Contributor: Don’t let the mobs rule
In 1838, young Abraham Lincoln gave a speech in Springfield, Illinois. powerful speech He condemned the “destruction of mafia law” in the country. In chillingly prescient style, Lincoln warned that the spread of the then-rising “mobocratic spirit” threatened to sever “the bond of the People to their fellow citizens and their nation.” Lincoln’s opposition to all forms of anarchy was absolute and unequivocal: “There is no grievance which can be a proper object of redress by mob laws.”
Unfortunately it looks like every few yearsAmericans must be reminded again of Lincoln’s wisdom. This week’s deadly Immigration and Customs Enforcement standoff in the Twin Cities is but the latest example of a years-long malign trend.
On Wednesday, 37-year-old stay-at-home mom Renee Nicole Good was fatally shot by an ICE agent in Minneapolis. her ex-husband said he and his partner encountered ICE agents after dropping Good’s 6-year-old child off at school. The federal government described Good’s encounter as “an act of domestic terrorism” he said and said that the agent fired in self-defense.
Suffice to say, Minnesota’s Democratic establishment doesn’t see it that way.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey responds Deployment of 2,000 immigration officers to the region and described the deadly encounter by telling ICE:go awayFrom Minnesota, Governor Tim Walz calling the attack “completely predictable” and “completely preventable”. Frey, who was also mayor during the unrest following the 2020 death of George Floyd at the hands of city police, aided anti-ICE provocateurs and apparently encouraged them to mobilize Good. Floyd-like martyr. Walz is right that this tragedy was absolutely “preventable” — but not just for the reasons he thinks. ICE would never have been in this situation if the Biden-Harris administration had not allowed unvetted immigrants to remain in the country without legal status, and if the Walz administration had not moved too slowly in its investigations into hundreds of Minnesotans with mixed immigration status who defrauded taxpayers of billions of dollars. We embarked on this special operation.
National Democrats took the anger even further. Following the deadly attack, the official X publication of the Democratic Party immediately tweeted, without providing any details: “ICE shot and killed a woman on camera.” This kind of irresponsible fear mongering may have motivated a crazy activist. shoot three detainees at an ICE facility targeting officers in Dallas last September; Similar inhumane rhetoric about the National Guard perhaps played a role in the attack in November. killing shot A soldier in Washington DC
Liberals and open border activists are playing with fire when they casually compare ICE, as Walz has previously done:today’s Gestapo.” The truth is that ICE is not the Gestapo, Donald Trump is not Hitler, and Charlie Kirk was not a goose-stepping brownshirt. To claim otherwise means to deprive words of meaning and to live in the theater of absurdity.
But as dangerous as this rhetoric is for officers and agents, what is even more harmful to the rule of law is moral blackmail and the “mobocratic spirit” of it all.
The implicit threat of all “sanctuary” jurisdictions, whose resistance to assisting federal law enforcement reeks of John C. Calhoun-style antebellum “nullification”, is to tell the feds not to act and enforce federal law in a particular area – or else. The result is crude lawlessness, Mafia-like shakedown art, and putrid neo-confederate filth rolled into one dystopian package.
The truth is that some left-wing activists now engage in such threats as a matter of course. The left’s months-long rebellion following Floyd’s death in 2020, over 2 billion dollars in insurance claims. them in 2021 was threatened the same rebellion Unless Derek Chauvin, the police officer who knelt on Floyd’s neck, is found guilty of murder (which is twice). In 2022, Dobbs vs. Following the unprecedented (and still unresolved) leak of the draft majority opinion in the Jackson Women’s Health Organization Supreme Court case, abortion rights activists protested outside the homes of several right-leaning justices, perhaps hoping to encourage them to change their minds and change their votes. And now, ICE agents across the country are facing threats of violence incited by local Democratic leaders simply for enforcing federal law.
In “The Godfather,” Luca Brasi referred to this type of thuggery as making someone an offer they can’t refuse. We can also think of this as Lincoln’s terrible “depredations on mob law.”
No matter what, a free republic cannot last long like this. The rule of law cannot be held hostage to the histrionic tantrums of a radical ideological wing. Laws must be enforced solemnly, without fear or favor. There can be no overarching blackmail lurking in the background; There can be no Sword of Damocles hanging over the heads of free people, ready to crush us all if a select few don’t get their way.
The proper recourse to change immigration law (or any federal law) is to lobby Congress to do so or to file a lawsuit in federal court. The ginned-up martyrdom complex that leads some to take matters into their own hands is a recipe for personal and national destruction. There is nothing good in this path; only death, despair and mobocracy.
Josh Hammer’s latest book is “Israel and Civilization: The Fate of the Jewish Nation and the Fate of the West”.” This article was produced in collaboration with Creators Syndicate. X: @josh_hammer
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Ideas expressed in the piece
- Democrats and left activists are perpetuating a dangerous “mobcratic spirit” akin to the mob law that Lincoln warned about in 1838, threatening the rule of law and national unity.[1]
- While local Democratic leaders irresponsibly encourage anti-ICE protesters to view Good as a martyr figure like George Floyd, it is appropriate for the federal government to characterize the incident as self-defense by an ICE agent.[1]
- Dehumanizing rhetoric comparing ICE to the Gestapo is reckless fear-mongering that has inspired actual violence, including a shooting at an ICE facility in Dallas and the fatal shooting of a National Guard soldier.[1]
- The conflict was “preventable” not because of the presence of ICE, but because the Biden-Harris administration allowed undocumented immigrants to remain in the country without legal status and state officials moved too slowly to investigate immigration fraud.[1]
- Sanctuary jurisdictions that resist enforcement of federal laws represent neo-confederate “nullification” and constitute gross lawlessness and Mafia-style extortion; effectively tells federal agents that they cannot enforce the law or face the consequences[1]
- The activist left uses threats of violence as systematic blackmail; This is evidenced by the 2020 riots following Floyd’s death, threats related to the Chauvin trial, protests at judges’ homes during the abortion debate, and now threats against ICE agents[1]
- Changing immigration policy should happen through Congress or the federal courts, not through mob rule and “whipped martyrdom complexes” that lead to personal and national destruction.[1]
Different opinions on the subject
- Community members who knew Good rejected the characterization of him as a domestic terrorist; his mother described him as “one of the kindest people I know”, “extremely caring” and “someone who cared about people all his life”.[1]
- Vigil speakers and attendees portrayed Good as being there peacefully to monitor the situation and protect his neighbors, with one organizer saying, “He was peaceful; he did the right thing” and “He died because he loved his neighbors.”[1]
- A speaker identified only as Noah flatly rejected the federal government’s characterization of domestic terrorism, saying Good was there “to monitor terrorists” and not to participate in terrorism.[1]
- Neighbors described Good as a loving mother and warm family member, an award-winning poet and a positive presence in the community, and suggested that her presence during the incident reflected civic concern rather than radicalism.[1]
