Why the difference?

Dear editor:

Last summer we experienced in many cities dangerous rioting where people were looting, assaulting people, rioters damaging and destroying public and personal property. In Washington, D.C., rioters assaulted police, looted and damaging and destroyed property.

Most of these rioters got away free. Many of those arrested were released and never prosecuted. These people were called peaceful demonstrators by the media. On Jan. 6, people who were involved in another melee at the U.S. Capitol were hunted down by the FBI throughout the country by using facial recognition software and arrested. Some are being held without bail.

These people were called insurrectionists by the media and many elected officials.

Why the difference?

The people who were let go opposed former President Donald J. Trump, while the hunted were supporters.

That’s just wrong.

I support all people’s First Amendment rights to demonstrate. But that right stops when they injure people and damage or destroy private or public property.

It is like someone has the right to swing their arms, but that right is lost when the swinging arms hit someone.

I read in The Sentinel-Record where members of the Republican Party of Garland County believe pretty much the same way. It doesn’t matter what or why someone is demonstrating for or against. But that everyone should be treated the same.

More organizations and our leaders should stand up for what is right, not what is politically correct.

Donald Cunningham and Mary Robinson, both of Hot Springs, had the guts and said it best in the newspaper’s Sunday letters section that it is a double standard that some people are treated differently than others. Is it because of the way many of our leaders and the media describe them?

It is time for all of us to stand up and demand that fair treatment and stop the double standard where conservative people are treated unfairly and prosecuted while liberals and socialists are set free. Marcia Albaugh

Hot Springs