Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don’t
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9 responses to “Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don’t”
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it is better to have a bunch of angry activists screaming about losing their rights to protest, than it was losing 3 people’s lives, because the police just stood by and watched those peaceful activists start violence
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Easy to Monday-morning quarterback but police are human beings and if protesters are allowed to be heavily armed – I can see the police “beefing up” also … and if they are attacked as being “too military” and back down – they’re going to feel that if gunfire breaks out – they are going to likely become targets themselves.
I might be judged to be wrong here but if protesters in Virginia can show up heavily armed – things change… and for those who seem to fret about the “leftists”, I’d submit that if they armed themselves equivalently like the “right” did – it could rightly be called a powder keg – and you know what… I strongly suspect that’s part of the fear about Monument Avenue.
So what to do? Boston and other venues look like they don’t allow guns.. in fact.. don’t allow weapons… Is this what Virginia should do?
or do the local and State police end up looking like a 3rd world or authoritarian regime police force or do what McAliffe did ..not only for Monument Ave but other future venues?
so… yes.. it’s damned if you don’t and damned if you do but is the only choice a militarized police or a feckless police? Is there a “just right” option?
If there is .. I suspect it’s yet to be determined. -
McAuliffe dropped the ball. He didn’t have sufficient state police or National Guardsmen on site. Then he made false excuses as to why he failed. This was not evil, but a mistake, followed by cover-up.
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I think there were 40,000 people in Boston and as far as I know , no National Guard and no State Police… but the rules were different:
The following items were prohibited:
Firearms, knives, weapons, sharp objects, shields or fireworks
Pop-up tents or canopies
Cans, glass containers, pre-mixed beverages or alcoholic beverages
Wagons or pull carts
Coolers
Drones
Pets (excluding certified service animals)
Grills, propane tanks or open flames
Bicycles
Flag poles, bats, clubs, sticks (including signs attached to sticks)
Any athletic equipment or other item that could be used as a weaponI think 28 people were arrested and very little property damage…
would that approach work in Virginia ?? on Monument Ave?
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A Governor must deal with the situation at hand. McAuliffe didn’t.
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Perhaps… but most folks who are not hard over on partisan politics probably do not… and instead wonder why Virginia did not and does not do – what Boston and other cities do – which is to ban weapons including firearms from protests and demonstrations.
I’d bet if you took a poll in Virginia asking that question – you’d get a substantial number of people who would support it.
McAuliffe did not do as well as he should have, I agree… but I also strongly suspect that the next time… he will have learned and do better as a practical matter as he has proven himself to NOT be an ideologue… but rather someone who … by no means perfect… and certainly of the “wrong” political persuasion for some – has done a decent job overall.
And I bet… dollars to donuts.. if he came out in favor of banning weapons at protests and demonstrations – he’d be pilloried by the partisan types even as most Virginians would support such a ban.
How about it TMT, would you support a weapons ban for future “protests”?
Then the KKK/WS could prance around all day long with faux tiki torches and toy guns and the “leftists” with their masks and fake baseball bats.. eh?
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Another upchuck.
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Larry – it’s all about what is the state of the law. The General Assembly could specify that a permit for a demonstration can contain specific restrictions, including restrictions on firearms. I suspect a court challenge would occur, but I believe a court would uphold such a restriction. But I don’t believe there is any such state law or, perhaps, C”ville would have conditioned its permit.
McAuliffe is a lame duck. He has no chance to get legislation through the GA. Whether he should have tried is a moot question. Maybe he could have come up with some type of a proposal giving up something(s) from the left in order to get restrictions on firearms at demonstrations. But, for whatever reason, he didn’t.
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