GOP Runs On Law And Order Strategy At Convention

Day one of the GOP convention had many themes, but, this is the one that has made Kevin Johnson and the USA Today upset

As Trump hammers ‘law and order’ message at RNC, Barr’s DOJ takes ‘like it or not’ approach

The front page of the dead tree edition, the main article, has the headline “A ‘law and order’ strategy, with the subhead Theme likely to be amplified at this week’s convention. Yet, as usual, it fails to note that this is “analysis”, not reporting, meant to somehow protect the Democrats from their lawless behavior and allowing chaos in the streets of Democratic Party run cities

Four years ago, President Donald Trump’s law-and-order campaign became a part of his inaugural address when he vowed “this American carnage stops right here and right now.”

A similar, apocalyptic refrain echoed through the first night of the Republican National Convention and promises to be a recurring theme throughout the week.

“People of faith are under attack,” Donald Trump Jr. said. “You’re not allowed to go to church, but mass chaos in the streets gets a pass … Anarchists have been flooding our streets and Democrat mayors are ordering the police to stand down.”

“When you are in trouble and need police, don’t count on the Democrats,” Kimberly Guilfoyle, a lawyer and Trump Jr.’s girlfriend said in her RNC speech.

Rep. Jim Jordan said “crime, violence, mob rule” are happening in Democrat-controlled cities.

Mark and Patricia McCloskey, who made national news when they emerged from their home in St. Louis, Missouri, brandishing firearms to confront protesters, were also among the first night’s speakers.

“Whether it is the defunding of police … or encouraging anarchy on our streets, it seems as if the Democrats no longer view the government’s job as protecting honest citizens from criminals but rather protecting criminals from honest citizens,” Mark McCloskey said.

Well, yeah. We see it daily in the streets of Dem run cities, be it Portland, Seattle, Los Angeles, NYC, and so many more. Now it’s Kenosha.

More than a month later, law enforcement authorities are crediting the federal deployment with assisting in the arrests of 17 local murder suspects, including a Kansas City man accused in the slaying of 4-year-old LeGend Taliferro, for whom the federal strategy is named. Nationwide, nearly 1,500 suspects have been swept up in recent weeks as part of Operation Legend, which now has a presence in Albuquerque, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Milwaukee, Indianapolis, Memphis and St. Louis.

Despite the encouraging numbers, uneasy local officials have refused to fully embrace the Trump administration strategy, fearing that their cities have been co-opted by a sagging presidential campaign in search of a popular law-and-order theme.

“The reason this has been rolled out on a national scale is because we are in an election year,” Lucas said. “The coronavirus response doesn’t seem to be polling well for them, so they have moved to something else (violent crime) that they can try to do something about. They are trying to make crime a partisan issue.”

See? It’s not that these Dem run cities are violent, it’s that it’s an election season! Kevin forgot to note that this wouldn’t be necessary if the Dem run cities weren’t imploding with violence.

Attorney General William Barr has been unapologetic in the government’s push into cities largely led by Democrats. Leading the Trump administration’s effort, the attorney general has cast it both as a strategy to fight violent crime and a move to boost local police who have been the targets of social justice demonstrations across the country after George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis officers.

“Led by Democrats.” Notice that Barr isn’t having to do this in areas run by Republicans.

From its start, the Justice Department’s law enforcement operation has been framed in starkly political terms by none other than the president.

“For decades, politicians running many of our nation’s major cities have put the interests of criminals above the rights of law-abiding citizens,” Trump said last month at a White House ceremony marking Operation Legend’s launch. “These same politicians have now embraced the far-left movement to break up our police departments, causing violent crime in their cities to spiral – and I mean spiral seriously out of control.”

This is written like it’s a Bad Idea to crack down on violence. I’m not sure who at the USA Today thought it was a good idea to try and dunk on Trump and the GOP for cracking down on violence, or that it was smart to highlight the difference between the party of law and order and the party of allowing riots.