What Is the Violence in American Cities All About?

Victor Davis Hanson

Why do city governments defund police departments at the very moment vulnerable residents are most fearful for their safety?

. . . "Millions of youths were sequestered in their apartments and basements, unemployed, without school, and worried over their career prospects. Many simply wanted to vent their rage at the world and almost everything in it.
"The media romanticized the “summer of love” unrest and downplayed the violence. Newspapers ran bizarre photo essays on the chic garb at the protests — umbrellas, leaf blowers, wooden shields, armor, and colored bike helmets.
"Many in the street seemed as interested in taking selfies as they were in smashing windows.
"Some cite furor directed at President Trump, the tensions of an election year, and the weaponization of almost every current issue by both political parties.
"Still others claim that the violence is mostly careerist-driven. Demands are made to fire ideological enemies and hire partisan friends. If the old guard is banished, then their lucrative billets can be snapped up by a new woke generation. Demagogues see political careers birthed with the bullhorn.
"None of these explanations are mutually exclusive. But all reflect confusion over why often-senseless vandalism has been directed at statues of Ulysses S. Grant and Frederick Douglass, and at the World War II Memorial.
"Why do liberal authors and artists fear there is a new McCarthyite cancel culture that threatens to take out even progressive sympathizers?" . . .

That Portland assassin

Suspect, 48, in fatal shooting of Patriot Prayer supporter is dad-of-two who describes himself as '100% ANTIFA' and 'took a loaded gun to a Portland protest earlier this year'

Man suspected in deadly Portland shooting calls himself ‘100% ANTIFA’


Antifa Killer of Trump Supporter in Portland Was Arrested in June Drag Racing with Son While Drunk and Arrested Last Month with a Gun But Charges Were Dropped
. . . Within minutes of the shooting, 4chan users got to work, and within hours… they had a name.

The face of the Portland murderer has already been found. He has a large BLM tattoo on his neck. pic.twitter.com/UiEw3zS525— Chris Tomlinson (@TomlinsonCJ) August 30, 2020

"The message board quickly claimed that the shooter is Michael Reinoehl, 48, of Portland.

The murder suspect has been identified as snowboard instructor Michael Reinoehl, from Oregon.
— Chris Tomlinson (@TomlinsonCJ) August 30, 2020

 BLM ‘activists’ celebrated as Trump supporter was killed: Devine

. . . "Videos posted by independent journalists Andy Ngo and Ian Miles Cheong show an American flag being burned in celebration as the crowd revels in the news.
     "Online video appears to show the murder. You can hear a man’s voice: “We got a couple right here.” And then two shots ring out.
    "The victim, identified as Aaron Danielson, reportedly was wearing the cap of conservative-libertarian group Patriot Prayer, whose caravan of pickup trucks festooned with flags drove through the city that day.
     "But because he was a supporter of President Trump, the victim did not deserve to live, according to BLM-Antifa." . . .

Why no recall campaign in Portland?

Rich Terrell, former math teacher

Portland's Mayor Ted Wheeler exhibits severe Trump Derangement Syndrome  

"Portland has been wracked with Antifa and Black Lives Matter violence for three months, aided by a supine Mayor Ted Wheeler.  A month ago, Mayor Ted Wheeler forced out federal agents who were pushing back against the militants.  However, when a leftist militant killed a Trump-supporter last night, Wheeler left reality behind and launched a full-throated anti-Trump attack, based upon every hoax the left has thrown at the president."

. . . "In the remainder of this post, I'll break down the bizarre fantasies that fill Wheeler's mind.  As you can see, he begins by implying that Trump-supporters cannot enter his city and, from there, goes on the attack:" . . .

"Wheeler's attack has to be heard (or read) to appreciate how devoid of reality it is:" . . .

