Special to L. Neil Smith’s The Libertarian Enterprise

Unless you have been away from civilization for the past three weeks, then you probably know about the riots that have been occurring across the country in just about every major city. You would also know that the riots are supposed to be in response to the death of George Floyd who was killed by a police officer who was arresting him for the possession of a counterfeit twenty-dollar bill. It’s interesting how the condemnation of that officer that caused Floyd’s death, has pretty much been universal among the American people. He doesn’t even have supporters among the strong law-and-order types who defend police officers even in situations where they shouldn’t. This is something the entire country should be able to unite behind. Leave it to the extreme left to turn it into an opportunity to divide this country further.

At first, we had a series of protests that more or less started off peaceful, until outside agitators were shipped into various cities to loot, vandalize and burn every single business in an eight-mile radius. Even after all the destruction and mayhem caused by these groups the media still labels them as peaceful protestors. I can just hear George Orwell laughing from his grave at the media’s play on words. There is nothing peaceful about looting, burning and smashing private property. There is nothing peaceful about brutally beating a Dallas man half to death, whose only crime was to defend his property. There is nothing peaceful about trying to burn a historic church to the ground.

Sadly, it is the left that supports these criminals and some are even going as far as to pay for their bail. They say that the rioters are just expressing their anger at being oppressed. Yeah, I am pretty sure that neither the Target in Minnesota or Macy’s Flagship did anything to oppress anybody. For that matter I am pretty sure the mom pop shops who have already suffered due to the COVID lockdowns, aren’t responsible for the oppression of the down ridden. I think it’s also worth pointing out that the people orchestrating all these organized forms of pillaging are organizations such as Antifa. To support such an organization, you would either have to be incredibly stupid or downright evil. Trump was not only right in declaring them a terrorist organization, but I think it was long overdue. The only thing Antifa cares about is bringing about the end of capitalism and they are willing to destroy anything or anybody that thrives off of it. It doesn’t make any difference if is a Macy’s flagship or a mom and pop cigar shop. They are also willing to terrorize anybody who is not the left of Stalin. So, if you support this group in any form, then you should be prepared to have your morality questioned.

Whenever you bring any of this up to the social justice activists pushing this movement, they tell you that you are part of the problem since you are creating a distraction from the real issue of police brutality. First of all, libertarians have been calling out police brutality long before Black Lives Matter was even an idea. Second, it’s hard to feel sympathetic to a movement that is actually causing far more destruction than one crooked cop ever could. If you want to blame somebody for creating a distraction from the real issue, look no further than your leftist buddies who turned this into an opportunity to cause mayhem and chaos.

I also find myself once again defending Donald Trump when he came under criticism for having the police clear the streets with tear gas so that he could be photographed with a bible in front of the very church that the extremists tried to burn down. Trump probably wouldn’t have felt the need to come out and show support for that old church, if a group of thugs disguised as peaceful protestors hadn’t tried to burn it to the ground. Also, it’s worth pointing out that these “peaceful protestors” threw frozen water bottles at the police when they were told to disperse, which led to the use of tear gas. Trump has also been criticized for calling on the military to restore order in all the major cities. Never mind that the reason why Trump even considered this is because of the governors and mayors who continue to fiddle while their cities burn. I find it funny that some of these same officials who complained about the lockdown protests spreading the Corona Virus, didn’t have the same worries with the George Floyd protests. Apparently, these officials don’t want to lose their social justice street credit, so they let them come in and take over their cities.

There is now a movement to defund the police, which many cop-hating libertarians will think of as opportunity to create the anarcho-capitalist society advocated by Murray Rothbard. I am going to be honest when I say that I don’t have the same deep-rooted hatred of the police as certain libertarians do. I am sorry, but I don’t believe that all police officers are inherently evil. Now that we got that out of the way, I have to point out that the people behind this movement aren’t the Rothbardian types who want to create an orderly society where public property is abolished and private owners can replace police officers with private security. They have consistently shown that they have no regard for private property and they seem more like the chaos causing villains from one of Christopher Nolan’s Batman movies than somebody who wants an orderly society. You also have to remember that these are the same people who want to take our guns away and are willing to release criminals into the streets. So basically, in their society we would have neither guns nor police, leaving us completely defenseless against the criminal element who they would allow to run freely on our streets. As I have said before, anyone who is serious about advancing libertarianism or creating any kind of meaningful police reform, should stary clear of these extremists. No good will come of associating with them.