Steyn: some riots are OK — there’s been a complete collapse of equality before the law

Mark Steyn to Tucker Carlson:

They’re blathering, people from the Vice President on down, saying these riots are not “who we are”. Have you switched on a TV since Memorial Day? This is exactly who we are.

It’s OK to loot Macy’s, it’s OK to incinerate the precinct house in Minneapolis… but suddenly you expect the Capitol of the United States to be immune from this?  If we have equality before the law,  a Wendy’s franchisee is expected to have his property rights as respected as the United States Congress…

“Some groups have enjoyed a license to loot and burn at night…”

We’ve got a completely bifurcated system…the less law that applies to one group the more microregulated the lives of the other group are.

As for equality before the Media: A woman was killed in Congress, apparently shot by an agent of law enforcement. But on the news tonight, there were no candlelit vigils, no slo-mo replays. No demands for answers. It was the chaos that “led to her death”. It’s all in the phrasing.

@TweetBrettMcDonald  Cops shoot a woman and MSNBC calls the conservative mob “deadly”

No memorials for deplorables.

9.4 out of 10 based on 73 ratings

58 comments to Steyn: some riots are OK — there’s been a complete collapse of equality before the law

  • #
    Simon

    The National Guard around Capitol Hill was deployed before the Black Lives Matter protests. Someone decided though that yesterday’s “rally” would be peaceful so no extra security would be required. That’s double standards.
    Whoever shot that poor woman clearly felt that they had no choice. I don’t understand the US firearms culture and why police in the US do not utilise non-fatal methods of enforcement such as tasers or pepper sprays.

    735

    • #
      Richard Ilfeld

      They carry non-lethal weapons and have a protocol to follow before using lethal force.
      Because the “mob” was right-wing extremists, and the setting was the capitol, the officer will be whitewashed
      and may well have been sufficiently provoked to be only moderately sanctioned.
      Has the victim been black a whole different standard of justice would obtain.
      The person making the threat in the set of videos i’ve seen was not the person who was shot.

      280

    • #
      Clyde Spencer

      American police DO use tasers, pepper spray, rubber bullets, and batons. You haven’t been paying attention! The LEO who killed the woman probably panicked. It is difficult to imagine that an unarmed woman was perceived as being an imminent threat to the life of the LEO or others, which is the legal justification for using deadly force.

      260

      • #
        Ian

        ” It is difficult to imagine that an unarmed woman was perceived as being an imminent threat to the life of the LEO or others, which is the legal justification for using deadly force.”

        It is equally difficult to imagine that an unarmed man with his hands cuffed behind his back was perceived as being an imminent threat to the life of anyone but it didn’t stop deadly force being used,

        234

        • #
          Binny Pegler

          Trying to restrain some one on drugs from harming themselves or others is not ‘deadly force’
          At worst it could be labeled ‘excessive force’
          Reality is more likely a total ‘F up’ due to frustration, and or poor training.

          60

    • #
      John R Smith

      In very nearly all the Police shootings publicized by the Left in recent years, non-lethal measures preceded use of a firearm.
      The Press puts that in the last paragraph, if at all.
      If you have an ‘America Bad’ bent like the MSM, it’s likely you don’t bother to find out the actual facts.
      Your lack of understanding of a culture, is lack of understanding.

      290

    • #
      Mike Jonas

      1. Do we know that the woman was shot by police?
      2. Was anyone else killed, and how? (I have seen a report that there were 4 deaths, but it seems to be out of line with others)
      3. Do we have actual evidence of vote-flipping and/or vote-rigging? Something that is concrete evidence – like several instances of a vote count for a candidate going down – not just anecdotal evidence.

      There certainly do seem to be double-standards in play re the reporting of the protests – excuses for one side only. And surely the best way to handle allegations of election rigging is to have an independent or bi-partisan audit. And when I say bi-partisan, I don’t mean people picked from both sides by Democrats, I mean people picked by Donald Trump and Joe Biden.

      110

      • #
        Binny Pegler

        It’s not Trump who’s convinced me – It’s the media.
        There is no bigger new than a sitting president, publicly stating he believes election fraud has occurred.
        The last 2 months (well it didn’t need to be 2 month, 2 weeks would have been enough)
        There should have been very little else in the news, other then the audit process and it’s findings.

