Chuck Shumer says "if SC justices vote against Roe V Wade, they won't know what hit them". Is that inciting violence? Should Shumer know that some of the people listening to him will threaten with death some SC Justices and God forbid ( figure of speech ) one is hurt or killed, will we hold Shumer responsible?
How about Barack Obama saying he would bring a gun to a knife fight? Is that inciting violence?
https://www.politico.com/blogs/ben-s...e-fight-009692
Unless and until you say out loud or write in a document to "attack" a person or a group. all these other examples loosely related to violence can be totally taken out of context and we'll be on a witch hunt from now on.
And if you aren't going to arrest and prosecute a person or persons calling for the death of cops,m you have no fucking ground to stand on. If you call law enforcement officers Nazi's and Storm Troopers, you have incited violence against law enforcement.
We are heading down a very dangerous road here. The solution is to punish the people who actually commit violence and show this crap won't be tolerated by either side of the political isle.
This was an opinion piece in the paper this morning and this is the reason I reprint the opinions of others who write so much better than I do.
https://www.pressreader.com/usa/miam...81749861991669
Violence not the answer, no matter what side you’re on
Some truths seem so selfevident that little or nothing needs be said about them. But perhaps making such an assumption about the (I hope, obvious) illegitimacy of the violent entry into the Capitol and the disruption of congressional proceedings on Jan. 6 would be mistaken.
We should all be clear about this fundamental truth: The violence of those demonstrators was indefensible and illegal.
They should be punished, both for the inherent unlawfulness and danger of their behavior, and for deterrence.
Also, an additional corollary truth should be apparent: Violent behavior is illegitimate whatever the cause espoused.
We should not pick and choose what violence we allow and do not allow, what violence we condemn and do not condemn.
Furthermore, we must never overlook the distinction between nonviolent protests and violent protests — a clear but often ignored truth.
Nonviolent protest is just that — nonviolent. Even when nonviolent protesters refuse to move and are arrested, they expect the arrests and expect to face the consequences.
This makes their protests more effective and helps to engender sympathy if the cause is just.
But violence should never engender sympathy for any cause. Violence in a democratic society undermines any cause and weakens the credibility of its adherents.
Perhaps the most important truth, which we ignore at our peril, is that violence breeds violence.
Seeing unpunished violence inevitably leads the observer to believe that “I can do it, too.”
Failure to maintain the rule of law, not surprisingly, undermines the rule of law.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, the great Supreme Court justice, warned us that people care less what the law says, than what will happen to them if they break the law.
This so-called “bad man” theory of the law cautions us to maintain the rule of law by enforcing the rule of law. Lip service will not suffice.
We must not let people see that the rule of law is not enforced, lest they conclude that the rule of law is not enforce.
This truth applies to all prior, current and future violent protests.
The rule of law is fragile. The rule of law can survive only if it holds a higher interest to citizens than do the narrower or special interests that govern normal political and personal decisions.
In other words, we must believe in the rule of law as an overriding general interest even when it seems to work against our narrower interests.
President George Washington spoke of “the cement of common interest.”
Only if the rule of law holds the highest value in our civic culture will the rule of law survive.
Let’s join together in pouring
“the cement of common interest” in the rule of law.