The Real Insurrection: The BLM Riots - The American Spectator | USA News and Politics
The Real Insurrection: The BLM Riots
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Riots? What riots? Insurrection in American cities in 2020? Nothing to see here, folks. Move along.

Thus it is with the Stalinesque show trial that is the January 6 Committee. As my colleague Melissa Mackenzie illustrated yesterday, “the Democrats are running their committee like a criminal trial.” It is indeed blatantly unconstitutional and no one is attempting to stop them. Why?

What is particularly telling about the hysteria over January 6 is that infinitely worse riots took place across America in 2020 — a series of genuine and decidedly violent insurrections in the name of Black Lives Matter — and there is nary an investigation in sight.

So as January 6 of 2022 is upon us, let’s do a little compare and contrast as the hysteria about January 6, 2021, is whipped up in the liberal media.

There were five deaths in the Capitol riot. One, Ashli Babbitt, an unarmed woman, was shot to death by a Capitol police officer. The other four deaths included three who died of natural causes and one from a drug overdose. One of the fatalities, whose death was ruled as from natural causes, was a Capitol Hill police officer. Altogether there were 138 police officers injured, 73 of them from the Capitol Hill Police and 65 from Washington D.C.’s Metropolitan Police.

According to the Major Cities Chiefs Association, 574 riots took place across America between May 25 and July 31 of 2020 after the death of George Floyd. The report states that “more than 2,000 officers sustained injuries in the line of duty.” Say again, not 138 injured police officers but more than 2,000 police officers were injured — and not a blink from the January 6 Committee.

The MCCA also reported this, bold print for emphasis supplied:

In cities where violence did occur, assaults on police officers, looting, and arson were the most common criminal activities. Approximately, 72% of major city law enforcement agencies had officers harmed during the protests. This included nearly every agency that experienced at least one violent protest. In total, over the course of the civil unrest from May to July, more than 2,000 officers sustained injuries in the line of duty. One agency reported 50 officers being injured in a single week of protests. Another agency reported that 462 of their officers were injured during the protests in their jurisdiction.

Looting was also a common occurrence (2,385 instances), with 62% of major city law enforcement agencies indicating that at least one incident of looting occurred in their cities. This activity was primarily clustered during the first few days of protests. Of note, several agencies reported that in some instances, the looting appeared to be coordinated and organized. For example, some cities encountered ‘looting caravans’ that moved throughout different neighborhoods. One agency reported 115 commercial burglaries occurred in just one day. Two other agencies reported $927,000 worth of damage as a result of looting in each of their jurisdictions, and another agency reported a single looting event at a shopping mall that resulted in over $70 million in damage.

And speaking of damages done financially in these insurrections? Here’s the headline for those 2020 BLM riots per Axios: “Exclusive: $1 billion-plus riot damage is most expensive in insurance history.”

Suffice it to say this astronomical cost far exceeds the estimated $1.5 million of damage done in the Capitol riot.

No one is defending the Capitol riot. Period. Those who are alleged to have participated have been arrested and charged. But the double standard for those who participated in the 2020 riots boggles the mind. Here’s a headline from the New York Post: “Charges against hundreds of NYC rioters, looters have been dropped.” The story reported this:

Hundreds of alleged looters and rioters busted last year in protests over George Floyd’s murder by police have had their charges dropped, according to NYPD data — figures ripped as “disgusting” by a local business owner.

In The Bronx — which saw fires in the street and mass looting in June 2020 — more than 60 percent of arrestees have had charges dropped, according to the investigation by NBC New York.

Seventy-three of the 118 people arrested in the borough had their cases shelved altogether, another 19 were convicted on lesser counts like trespassing, which carries no jail time, the report said.

In St. Louis, KSDK TV reported this:

ST. LOUIS — Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt says St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner has not charged any of the people that St. Louis police officers have arrested during recent violent protests and, as a result, they’ve all been released.

To see that kind of level of violence and rioting that went on, police officers being shot and shot at, a retired police captain being murdered, people throwing rocks and gasoline and frozen water bottles at police officers, firefighters being assaulted and blocked from doing their job, businesses that have served the community for years being burned to the ground, it’s unfathomable that every single person arrested that night has been released.

Then there was this news out of Portland, Oregon per the New York Post: “Most charges against Portland protesters won’t be prosecuted, DA says.”

Reported the Post:

Hundreds of Portland, Oregon, protesters arrested during two months of clashes with law enforcement won’t be prosecuted, the city’s district attorney announced.

Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt unveiled the policy change Tuesday regarding hundreds of the 550 protest-related arrests since late May.

Under the new policy, Schmidt’s office will ‘presumptively decline’ to prosecute cases that don’t fit his criteria, including interfering with a peace, parole or probation officer; second-degree disorderly conduct; first- or second-degree criminal trespass; third-degree escape and harassment. Rioting charges will also not be prosecuted unless accompanied by another crime not included in the list, Schmidt said.

On and on and on go the stories like these. And not a peep from the January 6 Committee, including Republican members Rep. Liz Cheney and Rep. Adam Kinzinger. Say again, not a peep.

Why aren’t Cheney and Kinzinger out front demanding the January 6 Committee investigate this massive 2020 insurrection? Here is the definition from the Merriam-Webster dictionary of insurrection: “An act or instance of revolting against civil authority or an established government.”

What was taking place in all those American cities in 2020 was exactly a revolt against the civil authority in those cities.

What is taking place in Washington with the January 6 Committee is a sham, and as mentioned, a Stalinesque show trial. The obvious point of the committee is to smear former President Donald Trump. The Trump-hating Cheney has said that the former president was “clearly unfit for future office” and “can never be anywhere near the Oval Office ever again.” News flash? That is a decision to be made by the American people in a free — and fair — election.

In fact, based on their own performance, it is Cheney and Kinzinger who are “clearly unfit for future office” and should never be anywhere near public office again.

The political seers are predicting a Red Wave in November. If that comes to pass and Republicans take back the House, the very first thing on the agenda should be an investigation of the January 6 Committee, its members, and staff. Not to mention that an investigation into the massive violence that swept through American cities in 2020 should be opened pronto.

Much hysteria is about to roll out as January 6 of 2022 dawns. All of it is a reminder that the January 6 Committee is really a corrupt and massive abuse of power, unconstitutional from start to its estimated summer-before-the-elections finish.

And if Republicans are on the ball, they will use the Committee and both its operation and report as a central reason why the Pelosi-run committee and the Pelosi-run House should be dismissed in November.

Post-haste.

Jeffrey Lord
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Jeffrey Lord, a contributing editor to The American Spectator, is a former aide to Ronald Reagan and Jack Kemp. An author and former CNN commentator, he writes from Pennsylvania at jlpa1@aol.com. His new book, Swamp Wars: Donald Trump and The New American Populism vs. The Old Order, is now out from Bombardier Books.
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