The Patriot Post® · Shocking Shooting Spree

By Gary Bauer ·
https://patriotpost.us/opinion/71601-shocking-shooting-spree-2020-06-23

The carnage on America’s big city streets this weekend was shocking. In Chicago, at least 101 people were shot. Fourteen people, including five children, were killed. The vast majority of the victims were black and the vast majority of the shooters were black. There will be no protests calling attention to the plight of any of these victims.

Instead of celebrating fathers, what happened in Chicago this weekend was in part the result of years of fatherlessness. And there’s nothing but a collective yawn from the media. Do black lives matter in Chicago?

Meanwhile, the progressive left, which claims it wants to bring us all together, spent the weekend tearing down more American memorials and statues.

As we reported, New York City recently disbanded its undercover crime unit. Last week was the first week without that unit patrolling the Big Apple. Over the weekend, at least 19 people were shot and one man was killed.

In the apple of the left’s eye, the Seattle “Utopia” known as CHAZ/CHOP, three people were shot this weekend, and one person was killed. When police arrived to provide assistance, they were pelted with bricks and bottles.

You may recall that the mayor of Seattle wasn’t concerned about CHAZ, calling it the site of “a summer of love.”

Who could have guessed that if you call police officers “racists,” fire and suspend them without due process, and harass their families, you would end up with mass retirements and unsafe streets?

Meanwhile, I have not heard one leading Democrat condemn the violence that is plaguing some of our urban centers.

More Monuments Attacked

The progressive barbarians continued their onslaught against America’s historic memorials over the weekend. Far too many American politicians are too cowardly to stand up against them. Here’s the latest.

  • Statues of President Ulysses Grant, perhaps the Union Army’s most famous general, and Francis Scott Key, author of The Star Spangled Banner, were torn down in San Francisco over the weekend.

  • Now a statue of Theodore Roosevelt outside of New York City’s Museum of Natural History is being removed by officials who apparently believe if you can’t beat a mob, join them.

Once again, we see that the left isn’t going to stop at taking down statues of Confederate generals. All of the things being done by the “deface, defund, destroy” progressives and the cowardly politicians who enable them are guaranteed to drive Americans apart.

There is a real danger, I believe, that some good people will think, “If only we get Trump out of the White House, all of this unrest will calm down.” It is the exact opposite, my friends. Appeasing the mob never works.

A Trump loss would only whet the left’s appetite. As I’ve written many times, this isn’t really about Trump; it’s about you. The left won’t stop until your values are destroyed.

The only reason the riots ended in the big cities is because every left-wing governor knew that if they didn’t get a grip on it, President Trump would. In many cases, he is the only public figure standing up in defense of our history, our law enforcement personnel, our monuments, and our country.

If the left succeeds in defeating Donald Trump, does anybody really think that Joe Biden, Chuck Schumer, and Nancy Pelosi are going to defend America against leftist mobs?

Dividing America

While there is violence in the streets and attacks on American monuments, some elements of the left insist that all this chaos is Donald Trump’s fault, and “We just want to unite the country,” they claim.

Well what is the evidence that the progressive movement wants to bring us together?

The number one tactic that it has embraced, popularized by Colin Kaepernick, was taking a knee during the national anthem. Can anyone explain how disrespecting the flag and national anthem is a strategy that brings us together? It is guaranteed to be deeply offensive to veterans, their families, and every patriot.

Our flag and national anthem are unifying symbols. But Colin Kaepernick was very clear that unity was the furthest thing from his mind when he said, “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color.”

Martin Luther King understood that his enemy was not America. He never attacked our country. He never attacked the founding fathers. He never attacked our founding documents. In fact, he pointed to them as the source of his argument for equality.

If you want to bring Americans together, why would you insist that whole swaths of America kneel or kiss the boots of the radicals attacking American history and its most sacred symbols? How does that bring America together?

How does the idea of reparations, taking money from people who had nothing to do with slavery and giving it to people who have never been held in slavery, bring us together? In what world does using the force of government to mandate such a massive transfer of wealth bring us together?

Bolton’s Book

Watching John Bolton set himself on fire as a cap to his career by fattening his bank account with a tell-all book full of lies is one of the most disturbing things I have seen in all my years in Washington.

Multiple people, including Mike Pomepo, Peter Navarro, and Mick Mulvaney, have stepped forward to say, “I was also in the room and these events didn’t happen.” Even the South Korean government is objecting to Bolton’s “distortions” and “violations of trust.”

This is not just an example of what this city and Trump Derangement Syndrome can do to someone. Bolton is doing real damage to our country and the presidency. Every president deserves to have a reasonable expectation that the people around him, at sensitive points in history, will follow rules of decency and respect.

A former national security adviser should not be peddling gossip. Bolton is doing serious damage to the time-honored traditions of executive privilege and confidentiality. He should be ashamed of himself.

By the way, while the media are celebrating a judge’s decision not to issue an injunction against publishing the book, the judge warned that Bolton had “gambled with national security” and was risking criminal prosecution. If I were John Bolton, I would not be celebrating the judge’s decision.

Vintage Trump

President Trump delivered a full-throated defense of America and our ideals at his Tulsa rally Saturday. If you missed it, you can watch the president’s remarks here.

The left tried everything it could to prevent Americans from gathering together to hear a speech from our president. The protesters pulling down statues and marching in four-lane highways say they are protected by the Constitution. Yet those same people tried to prevent the president from giving a speech.

We were told that Trump walking to a church represented a threat to the Constitution because protesters were blocking the way. Those same people went into the courts to block the president’s speech. They also blocked entrances to the stadium where he spoke. They harassed attendees when they left.

The Constitution is under siege, my friends, but from the radical left, not President Trump.

In spite of the left’s efforts, 11 million Americans watched President Trump’s speech this weekend on various online platforms.

Biden’s Blunder

Over the weekend, Joe Biden wrote that climate change was endangering unborn babies in the womb. No word on whether he dropped by Planned Parenthood after issuing that statement to pick up another check for his campaign.