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July 1, 2019

Left-wing thuggery: The battle lines are being drawn in Portland, OR

By Thomas Lifson

See also: Scoundrel time: Lefty journalists are fine with the Antifa attack on Andy Ngo

So where the heck is the mayor of Portland?

When local officials appear to wink and nod as masked leftist thugs openly assemble and attack conservatives, it's time for the feds to come in and protect civil rights.  Anyone with vague familiarity with Weimar Germany's slide into fascism in the 1930s understands that a rising tide of political violence bodes ill for the future of the Republic.  We've already seen one attempted mass assassination of Republican members of Congress and successful suppression of conservative speakers on many campuses.

The fact that the mayor of Portland, Oregon has apparently ordered his police to not intervene in physical assaults on conservatives by the Antifa gang amounts to official sanction for mob violence against the mayor's political opponents.  As most readers already know, Andy Ngo was violently attacked by masked Antifa thugs Saturday in Portland.

When local police are prevented from reacting against violence against peaceful demonstrators, the federal government is the last refuge for protection of their civil rights.  That is what happened in the Civil Rights Era of the 1950s and 1960s.  President Eisenhower sent in federal troops to desegregate Little Rock High School in the 1950s, and when the Bull Connors of the Democratic Party attacked peaceful civil rights demonstrators, the feds came in and acted.  Everything old is new again, and it is now leftist local authorities who stand by as innocent conservatives are attacked.

Senator Ted Cruz sees the danger and is calling for a federal investigation:

My impression is that the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division is heavily staffed with left-wingers who see African-Americans and sexual minorities as the only legitimate objects of their protection.  They need to be tasked with protecting the rights of all Americans, and if they refuse, they need to be replaced.  It's time to focus on an urgent need to ensure peaceful politics before the streets get even bloodier.

Antifa is part of an interstate conspiracy to deny civil rights to conservatives.  Thanks to the civil rights movement, there are established procedures for dealing with such malign groups.  It's time to start using those tools.

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