Threats against GOP lawmakers and immigration enforcement officers are on the rise. This is not the fault of the Democratic Party. This is not the fault of the people pretending like abolishing the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency is a serious proposal.
The people responsible for the threats and harassment are the people threatening and harassing. No one else.
A 33-year-old Massachusetts man was charged this week for tweeting a murder-for-hire solicitation to kill U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents for $500, federal authorities announced Thursday.
The defendant, Brandon J. Ziobrowski, tweeted on July 2, “I am broke but will scrounge and literally give $500 to anyone who kills an ice agent, [tweet at] me seriously who else can pledge get in on this let’s make this work.”
And there’s a lot more where that comes from.
He “repeatedly tweeted his desire to ‘slit’ Sen. John McCain’s throat,” federal officials claimed Thursday. “Then, beginning around February 2018, Ziobrowski allegedly began posting tweets that promoted violence against law enforcement. For example, a Feb. 24, 2018, tweet read: ‘Guns should only be legal for shooting the police like the second amendment intended.’”
Officials added, “In March 2018 Ziobrowski allegedly started tweeting threatening messages against federal law enforcement agents that work for [ICE]. On March 1, 2018, in response to a tweet from the ICE Field Office stating that ICE officers put their ‘lives on the line to arrest criminal aliens,’ Ziobrowski posted a message that read: ‘Thank you ICE for putting your lives on the line and hopefully dying I guess so there’s less of you?’”
Ziobrowski’s arrest comes just days after another man was arrested in connection to immigration-related death threats made against public officials. Carlos Bayon of Grand Island, N.Y., was charged in connection to threatening voicemails made to Republican Reps. Steve Scalise of Louisiana and Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington.
The 63-year-old Bayon left both Scalise and McMorris Rodgers a voicemail that said:
Law enforcement officials said they found evidence suggesting Bayon’s threats were not idle.
His arrest comes not long after a DHS official found a “burnt and decapitated animal on his front porch.” That came on the heels of an incident wherein Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was driven from a Mexican restaurant by members of the Democratic Socialists of America.
If all of this upsets you and you’re looking for somewhere to point blame, look no further than the people doing the harassing and threats. They are responsible for this. No one else.
You’d think otherwise after being told for 18 months straight that President Trump bears responsibility for basically every bad thing that happens to the news media, both at home and abroad, because he criticizes the press.
As I’ve argued before, people are solely responsible for the things they do. Don’t blame the crappy things public officials say. Don’t subordinate personal responsibility to external factors not directly involved in people’s specific actions.
Democratic congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and every other “abolish ICE!” fanatic are no more responsible for Ziobrowski and Bayon than Trump is for the Annapolis shooting or the oppression of journalists by actual despotic regimes that arrest and physically harm journalists instead of just criticizing them.
Don’t let bad actors off the hook by taking away their agency by suggesting the real danger is something said by a third party. Don’t free the criminal from the crime.
