For all the nation’s disgust at the Jan. 6, 2021 US Capitol riot, American lefties are on the verge of similar outrages as lawful efforts to petition the government grow ever closer to outright intimidation of lawmakers.
A dozen unruly “Tax the rich” demonstrators earned themselves arrest Monday by occupying the historic War Room in the state Capitol.
That followed the arrest of three dozen protesters the Friday before, part of a large tenant-activist mob outside Gov. Hochul’s office demanding the state budget include the “Good Cause Eviction” universal-rent-control bill.
Meanwhile, it’s now almost routine for lefties to rally outside Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s home in Park Slope, sometimes raging through the night.
Consider, too, last summer’s angry pro-abortion demonstrations at the homes of several US Supreme Court justices, in clear violation of federal law — though the Justice Department refused to take any enforcement action.
That “activism” even inspired a mentally ill young man to move to assassinate Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
In the summer of 2020, protests after George Floyd’s death turned into rolling riots across the country, not to mention the months-long assaults on the federal courthouse in Portland.
And then there’s Antifa, which just last month in Atlanta attacked police with Molotov cocktails at the “Cop City” training site.
Imagining that you somehow represent the “real majority” is no excuse for violence or intimidation, whether from left or right.
Though badly deluded, the Jan. 6 rioters believed their cause was just — exactly as these mobs swarming New York’s Capitol do.
It could take only a few extreme radicals infiltrating a far-left crowd in the Capitol to bring tragedy to Albany.
The left needs to rethink its now-routine tactic of in-your-face intimidation before that happens.