Democrats accused of fueling attacks on cops, ICE with incendiary political rhetoric
By Valerie Richardson
The Washington Times
Thursday, August 15, 2019
From dousing police with water to doxxing immigration agents to attacking detention centers, it’s been a long, hot summer for law enforcement, and the inflammatory political rhetoric on the left isn’t helping.
Four Immigration and Custom Enforcement facilities have come under siege in the last month, most recently the Tuesday shooting at the field office in San Antonio, Texas, as Democrats upped their attacks on the administration’s immigration policies with blasts at “concentration camps,” “Gestapo tactics,” and “children in cages.”
Daniel Bible, ICE San Antonio field office director, was quick to connect the dots, saying the “disturbing public discourse shrouds our critical law enforcement function and unnecessarily puts out officers’ safety at risk.”
“Political rhetoric and disinformation that various politicians, media outlets and activist groups recklessly disseminate to the American people regarding the ICE mission only serve to further encourage these violent acts,” said Mr. Bible in a Tuesday statement.
Similarly, Rep. Tom Reed, New York Republican, blamed the incendiary political climate for fueling locals caught on video soaking New York City police officers with water — and throwing a bucket at one — prompting him to call for a federal hate-crimes investigation.
“These actions are a result of Democrat politicians spouting anti-police rhetoric to gain cheap political points,” Mr. Reed said in a Wednesday letter to Attorney General William P. Barr.
Even as Democrats seek to blame President Trump’s border-security calls for stoking violence, notably the El Paso mass shooting, the party is facing a backlash over the rhetorical excesses of some of its leading figures, starting with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.
Her viral “concentration camp” comparison was cited in a manifesto by Willem Van Spronsen, the armed antifa activist who was killed by police July 14 after he threw incendiary devices at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington, which he called an “abomination.”
“It has become fashionable again, in the aftermath of the mass shooting by a white separatist in El Paso, Texas, to ascribe blame for political violence to President Trump and his allies,” said the American Spectator’s John Jiang in a Thursday op-ed. “The knife cuts both ways.”
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