June 02, 2020
By Mark Chestnut
As protests over the unjust death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis, Minnesota, police officer turn to riots, violence and anarchy, the demonstrations seem to be less about Floyd and more about random violence, destruction and looting. Interestingly, the support for and aiding in rioting by children whose parents are politicians charged with keeping law and order in our communities is a somewhat disturbing trend.
Such advocacy of and participation in violent protests is especially concerning given President Donald Trump’s recent call to have the radical left-wing group Antifa labeled a domestic terrorist group.
New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio’s daughter, Chiara, was among those arrested at a protest on Saturday night. According to police reports, she and many other protestors were blocking traffic on Broadway and were arrested after refusing to move. At that time, protesters in the area were burning police cars, and throwing bricks and other objects at officers (who work for her dad). The arrest came an hour after the elder DeBlasio had publicly told protesters to “go home.”
In another instance, Jeremiah Ellison, son of Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, responded to Trump’s Antifa remarks by declaring his allegiance to the radical group thought by many in law enforcement to be responsible for much of the violence currently on display throughout the country.
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“I hereby declare, officially, my support for ANTIFA,” the younger Ellison wrote on his Twitter account on Sunday. “Unless someone can prove to me ANTIFA is behind the burning of black and immigrant owned businesses in my ward, I’ll keep focusing on stopping the white power terrorist THE (sic) ARE ACTUALLY ATTACKING US!”
Not surprisingly given his radical political bent, his father defended his statement.
“I actually don’t know (who is causing the violence),” the elder Ellison said. “I’m trying to operate on the basis of evidence. That is something that needs to be investigated and needs to be investigated urgently so that we can stop this criminal behavior.”
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Also not among those arrested—yet—is Hope Walz, daughter of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. She took to Twitter last week to seemingly aid and abet those rioting in Minneapolis. In response to a tweet last Thursday warning protestors to flee because the National Guard had been called, Walz tweeted that protestors didn’t need to worry immediately. “The guard cannot be sent in within minutes,” she said. “It takes time for them to deploy because they come from all over the state. To be clear, the National Guard will not be present tonight.”
She followed that tweet with another that seemed to suggest she had inside information that people who were not related to the governor didn’t: “Just because someone asked for something doesn’t mean it’s happening right away or even happening at all. I don’t know about SWAT, but what I do know is the Guard will not be present arresting people tonight.”
Not surprisingly for those who closely watch the political scene, all three of these government officials—DeBlasio, Ellison and Walz—are die-hard anti-gunners who have never seen a gun-ban proposal that they didn’t like. They’re just the kind of people who constantly seek to make gun ownership more difficult for law-abiding Americans, while at the same time raising kids who support radical groups bent on destroying businesses, livelihoods and even, in some cases, lives.
Freelance writer and editor Mark Chesnut is the owner/editorial director at Red Setter Communications LLC. An avid hunter, shooter and political observer, he has been covering Second Amendment issues and politics on a near-daily basis for the past 20 years.
