Nobody is above the law in America, we’ve been informed.
That is, nobody is above the law unless he breaks the law on behalf of left-wing causes. Then it doesn’t count.
That’s what was revealed Friday when Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg dropped charges against 30 anti-Israel protesters who ransacked Hamilton Hall at Columbia University in late April.
The DA who prosecuted and convicted former President Donald Trump on legally dubious campaign finance charges isn’t going to let prominent left-wing activists go to prison or face real consequences for criminal actions.
The anti-Israel protesters not only damaged and occupied school property, they got into a physical confrontation with a custodian while committing their crimes. This came at the end of a monthslong occupation of Columbia University’s grounds.
According to The Washington Free Beacon, prosecutors argued that the protesters didn’t have a criminal history and so it was better to leave any punishment to the university.
The protesters who Bragg’s office let off were mostly students, the Free Beacon reported.
I’ll note that people who are never charged with crimes they commit won’t have a criminal history.
Also, the activists wore face masks while committing their crimes, so the prosecution decided there was no way to figure out whodunit. It seems that wearing a mask while committing a crime is your Get Out of Jail Free card in New York.
How will the city deal with this surely new and diabolical criminal tactic?
What a joke.
The whole situation is a farce.
As others have said before me, there are downright Soviet-style judicial districts in this country where basic standards of justice are fully subsumed by demands for political correctness.
You may wonder why it is that left-wing protesters often riot and cause mayhem in their own cities, neighborhoods, and institutions. Here’s your answer: They know that if they commit crimes in a blue, Democrat-controlled area they’ll have an excellent chance of escaping justice with only the lightest of punishments, or no punishment at all.
This line from a National Review report about the Columbia protesters’ case tells you all you need to know:
The district attorney’s office offered to drop charges against 13 other protesters if they are not arrested again in the next six months, and none of them accepted the proposal, setting up a return to court next month.
Think about that.
The protesters are so confident they can do as they please they took the prosecution’s demand that they simply cool it for six months—about the time between now and the Nov. 5 elections, what a coincidence—and effectively said, “Get bent, we’ll do as we please.”
The anti-Israel protesters have been getting away with shutting down parts of New York and causing mayhem since Hamas’ terrorist attack Oct. 7 in Israel. They know the powers that be aren’t going to stop them now.
But don’t think this is just about the conflict between Israel and Hamas, a terrorist organization.
The Black Lives Matter protesters who were arrested in New York for rioting in 2020 were awarded millions of dollars by the city. The Left takes care of its activist base, regardless of the cause.
This is why the Left always seems to be drifting further leftward.
“Mainstream” Democrats and liberal institutions know that the activists aren’t popular, so they do damage control with the public. They give such violent protesters a little slap on the wrist and a little tut-tutting when they get out of line, but they never actually do anything to restrain or rebuke their ideology.
The politicians, courts, and institutional leaders then make concessions. Rinse and repeat. This is true in Democrat-controlled cities and certainly true on college campuses.
The leftist activists know they are in charge. They know that all they have to do to get their way is to keep throwing tantrums and eventually they’ll get institutions to do what they want.
Sure, the police may occasionally haul violent or disruptive activists to jail, as the NYPD did when officers rounded up the Columbia University protesters. But the police are only part of the law-and-order equation. Without courts committed to upholding the law, there can be no justice.
In New York, common criminals get let off the hook, enemies of social justice will be prosecuted, and political friends will do as they please. Don’t forget, illegal aliens who’ve broken our country’s laws also will get free meals and housing at the expense of everyone else.
It’s Venezuela on the Hudson.
Thanks to the courts of New York we are getting an ominous glimpse into a future, or perhaps current, America that looks more like the USSR than the old republic that we once knew.