        311

      • #
        RossP

        Mike there is a video of the shooting and it is reasonable clear it was a police person with the gun.

        3 other people died and their names have been released by the Police. They say they died of natural causes (that seems strange to me as they were not that old)

        https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/01/dc-police-identify-four-trump-americans-killed-chaos-us-capitol/

        Agree on the audit but then you have idiots like Sen Lindsay Graham saying ” what is the use no one will believe them?”

        110

      • #
        Lawrie

        You should read the next post down Mike.

        Patrick Byrne summed up the moment: Do not go violent. We must maintain the moral high ground. … I condem all violence in DC tonight. That’s not us and it is how we lose.

        President Trump has been HORRIBLY served by his advisors and remains so.

        Last night we watched election data flow real-time from Georgia to Islamabad and China. They take a blank ballot, check live voter rolls overseas, pick one to attribute the vote to, and accept it.

        70

  • #
    Richard Ilfeld

    And in their heart of hearts, don’t you think a few on the left are recalibrating a little bit.
    Think about this:

    The traditional form of violence on the left is for the poor and disenfranchchised (one supposes) to destroy
    their own neighborhoods, and perhaps a little bit of public property replacable with taxers on the middle class,
    and a few unimportant middle class shops that are collateral damage, and important so the middle class learns to change their minds out of fear.

    It has worked for many years.

    If the rights is sufficiently disconnected from authority to react with some form of action, what form will that action take?
    A march on Washington is as much as anomoly as the Tea Party was.

    Think about what the left wants to cram down folk’s throats.

    If you don’t have recourse to the streets or the courts, and don’t have a responsive government, but do have a government that is very limited in geography
    and doesn’t have sympathetic assets on the ground in large parts of the country, what form will resistance take?

    The more the left pushes, the more they polarize those in the middle who would go along to get along to resist.

    The press and the social media are already well towards third world information control. If there is an alternative information channel up that is robust and accessible,
    the revolution can be real; if not we are sheep to be shorn.

    210

    • #
      AZ1971

      From the US Declaration of Independence, 1776:

      Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

      We are fast tracking a new US government if the powers that be continue to allow the transgressions of past tiny emperors in Washington D. C. go unchecked.

      170

  • #
    Kalm Keith

    The year 2020 has been a year of revelation about the world of politics:
    words to describe the state of our democracies are inadequate but at least we can see the depths of human depravity when elected officials “can’t see” the affront to democracy posed by last year’s Black Lives Matter civil assault and industrial scale properly damage.

    The same leaders who so carefully ignored or even praised the BLM catastrophe are now criticising yesterday’s comparatively mild outing as dishonorable and an affront to their sense of Honour.

    The word was frequently used yesterday by people with no previous interest in “honour”.

    Whether you consider Britain , the EEU, Hong Kong, Australia or the USA, corruption and swamp behaviour are rife and our civilisation no longer has functional democratic process and without that;

    We are no longer a Civilisation.

    It’s a long road back but at least we can now see the road.

    KK

    351

    • #
      RossP

      Absolutely correct KK.

      When you read articles like this you realise the assault on Trump was from everywhere including more than one foreign Government. Trump would have to be strongest person and leader of State in my life time, to put up with everything he has been bombarded with.

      https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yNnkTEuiDkrqnLa-rHEQKcBBIziNIlAn/view

      291

      • #
        Ted O'Brien.

        Trump was beaten by the virus. Before that struck he was reorganising the world for our betterment.

        It is a fundamental fact of democracy that when people are unhappy at election time, whatever the cause, they blame the incumbents.

        Without the virus, Trump was unassailable.

        30

        • #

          If they raise votes by 5% through Dominion and manufacture 200,000 midnight dumps, why not 10% or 400,000? If the US was a democracy with free and fair elections, I would agree with you.

          111

          • #
            Lucky

            I go with Jo’s explanation, that there was a Trump election victory, yes even with the virus, and that vote numbers was altered/manipulated by multiple methods well discussed in earlier threads.

            01

  • #
    Richard Ilfeld

    To my knowledge, not one national elected official on the left has consistently condemned the rioting and looting in our cities,
    and many have supported the looters as justified, and extreme movements such as “defund the police”
    I cannot think of a leader on the left who has the moral standing to call for an end to resistance from the right,
    promising that the cities will be policed, the courts will adjudicate matters of law and order, and of constitutional
    authority under COVID fairly, and the future elections will be free and fair. Calls to work together, to reach across the aisle,
    to turn down the heat, measured against actions, sound like “SUBMIT”.

