Simple Solution

This is being reported as a thing:

Protests descended into violent chaos yet again in Portland over the weekend, as protesters targeted the federal courthouse and reportedly hurled Molotov cocktails toward federal officers.

There’s no “reportedly” about it:  the Pantifas are trying to set the cops on fire.  The question is:  what should we do about it?  Here’s my humble suggestion:

(That’s a Swiss police sniper, but you get the idea.  If all the cool kids — and especially the ever-neutral Swiss — are doing it…)

There’s probably no need to go Full Mosul on the thing, but whatever.

And the rules of engagement (ROE) should be quite simple:  the second the bomb leaves the thrower’s hand — establishing a prima facie  offensive action — open fire.  Ditto the little shits letting off commercial fireworks (rockets) aimed at the cops.

I’m done being all patient and indulgent.  Let’s see how the rioters’ nail-studded plywood shields stand up to a .308 bullet.

Why Not?

As police presence and power decreases (forced by, lest we forget, Democrat-controlled local governments), it seems only natural that people are saying, “Well, we did deputize the enforcement of laws and peacekeeping functions to government — but if they are unable or unwilling to perform those functions, we’re just gonna take that power back into our own hands.”

Hence:

Violent Crime Explosion Forces Minneapolis Residents to Form Militias

Breitbart’s John Nolte, by the way, doesn’t think this is a Good Thing, and he gives a number of sound reasons why.  I, however, am not interested in ivory-tower discussions — I prefer to remain rooted in reality — so I think that even if Nolte is correct, it doesn’t matter.  The reality facing these people betrayed by their government is real, and it’s dangerous.  So I say:  go on, buy guns, learn how to use them, and do whatever you have to do to protect yourselves from the raving mob.  Right now, the BLM/Pantifas are actively behaving in ways that makes me think they’re looking for martyrs, and if a bunch of citizen militias help them achieve that goal, so much the better.  (I would love to see a situation where a militia group drops the hammer on some scumbag looters / rioters, and when the cops put in a belated appearance to try and arrest the shooters, the militia sticks to their guns, so to speak, and tells the cops to go pound sand.  Let government try to maintain its “monopoly on force” in the face of an armed and angry citizenry trying to protect themselves and each other.)  As the Z-man sourly puts it:

“Gun sales are booming, but the people buying the guns imagine themselves defending their life and property within a system of laws. What happens when they realize there is no system of laws?”

Interesting, but behind the curve.   More intriguing is what happens when the cops realize there is no longer a system of laws.  And Z-man talks about that too:

Social collapse comes when the majority stops accepting the legitimacy of the system and the authority of those in charge of it. The one result of the street rioters and their corporate and political sponsors is they may get what they want. The majority may stop accepting the legitimacy of the system. That silent minority may lose all faith in the system and the people running it. That would be us one step from the edge, when all respect for authority collapses and takes society with it.

That would be this scenario:

Yeah, I know:  it sounds like I’m promoting anarchy, doesn’t it?  Tell me that what’s going on right now in Portland, Seattle and Chicago isn’t already anarchy.  Only what it really is, as Z-man points out, is government-enabled (and even -supported) anarchy.  If the Left is so keen on anarchy, let’s give them the full flavor.

But just for the record, I’m damn glad that it’s Black people (and women) buying more guns.  Self-defense is a universal right, after all.

Can’t Argue Much

The Street Pharmacist (excellent nick) thinks that the cops have brought a lot of the current shit on themselves:

The police have had a real image problem for years.  It is no surprise that when the crap hits the fan, many people are willing to watch them fry.  What is happening right now is a direct result of the mindset that police have had- the US-versus-THEM, “thin blue line” horseshit that they have been following.  Now they are paying for it, and the law abiding citizens will, too.  You have lost the support of much of the public, and you have no one to blame but yourselves.

Read it all, because the details are quite shocking.

I’m kinda with him, although my real ire is directed at the badge-carrying assholes who shoot innocent people at 4am when executing [sic]  a no-knock warrant at the wrong address.  And I’m doubly pissed when the prosecutor or whoever shrugs and says in effect, “Boys will be boys” and in the end the only bad thing that happens is to the victim and his family.

Compared to that, glad-handing a speeding ticket or two is small potatoes — although the consequences of refusing to glad-hand can be horrible.

