‘This is not Russia’

One good thing — I guess — about the current situation (I mean the widespread violence, not the COVID-19 pandemic) is that it has a lot of people paying attention to the news. But even good things can be carried too far.

Around 5:30 Monday, I get a text from my close friend, a liberal, who usually monitors CNN for word that Dr. Anthony Fauci has been fired. He has been hoping that would happen for weeks so he would have something else to hate President Donald J. Trump for. Every time there was a briefing without Fauci, he was sure he was “gone.” Being wrong never stopped him.

Monday, he was panicked because, I am quoting, “Trump just brought in 9 trucks full of national guard to WH grounds.”

I replied, “Cool. Some bad actors there,” meaning surrounding the White House. Fires had been set the previous night, one in St. John’s Church, one in AFL/CIO headquarters.

He said, “Not cool. Soldiers on grounds of WH. Crazy. He is escalating things, not defusing them.”

My reply was to send him the above picture I had taken a few hours earlier at City Hall. “Strength deters violence,” I wrote. The Pennsylvania National Guard was supplementing Philly cops. A number of other cities have called in the guard as a preventative measure.

“This isn’t Russia,” he wrote.

“That is moronic,” I replied. “Need to see the fires the anarchists set? Wake up. We are under attack.” As I write that, it seems hysterical. But is it correct?

That conversation seems to summarize the difference from the left and the right.

Around 5:40 p.m., the city announced a curfew beginning at 6 p.m., even while several hundred protestors were moving down the Parkway toward City Hall. Clearly, they will be in violation.

In mid-afternoon Terrence Floyd, George’s brother, went on TV to say rioters and looters are not acting in his dead brother’s name, that he was peaceful, and those promoting violence are doing great harm.

There are three elements to this. There are the protestors, those acting peacefully in the name of George Floyd and racial justice, such as those above.

Then there are the special interests among them, those hoping to foment trouble, those spitting on and provoking the police, throwing bottles, rocks and fireworks. I fear firearms will be next.

Then there are the looters, who are acting not on conscience, but on avarice.

The first group deserves our support, up until they violate the curfew. After that, if peaceful, they should be gently taken into custody, or softly moved off the streets.

The other two — those using violence, arson and/or looting — must be dealt with swiftly and severely. The “don’t escalate” philosophy used that first night in Minneapolis failed and encouraged more violence the following night. It emboldened them.

As to troops, national guard or active duty, it has been done before, more than once. Perhaps the most shocking in memory was President Dwight Eisenhower sending the 101st Airborne to Little Rock, AR., to enforce integration orders.

In 1992, federal troops were sent to Los Angeles during the massive riots following the Rodney King beating. King appealed to those who claimed to support him, to no avail, to stop the violence.

My liberal friend couldn’t stand that Trump called for troops.

“You’d prefer surrendering the streets to the mob?,” I asked him.

That’s pretty much where it ended, with the curfew in effect, and the sound of sirens outside my Center City windows.

This isn’t Russia. Is it still America?