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It seems in less than a week that America has gone from social distancing to social unrest.
Peaceful protests over the death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer have sparked the worst wave of civil unrest since the 1960's.
Monuments in Washington, including the Vietnam Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, and the World War I and World War II Memorials, along with others, have been defaced, spray painted with "Black Lives Matter" and similar slogans, and even a few Communist hammer and sickles. Even the historic St. John's Church across the street from the White House was set ablaze .
The President, and all Americans, need to put the blame squarely on where it needs to be, not on the tens of thousands of all races, creeds, and political persuasions who have come out to peacefully demonstrate for justice for George Floyd and policies which will allow departments to remove bad cops who tarnish not just their badge, but the badges of other LEOs, but those in ANTIFA and the radical left who are inciting the violence to divide the nation.
George Floyd's death had united the nation like few tragedies have. When Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Al Sharpton are all pretty much on the same page, you know it's an issue that has brought us together.
That is not what the left in our nation wants.
The problem is, those that incite the mobs, and those who join them in their destruction, are hurting those who had nothing to do with George Floyd's death, people who were already suffering from the loss of business that COVID-19 had caused.
Korboi Balla was a firefighter in Minneapolis who saved enough to open a bar. Balla, who is black, had to watch as protestors burned it down. " It hurts, man. It’s not fair, it’s not right. We’ve been working so hard for this place. It’s not just for me, it’s for my family.”
There were small business owners in Atlanta who experienced the same thing Mr. Balla did. As the Democratic Mayor of Atlanta, Keisha Lance Bottoms said in her press conference, "We're better than this."
But what I experienced in east Atlanta on Saturday night celebrating a friend's birthday showed it is only a few that are causing the problems. Under the specter of the 9:00 PM curfew, seated outside (no indoor dining thanks to COVID-19) and on the Beltline as people walked by, we all saw the helicopters hovering in the distance wondering what was happening.
People of all races (and I assume political backgrounds) were united in condemning the violence, and wanted to emphasize that we truly are the "city too busy to hate."
While others on the left try to justify the violence as some sort of weird, cathartic letting out of frustration and defend the ANTIFA rioters.
Biden campaign staffers were ev en donating money to bailout some of the rioters.
It shouldn't be lost on us that these incidents tend to occur in cities governed by Democratic Mayors and Democratic city councils who want to protect the strong public employee unions that finance their campaigns, which make it difficult to fire bad public employees until a crisis occurs. It shouldn't take someone dying to fire a bad cop!
Democratic Presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar has come under fire for failing to prosecute in 2006 the very officer who knelt on George Floyd's neck. While Klobuchar said the case occurred as she was leaving the office due to her election to the U.S. Senate, and her successor took the case to a Grand Jury which said the shooting was justified, there was still a laundry list of abuses by the officer going back years.
Civil Rights Attorney Leo Terrell, a Democrat who is not a fan of President Trump, was a guest on Hannity. However, even he praised President Trump on his handling of the George Floyd injustice and then issued a personal warning to the Democratic Party.
Fast forward to 28:00 to listen to Mr. Terrell’s thoughts on the matter. His admonishment to Democratic activists/leaders is about as real as it gets.
In the end, America will get through this period, like we have so many other periods of civil unrest, because America is not found in the violence of the rioters, or the government officials who abuse their authority, but America is found in moments like this and this.
As President Trump has said, "Healing not hatred, justice not chaos, are the mission at hand.”
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