forced to declare two riots. On Friday police said \u201cpeople defied orders to disperse and threw rocks, frozen or hard-boiled eggs and commercial-grade fireworks at officers,\u201d the Associated Press\u00a0reports<\/a>. Rioters also \u201cfilled pool noodles with nails and placed them in the road, causing extensive damage to a patrol vehicle.\u201d On Saturday night, arsonists set a fire inside the Portland police union building and rioters outside landed two officers in the hospital. Rioting continued late Sunday, injuring more police.<\/p>\n

The narrative of peaceful protesters set upon by bloodthirsty law enforcement officers in Portland is becoming unsustainable even for progressives. Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, who ostentatiously denounced the Trump Administration\u2019s efforts to protect the federal courthouse, had a rendezvous with reality after people tried to set ablaze a police precinct on Wednesday night. \u201cWhen you commit arson with an accelerant in an attempt to burn down a building that is occupied by people that you have intentionally trapped inside,\u201d he said, \u201cyou are not demonstrating. You are attempting to commit murder.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yes, it’s all true.\u00a0 The reason we have riots is that we have vandals and hoodlums who like to riot, and who see that important voices in the culture (including but hardly limited to the Washington Post) will run interference for them.<\/p>\n

This has implications for November’s election, too.\u00a0 As the WSJ notes in its concluding paragraph, “All of this raises the question of how long the mainstream press and Democratic politicians can publicly maintain the fiction that violence surrounding ‘mostly peaceful’ protests is a nuisance of little consequence and that the real villains are the police.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You would think that question answers itself, but the Left’s dismissive belligerence in lying about the causes of rioting is so persistent that, in some quarters, it has taken hold.\u00a0 Thus, it was only last week that Portland’s mayor was telling us that it was the introduction of federal agents (to protect federal property like courthouses), not the hoodlums who’ve spent weeks bringing violence and disorder to his city, that were the real cause of Portland’s continuing problems. As the Wall Street Journal explains today, this was all nothing more than the usual aggressive tripe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-policing","category-public-order"],"yoast_head":"\nAre Riots Caused by Police or by Rioters? - Crime & Consequences<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=1793\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Are Riots Caused by Police or by Rioters? - Crime & Consequences\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"You would think that question answers itself, but the Left’s dismissive belligerence in lying about the causes of rioting is so persistent that, in some quarters, it has taken hold.\u00a0 Thus, it was only last week that Portland’s mayor was telling us that it was the introduction of federal agents (to protect federal property like courthouses), not the hoodlums who’ve spent weeks bringing violence and disorder to his city, that were the real cause of Portland’s continuing problems. 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