As Americans shift into prolific identity groups, the rest of us find ourselves rolling our eyes and shaking our heads a lot. “Why did he say that? Didn’t he know?” Social constructs excuse reactions that used to be more than inexcusable. Identity groups claim that their own rules exempt them from traditional, i.e. mature reactions. Group violence via demonstrations and riots has become the norm in our cities. The teams are divided into outraged citizens who demand their freedom of speech rights versus law enforcement officers and supportive citizens trying to maintain law and order.
Just last week we compared how different sides of politically active Americans express themselves. From the beginning of President Trump’s moves to identify and arrest criminal immigrants last year, outraged citizens have organized disorderly protests aimed at limiting law enforcement’s effectiveness in following their orders.
Protesters against the ICE roundups began by throwing rocks, concrete, and fireworks. Of course, groups carried the usual array of professionally printed signs. Generally, protesters tried to harass and otherwise get in the way of law enforcement officers who were capturing criminal immigrants for arrest and deportation.
On September 24, a sniper in Dallas, TX, “protested” by firing at an ICE facility killing one detainee and wounding two others. The sniper’s notes indicated he was targeting ICE agents with a bolt-action rifle in a premeditated attack.
On November 26, in Washington another man attacked two National Guardsmen near the White House killing 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom and seriously wounding Andrew Wolfe. Two weeks later Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) in a House hearing characterized the attack and murder as an “unfortunate accident.” Later in his comments Thompson called the attack an “unfortunate situation.” Clearly, Thompson saw this attack as “unfortunate.”
Talk about “unfortunate,” last week an ICE officer fatally shot a woman in Minneapolis after authorities said the woman tried to run over him and other officers during an enforcement operation. DHS released a statement saying the woman tried to “weaponize her vehicle” to attack law enforcement officials in an act of “domestic terrorism.”
What is the difference between protesting, rioting, and committing acts of “domestic terrorism”? Who decides? Violence is in the eye of the beholder these days. Who’s to say whether violence that kills is murder or merely unfortunate?
From law enforcement’s point of view, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Fox News the incident was a “direct consequence of constant attacks and demonization of our officers by sanctuary politicians who fuel and encourage rampant assaults on our law enforcement who are facing 1,300% increase in assaults against them and an 8,000% increase in death threats.”
I fear we are getting close to if not actually in a war between law-and-order folks and loosely organized associations of political activists. One of the Founders who foresaw troubles in American cities was Thomas Jefferson. He said, “I view great cities as pestilential to the morals, the health, and the liberties of man.” In another quote he said, “When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe.”
Finally, Jefferson said what he really thought, “The mobs of great cities add just so much to the support of pure government as sores do to the strength of the human body.” That’s unfortunate.
Daniel L. Gardner is a columnist who lives in Starkville, MS. You may contact him at PJandMe2@gmail.com.
15 comments:
Don’t get mad Just stay home sleep and play video games
As if this guy doesn't remember 1960s Berkley hysteria: "Fk the pigs!" and associated riots between anti-war hippies and city cops across the country. I saw battles live in downtown Denver, 1969-70 as a conservative college student.
Or watch football and HBO
Anytime our country has to send in troops to remove unlawful intruders from other countries they should also gather any citizen who tries to protect the lawbreakers and send them along with the people to the country where they came from.
That ICE agent should have never been in front of the car. All ICE agents were told this subsequently. He discharged his gun in an unsafe manner and killed a woman. Shame on you DL. WWJD? Not act like ICE or think like you.
It's nothing new. We are a nation built on violent protest. Maintaining the rule of law is not easy, never was. Next.
This is coming from the guy who, for years, sold his column by promoting identity groups and identity politics? And now he's trying to take the high road?
I call bullshit on DL Gardner.
You mean like Nazis in Europe rounding up Jews and murdering them and thd people who protected them?
Be honest with your bigotry!
Glass the planet and start over, it’s the only way.
Jesus said to sell your cloak for a sword - wake up.
When you are doing your job and someone tries to run over you it is time to use your weapon. The wife of the woman killed should be in jail.
1:55, enough with the damn Nazi talk. Have you ever been to any of the holocaust memorials in Germany? Have you actually seen the places those atrocities took place. If you really believe that America is Nazi Germany, you need more education on the subject.
It comes from the left, and it comes from the right. But it doesn't take long for one or the other to invoke"Nazi" and/or "Hitler."
@3:47, Do you mean Poland?
Auschwitz, Treblinka, and most concentration camps were in Poland. How ignorant can you be?
Democrats could not have cared less when 8-year-old Secortiea Turner was murdered on July 4, 2020 in Atlanta, Georgia because then Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and other city leaders allowed armed vigilantes to roam the streets instead of enforcing law and order.
Democrats could not have cared less when 6-year-old Kingston Frazier was murdered on May 18, 2017 in pro-crime, pro-criminal, pro-lawlessness Democrat controlled Jackson, MS.
Democrats could not have cared less when 5-year-old Queenyana Davis was killed on April 16, 2020, the second child to be shot and killed in 10 days in pro-crime, pro-criminal, pro-lawlessness Democrat controlled Jackson, MS.
Democrats could not have cared less when 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley was murdered on February 2024 while jogging in Athens, Georgia — Suspect: José Antonio Ibarra (Venezuelan national who entered the U.S. illegally)
Democrats could not have cared less when 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray was raped and murdered on June 2024 in Houston, Texas) — Suspects: Two Venezuelan nationals who entered illegally (Johan Jose Rangel Martinez and Franklin Jose Pena Ramos).
Democrats could not have cared less when 37-year-old mother of five Rachel Morin was raped and murdered on August 2023 on a trail in Bel Air, Maryland) — Suspect: Victor Martinez Hernandez (Salvadoran national who entered illegally multiple times, alleged MS-13 ties).
Democrats could not have cared less when 20-year-old Kayla Hamilton was raped, strangled, and murdered on July 2022 in Aberdeen, Maryland) — Suspect reported as an undocumented immigrant.
Democrats could not have cared less when 20-year-old university student Mollie Tibbetts was murdered in 2018 while jogging in Iowa) — Suspect: Undocumented immigrant from Mexico
Democrats could not have cared less when 32-year-old Kate Steinle was fatally shot in 2015 on a San Francisco pier) — Suspect: Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez (undocumented immigrant with prior deportations).
Democrats could not have cared less when 37-year-old Megan Bos was allegedly decapitated and hidden in 2025 in Illinois — Suspect: Luis Mendoza-Gonzalez (Mexican national, undocumented).
Democrats could not have cared less when Maria Pleitez and her 11-year-old daughter Dayanara was killed in a 2025 car crash in New Jersey — Suspect: Raul Luna-Perez (Mexican national, undocumented).
Democrats could not have cared less when 15-year-old Luis Jocsan Nanez Lopez was shot in 2025 in Kentucky while defending his mother from an attempted rape — Suspect: Gildardo Amandor-Martinez (Mexican national, undocumented).
AND Democrats could not care less about Renee Good, except that her loss of life is conveniently exploitable to the ill-informed, furthering the pro-crime, pro-criminal Democrats evil lawlessness causes.
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