Lawlessness will beget lawlessness

Riots broke out again this weekend from coast to coast, with violence and vandalism damaging more of urban America. Democrats and their media allies insist these are largely peaceful protests, so it’s worth examining what really happened.

On Saturday in Seattle, protesters gathered outside the juvenile court and detention facility, set fire to portable trailers, and smashed the windows of nearby cars and businesses. An explosive device gashed an eight-inch hole in the side of the Seattle Police Department’s East Precinct, and rioters threw fireworks, stones and other projectiles at law enforcement.

“In all 59 officers were injured throughout the day with one of those being hospitalized,” the police department reported, and “injuries ranged from abrasions and bruising to burns and a torn meniscus.”

Similar scenes unfolded in Portland as rioters tried to tear down the fence surrounding the Hatfield Federal Courthouse. Demonstrators threw Molotov cocktails Friday night, and after midnight one federal officer took “a direct hit from a commercial grade firework,” another “was hit with a mortar firework,” and a third “was struck in the head with a mortar firework,” the Department of Homeland Security says. Peaceful?

DHS says some 5,000 or 6,000 returned to the scene on Sunday, threw smoke bombs and launched “a roughly 10-minute-long continuous firework attack against the courthouse.” DHS says at least 20 federal officers sustained injuries in Portland.

In Louisville, Ky., a black militia that calls itself the “Not F— Around Coalition” lived up to its name Saturday when a member discharged a gun and accidentally struck three compatriots, causing non-lifethreatening injuries. In Oakland, Calif., rioters set fires downtown Saturday night, including at the Alameda County Superior Courthouse. In New York City, demonstrators defaced police vans with spray paint and tried to smash their windows, while others lit trash cans on fire. Demonstrators

carried out more vandalism at a federal building in Atlanta and a Fraternal Order of Police lodge in Baltimore.

This list isn’t exhaustive, and it undermines the claim that the Trump Administration has deployed federal agents to suppress peaceful dissent. Federal officers protecting federal property are now the targets of demonstrators, not the instigators of violence. The real blame lies with progressive city leaders, who have all but promised violent protesters that they can act with impunity.

Portland recently imposed sweeping restrictions on when police can use tear gas to disperse protesters. Seattle passed a similar ordinance banning tear gas, blast balls and other less-than-lethal weapons—even after Police Chief Carmen Best warned that such restrictions leave officers with “no ability to safely intercede to preserve property in the midst of a large, violent crowd” and may “create even more dangerous circumstances for our officers to intervene using what they have left—riot shields and riot batons.”

Federal Judge James Robart issued an injunction against the Seattle ordinance last week after the federal government expressed similar concerns, but it’s only temporary. Other Democratic-run cities have passed or are pursuing similar bans.

The weekend’s events were a deliberate assault on public and private property, law enforcement, and public order. Lawlessness begets lawlessness, and in recent weeks we’ve seen reports of vigilantes and far-right activists joining the melee from Richmond to Philadelphia. Local officials are allowing this disorder to occur, and the more it is indulged the worse it is likely to get.