WARNING! New Portland Ahead
By Brent Regan
“So what do we do if someone is unruly and interrupts the meeting?”
“Ask them to be quiet.”
“What if they won’t be quiet?”
“Take a recess to deescalate the situation.”
“What if they continue after the recess?”
“Reschedule the meeting for another time.”
“Would you remove a person disturbing the peace?”
“Under no circumstances will I remove someone forcibly. I just won’t do it.”
This is the conversation I had with Lieutenant Avriett of the Coeur d’Alene police on Tuesday the 25th at 6:20 PM, just before the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee general meeting. I was stunned and shocked. Should there be an individual who is disrupting a meeting to the extent the meeting cannot reasonably continue; the only solution offered by the CDA police is to reschedule the meeting for another time. Let the protestors shut you down.
In the 1980s New York was a crime infested cesspool. When Rudy Giuliani was elected mayor in 1994 he implemented the “Broken Windows” policy. His theory was that if you stopped allowing small crimes they would not escalate into bigger crimes. He was right and by the turn of the century New York was one of the safest and cleanest cities in America.
Saul Alinsky grew up in the slums of Chicago and was mentored by the gangster Frank (The Enforcer) Nitty, number two man to Al Capone. Alinsky was a Marxist and authored the progressive handbook Rules for Radicals, which is dedicated to Satan: “From all our legends, mythology, and history, the first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom – Lucifer.”
Rules for Radicals is the progressive left’s bible. It spells out how to use dirty tricks, direct action, intimidation and fear to achieve political power. It teaches that the ends justify the means, that traditions and moral codes are the enemy of mankind, and to take power for the sake of power.
Alinsky himself admitted that his teachings did not improve things, and often made them worse, but they did get power for those that followed his instruction.
Hillary Clinton was a disciple and even wrote her 1969 Master Thesis, “There Is Only The Fight” on Alinsky. In his community organizer days Barack Obama taught the Alinsky methods and “longed to apply them at a national level.”
Alinsky’s methods are popular because they work. The formula is simple. Political agitators cause a disturbance and then blame it on the opposition. They create chaos and then complain that there is chaos. They deny the rights of others and then rage that their rights are violated. They commit the crime and then play the victim.
These methods work because the media is egger for a juicy story for gullible readers. If it bleeds it leads. Never mind the facts. Never mind the context. Eyeballs and clicks are the new economy.
The Democrats have put out a national call for direct action to interfere with and disrupt meetings. If you want an example, you don’t need to look far because it is probably happening in your town as it is in ours.
A perfect example is the North Idaho College saga. Shortly after the conservative majority was elected to the NIC board the protests started; demands for resignations; votes of no confidence, threats of litigation that drove one board member to resign; complaints to the accreditation agency. Board members were heckled, chased and physically attacked at work. Radical attendees would reduce board meetings to chaos, even pulling a fire alarm to force an evacuation. All the while blaming the board for the disruptions and problems the disruptors were causing. Beating the drum while complaining about the noise.
The same gang attacks the Community Library District with the same tactics. The library board wanted to move material harmful to children (sexually explicit) out of the children’s sections and into the adult areas. This elicited cries of “Book Burners” and “Fascists” and expletives unsuitable to print. The radicals claimed the board members were terrorists wanting to blow up the library. Law suits were filed. Meetings were disrupted. All done with the tacit approval of law enforcement who’s policy is that under no circumstances will they remove someone no matter how disruptive. They just won’t do it.
The same crew was present at the recent Legislative Town Hall where the heckling began during the invocation and built until the entire venue was in chaos. The county sheriff was present and called for calm. He ordered the most active heckler to accompany him to the lobby. She refused his lawful order, itself a violation of law, so he enlisted the event security to assist him. Biting, spitting, kicking and screaming she was moved to the lobby where she was cited for trespass and battery. But the Coeur d’Alene police dropped the charges and the liberal media hailed her as an innocent hero.
A February 28th KootenaiJournal.com article summarizes the events: “Borrenpohl’s own comments to the media after the fact, along with multiple video recordings of the incident itself, indicate that she was purposefully disruptive during a peaceable assembly, refused to leave when asked, was informed that she was under arrest, and resisted those who were instructed by (Sheriff) Norris to assist him.”
Well, at least Coeur d’Alene City Council meetings are safe.
Big thigs start small. Protestors emboldened with immunity from prosecution escalate their tactics while cheered on by a compliant media. Why not? What’s to stop them? Eventually cities are on fire with “mostly peaceful protests” as police cars burn in the streets while law enforcement is overwhelmed.
Will Coeur d’Alene become New Portland? It will if we allow it. Big things start small.
It’s just common sense.