    I see no Republican leaders acceptable to the right who might have the trust of the left, perhaps excepting a small number of governors
    who have performed comparatively well in navigating the crisis with intact economies and civil liberties; and these few have been consistently vilified
    in the liberal press.

    The marginal seat in Georgia is a two year term only; the house margin is slim, one can expect the progressives to be loud and in a hurry.

    Can anyone suggest why thinks won’t have to get worse before they get better? Moderate Democrats will have to stop supporting their more extreme elements
    before the extinction of the flickering light of freedom can be stopped; it is getting pretty late.

    310

    • #
      Len

      Moderate Democrats were called Blue Dog Democrats. They were wiped out around 2010 when a radical left agenda was introduced. This happened here around 2016 when a radical left agenda was also introduced. Moderates like Senator Bullock had to not seek re-election as he could not support this radical agenda. Today’s Democrats and our Labor are not the Party that little old ladies supported a couple of years ago.

      130

      • #
        jelly34

        They used to be the party of the WORKER.Not any more.I used to be a good little union man,but towards the end of my carrier,I found out that the unions didn’t care to help the workers.3 Times I had to call on the unions and each time they refused to help.NEVER AGAIN.

        30

        • #
          Lucky

          Kim Beazley, Australian Labor Party WA-
          when I joined Labor it was run by the cream of the working class. Looking at Labor now I see the dregs of the middle class.

          00

  • #
    nc

    This is all on Obama, Clinton’s. The constant war against a sitting president is what caused this division.

    330

    • #
      Klem

      Partly but most of the people who entered the Capital buildings were paid BLM protesters. The breaking windows, the breaking doors, the helmets and scarves around their necks, those are practiced BLM leftist loons. Thats what they’ve been doing every night for months. You can spot them from miles away.

      Even the video capturing the shooting was recorded by Sullivan, a high ranking BLM rioter. As the days go by, you’ll hear more about this.

      111

  • #

    DC named a Plaza for BLM.
    Trump protesters never jumped the barricades, they were let inside.

    340

  • #
    Clyde Spencer

    While the First Amendment protects peaceful assemblies, this obviously went a little beyond that. The difference between yesterday and this Summer’s riots is that there was no looting of retail stores and no whole-scale arson of buildings and vehicles, despite an obvious frustration with their complaints being ignored by Congress. This is about politics, which is intended to be protected by the First Amendment.

    However, Congress is ‘playing with fire’ when they don’t address accusations of voter fraud, and the Media resorts to using terms like “baseless” and “unsupported.” One would think that if the new administration wants to have any reasonable claim to a mandate from the electorate, they would be anxious to remove the cloud over the legitimacy of the election. That doesn’t seem to be the case and they are depending on the force of police and military to keep the ‘rabble’ in their place. At least the Democrats haven’t suggested that they “eat cake.” However, they seem to have forgotten the bigger lesson of the Bastille.

    We have a Catch 22 situation. The courts have rejected petitions based on the rationalization that there is no evidence for the claims of voter fraud. However, without investigations, it is unlikely that the evidence will ever come to light. If the existing legislators and federal agencies turn a blind eye to incriminating affidavits and abundant anecdotal evidence, and the Media and ‘hi tech’ companies suppress dissenting opinions, what recourse does the half of the country, which feels cheated, have?

    350

    • #
      Binny Pegler

      There is also a well documented history of protesters entering public building (without getting shot)

      210

      • #
        Clyde Spencer

        Yes, when California was considering its first ban on what would become legislatively-defined ‘assault weapons,’ about 4,000 of us went to Sacramento to demonstrate against it, and talk with our legislators. We were allowed to freely roam through the public capitol building and grounds, and talk with legislators who were in their offices. While the Democrats ultimately ignored us, and the MSM said almost nothing about the unprecedented protest, we weren’t banned from exercising our rights to a peaceful assembly — and nothing happened. Frustrating the electorate is a sure way to encourage them to take out their frustrations in a less than desirable way. Congress has culpability in the death of the woman.

        In the past, the offices of public officials in San Francisco and other cities have been taken over by various (mostly left-wing) protestors and it rarely raised to levels of violence beyond forcibly removing the protestors after a period of time.

