By Sun.stock.video @ Shutterstock.com
Last night, Portland faced its 84th night of “protests.” And last night, Kamala Harris accepted the Democratic nomination for veep. Harris now is officially Joe Biden’s running mate.
California’s Top Cop: Mothers and Veterans (6 Aug hearing)
Earlier this month, Senator Harris dressed down Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf for his use of “chemical agents” (tear gas). Senator Harris described the Portland protesters as ”mothers and veterans.”
I would advise you, it is well known there are mothers, including pregnant women, attending these protests. I would advise you to consult with medical experts.
Perhaps that is the image–mothers and veterans–protesters wish to convey, Michael Tracey writes in the WSJ. Mr. Tracey then describes how, when he was filming in Portland last month, he got a “distinctly different impression.”
Harris Detached from Reality
The people who comprise the operational core of the nightly action there aren’t exactly bashful about their ideological predilections—they are insurrectionary anarchists. Black-clad, fully armored “protesters” romping around with the classic anarchist “A” symbol emblazoned on enormous shields tend to be straightforward about their revolutionary political program, and the tactics they are willing to employ to achieve it.
One demanded that I stop filming the scene and threatened: “I’ll [expletive] stomp you out.”
Harris’s Unwilling to Denounce Lawlessness
That was made evident by the thundering chant that has become a signature refrain of the protest movement, not only in Portland but nationwide: “A—C—A—B!” That stands for “All cops are bastards.” Each night the slogan can be found plastered on structures throughout the surrounding area.
The mantra condemns everyone in the law-enforcement profession, no matter how well intentioned, reform-minded or progressive. At bottom, protesters regard them as mere functionaries of a system that is irreparably white supremacist and fascist.
As former California AG, Harris described herself as the state’s “Top Cop.” It’s hard to imagine why Sen. Harris instead wouldn’t emphasize that much of downtown Portland has remained boarded up for months on end, leading to extreme economic harm from both “protesting” and the Covid-19 pandemic.
Dissenters Leave Portland in Disarray
(Harris) might highlight the abundance of crimes of the sort that she, as San Francisco district attorney, once campaigned on vigorously prosecuting—such as when she maligned the incumbent district attorney for not charging enough protesters who destroyed property.
In that 2003 race, Ms. Harris also distributed mailers denouncing her predecessor’s “repeated use of light sentences for vicious and violent crimes”—which would arguably apply to the Portland protesters’ propensity for arson and mortar attacks.
BLM’s False Narratives and Tolerance for Lawlessness
In channeling the energy of BLM, Sen. Harris is aligning herself with a movement whose “animating premise is abolition of the entire criminal justice apparatus.”
The concept of “Black Lives Matter” can mean different things to different people. Anarchists in Portland likely view the subject through a different prism than the corporate executives who also eagerly brandish the protest terminology, or the Democratic elected officials promoting a sanitized version of the movement at their virtual convention.
Senator Harris, every American, regardless of her race or political affiliation and ambitions, should reject BLM/Antifa tactics.