Mallard Fillmore

When NBA, MLB And NHL Players Picked Jacob Blake To Be Their Saint, They Chose Poorly

Issues & Insights

     "The officer who shot Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, has been tried and convicted by Democrats, the media, and truth-be-damned activists before the case is resolved. It’s a mirror image of the Michael Brown shooting (the officer was cleared) in Ferguson, Missouri, and the death in Minneapolis of George Floyd (the officer has yet to go to trial). The difference is this time, pro athletes, pampered and well-paid, joined the mob.
     "They should be ashamed of their behavior. They quit on the employers who pay their soaring salaries, and estranged themselves from their fans, who provide the dollars the owners use to compensate the players.
     The facts about the Blake case do not show a group of white officers taking advantage of a crisis situation so they could shoot another black man. Reports indicate a starkly different story – the policemen were there to protect a woman, a black woman, we’re assuming, based on what we’ve learned, from Blake.
    "Here’s what is being reported:

• Police were called to the scene because Blake was violating a restraining order, says the union that represents Kenosha officers.
• The restraining order was in place due to allegations Blake had sexually assaulted a woman after breaking into her home.
• The criminal complaint also said Blake also stole the woman’s automobile and debit card.
• State investigators found a knife on the driver’s side of Blake’s vehicle, where he was shot.
• The union says he had the knife in his hand when he was arrested.
• A still image from a video taken before he was shot shows Blake with something in his left hand that could be a knife.
• Before the shooting, Blake resisted arrest, fought with officers, placed one in a headlock, and was tased twice, in an effort to use non-deadly force to prevent the escalation that occurred.

"But the players couldn’t wait for the facts." . . .

Blaming the violence on Trump is a bridge too far

. . . "Indeed, the entire Democratic Party apparatus, now that it has strategically decided it better shift gears and publicly oppose the violence, is poised to blame the anarchy on Trump, not just because it is happening during his presidency but also because Democrats claim he is an evil racist who engenders an atmosphere of racism in the country."

David Limbaugh  "Democrats can try but won’t succeed at distancing themselves from the violence they have enabled on American streets. People surely know where the Democrats have stood on this, and that they’re now backpedaling only because of polling data.
     "Former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg outright blamed this anarchy on President Donald Trump. “The simple reality is that we are seeing more and more chaos and violence under the Trump presidency, and there’s no reason to expect that it would get any different or better if he were reelected,” said Buttigieg. “This is very much characteristic of living in Donald Trump’s America, and I think we’re going to see more and more of it as long as he’s in charge.”
     "To blame this violence on Trump because he’s in office is like blaming him for the border wall not being erected fast enough. It’s like blaming him for the economic slowdown caused by the coronavirus when, in fact, he has persistently tried, over strenuous Democratic obstruction, to sensibly and safely reopen our economy. It would be like blaming him for abortions because they have persisted during his first term despite his valiant efforts for the innocent unborn.
     "It is inconceivable that Buttigieg is unaware Democratic mayors and governors have all but encouraged this mayhem. Many have consistently rejected Trump’s offer of federal law enforcement assistance to quell the riots. Many have cavalierly misrepresented the violence as peaceful protests. Democratic CNN has called the Kenosha riots “fiery but mostly peaceful,” and the Democratic Virginia Senate just passed a bill allowing assaults on police officers to be mere misdemeanors, for crying out loud.
     "If Joe Biden or any other Democrat at the Democratic National Convention denounced the violence, I sincerely missed it.
     "Then, something happened. No, Democrats didn’t all of a sudden become outraged at the criminal assaults and property destruction against people whose only sin was to own businesses in a convenient location for Marxist arsonists and opportunistic looters.
     "Democrats apparently discovered through internal polling and focus groups that most Americans are appalled by this leftist orchestrated breakdown of law and order, and that they actually care about safe streets. Shocker.
     "CNN’s Don Lemon seems to have changed his mind on the riots — but not because he has had a law and order epiphany. “The rioting has to stop,” Lemon said. “It’s showing up in the polling. It’s showing up in focus groups. … it is the only thing right now that is sticking.' ” . .

