Friday, May 14, 2021

Newt Gingrich: Repudiate Tlaib and Waters – here’s how their support for mob rule endangers Americans

Newt Gingrich: Repudiate Tlaib and Waters – here's how their support for mob rule endangers Americans

Specifically, Reps. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., and Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., have recently acted in ways that reflect unfavorably on the House of Representatives and betray their oaths to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States. 

Waters flew to Minnesota, where the murder trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin is in progress, and said, “We are looking for a guilty verdict.” If Chauvin is not found guilty of murdering George Floyd in May 2020, Waters said, ”We’ve got to stay on the street, and we’ve got to get more active, we’ve got to get more confrontational. We’ve got to make sure that they know that we mean business.” 

TUCKER CARLSON: MAXINE WATERS SHOWS HER TRUE BELIEFS ONCE AGAIN

Demagogically encouraging the rule of the mob over the rule of law – and urging people to mobilize against the court and the police at a time of great tension – clearly is a violation of every member of Congress’s responsibility to uphold the rule of law and the Constitution. 

Waters’ encouragement to the mob to use “confrontational” coercion to force society to render the result the mob wants creates an immediate threat to public safety. 

CLICK HERE TO GET THE OPINION NEWSLETTER 

However, Waters’ call for mob rule may be dwarfed in its impact by Tlaib’s call to abolish the police and close prisons. If her policies were followed, the years of violence and predatory assault on the innocent would utterly destroy the rule of law and eliminate public safety in ways even Waters’ incitement couldn’t achieve. 

Tlaib, who represents parts of Detroit, tweeted “No more policing, incarceration, and militarization. It can’t be reformed.” She was setting a standard that was not merely radical, it was insane. Detroit’s police chief has called on her to resign. 

More from Opinion

In 2020, the United States had the biggest increase in murders in history. The level of violence from Portland’s virtually nightly attacks by Antifa to the looting and street violence that have become the norm in all too many cities is simply intolerable. 

In Tlaib’s home district, the evidence is devastating. As I wrote last week, according to the City of Detroit’s 2020 Crime Report, there were 327 homicides in 2020. This is up from 275 the previous year, which is a 19% increase. There were 1,173 non-fatal shootings in 2020 – up from 767 the previous year – which is a 53% change. 

For a member of Congress to propose in the middle of this devastating violence that we should end policing and close down prisons is beyond outrageous. It is a policy which, if followed, would lead to thousands of victims of violent crime. 

There should be real consequences for this kind of life-endangering, society-threatening irresponsibility.  

At the very least, Reps. Waters and Tlaib have violated the rules of the U.S. House as described in the resolution to remove Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., from her committee assignments: 

This is about insisting that members of Congress do not promote mob rule or work to make America less safe.


>>>>