05-28-2020, 04:12 AM
(05-27-2020, 04:02 PM)bfine32 Wrote: Agreed. They should be found and tried for hate crimes.
Perhaps. As liberal as I may be, I'm not the biggest fan of hate crimes legislation. I think you just nail people for the actual crime, which should be bad enough.
The whole invocation of the John Wilkes Booth quote is the thing that irks me almost as much as the effigy. That's a thinly veiled threat of assassination, IMO, which is extremely illegal no matter how you slice it. It's one of the few forms of clearly unprotected speech per the Bill of Rights, and for good reason. When a person kills a president, governor, so on, they're subverting the will of whatever constituency elected them. It's a crime against not just the official, but the entire state/country/democracy. Anyone who commits such an act should face the death penalty, IMO. Threats are different, depending on degree of intent and premeditation, but they should be and probably are taken seriously.
Mob rule is a scary concept on the right or the left. When a small group of citizens is crazy and angry enough to make those kinds of threats, it should be a wake up call. I'm all for people protesting whatever they want, and I guess it's their legal right to carry weapons when they do. However, I don't think it serves them or their cause well. If anything, it either scares people or pisses them off. Any movement with a cause worth supporting through protest shouldn't need to intimidate with armed displays of discontent. If I were running a re-open march or protest, I'd do everything I could to keep those types out of my rallies. It's a real bad image to be associated with in the eyes of your average American.
And yes, FWIW, I'd say the same to people rioting vs law enforcement over brutality. It's another thread, but I feel like that movement has gained a lot of momentum in terms of public support. People rioting and turning violent do not help that at all. It can set things back years in terms of progress.