It’s official.
The left has either captured Fox News or has established a significant beachhead.
A recent headline makes our point: "Portland Marchers Vandalize Businesses, Government Property: Police."
Note to Fox, those aren’t "marchers," they're rioters.
The next thing we know, the reporter, Bradford Betz, will be explaining how in spite of the violence the march was mostly peaceful.
The riot in the Fox report was Antifa’s way of bringing in the new year.
The festive event saw the "marchers" attack police with commercial-grade fireworks, fire paintballs and spray–paint buildings "including City Hall and the Portland Oregon Police Bureau's headquarters. Other properties damaged included the Oregon Historical Society, the University Club, First Republican Bank, a Starbucks and several restaurants."
The most pathetic line in the report concerned law enforcement — such as it is — in Portland, "Police said officers attempted to contact someone leading the march, but their vehicle was spray-painted as well."
And, of course, "no arrests were made."
After over 100 nights or rioting and violence Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler has come to a conclusion a reasonable person would have reached on night two of the riots, "It’s time to push back harder against those who are set on destroying our community and to take more risks in fighting lawlessness."
The story in the New York Post where Wheeler made that statement did not say if the mayor was wearing an orange wig while making the statement.
Wheeler tries to spin his incompetence and appeasement of lawless, violent criminals into a reasonable approach to a group lunatic anarchists. "My good faith efforts at de-escalation have been met with ongoing violence and even scorn from radical Antifa and anarchists."
Maybe if Wheeler’s feelings had been hurt by those mean Antifa thugs during the first week of the rioting millions of dollars in damage to the city and losses to businesses could have been prevented.
Our advice for Portland residents is don’t get your hopes up.
Wheeler may say, "it will be necessary to use additional tools and to push the limits of the tools we already have to bring the criminal destruction and violence to an end." But the reality is the vast majority of the rioters that were arrested in the past have been released almost immediately by criminal-coddling district attorneys and judges.
The only arrests that stuck were those made by federal officials last summer when President Trump sent federal troops and law enforcement to the City of Roses to halt the attacks on federal buildings.
An action roundly condemned by Wheeler — before he partially came to his senses.
What Law-and-Order Wheeler is going to learn now is it’s easy to tear down the framework of the rule of law that formerly kept Portland peaceful, but it’s much harder to reestablish what his foolish policies destroyed.
Michael Reagan, the eldest son of President Reagan, is a Newsmax TV analyst. A syndicated columnist and author, he chairs The Reagan Legacy Foundation. Michael is an in-demand speaker with Premiere speaker’s bureau. Read Michael Reagan's Reports — More Here.
Michael R. Shannon is a commentator, researcher for the League of American Voters, and an award-winning political and advertising consultant with nationwide and international experience. He is author of "Conservative Christian’s Guidebook for Living in Secular Times (Now with addedhumor!)" Read Michael Shannon's Reports — More Here.