Miranda Devine: Joe Biden had his chance to condemn violence, but missed it
With less than two months remaining until US election day, voters will not forget the silence of basement-dweller Joe Biden as their cities and towns are torn apart, writes Miranda Devine.
Opinion
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It’s not enough for Black Lives Matter-Antifa protesters to burn down police stations and destroy small businesses across America.
It’s not enough to attack police with Molotov cocktails and vandalise cities.
It’s not enough to intimidate and jostle guests leaving the White House after Donald Trump’s convention speech.
Now these “mostly peaceful” thugs have taken to harassing ordinary Americans dining at restaurants in order to frighten them out of voting for Trump.
On Friday night hundreds of protesters chanting “Black Lives Matter” descended on two restaurants in upstate Rochester, New York. They threw half-eaten meals on the ground, broke plates, overturned chairs, and chased off frightened diners.
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In Manhattan, protesters brandishing a “Death to America” anarchist banner and chanting “Every city, every town, burn the precinct to the ground” left a trail of destruction through the city.
Diners sitting outside the Korean steakhouse, Cote, in the Flatiron district were set upon as protesters marched by, with reports of flowerpots being hurled into an oyster platter.
Restaurants are struggling to survive with only sidewalk dining permitted in the city due to coronavirus restrictions. But the protesters don’t care about other people’s livelihoods.
They also were caught lighting fires in garbage bins and systematically smashing plate-glass windows of banks, pharmacies and a Starbucks.
One of those arrested on the weekend for felony rioting was wealthy Upper East Side college student Clara Kraebber, 20, a member of the Young Democrats, whose mother is an architect and father a child psychiatrist. She is now facing four years in prison.
Another child of privilege arrested for window-smashing was Elliot Rucka, 20, the son of New York Times best-selling comic book writer.
Elliot Ruckahttps://t.co/lf3M7xb6tH
— Mark R. Levin (@marklevinshow) September 7, 2020
The same pattern has been playing out in Democrat cities across the country, from Washington, DC, and Kenosha, Wisconsin, to Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington.
The protests have been running since the death of a black man, George Floyd, at the hands of police in Minnesota in May. But they no longer have anything to do with racial justice.
The more violent they become, the more they are associated with Joe Biden’s campaign in the minds of voters who fear anarchists coming to their suburb next.
Black Lives Matter, a Marxist organisation dedicated to destroying the nuclear family, has fallen out of favour, as its radical roots become known.
Their three-month reign of terror across America is killing Biden’s campaign, especially in the crucial swing states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, according to private polling for hedge funds.
Kenosha, a peaceful midsized American town on the shores of Lake Michigan, is the latest victim of BLM-Antifa violence after a black man, Jacob Blake, who was wanted for sexual assault and reportedly armed with a knife, was shot and injured by police.
In the subsequent riots, a teenager armed with an AR-15 rifle who was helping guard a local business, shot dead two rioters who were attacking him.
Four days later a Trump supporter was assassinated in Portland by a self-described Antifa member who later was shot dead by arresting police when he opened fire.
After the national guard helped quell the riots, President Trump received a hero’s welcome when he visited Kenosha last week, sending shockwaves through the Biden campaign, since Wisconsin is a swing state which could decide the election.
Biden finally was forced out of his basement to condemn the violence, which he had been calling “peaceful protests” for three months.
Even then, his condemnation was weak.
He did not call out BLM or Antifa by name, only condemning generic violence.
He is too frightened to remonstrate with the people committing the violence, because they are his supporters. He inherited the BLM-Antifa thugs who are the militant wing of the “Bernie Bros” from Bernie Sanders when he adopted his socialist agenda, and he needs to keep them on side.
Yet his passivity is alienating law-abiding citizens who want to be left alone to live and eat in peace. Law and order will help decide the election.