Republican Senators including Tom Cotton and Josh Hawley have invoked the death of retired St. Louis Police captain David Dorn as proof of some kind of awful epidemic of anti-cop violence coming from the political left. Dorn was working as a security guard at a friend’s pawn and jewelry shop when he was tragically shot and killed during a 2:30am robbery that was unrelated to protests against police brutality.
Dorn was a black man, who was deeply beloved in the community; while his death was certainly heartbreaking, it had nothing to do with any “defund the police narrative.” Pawn shops and jewelry shops do unfortunately get robbed sometimes, but not because people hate the police; these stores get robbed because there are desperate people out there who saw the risk as worth it for the potentially lucrative target. In most cases, that desperation is caused by poverty, or addiction, or mental health, or some combination of these issues — the exact same issues that most of the “defund the police” crowd believe would benefit from more focused financial resources, which have otherwise been tied up in policing.
But there is no actual evidence of any increase of extreme violence from the political left (not even from “Antifa“). The bulk of political violence — both against civilians, and police officers — continues to come from the far right.
Case-in-point: Steven Carillo, a US Air Force Sergeant connected to the Boogalo movement, is facing 19 felony charges, including the alleged murder of Santa Cruz County Deputy Sgt. Damon Gutzwiller on June 6 (during which he scrawled “BOOG” on the hood of a stolen car in his own blood), and the drive-by shooting of federal protective services officer David Patrick Underwood in Oakland on May 29. “Use their anger to fuel our fire. Think outside the box. We have mobs of angry people to use to our advantage,” Carillo allegedly wrote on Facebook, in an effort to recruit accomplices.
This follows up on the three US military veterans who allegedly plotted a terrorist attack during the recent protests in Las Vegas.
There is absolutely no logical reason — beyond selfish political exploitation — for anyone to try to make up boogeymen after some fantastical leftist violence, when the demonstrable truths of reality are so readily available for anyone to see. If you’re concerned about violence against police, the threat comes from the right; if you’re concerned about crime and desperate violence from looters, the cause is violence by the largely conservative police, and a poorly-funded social welfare system that gets ignored in favor of further militarizing the police.
There are some pretty clear and easy solutions here, if we cared enough to solve the problems.
Authorities charge alleged Santa Cruz deputy killer with assassinating federal cop in Oakland, link attacks to Boogaloo movement [Nate Gartrell / Mercury News]
A man allegedly linked to the Boogaloo movement accused of going to a BLM protest with a homemade machine gun to kill cops [Cheri Mossburg and Theresa Waldrop / CNN]
Air Force Sergeant With Ties to Extremist Group Charged in Federal Officer’s Death [ Neil MacFarquhar and Thomas Gibbons-Neff / The New York Times]