Governor Newsom accidentally makes the case for cracking down on rioters

California Governor Gavin Newsom accidentally made the case for cracking down on rioters who have been ravaging Los Angeles in defense of illegal immigration.

The riots broke out on Friday to protest the Trump administration’s deportation of illegal aliens. Rioters have attacked local and federal law enforcement officials, looted stores, and set fire to police cars while waving Mexican and Palestinian flags. President Trump has sent 4,000 National Guard troops to the area to protect federal property and personnel, and recently deployed 500-700 US Marines to relieve some of the Guardsmen.

Newsom and other Democrat politicians like LA Mayor Karen Bass have blamed the unrest on Trump while claiming the situation is “under control” and that the riots are “mostly peaceful.” The governor has called the violent rioting a “manufactured crisis” by Trump, whom he accused of “inciting violence.”

Footage of the riots shows demonstrators waving foreign flags instead of the American flag, prompting Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) to comment: “We fly the American flag in America.”

Newsom responded to Jordan’s post with three photos of demonstrators waving the American flag during the protest at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. “Like this?” Newsom captioned the post.

Political persecution

Netizens were quick to point out that the January 6th protesters, including the many who were peaceful, were subjected to political persecution for years afterward. Their homes were violently raided by the FBI, and they were threatened with bogus charges designed to intimidate them into accepting plea deals. Peaceful January 6th protesters like Pam Hemphill, a then-69-year-old grandmother with breast cancer, were sentenced to 60 days in prison for a first-time trespassing misdemeanor—an unprecedented sentence. The same sentence was meted out to Dr. Simone Gold, founder and president of America’s Frontline Doctors. Some, like former US Marine Ryan Nichols, spent years in pre-trial detention. Others, like America’s Frontline Doctors Creative Director John Strand, were kept in solitary confinement for several months at a time.

January 6th protesters were also treated as domestic terrorists by the Department of Homeland Security, which meant that many were subjected to invasive security searches, harassment, and tracking by federal Air Marshals when traveling.

‘Violent insurrectionists’

“If you’re comparing this to January 6, I assume you’re suggesting these people should also get ridiculously long sentences and go years without a trial?” an X user commented on Newsom’s post.

“All of those folks were swatted by FBI teams and thrown in the DC gulag for months-years before getting convicted and sentenced to years in prison,” responded another. “I'm anxiously awaiting the same thing to happen to those violent insurrectionists in your state right now…”

A netizen claiming to be one of the January 6th protesters chimed in: “Oh please. I was there, arrested and pardoned. We were not insurrectionists. However, if you think what we did was an insurrection i dont see how you can excuse what you’re allowing in the streets of LA as anything less.”

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