Biden To Address Racial Tensions On Monday

Maybe? Pradheep Shanker believes the strategy will backfire on Biden because he’s not showing leadership and won’t provide specifics on how he’d stop the violence. It’s an understandable belief, however, Biden finds himself in a bit of a pickle when it comes to the issue of policing because he’s not in the #defundthepolice camp.

 CNN: Biden condemns violence in Portland and calls on Trump to do the same

Democrats, Media Desperately Try to Pin Antifa/BLM Riots on Trump

Kenosha, WI appears to be the breaking point for voters.  This coupled with the Republican National Convention’s great success have Democrat voters taking a look at the mayhem caused by anti-Trump rioters and criminals and deciding that it’s in their and the country’s best interest to vote for President Trump in November.

Twitter post:  https://twitter.com/peterjhasson/status/1300207864187944960

Peter J. Hasson@peterjhassonI would like to hear from the Biden campaign whether their staffers regret
paying into a fund that bails out rioters, and whether Kamala Harris
regrets encouraging her followers to donate to that fund as well

🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨

NEW Tom Cotton ad going live in Wisconsin and Minnesota tonight pic.twitter.com/SVv6J4nVPI

— Comfortably Smug (@ComfortablySmug) August 30, 2020

When Democrats Say ‘the People,’ They Mean ‘the Government’

But then came Trump, who actually meant “the people” when he said “the people.” And that’s one principal reason why the statists who hitherto championed themselves as guardians of the interests of “the people” hate him with such incandescent intensity.

Robert Spencer "In his inaugural address, Donald Trump announced that “today we are not merely transferring power from one Administration to another, or from one party to another -- but we are transferring power from Washington, D.C., and giving it back to you, the American People. For too long, a small group in our nation’s Capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost. Washington flourished -- but the people did not share in its wealth. Politicians prospered -- but the jobs left, and the factories closed. The establishment protected itself, but not the citizens of our country.... That all changes -- starting right here, and right now, because this moment is your moment: it belongs to you.”

"These were stirring words, but they were the sort of thing presidents have said for ages. Back in his first inaugural address in 1913, Woodrow Wilson decried the fact that “the great Government we loved has too often been made use of for private and selfish purposes, and those who used it had forgotten the people.” In his first inaugural address in 1953, Dwight D. Eisenhower asserted that “we, the people, elect leaders not to rule but to serve.” And in his January 1996 state of the union address, Bill Clinton declared: “We know big government does not have all the answers. We know there's not a program for every problem. We have worked to give the American people a smaller, less bureaucratic government in Washington. And we have to give the American people one that lives within its means. The era of big government is over… Our goal must be to enable all our people to make the most of their own lives -- with stronger families, more educational opportunity, economic security, safer streets, a cleaner environment in a safer world.' ” . . .

(Updated) "I sure hope [California politician] Adam Schiff follows through on his threat to subpoena DNI Ratcliffe over congressional briefings"

Ratcliffe said on Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures" that he would "continue to keep Congress informed" through written updates. He explained the main reason for the change was to stop "a pandemic of information being leaked out of the intelligence community." 

Thomas Lifson "Adam Schiff, who consistently lied about having clear evidence of purported Trump collusion with Russia, is setting himself up for more humiliation that he knows will be ignored by his MSM propagandist pals."
. . . 

"Ratcliffe's long interview with Maria Bartiromo is must-see TV, and offered a cornucopia of acts, including the news that he has been coordinating with the John Durham investigation to avoid premature declassification and disclosure of information that would interfere with the investigation.  Ratcliffe is running his own intelligence investigation, in addition to the criminal investigation of the inadequate predicate of the FBI investigation of the Trump campaign and administration.

I'm coordinating with him to make sure that he has the intelligence documents that he needs to do his work, and what I don't want to do is declassify something that might prejudice his work so we're going to have to coordinate as we go forward.

"Here is all 20 minutes of the Ratcliffe interview, spread over three segments, in part due to a technical issue that prevented picture and sound both being broadcast, leading to an audio-only feed."

