Fake News Has Consequences

On Sunday, Red State posted an article about the terrorist attack in Boulder, Colorado, on Sunday. The article noted that the attack took place hours after CNN, the Associated Press, Fox News, and other news outlets reported a fake story about Israeli soldiers massacring Gazans at an aid distribution center. The story simply was not true. I doubt that story alone was enough to inspire a terrorist who probably already had planned his attack, but how many future terrorists will it inspire before it is totally renounced as ‘fake news?’

The article reports:

Israel supporters marching at a memorial walk for the hostages still being held by Hamas were attacked with Molotov cocktails on Sunday, according to multiple reports. Videos of the aftermath are already circulating, and an alleged assailant is in custody.

…While officials from Boulder, a notoriously left-wing city, urged people not to jump to conclusions, there is no doubt what the motive was. The attacker can be seen saying, “This will end when Palestine is free,” in this  video.

The terrorist has missed the point–Palestine (which has never actually been a country) needs to be free of Hamas. Since that is not possible, the people of the Gaza Strip need to be relocated to a place where they can live in peace. If you look at a map of the Middle East, you realize that the Arab countries have a lot of land and that Israel has a very small amount of land. Logically, if you want a country of Palestine, it could easily be given a small piece of Arab land to live happily every after. The reason that has never happened is that as long as there is no official Palestinian state and the ‘refugees’ have no home, the Arabs can use that as an issue in their fight to eliminate Israel.

The article concludes:

This is what happens when national and international press outlets run with an obviously fake blood libel fed to them by Hamas. Just like the two murdered Israeli embassy workers in mid-May, there are consequences to riling up deranged lunatics who want a “global intifada.” 

When You Release People Who Broke The Law, Bad Things Happen

PJ Media posted an article yesterday about a Portland man who had been arrested for starting fires and then released.

The article reports:

On Sunday, police arrested a man who confessed to starting a brush fire with a Molotov cocktail in Portland. They booked him in Multnomah County Jail. Portland being Portland, the authorities released the suspect that evening. The man then went on to start six more fires before the police arrested him yet again. The cops took him to a hospital for a mental evaluation.

What community resources were used to put out the six fires? What was the cost of putting out the six fires? How much disruption would have been avoided had the police taken him to a hospital for a mental evaluation and kept him in custody after the first arrest?

The article continues:

A reasonable person might expect the story to end there. The suspect confessed to the crime, the cops booked him in jail and got him off the streets. With a little time and some well-deserved punishment, the arsonist might reconsider his destructive ways. After all, the Pacific Northwest is undergoing a particularly harsh fire season, and fires near Portland have discolored the sky with smoke.

The story did not end there, however. Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt has notoriously taken the side of violent antifa rioters against the police they attack, and he announced that his office would not prosecute many riot-related crimes, even when some of those crimes endanger the lives of police officers. Perhaps that attitude helps explain why Domingo Lopez Jr. left jail on Sunday evening. Apparently, the suspect had enough time on his hands to set a whopping six more fires before the police again detained him.

The article concludes:

“Portland Fire and Rescue extinguished three of them while passing community members put out the other three. All were caught early. No one was injured and no structures were burnt,” the police reported. Officers again arrested Lopez, seizing a lighter as evidence.

“Lopez was transported to a hospital on a Police Officer Hold for a mental health evaluation. He was issued citations for 6 additional counts of Reckless Burning,” PPB added.

This is what happens when authorities release dangerous criminals — they commit more crimes and endanger more people. Yet activists want to abolish the police?

This madness needs to end.

When people are arrested, they should not be immediately released.

Note that the article includes seven fires that were not caused by global warming.