Ken Berwitz
The Trump CampaignGives License to Violence (is that the whole story? keep reading)
After aweekend of violence at his rallies, Donald Trump arrived in Florida for a rallyin Boca Raton on Sunday night, crowing at “how well we handled” those confrontations,because “nobody got hurt,” apparently meaning nobody got killed. No, no one got hurt. Other than in Chicago – where the violence was from the anti-Trump people (and is ignored in this editorial) – the only “victim” was a protester/distrupter being escorted out of a rally while flashing everyone there his middle finger and screaming insults at them, who was hit, once, by a 78 year old man. Standing in anopen-air amphitheater filled with thousands of supporters and surrounded byscores of police officers, this season\’s version of George Wallace coyly asked, “Do we have a protester, anyone?” and “Is there a disrupter in the house?” That\’s right. After being goaded, baited and disrupted repeatedly for months, he was taunting them. Where was the New York Times editorial board when Trump was being continually disrupted or prevented from speaking at all? If there were editorials condemning this display of fascism I somehow missed them. And the comparison to George Wallace is an odious lie. Can the Times show us any instance of Trump speaking against Black people, or demanding that they be isolated/segregated from Whites? That is not just dishonest, it warrants an apology to Trump – one that will never be forthcoming.
This is the new measure of Mr. Trump\’s vile presidentialcampaign: stand behind a security cordon, stir up racially charged viciousnessand attacks, then talk about how it symbolizes “love” from people who “want tosee America be made great again.” Any examples of racially charged viciousness and attacks in Saint Louis or Chicago this weekend? Anything at all against Black people (which might have roused the #blacklivesmatter crowd)? Show it to us….or admit that you can\’t because it wasn\’t there.
Here\’s a medley of Mr. Trump\’s comments condoningviolence over the past few weeks:
“I\’d like to punch him in the face, I\’ll tell you.”
“In the good old days this doesn\’t happen, because they usedto treat them very, very rough.”
“I love the old days. You know what they used to do to guyslike that when they were in a place like this? They\’d be carried out on astretcher, folks.”
“If you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knockthe crap out of them, would ya? Seriously. Just knock the hell out of them.”
Funny thing: the Times correctly quotes Trump in every one of those instances…but leaves out the fact that, in all cases, Trump\’s quote was directed at someone who was intentionally disrupting his speech, thus trying to prevent the people who came to hear him from doing so. If Trump\’s words were an incitement to cause physical harm to disrupters, intent on shutting down his free speech, how inciteful were the disrupters? And, if they were sent by specific groups, how inciteful were the groups? Not one word about that…which reduces the Times\’ point to little more than anti-Trump propaganda.
