Letters

It’s Friday night, and I usually watch a show about gold prospecting in Alaska. I’ll have no trouble sleeping afterward.

However, this Friday evening, I’m watching some of our well-known American cities descend into anarchy. I will not sleep much tonight, as I can’t ignore images that I thought I had left behind in the late 1960s.

In response to the blatant police abuse, and what appears to be murder, of a black man in Minneapolis, Minnesota, rioters have taken to the streets. Contrary to what CNN or MSNBC might spin this as, this is not civil disobedience or exercising First Amendment rights. This is political activism directly responsible for anarchy.

The absolute failure of state and city leadership to protect the lives and property of the citizens of our cities has led to the abandonment of neighborhoods lived in and owned by its residents, leaving homes and businesses to be ransacked by the mob.

Progressive politics have ceded the streets to these anarchists by not confronting the agitators and permitting them to “vent” their hatred on the innocent. Cities run by Democrats will not stand up to looters. They worry about losing elections, not the neighborhoods that may never be rebuilt.

I listened to civil rights leaders from those terrible 1960s condemning the rioters so strongly, because they knew the harm being done to poor neighborhoods and businesses lived and worked in by people of color. The weakness we are witnessing will no doubt require at some point a harsh enforcement to restore a civil society. Provocateurs will no doubt plan to showcase how ugly it can get. They will defiantly stand with their cellphones held high, hoping to capture the reality of martial law and its victims.

I will point my finger at them and not let them think they have fooled anyone. I will expose their naked attempt at intimidation — yes, intimidation — that has as its goal the undermining of our justice system, a system that still gives anyone lucky enough to be brought before it a real chance at fairness.

Disagree? Go ahead and tell me where you think it’s better. Due process is not white supremacy. Mob justice is no justice.

When you are next considering what kind of leaders you want running your local, state and national governments, remember the performances you saw tonight.

Ed Surgan

Westhampton