{"id":1932,"date":"2020-09-01T12:39:35","date_gmt":"2020-09-01T19:39:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=1932"},"modified":"2020-09-01T12:39:35","modified_gmt":"2020-09-01T19:39:35","slug":"riots-arson-policing-and-the-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=1932","title":{"rendered":"Riots, Arson, Policing and the Election"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bret Stephens is an especially insightful writer for, of all things, the New York Times.\u00a0 His column yesterday asks some questions the country very much needs to ponder:<\/p>\n

Can the left be honest that the tragedies unfolding today in American cities are as much the story of insufficient policing as they are of abusive policing? Does it get that \u201claw and order\u201d is a precondition to civil liberty, not an impediment to it? Is it willing to say that the American founders who bequeathed us the institutions of liberal democracy should be honored, not despised? And does Joe Biden have the nerve to stand up to the extremes in his own party, or does he just mean to appease them?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

His piece makes other painful points as well.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It seems that Stephens would like to vote for Biden over Trump, but wonders whether Biden understands the gravity of the current insurrection and its implications for governance\u00a0 —\u00a0 and, even if so, whether he has the strength and conviction to do anything about it.<\/p>\n

[Vicky Osterweil’s book, “In Defense of Looting”] is symbolically important. I became aware of it when several friends separately forwarded to me the NPR interview. Many of these friends, I suspect, will reluctantly vote for Trump \u2014 not out of sympathy for him, but out of disgust with defenses of looting and other things they see too often on the left.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/div>\n
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What else are they seeing? A\u00a0CNN chyron<\/a>\u00a0from a burning Kenosha: \u201cFiery but mostly peaceful protests after police shooting.\u201d\u00a0A video<\/a>\u00a0of an outdoor diner at a Washington, D.C., restaurant being yelled at by Black Lives Matter protesters because she won\u2019t raise a fist in solidarity. Republican Senator Rand Paul and his wife getting\u00a0harassed by a swarm of protesters\u00a0<\/a>as they left the White House.<\/p>\n

And more: Trump\u00a0being mocked in 2017<\/a>\u00a0for warning that if statues of Robert E. Lee come down, then George Washington and Thomas Jefferson statues will be next \u2014 and then radical demonstrators\u00a0doing exactly that<\/a>\u00a0three years later. Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York\u00a0scolding Orthodox Jews<\/a>\u00a0in April for appearing to flout social distancing rules at a Brooklyn funeral, but then making an exception for Black Lives Matter demonstrations a few months later. Seattle\u2019s mayor, Jenny Durkan, celebrating a \u201csummer of love<\/a>\u201d in the \u201cCapitol Hill Autonomous Zone,\u201d and then watching\u00a0the area descend<\/a>, with depressing predictability, into violent anarchy.<\/p>\n

The list could be longer, but the question it leaves in the minds of wavering voters is exactly the question Trump most wants asked: Can the left be trusted with power?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That indeed is the question.\u00a0 Many voters find Trump to be a crude, vulgar, self-absorbed lout.\u00a0 But they also noticed that the grotesque lawlessness and violence that now besets our country got barely a mention at the Democratic National Convention. On election day, I suspect many of them will be asking if they want to live with the risks that silence implies.<\/p>\n

The Bret Stephens column is here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bret Stephens is an especially insightful writer for, of all things, the New York Times.\u00a0 His column yesterday asks some questions the country very much needs to ponder: Can the left be honest that the tragedies unfolding today in American cities are as much the story of insufficient policing as they are of abusive policing? Does it get that \u201claw and order\u201d is a precondition to civil liberty, not an impediment to it? Is it willing to say that the American founders who bequeathed us the institutions of liberal democracy should be honored, not despised? And does Joe Biden have the nerve to stand up to the extremes in his own party, or does he just mean to appease them? His piece makes other painful points as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,41,45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-policing","category-politics","category-public-order"],"yoast_head":"\nRiots, Arson, Policing and the Election - 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=1932\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Riots, Arson, Policing and the Election - Crime & Consequences\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Bret Stephens is an especially insightful writer for, of all things, the New York Times.\u00a0 His column yesterday asks some questions the country very much needs to ponder: Can the left be honest that the tragedies unfolding today in American cities are as much the story of insufficient policing as they are of abusive policing? 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