OPINION:
The great strength of the United States of America was forged, many years ago, in the legal fire of our Constitution. And our great strength will remain so long as the principles and spirit of this document continue to be respected and enforced. We are a country whose famed liberty is only possible because of the freedoms — and comforts — law and order make possible.
And herein lies the issue of the hour. You see, the prerequisite of law and order needed for the flourishing of every American community is only made possible to the extent an adequate means of enforcement is properly supplied and furnished. As every school child understands, or used to understand, for that matter, without fear of punishment, man will even transgress the heavenly Commandments.
To put this in the immediate context, the rioting and general lawlessness rampant in cities great and small across America are a direct result, as Manhattan Institute Fellow Heather Mac Donald nicely puts it, of a War on Cops. The more police feel under attack by politicians and the broader public, the more they retreat, fearful to do what their jobs require.
This is what happened in Seattle and Kenosha, it’s what has been happening in Portland for nearly a hundred days, and it is—mark our words—what is on the precipice of happening throughout the whole state of Virginia.
Just last week Virginia state Democrats introduced Senate Bill 5032, which eliminates the mandatory minimum prison sentence (currently six months) for an assault of a police officer. And it goes further, allowing judges and jury latitude to downgrade, under certain circumstances, the crime from a felony to misdemeanor.
The Democrats have, by these actions, declared open season on law enforcement across the state. Of course, this all seems mad to reasonable people. After all, who, in the midst of national civil unrest, where roving bands of antifa thugs set fire to anything that moves, would actually attempt to pass legislation that imperils the lives of the men and women protecting the state?
Well, Virginia state Democrats, that’s who. And in a Senate vote 21-15, no less.
We will see what happens now that the bill has moved to the House. Democrats there hold a 10-person majority, so the odds don’t look good. But the damage, in effect, is already done, no matter how the vote goes. Police in Virginia have already deduced that the statehouse does not consider their safety all that important — and that, indeed, life for them will only get more precarious and thankless.
Soon, it will be hard to find any Virginian interested in seriously protecting and serving under these circumstances. And when that happens, no more enforcement, no more law and order, no more America as we knew it.
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