        180

      • #

        Look up the “storming of the Capitol” for the Kavanaugh hearings. And CNN and the Dems were so behind all that – had no problem at all. But as with the Left its always the side that counts…

        20

    • #
      Ted O'Brien.

      Clyde, I very much doubt that more than a very few of these people will be anxious. Hubris will rule.

      Unless Biden himself immediately changes tack to address this problem intelligently. Watching Chuck Shumer reading his speech yesterday (I wonder who wrote it?) I wouldn’t hold much hope.

      70

    • #
      Ozzie Bowman

      Clyde…….. The Courts have NOT said there is no evidence of Vote Corruption. They know there is massive evidence. They refused to listen to the evidence.https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/12/yes-it-was-stolen-election-john-perazzo/#.X-julP2AiAA.facebook

      50

  • #
    Pauly

    White Lives Matter

    Veterans’ Lives Matter

    Female Lives Matter

    The silence of the left in response to this unlawful killing shouts their hypocrisy loudly.

    350

    • #
      Serp

      Yeah, but it’s against the flow of their contemporary doctrine so there’ll be no energy wasted on the death of one or any number of dumb cluck maga hat wearers –talk about asking for it.

      20

  • #
    GD

    Trump protesters never jumped the barricades, they were let inside.

    Do you have any more information or a link for that? It’s something that the MSM has not mentioned, obviously.

    30

    • #
      bhiggum

      There’s a few different videos out there that we don’t see on MSM-

      Police letting protesters in

      There’s also a video of the exact moment Ashli Babbit got shot. You can see the gun firing and see her fall backwards to the ground. I’m not linking to it but it’s not hard to find.

      140

      • #
        Smith

        I’ve seen the tragic video of veteran Ashli Babbit being shot the minute she breaks through the window. No warning, just dead.

        If she was black there would be hell to pay.

        110

  • #
    Zigmaster

    With thre left if they didn’t have any double standards they’d have no standards at all. Hypocracy is an art form for them.

    130

  • #
    PeterS

    The soft coup is almost complete. Trump has two weeks to pull a rabbit out of his hat to stop Biden becoming POTUS on Jan 20. Whether he does or not is unclear; I doubt he will because he’s blocked by the courts. I just hope his supporters don’t become violent and cause havoc. Let Biden become POTUS peacefully if Trump can’t go through the courts to prove the election was stolen. Biden will then have to deal with the consequences of a failed America, not Trump. America is much bigger than any single man. It will crash and burn in due course regardless of who is the leader. Better it happen under someone like Biden so that Trump doesn’t end up being the scapegoat. Good luck America, enjoy the Great Reset!

    181

    • #
      GD

      Biden will then have to deal with the consequences of a failed America

      For the first two years (if he lasts that long), Biden will blame all negative outcomes on Trump.

      180

      • #
        Dave in the States

        Yup, the Biden/Harris regime and all their supporters are immune to any negative consequences because they can no longer be held responsible to the voters/people. They have got away with it-twice- in last two months. Sovereignty has been fully transferred from the people to the Deep State. 2022 and 2024 will likely be no different.

        200

    • #
      Rupert Ashford

      I think what this has shown us is how big and powerful the swamp is, and also who are part of it. The ruling classes will not give up their position of power and privilege without a huge fight – the people be damned.

      240

      • #
        RossP

        A simple. clear illustration today Rupert. Chris Wray (FBI) says he will prosecute protestors from the rally. What did he do with the BLM and Antifa looters all through the summer -nothing?

        260

  • #
    PeterS

    Here’s an interestingly different perspective of the situation. Of course time will tell if it’s just all wishful thinking on their part. Sounds too good to be true.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-R6q70LTidY

    140

    • #
      RossP

      Amazing stuff Peter S. Thanks for the link, lets hope it is not too good to be true but is correct.

      90

    • #
      Brenda Spence

      Wow! That was very interesting, thank you. They say that some Democrat laptops were grabbed…😲 hope its true.

      I live a very sheltered life it seems😎

      60

  • #
    Peter C

    The FairfAX Papers (Melbourne Age) are in full frothing indignation over the Capitol building invasion and the Washington Patriot protests.
    It is the end of Democracy wails Peter Hartcher.