"In addition, former acting DNI Ric Grenell appeared for a shorter interview, in which he laid out the criminality of leaks with his characteristic forceful directness and insight:

"My guess is that Schiff is merely blustering about subpoenaing DNI Ratcliffe.  But if he follows through, I expect Ratcliffe to demolish him with testimony about criminality on the part of his colleagues and maybe even him.

"Go ahead Schiff, make my day."

Ratcliffe says he is coordinating with John Durham; about to declassify more Trump-Russia documents  . . . "Ratcliffe said that he is not privy to Durham’s findings, but that he has provided the prosecutor access to intelligence documents needed for the investigation." . . .

UPDATE: Ratcliffe defends halting election briefings, accuses members of Congress of leaking classified information
. . . “ 'President Trump is hoping Vladimir Putin will once more boost his candidacy and cover his horrific failures to lead our country through the multiple crises we are facing. And he does not want the American people to know the steps Vladimir Putin is taking to help Trump get re-elected,” Democrat presidential nominee Joe Biden said in a statement." . . .

Father of Seattle CHOP shooting victim sues state, local government for $3 billion

Go big or go home, I'd say.

Instead, Anderson “laid bleeding to death in the streets with no one to respond,” as alleged in papers filed for a separate $1 billion claim against the city.

Fox News   The father of a 19-year-old who was shot in the Seattle Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP), has filed claims in excess of $3 billion against state and local governments, accusing them of allowing a “state of lawlessness,” according to reports.
"Horace Lorenzo Anderson Sr., 50, previously appeared on “Hannity,” claiming that police and Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkin had not provided him with any information since his son Horace Lorenzo Anderson Jr.’s death on June 20.
" 'They need to come talk to me and somebody needs to come tell me something, because I still don't know nothing," an emotional Anderson told Sean Hannity. "Somebody needs to come to my house, and knock on my door and tell me something. I don't know nothing. All I know is my son got killed up there.”
" 'They say, 'He's just a 19-year-old.' No, that's Horace Lorenzo Anderson [Jr.]. That's my son, and I loved him."
"Following a week of tense stand-offs and violent clashes in June - with police using tear gas and pepper spray while protesters hurled rocks and bottles - Seattle PD backed out of the area around the Capitol Hill in an effort to de-escalate the situation. Protesters were given freedom to walk around the area with limited police presence.
"The protesters established barriers and declared the six-block area an autonomous zone, free of police presence.  Durkin allowed protesters to remain while they discussed their demands, but the deaths of Anderson Jr. and another teenager finally forced police to clear the area out about a month later.
"Now, two months after his son's death, Anderson Sr. has filed a lawsuit against local and state government, alleging that confusion and blockades in the occupied zone prevented first responders from reaching his son in time after he was shot multiple times." . . .

Should Universities Recommend (or Demand) Epithet Filtering on Students' and Professors' Internet Devices?

Eugene Volokh via Reason  . . . "Some students, faculty, and administrators have argued that even hearing racial epithets quoted is traumatic or at least highly offensive to students, and that decent people therefore should not quote them. Most of these complaints have

The logo

arisen with regard to quotes of the word "n*****," whether from court opinions, court case files, historical documents, literature, or otherwise. My view is that these words shouldn't be rendered taboo for serious academic discussion, and that there's a sharp difference between improper use of the words (especially to insult someone) and proper mention of how the words were used in a case or book or speech.

"But let me try to approach the problem in a slightly different way; tell me if you think it's helpful. 

"I take it that if it's so damaging and unjustifiable for students to have to hear the word, it's also damaging and unjustifiable for them to have to see the word. Indeed, one of the recent complaints has been about a Stanford professor writing the word on the board; a commenter on this blog seems to be objecting to my even quoting the word in blog posts; others have mentioned similar objections." . . .

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"Advanced Profanity Filter (APF) helps clean up bad language on websites you and your family enjoy.

