The banner at the top of this post is a popular Antifa flag mocking the Gadsen Flag and proudly proclaiming that the Red Fascists will trample traditional American liberties. The recent forays of Leftist iconoclasts attacking statues of figures from the past, and engaging in vandalism and general mayhem, are quite understandable from a historical viewpoint. They are a dominance signal. Antifa, Anarchists and their allies, are basically saying that they rule the streets of our urban centers and there is not a damn thing anyone else will do about it. With a wink and a nod from governors and mayors in blue states, the violent, and deeply nihilistic, arm of the Left is showing their contempt for all prior civilization and proclaiming the advent of Year Zero and the dawn of a new civilization, if one can call it such, that the violent young men of the Left will be running. That is what the clown show of Chaz in Seattle is all about.
Now politics has its observable laws just like all other human activities. One of these laws is that no political event, and these exercises in street violence are deeply political, occurs in a vacuum. Usually they rouse an opposite reaction, and this is what happened this week in Albuquerque, New Mexico:
The ongoing effort by the left to destroy the historical record in an attempt to enact George Orwell’s 1984 slogan, “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past,” turned violent in Albuquerque, New Mexico, last night.
Protesters converged on the La Jornada sculpture in front of the Albuquerque Museum that commemorates Juan de Oñate, the Spanish conquistador who explored the Colorado River and the Great Plains during the latter half of the 16th century and was the first Spanish governor in Santa Fe. Their purpose was to demand the removal of the statue. The protest drew a group of counter-protesters from the New Mexico Civil Guard, a vaguely paramilitary group, to protect the statue.
One of the leftist mob began to use a pickaxe on the statue. The paramilitary group intervened to stop it.
(Go here to view a video of these events.)
You can see the mob on the statue and a rope around the statue’s upper third, presumably in an attempt to pull it down (0:05). Then you see a guy in a blue shirt retreating. At 0:08 some assclown hits him with a skateboard. Some guy is screaming “Get him! Get him!” (0:24) and then seems to have an ‘oh, f***’ moment when he realizes he’s being recorded and changes his squeal to “Get his license plate.” The guy in the blue shirt walks away (0:29). At 0:31, the guy in the blue shirt realizes he’s made a tactical error in turning his back on a pack of yipping hyenas and starts to run. At 0:35, he’s tackled by two or three people and what sounds like the same guy who was yelling “Get him!” is now yelling, “We’ll f***ing kill you! We’ll f***ing kill you!” (0:39). At 0:41 the guy in the blue shirt regains his footing and draws a weapon. He stumbles backward and opens fire. It sounds like he fires four shots. At this point, the inchoate animal screams of vengeance turn into shrieks of fear and panic. The video goes jerky as the Brave Sir Robin who had been screaming for blood just a few seconds earlier un-asses the area.
The guy who was shot is in the hospital. The police arrested the guy in the blue shirt and several other members of the paramilitary group.
Now the Democrat power structure in New Mexico and Albuquerque are demonizing the guy who was nearly killed by a rabid, homicidal mob.
Before the night was over Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and other officials condemned the violence and those who instigated it.
“Although we are still learning more about the situation, I am horrified and disgusted beyond words by the reports of violence at a protest Monday night in Albuquerque,” Lujan Grisham said late Monday in a statement. “The heavily armed individuals who flaunted themselves at the protest, calling themselves a ‘civil guard,’ were there for one reason: To menace protesters, to present an unsanctioned show of unregulated force. To menace the people of New Mexico with weaponry — with an implicit threat of violence — is on its face unacceptable; that violence did indeed occur is unspeakable.”
Mayor Tim Keller reacted swiftly following the shooting, tweeting that the city would be “removing the statue until the appropriate civic institutions can determine next steps” in order to contain the public safety risk.
“The shooting tonight was a tragic, outrageous and unacceptable act of violence and it has no place in our city,” the mayor wrote in a statement. “Our diverse community will not be deterred by acts meant to divide or silence us. Our hearts go out the victim, his family and witnesses whose lives were needlessly threatened tonight.”
A few thoughts here.
As far as I can see, this was a righteous shooting. The guy in the blue shirt doesn’t brandish a weapon, he doesn’t threaten anyone. When the situation turns ugly he tries to get out of the area. When he is assaulted by the asswipe using the skateboard he doesn’t retaliate. When he realizes he’s being pursued, he tries to run. This satisfies the requirements in even states which say he has a duty to retreat. When he is tackled from behind by several people while a mob is shouting for him to be murdered, he finally resorts to the use of deadly force. Even here he is restrained. He doesn’t empty the magazine into the crowd, he drops the most serious threat…who I’m sure the left will turn into their own Horst Wessel who they will chant about at their drumming circles…and stops.
One can debate the wisdom of showing up at a mob scene of ravening leftists who have zero compunction about attacking people to oppose them; what one can’t debate is that they had a legal right to be there. New Mexico is an ‘open carry’ state, so the New Mexico Civil Guard seems to be well within their rights. And, if you do decide to take part in a counter-protest, this video makes the case that you’d damned well better be armed and prepared to use force to protect yourself.
Go here to read the rest. If authorities refuse to keep order, citizens will attempt to. Expect more violence as a result of the destructive political games being played by blue state mayors and governors.
Yes, law and order will assert itself in one way or another. Expect vigilante groups to spring up as the chaos spreads and deepens.
I saw a report that one latter day Sgt. York in CHAZ was passing out AR-15s from the back of a Tesla e-car. WOKE!
Good luck with that. One needs to know gun control: hit what you aim at. Hint: try get everyone to shoot in the same direction.
Isaac Newton, 1687, “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” Four hundred million guns and a trillion bullets ought to be sufficient.
One more thing, that statue is not public property, it is privately owned. The State has no authority to take it away. The Governor is an iconoclast too and willing to kneel to the mob. I hope she is sued.
Since skate boards seem to be the weapons of choice at many “protests” maybe they should be heavily regulated, limit the number of boards allowed to be owned, how many wheels it can have, etc.
This is on the Governor and the Mayor. You know, the folks who care more about injustice than anyone else. Well, this country is headed towards a precipice and we have very few leaders who even want to do anything about it. In case there was ever any doubt, the Democratic party sold its soul to satan and there’s no going back.
A friend of mine has given me pro-tips on handgun options (I am a lifetime shotgun/rifle guy). I am happy to share if you want to email me.
As another lifelong rifle/shotgun guy, the long guns are more useful for exercising the kind of force that will be necessary to restore law and order.
Agreed as to their long term efficacy–that’s why I have upped my ammo supply. But as this story demonstrates, a handgun is a more immediate life-saver, especially in close quarters.
Dale, I suspect that if he had a long gun in his hand, very visible, he wouldn’t have attacked so quickly or at all by a mob.
That would probably be true as long as he remembered the second rule of (long)gunfighting.
John and Ernst:
I think you’ve talked me into “why not both?” 🙂
….do these guys listen to themselves?
Gov Grisham has Vice-presidential ambitions (and thus President when Biden departs) so you can expect little from her except to toe the PC line.