How can we explain the loss of humanity that has been on recent display?
The ambush of our police officers is without justification, but the rigid cruelty of the mob that gathered at the hospital trying to block an ambulance from accessing the emergency room, accompanied with hateful shouts and taunts, is evidence of the loss of goodness in our society.
In The Abolition of Man, the British moralist C.S. Lewis described the shallow and heartless as “men without chests.” Perhaps what we are seeing from the vicious criminals who are now attempting to overthrow our cities is whom Lewis was contemplating.
The feckless “leaders” of some states and cities, who have not only permitted the destruction of property but the wasting of lives and livelihoods, are without heart as well. In many cases, they have not only stood by watching the wreckage, they have fomented the rioting, looting, murder, and mayhem.
One of the enemies of a free society are those who appease people who are intent on destroying the rights of individuals within that society — those who permit and encourage, by inaction, criminal conduct. We saw this when the Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler was driven from his home because the mob had turned on him. He’s not alone.
Winston Churchill once noted that an appeaser is someone who feeds others to the alligators with the hopes that he’ll be eaten last. That’s what is being lived out before our eyes today.
Stupidity seems to run rampant among leaders on the Left who have knelt with protesters who have become rioters.
Law enforcement will graciously protect those who protest, even when the object of the protest is the police. But, when those protests turn ugly and violent, the police have a duty and desire to protect the public against the people who are trying to harm innocent people and property. It is when the political leaders hinder the police efforts to bring peace back to the situation that reason cries out.
The best way to stop criminal conduct is through specific deterrence and general deterrence. That is done by arresting, charging, prosecuting, and convicting the malevolent.
That process removes the violent person from the field, thus specific deterrence. As the rioters are arrested and charged and prosecuted, other criminals will stop destroying property and lives because they know that there will be consequences. In other words, they will be held accountable for their criminal conduct. Many will stop because they don’t want to be punished — thus, general deterrence.
We don’t need the fearful and weak “leading” governments where the mob is trying to take over and destroy our country. The Marxist rabble that shouts “death to America” is being assisted by prosecutors and judges who are not charging these vicious people. And, if they file charges, they undercharge by charging them with a lesser crime. They also turn them back into the streets to cause more mayhem instead of holding them for prosecution.
This is almost exclusively the plan of the Left. They are content to let the anti-American rioters control much of their cities while taking away tools from the police that are non-lethal and would help get control over the cities.
Allowing the leftist rioters to attack the rights of one is to permit them to take away the rights of all. The purpose of policing is to exercise authority delegated from us, the free citizens of this nation, to protect our rights.
Failing to let police officers protect us and our property has resulted in the dehumanizing of a mob that seeks to transform our country from a prosperous, free society, to a lawless, leaderless nation. From this anarchy, they hope to elevate a communist leader to fill the vacuum the leftists are creating.
And, we watch the degrading and disgusting attacks on our police and fellow citizens.
Rep. Andy Biggs, a Republican, represents Arizona’s 5th Congressional District. He is chairman of the House Freedom Caucus. You can follow him on Twitter: @RepAndyBiggsAZ.