"Whether you choose to censor, substitute, or hide offensive words, APF is here to improve your browsing experience. Individuals around the world can now be protected from profanity in their homes, organizations, and schools. APF has a variety of options to meet your personal needs.

"APF is not limited to filtering text alone! With the use of captions and subtitles it can also mute audio while you sit back and relax to watch your favorite movies and shows from a collection of supported sites. Have a suggestion for a new supported site? Contact us!

"For a detailed overview of the features and settings, please see the Getting Started page here:" . . .https://github.com/richardfrost/AdvancedProfanityFilter/wiki

But wait! There's more!

Syracuse U. Professor Put on Administrative Leave for Referring to "Wuhan Flu" and "Chinese Communist Party Virus

Disturbing video shows the moment a man wearing a Patriot Prayer baseball cap was shot and killed in Portland as tensions between pro-Trump supporters and Black Lives Matter counter-protesters boiled over.

A GoFundMe set to help Bishop's family reads: 'Aaron "Jay" Danielson was a Portland citizen who went downtown to express his opinions during the unrest and was shot and killed on the evening of Saturday August 29th.'   (Pictured, right)

Portland Antifa Celebrate The Death Of Trump Supporter Murdered By Anarchist…
“ 'He was a f—ing Nazi! Our community held its own.” "Antifa & BLM in Portland celebrate the homicide of a purported Trump supporter who was affiliated with Patriot Prayer, a Portland-area conservative group." . . .

UK Daily Mail  . . . "In the footage, recorded by videographer Justin Dunlap, the victim appears to be following two other people down a street before two gunshots ring out and a cloud of smoke erupts at the source.   
"The person who appeared to fire the shots and a handful of other people nearby then flee out of view as the victim staggers for a few feet and collapses on the ground. 

. . . "Detectives have yet to release any information about the shooting suspect and said they are still looking for more evidence. 

Police acknowledged that several images and videos have been posted on social media - including Dunlap's - but did not say whether they'd been verified.  

Dunlap claimed that the victim had been macing people prior to the shooting. 

In his video someone could be heard shouting that the man was a 'motherf**ker who has been pushing people and jumping people the entire time'.

'That guy has been f**king with people the entire time,' the witness shouted. 

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler Blames Republicans And Trump For Murder Of Trump Supporter In Portland…

Demings: Portland shooting is 'what happens' when homeland security is 'politicized'

CNN: The Worst TV Network Ever

CNN viewers weren’t informed about this, because these facts don’t fit the preferred narrative in which Blake is a victim of “systemic racism.” Instead, it appears Blake was a perpetrator of violence against women (an issue Democrats claim to care about), and police were there to protect a woman from her alleged abuser. 

CNN Hires This Is Fine Dog To Report On Riots; CNN dutifully changed its chyron to read THIS IS FINE for the entire report, as well, saying they will hold that caption for the remainder of the riots. (

The American Spectator  "Don Lemon made news this week, although he did it by accident and almost nobody noticed. CNN is the least-watched of the three cable-news networks, and Lemon’s program “CNN Tonight” typically gets a little more than a million viewers, or less than a third of the audience for most primetime hours on Fox News Channel. Very few people were watching when Don Lemon made news Tuesday night, by revealing how deeply his network is embedded with the presidential campaign of Joe Biden. Discussing the riots in Kenosha, Wisconsin, with fellow CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, Lemon expressed concern that mob violence would damage the Democrats’ chances in November:

The rioting has to stop. Chris, as you know and I know, it’s showing up in the polling. It’s showing up in focus groups. It is the only thing — it is the only thing right now that is sticking.

