From 2020 through now, we've seen time and again the Left engage in 'mostly peaceful' protests that involve the vandalization and destruction of statues they don't like. The targets were initially Confederate statues because those Confederate soldiers were evil racists, there was no room for historical fact or nuanced discussion, and if you pulled down the statues you were a brace hero. At the time I -- and many others -- warned that it wouldn't stop with Confederate statues.
And it didn't.
Now statues of the Founding Fathers are being removed, buildings are being renamed. History is being erased. Because that's what the Left does.
That, however, is not the point. For all the removals of statues, all the vandalism -- including on college campuses like Columbia in the spring and in DC a little over a week ago -- few, if any of those protesters face serious legal consequences.
In fact, most charges were dropped. Against the Columbia protesters and against the D.C. rioters who assaulted police.
Recommended
But here's a case where charges were not only not dropped, but a man was sentenced to 15 years in prison for the theft and destruction of a Jackie Robinson statue:
Ricky Alderete received 15 years in prison for the theft and destruction of a Jackie Robinson statue.
— Art Cheater (@acsider) August 3, 2024
College students who tore down multiple statues have received no jail time whatsoever. https://t.co/kPMAEOYkMr
A Wichita man who admitted to stealing a Jackie Robinson statue from McAdams Park in January was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Friday.
Ricky Alderete, 45, pleaded guilty to multiple charges in May, including aggravated burglary, criminal damage to property and theft.
Alderete was among three suspects who authorities say cut off the statue at the ankles, leaving behind only Robinson’s feet. Fire crews found burned remnants of the statue several days later while responding to a trash can fire at Garvey Park. At the time, officials estimated the damage to be around $75,000
Many of the BLM/Antifa, anti-Israel, pro-Hamas protests took place during the day, and it was very easy for law enforcement to identify the perpetrators. There are thousands upon thousands of videos and livestreams of the destruction. It would have been very easy to file charges and prosecute the perpetrators.
Now, I want to be clear: Ricky Alderete deserves to face consequences for his theft and destruction of the statue. That is indisputable.
But so do countless others who tore down statues, vandalized campuses and public memorials, assaulted police, and burned cities to the ground. There is zero reason the charges against them should have been dropped, save for the fact the politics of the protesters align with the Attorneys General who dropped the charges.
And that's by design.
There's a reason George Soros and the Left have sunk tons of money into Attorney General races and not into state legislative races, not into state governor races, not into congressional and senate races. Attorneys General have a lot of power -- to prosecute or not prosecute, to run state elections, to decide what lawsuits the state will and won't engage in (which is why only 26 of 50 states sued to block Biden's sexist Title IX rewrite), and we're seeing it play out in real time.
By design, rioters who are violent, who vandalize and burn buildings, are being set loose without charges because the Left likes their politics. They want more of this unrest, and you get more of what you incentivize.
This is also why guys like Daniel Penny, who defended his fellow subway riders from a violent aggressive criminal Jordan Neely, is facing charges in Neely's death (while repeat, violent criminals get set loose NYC without bail to reoffend).
This form of 'justice' is actually lawfare, and it is unsustainable.
If guys like Ricky Alderete get a decade and a half for stealing the Jackie Robinson statue, the cavalcade of Leftists who block roads, burn buildings, knock down statues, and vandalize public monuments deserve the same.
The fact that they don't tells us we are heading down a dangerous path. An America with a two-tiered justice system, where consequences are based on political ideology, ends badly for everyone.