I have many friends in law enforcement, and I know that a goodly number of my Readers are either serving- or retired LEOs.  Since arriving in the country in the mid-1980s, I’ve had nothing but good experiences with cops, even when I was busted (twice, in 35 years) for speeding or for some admin screwup (e.g. expired license) on my part.  So 90% of the time, I’m going to be on the side of the blue because I respect what they do.

But the converse of that is when they fuck up, they need to ‘fess up, take the lumps, and to hell with the blue wall of silence.  If that doesn’t happen, my attitude will do a 180 faster than thought.

I’ve written about the militarization of the police for years now, and the way the public is referred to as “civilians” (hint:  don’t do it).  That “us vs. them” attitude is understandable — the definition of police work is coming into daily contact with scumbags and scrotes — but it’s still wrong.

Once again, it’s also understandable that the aforesaid criminals will hate cops.  Where the cops have screwed up is turning the law-abiding citizens’ opinions of them away from respect to dislike.  (In Britain, even the law-abiding refer to the cops as “rozzers” or “The Filth”, and we’re starting to turn in the same direction.)

Un-Summarizable

It’s not often that I can read an article without being able to summarize it with a few words or sentences, but this post by The Captain is one of the exceptions.  Here’s but an excerpt, but there’s so much more gunny goodness:

To begin with, it’s always been a myth that the police were there for protection. Regular readers, and most other educated men and women, already know about cases Warren versus D.C. and Castle Rock versus Gonzales. There are more, but these two cases demonstrate that police are not duty bound to offer anyone protection.
But at least it’s a myth that many people have believed. The riots, looting, pillaging, beatings and murders of late have convinced many uninformed folks that maybe they do need protection in lieu of police. In short, that myth has been shattered.

And it gets better, wif grafs and stuff.

Replacement Time

This just goes to show how ignorant some people are:

It seems that residents wanting to defend their homes from a mob are no longer allowed to exercise their Second Amendment rights in the city of St. Louis. On Friday, KSDK reported that local prosecutor Kim Gardner got a search warrant for the McCloskey home. And based on the court order, police seized the rifle used by Mark McCloskey, the St. Louis resident who used the weapon to defend his home from a group of protesters who threatened to kill him and his wife. They also seized the handgun Patricia McCloskey used, which was being held by their former attorney.

The ignorant people, in this case, would be this loathsome prosecutor Gardner and the people who “advise” her.

If I’d been in this situation (assuming I only had one gun, which I do, following that terrible canoeing accident on the Brazos or maybe Colorado rivers), I would have replacement guns in the house about, oh, half an hour after the cops left.  Only this time, I’d hide the some of spares where the cops would need a pneumatic drill to get access to them.  Or not.

So from this unhappy situation we should deduce the following:

  1. Never have just one gun per person in the house
  2. Hide a couple of backup guns — not just inside your own house, but in those of a couple trusted friends
  3. Don’t forget to do the same with the ammo for the guns.

If you haven’t made such arrangements already, do it now.

Bad Choices, Lousy Consequences

It’s not often that a post falls into so many of my categories (see above), but this one certainly does:

Actions have consequences. So do inactions. Just ask Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.  Walz had asked the federal government for $500 million to help the city of Minneapolis rebuild after riots destroyed or damaged more than 1500 buildings. The government refused.

Excuse me for a moment…

Ooooh, the Schadenboner is great with this one — all the more so when we hear the sniffling and whining:

“The Governor is disappointed that the federal government declined his request for financial support,” Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s office said in a statement. “As we navigate one of the most difficult periods in our state’s history, we look for support from our federal government to help us through.”

…and the response:

In a statement, a FEMA rep confirmed the request had been denied, saying it was determined that “the impact to public infrastructure is within the capabilities of the local and state governments to recover from.”

Yup.  You fucking loony Lefties thought you could fuck around and play your little utopian games without consequences, and now you’re going to have to pay for the repairs yourselves.

And for those who think that this will cause Trump to lose Minnesota in November:  the people who are in the deepest shit now weren’t going to vote for Trump anyway, and the right-thinking people of Minnesota are probably just as pissed off with Walz and his cronies as everyone outside the state is.  In the cold-blooded electoral calculus, this will probably turn out to help Trump, not only in Minnesota but everywhere else.  The Left needs to have the effects of their lunacy and misgovernment rubbed in their noses good and hard, and most of all, publicly.

Wait till New York hands in its bill… if they have the nerve to do so, after this.

In the meantime, I’m going to have a couple-three quiet lunchtime cocktails of this stuff.