The attorney general seems personally, deeply offended
Attorney General William P. Barr told federal prosecutors in a call last week that they should consider charging rioters and others who had committed violent crimes at protests in recent months with sedition, according to two people familiar with the call.
The highly unusual suggestion to charge people with insurrection against lawful authority alarmed some on the call, which included U.S. attorneys around the country, said the people, who described Mr. Barr’s comments on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.
The attorney general has also asked prosecutors in the Justice Department’s civil rights division to explore whether they could bring criminal charges against Mayor Jenny Durkan of Seattle for allowing some residents to establish a police-free protest zone near the city’s downtown for weeks this summer, according to two people briefed on those discussions.
A DoJ spokesperson denies it.
The directives are in keeping with Mr. Barr’s approach to prosecute crimes as aggressively as possible in cities where protests have given way to violence. But in suggesting possible prosecution of Ms. Durkan, a Democrat, Mr. Barr also took aim at an elected official whom President Trump has repeatedly attacked.
And a woman, and the mayor of a city on the Left Coast, and yadda yadda. Meanwhile Trump’s constant stream of crimes continues uninterrupted.
The disclosures came as Mr. Barr directly inserted himself into the presidential race in recent days to warn that the United States would be on the brink of destruction if Mr. Trump lost. He told a Chicago Tribune columnist that the nation could find itself “irrevocably committed to the socialist path” if Mr. Trump lost and that the country faced “a clear fork in the road.”
Oh ffs. Socialism! Biden is nowhere near a socialist; he’s a very conservative Democrat. Trump is far more of a literal fascist than Biden is a literal socialist. Plus Trump is an actual criminal, who is committing crimes now, right in front of us, as we watch slack-jawed; none of that is true of Biden.
The attorney general’s question about whether Ms. Durkan, the former U.S. attorney in Seattle, had violated any federal statutes by allowing the protest zone was highly unusual, former law enforcement officials said.
“The attorney general seems personally, deeply offended by the autonomous zone and wants someone to pay for it,” said Chuck Rosenberg, the former U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia. “If the people of Seattle are personally offended, they have political recourse. There is no reason to try to stretch a criminal statute to cover the conduct.”
Meanwhile about that whole far-right thing…
Two men associated with the Boogaloo, a far-right movement that supports the coming of a second civil war, were arrested on terrorism-related charges last week. Prosecutors said they used the protests as cover to try to sell weapons to the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which the United States and other countries consider a terrorist group, and to use the money to support the Boogaloo movement.
But the real terrorist is…Jenny Durkan?
Barr also said this:
Um, “Lock her up!” anyone?
Sedition (Wiki) “overt conduct, such as speech and organization, that tends toward insurrection against the established order. Sedition often includes subversion of a constitution and incitement of discontent toward, or resistance against, established authority.”
Hmmm. Sound like anyone you know? Sound like any political party you’ve heard of? One might, without too big of a stretch, believe that encouraging people to vote twice, to take arms against peaceful protests, and to instill fear of our electoral process, might fit that definition. And that ain’t coming from any liberals or dems.
He means in liberal cities where black protests have given way to (real or perceived) violence. He doesn’t mean in places where neonazis run over people…no, that is all right. People getting killed seems to be fine with them. Property getting broken or stolen is the worst thing in the entire world!
And white protestors armed with semi-automatic weapons can protest at state capitals with just a shrug from law enforcement. I find it interesting that no riots arose from that – could it be that the police were not inciting riots? That there were no left wing people coming in and starting things to make them look bad?
I don’t doubt some of the BLM protestors were part of the riots and looting; I don’t doubt that a large part was incited or performed by right wing agitators, whether on the government payroll or operating on their own, I don’t know.
I also don’t doubt that the percentage of BLM protestors that are looting and rioting is quite small, but because it is deemed more newsworthy than mere anti-racist protests, it gets the bulk of the news, Because destroying white property is more serious than destroying black lives
What a shitty society we are.
@3 I saw somewhere that of recent documented BLM protests, 96% have been completely peaceful with no injuries or property damage (sorry can’t find where I saw that now). When my mother, an avid Fox News watcher, called me and told me how awful it was that all the cities were in shambles, I tried to comfort her with those sketchy statistics, but to no avail.
Yeah, twiliter, my city had a BLM protest, and it was not in shambles, and is not in shambles, other than the coleslaw the dominant Republican party is making of the political base. We also had a recent right to life march, and no one protested that it would leave the city in shambles (and it didn’t, but it did mean I had to wait to go to the farmer’s market and everything I needed was sold out except garlic).
There is a definite mathematical equation here:
Left wing protests always equal cities in shambles. Right wing protests never equal cities in shambles (unless the left shows up to counterprotest).
I think this mathematical equation is about as valid as 2+2=7. Especially since I think there are far fewer guns at left wing protests, unless you count those carried by the overly armed and militarized police.
Here too, most of the Atlanta protests were, and still are peaceful. There is a lot of outrage, and there are a lot of signs, t-shirts, and BLM masks, but on the whole it seems to be mostly about awareness here. There was an armed militant group about a month ago that marched at Stone Mountain, which I frequent, and I wasn’t there when it was going on, but despite the military regalia and automatic weapons, it was peaceful and agreeable by all accounts, including the police presence. So when my mom, who lives in a mostly white demographic area in California worries that people are going to burn my house down, I have to tell her how that’s not the reality, and that she should kill her television. But I’ve been telling her that for years… :\