"Question: How does Don Lemon know what people are telling Democratic Party pollsters in focus groups? But asking a question like that is probably racist. Anyone who doesn’t support Biden is a racist, as is anyone who criticizes CNN.
"Such simple-minded formulae are CNN’s journalistic stock-in-trade nowadays. Mocked four years ago as the “Clinton News Network,” CNN has since then labored diligently to destroy whatever credibility they still had after Hillary’s failed campaign. Since President Trump’s election, CNN has kept busy promoting the phony “Russian collusion” hoax and went all-in on the smear campaign against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, yet still somehow found time to defame Nicholas Sandmann. One of the highlights of this week’s Republican National Convention was watching Sandmann’s victory lap after CNN was forced to settle the Catholic schoolboy’s defamation lawsuit.
"You might think four years of failure, including the humiliation inflicted by Sandmann, would teach CNN a lesson. But the problems at the third-place network seem irreparable, and they continue stumbling from one embarrassment to another. In the wee hours of Tuesday morning, the network outdid itself when CNN reporter Omar Jimenez stood in front of a burning building in Kenosha, above an onscreen chyron that declared, “Fiery But Mostly Peaceful Protests After Police Shooting.” Yes, it was mostly peaceful, except for the looting and arson.
"Endeavoring to describe what’s wrong at CNN is perhaps an impossible challenge, but the briefest summary is everything. Or to put it more directly: Jeff Zucker.
"Since taking over CNN eight years ago, Zucker has done what anyone familiar with his previous career would have expected him to do, namely (a) screw it up, and (b) blame others. In case you’ve forgotten, Zucker’s previous tenure at NBC was a gigantic disaster. In 2010, one of Maureen Dowd’s sources called Zucker “the most destructive media executive ever to exist.” How he talked himself into the top job at CNN is a mystery, but no one is actually surprised by the network’s failure since Zucker took over. If you want good TV, you don’t hire Zucker, and CNN is very bad TV.
"As bad as CNN’s liberal bias is — and when Trump speaks of the media as “the enemy of the people,” it’s CNN’s Jim Acosta he has in mind — mere politics is insufficient to explain the network’s awfulness. MSNBC is blatantly left-wing, but at least they manage to be entertaining. If you’re a Democrat who believes that Trump is an existential threat to everything you hold dear, then watching Rachel Maddow engage in paranoid speculation for an hour might be your idea of fun. Watching CNN is never fun, except accidentally, as when Don Lemon leaks out Democrat focus-group findings or the chyron describes a riot as “mostly peaceful.”
"CNN is a nonstop bummer of repetition." . . .  
Keep reading. You're not even close to being finished

The media will surely not tell the truth about the end of COVID during the election

Jack Hellner  "The media, the so-called experts and Democrats have intentionally tried to scare the public for months about COVID.

For that, they've kept schools shut, put out excessive mask warnings, shut down fresh-air beaches, and refused to permit even scrupulously socially distanced operations, such as gyms and churches, to open.
"Now the facts come out:
"This story will be buried!"

Oops: It Looks Like the Vast Majority of Positive COVID Results Should Have Been Negative

...

According to The New York Times, potentially 90 percent of those who have tested positive for COVID-19 have such insignificant amounts of the virus present in their bodies that such individuals do not need to isolate nor are they candidates for contact tracing. Leading public health experts are now concerned that overtesting is responsible for misdiagnosing a huge number of people with harmless amounts of the virus in their systems.

"Most of these people are not likely to be contagious, and identifying them may contribute to bottlenecks that prevent those who are contagious from being found in time," warns The Times.

"And it's not even that big a surprise.
"It has been obvious for a long time that COVID-19 is not as contagious as we have been told, because if it were, a hell of a lot more than 2% of those who have been tested positive would have tested positive by now and that includes a huge number of people who aren't very contagious at all.
"Not a big deal to the left, because the intentional destruction of the economy continues.
"After all, an election is coming up.
"We were also intentionally lied to that COVID-19 would easily spread from surfaces for months before these same experts said it doesn't spread easily. The majority of the public clearly believes the original lies. 
"The media won't even admit how they have continually lied about Russian collusion. Why would we expect them to tell the truth about COVID-19.
"They have to lie or else the corrupt, incompetent Joe Biden wouldn't have a prayer. "