LATimes, an organ of the Democratic Party, treats two cases with revealing differences:

1) Mark and Patricia McCloskey lived in an upscale suburb of St. Louis. BLM demonstrators broke an iron gate off its hinges, marched down a private sidewalk, and confronted them on their front porch. Reportedly the mob yelled threats to kill the McCloskeys and take their house. They pointed guns at the crowd and ordered them to leave, after calling police.

Mark claimed his rifle was unloaded, and that Patricia’s pistol was inoperable. They were indicted on felony charges, pleaded guilty to misdemeanors, and later were pardoned by the governor.

The Times was unfailingly hostile to the McCloskeys, approved their being charged, and repeatedly called the demonstrators “peaceful.”

2) Ashli Babbitt was a slightly built, 35-year-old Air Force veteran who had deployed to the Mideast. She came to the Capitol to participate in the Jan. 6 demonstration. After someone else broke the glass of an inside door, she started to climb through it, but was fatally shot in the neck by a Capitol Police lieutenant. When she was shot she was unarmed, held nothing in her hands, and was surrounded by other demonstrators and police in riot gear. Why she was selected to be shot is unclear.

Endless showing of videos reveals not one instance of police announcing through a bullhorn that this was an unlawful assembly – a legal requirement defining a “riot.” Rather than orders to leave, videos show police taking selfies with demonstrators and ushering them into the Senate Chamber, where the Shaman (the guy with buffalo horns) roamed unmolested.

In view of the equivocal police response to the demonstrators, calling them rioters or even trespassers becomes questionable. Nevertheless, the Times is unequivocal in not only condoning her killing but actually approving it.

Question: If shooting Ashli Babbitt was justified, would shooting the many demonstrators last summer have been justified? Looting stores, beating people, burning down an OCCUPIED police station, and attempting to burn down a federal courthouse surely are worse than climbing through a glass door that someone else broke, aren’t they?

Question: If prosecutors were justified in charging the McCloskeys with felonies for pointing guns, why would prosecutors not be justified in charging the cop who actually shot and killed Ashli Babbitt?

Answer: To progressives like the editors of the LATimes, if conservatives point guns, it’s a crime. But if progressives actually shoot guns and kill someone, it’s not a crime, it’s not merely justifiable, but it’s praiseworthy. Whether an act is a crime is determined not by the act, nor by the circumstances, but by the politics of the people involved. There, is that clear enough for you?

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