Here’s the full text of Senator Tom Cotton’s op-ed, in case it is removed:
This week, rioters have plunged many American cities into anarchy, recalling the widespread violence of the 1960s.
New York City suffered the worst of the riots Monday night, as Mayor Bill de Blasio stood by while Midtown Manhattan descended into lawlessness. Bands of looters roved the streets, smashing and emptying hundreds of businesses. Some even drove exotic cars; the riots were carnivals for the thrill-seeking rich as well as other criminal elements.
Outnumbered police officers, encumbered by feckless politicians, bore the brunt of the violence. In New York State, rioters ran over officers with cars on at least three occasions. In Las Vegas, an officer is in “grave” condition after being shot in the head by a rioter. In St. Louis, four police officers were shot as they attempted to disperse a mob throwing bricks and dumping gasoline; in a separate incident, a 77-year-old retired police captain was shot to death as he tried to stop looters from ransacking a pawnshop. This is “somebody’s granddaddy,” a bystander screamed at the scene.
Some elites have excused this orgy of violence in the spirit of radical chic, calling it an understandable response to the wrongful death of George Floyd. Those excuses are built on a revolting moral equivalence of rioters and looters to peaceful, law-abiding protesters. A majority who seek to protest peacefully shouldn’t be confused with bands of miscreants.
But the rioting has nothing to do with George Floyd, whose bereaved relatives have condemned violence. On the contrary, nihilist criminals are simply out for loot and the thrill of destruction, with cadres of left-wing radicals like antifa infiltrating protest marches to exploit Floyd’s death for their own anarchic purposes.
These rioters, if not subdued, not only will destroy the livelihoods of law-abiding citizens but will also take more innocent lives. Many poor communities that still bear scars from past upheavals will be set back still further.
One thing above all else will restore order to our streets: an overwhelming show of force to disperse, detain and ultimately deter lawbreakers. But local law enforcement in some cities desperately needs backup, while delusional politicians in other cities refuse to do what’s necessary to uphold the rule of law.
The pace of looting and disorder may fluctuate from night to night, but it’s past time to support local law enforcement with federal authority. Some governors have mobilized the National Guard, yet others refuse, and in some cases the rioters still outnumber the police and Guard combined. In these circumstances, the Insurrection Act authorizes the president to employ the military “or any other means” in “cases of insurrection, or obstruction to the laws.”
This venerable law, nearly as old as our republic itself, doesn’t amount to “martial law” or the end of democracy, as some excitable critics, ignorant of both the law and our history, have comically suggested. In fact, the federal government has a constitutional duty to the states to “protect each of them from domestic violence.” Throughout our history, presidents have exercised this authority on dozens of occasions to protect law-abiding citizens from disorder. Nor does it violate the Posse Comitatus Act, which constrains the military’s role in law enforcement but expressly excepts statutes such as the Insurrection Act.
For instance, during the 1950s and 1960s, Presidents Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson called out the military to disperse mobs that prevented school desegregation or threatened innocent lives and property. This happened in my own state. Gov. Orval Faubus, a racist Democrat, mobilized our National Guard in 1957 to obstruct desegregation at Little Rock Central High School. President Eisenhower federalized the Guard and called in the 101st Airborne in response. The failure to do so, he said, “would be tantamount to acquiescence in anarchy.”
More recently, President George H.W. Bush ordered the Army’s Seventh Infantry and 1,500 Marines to protect Los Angeles during race riots in 1992. He acknowledged his disgust at Rodney King’s treatment — “what I saw made me sick” — but he knew deadly rioting would only multiply the victims, of all races and from all walks of life.
Not surprisingly, public opinion is on the side of law enforcement and law and order, not insurrectionists. According to a recent poll, 58 percent of registered voters, including nearly half of Democrats and 37 percent of African-Americans, would support cities’ calling in the military to “address protests and demonstrations” that are in “response to the death of George Floyd.” That opinion may not appear often in chic salons, but widespread support for it is fact nonetheless.
The American people aren’t blind to injustices in our society, but they know that the most basic responsibility of government is to maintain public order and safety. In normal times, local law enforcement can uphold public order. But in rare moments, like ours today, more is needed, even if many politicians prefer to wring their hands while the country burns.
June 7th Update: The NY Times editorial page editor has now been canceled.
Many leftover radicals from the 1960s have been wanting for years to re-live the glory days of chaos and mayhem of their youth, the pinnacle of which was probably the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
It looks like they finally got their wish–one last blast before they’re rounded up by the grim reaper.
And, just like Bill Ayers, et. al., didn’t seem particularly concerned about “social justice” (though that was the excuse for their activities), the “protesters” don’t seem to care about it now, either.
Apparently many of the radicals have trained their children to follow in their footsteps; many other radicals in institutions of education, in positions of authority, are teaching this reprehensible garbage to the infantile minds of 20 somethings who have never faced failure or hardship. They are a generation of participant ribbon children, never allowed to lose.
The pendulum swings though. Good citizens can see the contradictions. The more intelligent ones don’t have cognitive dissonance and will not attempt to hold opposite beliefs at the same time.
Calling yourself a “progressive” is truly a mental disorder.
What happened in Chicago in 1968 likely helped elect Nixon, though I’m sure he would have won without that. The public had had enough of LBJ and Viet Nam.
As for the mouldy oldie radicals teaching those younger than them, we need look no further to somebody whose surname is Obama. His mentor was the aforementioned Ayers.
This wasn’t even the first Tom Cotton op-ed the Grey Lady had printed. Presumably she thought her readers would be amused by the spectacle of seeing what normal people thought and were saying about the riots, printing Cotton’s plain speech so his betters could laugh at him.
CNN covered the Trump campaign for the same reason. They thought somebody campaigning on the promise to make America great again was hilarious. They didn’t really take him seriously till election night.
The Grey Lady has drawn the wrong lesson, of course. Stop printing pieces by the plain people of America, and maybe the first real workers’ and peasants’ revolution in American history will wither away for want of publicity.
She’ll go on refusing to take President Trump seriously until a few good men in uniform pick up the editorial board, and persuade them, using methods perfected in the Middle East, to finally confess to giving aid and comfort to enemies of the United States.
Free Derek Chauvin.
“Free Derek Chauvin”
Nope. Chauvin has by past actions shown himself to be a cancer. The cops need to understand that a thousand good deeds are for naught when known pricks are allowed to persist.
Good editorial. Angry commenters trying to claim their quibble is that it is inaccurate, I have noticed that leftists claim “inaccurate” whenever they disagree with a point being made. There is no tolerance for different interpretations on issues when so many things can and are interpreted in different ways. It is critical therefore to publish different points of view if the public is to be informed. I hope more people saw the editorial than the uninformed comments from the angry leftists.