Police and investigators at Speaker Nancy Pelosi's San Francisco residence, where her husband, Paul Pelosi, was attacked by an intruder Credit...Jim Wilson/The New York Times
The attack on Paul Pelosi signals a step backward to the political criminality that gripped this country during the Red Summer of 1919. More than 26 race riots and at least 250 deaths occurred during Red Summer. White mobs attacked black people seeking to remove some of the boundaries imposed by Jim Crow America. Surprisingly, even with the history of violence that the U.S. has known, our leaders cannot recognize that we are facing an onslaught of this political violence. And if they realize we are facing an attack of violence, they do not seem to have any ideas about quelling it.
Many of the government responses to the violence of the Red Summer could be considered political crimes. Leaders say that the attack on Mr. Pelosi is “not who we are” and “we can’t have this in our country.” Rev. Al Sharpton called for Donald Trump, whose comments helped to ignite the violence, to retract his statements. Solving the problem of political criminality by asking the people responsible for it and benefiting from it to “stop it” is not much of a solution. The U.S. solution to political crime has not been exemplary in the past.
Nonetheless, President Biden cannot be limited to waiting until there is more bloodshed and treating the violence as though it were simply another instance of “street” crime. The perpetrators are not street criminals who can be deterred by flooding a high-crime area with more squad cars. We are under attack. Our institutions are under attack. We must expect our government to respond and protect us.
Many of the government responses to the violence of the Red Summer could be considered political crimes. Leaders say that the attack on Mr. Pelosi is “not who we are” and “we can’t have this in our country.” Rev. Al Sharpton called for Donald Trump, whose comments helped to ignite the violence, to retract his statements. Solving the problem of political criminality by asking the people responsible for it and benefiting from it to “stop it” is not much of a solution. The U.S. solution to political crime has not been exemplary in the past.
Nonetheless, President Biden cannot be limited to waiting until there is more bloodshed and treating the violence as though it were simply another instance of “street” crime. The perpetrators are not street criminals who can be deterred by flooding a high-crime area with more squad cars. We are under attack. Our institutions are under attack. We must expect our government to respond and protect us.