    101

    • #
      Chris

      Unfortunately “The Australian” and the “WestAustralian” have also reduced themselves to trashy, worthless compost material .

      50

      • #

        Fortunately the comments at the Australian on Paul Kellys editorial were very solidly pro Trump. Paul Kelly is a complete disgrace – his articles are nearly always unadulterated rubbish. He seems to believe in unicorns and is simply incapable of appreciating how the Left have white anted so much of our govt and civilisation, and how he is contributing to the collapse here.

        Is just me or are others sensing just how unrealistic things are? I concentrate on work and friends and avoid the TV and media like the plague. These are important rather than the wild and stupid covid policies or ridiculous utterances on climate, which just make you mad. I still comment occasionally but spending too much time watching TV or reading the Australian or SMH just makes me very angry, or depressed. They are in a completely fake world.

        10

  • #
    Rick

    The door is now open for “We the people” to take control of the situation and use armed force to do so, as prescribed in the US constitution, and encouraged by the Founding Fathers.
    The conservatives at the rally outside the Capitol foolishly allowed themselves to be denied their 2nd amendment rights and were disarmed like sheep. No sooner had that happened than armed thugs of the government murdered one of them. This is what happens under dictatorships; the people are forcefully disarmed and then murdered by the government.
    There are mountains of evidence that the election was stolen by thugs, and the meek, weak Republicans let them do it. Pence may not be a traitor, but he is a coward.
    If America doesn’t take back their government now, they will forever live like serfs.

    154

  • #

    2020 – the year of the laptop, 2021 the “13 laptops” ?
    https://youtu.be/-R6q70LTidY
    Steele, Parkes and Ward on the events at the Capitol.
    It is alleged that 13 laptops were recovered and handed over to Trump’s team, including Pelosi’s …

    50

  • #
    Tim Spence

    I don’t undestand why people have to register as a Democrat or Republican in some states ???

    70

    • #
      Roger Knights

      It’s so they can vote in that party’s primaries. If primary-voting were open to all, then members of the opposition party would vote for the weakest candidate. (“strategic voting}

      90

    • #
      The HyperVentiliating, Depraved, and MOST Deplorable (and still asleep) Vlad the Impaler

      Greetings to you, Mr. Spence:

      I cannot address all states, but when one registers to vote, one is allowed to ‘choose’ which party they might affiliate with. The rules, laws, and regulations for affiliation are established by each State Legislature, or the Secretary of the State (usually second or third in line to the Governor of that State, depending on whether or not there is an office of the Lieutenant Governor [oooops! sorry, LEFT-tennant Governor in your neck of the woods … ]).

      I can specifically address the conditions in Wyoming, where I live:

      When an individual registers to vote, they can choose to be a(n) Republican, or Democrat, or Independent. If, for example, I write down that I am a member of the ‘Vlad the Impaler’ Party, then I will automatically be a declared “Independent”, as Wyoming only recognizes the Republican Party, and the Democrat Party (a.k.a. the CCP). Just to our south, Colorado officially recognizes about thirteen or fourteen political parties.

      The reason for designating what ‘party’ you affiliate with is for the Primary Election. If you registered Republican, on the Primary Election day, you will be given the Republican ballot, and you choose what Republican candidates will move on to the General Election (the one specified in the Constitution as taking place on the ‘first Tuesday after the first Monday in November’). If you ‘chose’ to register an an Independent, for whatever reason, on Primary Day, your ballot would consist of ONLY those non-partisan offices. For example, here in Wyoming, and Natrona County in particular, where I live, our County Commissioners are all non-partisan, and our County Sheriff is also a non-partisan office. Other counties in Wyoming have partisan offices, whereas Natrona does not. The State allows each County to decide how to govern and elect office-holders.

      Sorry for being long-winded, but I sincerely hope that helps to clear up some aspect of politics on this side of the Big Pond.

      Praise be to the Our Good Lord who Blesses and Keeps us, more than we deserve, and may He Bless and Keep President Trump,

      Vlad

      100

  • #
    CHRIS

    Exactly why the American voting system/procedures are a gift to any extremists….LEFT OR RIGHT! The whole voting system is a complete joke. 50 States with different procedures, including just what type of voting system they use (mechanical or human). As far as I’m concerned, what has happened in America over the past few days is no surprise…it serves them right.

    00