Ignoring Looting and Violence Isn’t Helping Democrats
By: Dr. Munr Kazmir
Tags: Democrats, Election 2020, Trump, Politics, BlackLivesMatter

A Tale of Three Cities

Portland

Today, the Associated Press reported that over 500 arrests have been made by Portland PD since the end of May. At protests constantly touted in the press as, “largely peaceful,” this seems somewhat incongruous.

The trusted news network, known for relatively objective coverage, issued a crushing indictment: Only 7 of the total 83 nights of consecutive protests in Portland haven’t involved intentionally set fires, fireworks or destruction of property.

“When you commit arson with an accelerant in an attempt to burn down a building that is occupied by people who you have intentionally trapped inside, you are not demonstrating, you are attempting to commit murder,” according to Portland’s Mayor, Democrat Ted Wheeler. This is change of heart for Wheeler, who only recently attended one of the protests himself in support of the demonstrators.

Unsurprisingly, businesses are fleeing downtown Portland.

“Our downtown properties have sustained significant vandalism and a number of employees and contractors have been assaulted in recent months.” — Standard Insurance spokesman Bob Speltz

One business estimates the ongoing riots have caused them 20 million in damages thus far. Soon, we will have a number figure for all the damage caused during these protests. It won’t be pretty, but the media will not be able to hide this information forever.

Not when a similar situation is playing out in Chicago.

Chicago

The Chicago City Council has called an emergency meeting to address the widespread violence, vandalism and looting which has been taking place in Chicago over the past few months.

After what can only be described as a massive, organized sacking of Chicago’s posh downtown shopping district two weeks ago, some on the Council are pushing Mayor Lori Lightfoot to declare a state of emergency. Chicago’s Democratic lawmakers are asking Lightfoot to call in state troops to protect people and property.

“Chicago has never seen more violence, unrest and organized looting. Businesses across our city have been subject to unyielding criminals, many on the brink of failure, contemplating their future in Chicago. The continued attacks against Chicago’s collective safety will impact our residential real estate, current and future investments in our communities, and our City’s future economic development.” — Resolution filed by a group of Chicago Aldermen.

Mayor Lightfoot has dismissed the group’s request as, “grandstanding”. However, some in Chicago might prefer their elected leaders do a little more grandstanding on behalf of Chicago business owners.

Mayor Lightfoot has had no compunction whatsoever about securing her own personal residence, to which protestors have turned their attentions recently. Lightfoot certainly understands how these out-of-control “protests” make people feel unsafe in their neighborhoods.

Lightfoot, Chicago’s first African-American, openly-gay, female mayor, has decried the left’s recent efforts to defund police. Her arguments, especially as waves of violent crime sweep Chicago, are hard to ignore. Yet, the Democratic Party seems determined to plow ahead doing just that.

Lightfoot is certainly no fan of Donald Trump, but she sounds like a conservative criminal justice hawk when she talks about the organized looting.

New York City

Things aren’t looking up in New York City, either. Those with the means to do so are leaving New York City in droves- and taking their tax dollars with them.

Yet, the best hope the mainstream media can offer New York is the possibility that Joe Biden might win and the federal government might give NYC a possible whopper of a bailout. When the spokesman from the Mayor’s office responds to reports that wealthy taxpayers are abandoning the Big Apple with, “kick rocks, billionaires,” NYC might need it.

“This Terrifying Economic Crisis Will Make Cities Better: Amid the pandemic, the rich are fleeing American cities. That’s a good thing,” our media elites promise. They think it's great because housing prices in New York will go down. Housing prices will go down; because no one will want to live there.

“The golden age of the American big city is over. The pandemic and the protests are scaring people away. Residents are fleeing. Crime is up. Budgets are busted. The offices are empty, the rich are moving to the suburbs, and the period of unbroken prosperity has shattered forever,” is the cheerful verdict. “Good.”

Not only have prominent Democrats failed to condemn or even mention the violence and rioting in Democratic cities, many in the press have given platform to party progressives openly sanctioning such actions.

“A lot of people are really attacking our pages. They’re like, ‘Oh, you support the looters.’ And yeah, we do, 100%. That’s reparations.” “Unemployment is incredibly high, like we are in an incredible situation, and the fact that anybody gives a s*** about these businesses over what is happening in this city right now and the pain that people are in and the suffering that is taking place, I don’t care. I will support the looters ’til the end of the day. If that’s what they need to do in order to eat, then that’s what you’ve got to do to eat.” “The whole idea of criminality is based on racism anyway, because criminality is punishing people for things that they have needed to do to survive or just the way society has affected them with white supremacist B.S.” — Ariel Atkins, Black Lives Matter organizer. Chicago, Il.

A similar sentiment has been articulated by others, including high-profile Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY).

“Maybe this has to do with the fact that people aren’t paying their rent and are scared to pay their rent and so they go out and they need to feed their child and they don’t have money. They feel like they either need to shoplift some bread or go hungry.” — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Is the Democratic Party strategy of ignoring all this really working? After four nights of infomercials about what a great guy Joe Biden is, Democrats never said a word about the violence and looting.

But a strange thing happened during the coronation of Joe Biden this week; Trump’s approval rating actually went up. This is indeed unusual, as the the party throwing the convention generally experiences the post-party bump, not their political opponent.

In June, a CNN poll showed Trump with a 26% approval rating with, “people of color”. In August, that number is 37%. Clearly, something about Democratic Party messaging is not resonating.

(contributing writer, Brooke Bell)