Washington Post – Protests outside a Donald Trump rally in downtown San Jose spun out of control Thursday night when some demonstrators attacked the candidate’s supporters.
Protesters jumped on cars, pelted Trump supporters with eggs and water balloons, snatched signs and stole “Make America Great” hats off supporters’ heads before burning the hats and snapping selfies with the charred remains.
Several people were caught on camera punching Trump supporters. At least one attacker was arrested, according to CNN, although police did not release much information.
“The San Jose Police Department made a few arrests tonight after the Donald Trump Rally,” police said in a statement. “As of this time, we do not have specific information on the arrests made. There has been no significant property damage reported. One officer was assaulted.”
Before the event, the San Jose Police Department issued a press release saying it “recognizes and respects everyone’s right to express their First Amendment [rights], and we will do everything possible to ensure the event is safe for all attendees and surrounding neighborhoods.”
As the night unfolded, however, it became clear that the chaos seen at Trump campaign stops across the country had found its way to San Jose.
Trump supporters were surrounded and, in several cases, attacked as they left the rally.
Another Trump rally, another riot follows. It happened in Albuquerque, and last month in Costa Mesa. Now let’s be clear here: these are not protests. They are organized riots. There’s a huge difference between your typical anti-whatever protest, and violently attacking, assaulting, and threatening people who don’t believe in your ideology.
This
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But don’t worry everyone! San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo said the police did a great job!
“Our police officers have done an extremely courageous and professional job so far,” San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo told The Associated Press by phone. “We’re all still holding our breath to see the outcome of this dangerous and explosive situation.”
Nothing says great job like fires in the streets and the unfunny egg to the face. Good policing also means that they don’t leave when being called Nazi’s by rioters.
The sad part, too, is that we have a great example from just a week ago as to how you handle an anti-Trump protest from Anaheim:
Get your cops out there and contain the crowd under control before chaos ensues. Maybe next time Mayor Liccardo can take the quick 5 hour ride down to Los Angeles and see how their police force handles protests. That way, you don’t have innocent civilians and cops being attacked by protesters. Just a hunch.
I know that there’s a drought in California, but perhaps it is times like these that it’s time to break out the hoses.
(Credit to Getty Images)
Perhaps the most idiotic statement from the mayor of San Jose came a sentence later:
“At some point Donald Trump needs to take responsibility for the irresponsible behavior of his campaign,” Liccardo said.
Can we just sign up these liberals to the Olympics? We’d win the mental gymnastics gold medal easily. Isn’t one of the things that the left harps on with regards to sexual assault and the like is that you don’t blame the victim?
How, then, do we place the blame on Donald Trump and his supporters for being attacked by these rioters? Did we blame Richard Nixon in 1968 for the Democrat National Convention riots in Chicago? I wrote about Kent State a month ago, did we blame the administration or the National Guard for the riots starting? No. We blame the people who start the violence. We blame the National Guard, afterwards, for their actions. Just like we would blame any Trump supporters for escalating tensions and violence by responding back.
But as we see here, and in Chicago, and in Costa Mesa, and in Albuquerque, that these rioters are not being provoked by Trump supporters. They’re only being provoked by their rejection of Trump’s ideology. But that is not an excuse to bring in violence. You don’t win an argument by attacking others with physical violence. You beat them by having better ideas.
And what are their ideas here? What are they standing for? I can’t tell. They want to act out and be violent. And it is counter productive to their entire point – “Get Trump out of California,” “Make California Mexico Again,” “Fuck Trump,” or “Keep Hate Out,” are not valid reasons to be violent. The reason why Martin Luther King, Jr.’s protests were so successful was because they were non-violent. Image has a ton of persuasion power – and nonviolent protesters getting assaulted for their views only gain more support. It’s why the Civil Rights movement was brilliant (and, obviously necessary) – you see images of blacks and whites, united, marching (almost always) peacefully down the street getting assaulted, it plants the thought in your head: “Why are they getting attacked? If they’re for black rights, then these attackers are… against black rights?”
Take that example and bring it to the modern day, but reverse it. We see the Trump supporters peacefully leaving a rally – that’s perfectly well within their right to go and see a candidate. Nothing wrong with that. Then, when they leave, they’re subjected to verbal and physical assaults by these rioters. And what’s the rioters message? “Fuck Trump,” “Make California Mexico Again,” and all the rest.
To the neutral observer, they begin to question the motives and messages again. “Why are these peaceful people getting attacked?” Again, image is important here. We have a natural tendency to support the underdog, the downtrodden. So even if you believe that the general message of these rioters is correct – that Trump is spreading hate speech and all that, it’s hard to reconcile that when you see them violently attacking their adversaries.
In this case, there’s a reversal here: the Latinos, who are in general less well-off than their white counterparts, take the place of the bully, and the regular Trump supporter becomes the oppressed. They haven’t done anything except go to a rally. And for that they are being attacked. People will naturally side with them, because it is an unjust attack against their Constitutional freedoms.
And thus, Trump’s message gets further support. In this long winded explanation, I think that this shows how these violent riots go to actually increase Trump support. La Raza, Black Lives Matter, and all these other groups that are at these riots are undermining their own message by garnering support for the opposite side. And until they realize that these events are hurting their message, their support and message will only continue to go be damaged.
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Sure, it’s bad behavior, but what did they expect, roses? If I walked through South Central waving a confederate flag around, I might not get a polite reception. Trump’s campaign glories in threats to deport millions, especially Hispanics and Latinos. They can’t just waltz into towns where those folks they insulted and directly threatened live and work, and assume it doesn’t matter. If you regularly employ hate speech as a rhetorical device, you WILL earn yourself some haters. I don’t approve of violence, and I wouldn’t participate in setting fires or destroying other people’s property. But if a Trump supporter showed up at my door, I still might experience the gut instinct to throw them bodily off my porch.
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I agree in that Trump supporters have a general understanding of “going into the belly of the beast.” It’d be like taking an anti-Judaism stance and marching through Tel Aviv, you need to expect brush back.
My point here being that this was a failure of the PD to do anything. There was no need for the violence to spiral out of control, but it did because the city and the mayor failed to enforce law and order. It could’ve been handled way better than it was.
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