Time to Designate Antifa a Terrorist Organization
Over the weekend, President Trump tweeted that he was considering designating the radical leftist group Antifa as a terrorist organization.
This is a good idea and can’t happen fast enough at this point.
The internet and social media are replete with acts of violence being perpetrated by Antifa thugs and it is high time that they were stopped, their personnel rolled up and charged with crimes and their supporters charged with material support for terrorism.
The latest incident represented a serious escalation in Antifa tactics when an Antifa member launched a firebomb attack at an ICE facility.
This can be done with either federal charges or state charges—and state charges may be better because there seem to be a lot more aggressive prosecutors on the state and local level in this country than exist in our Department of Justice.
In fact, there is some question as to whether leftists in government service would pursue Antifa the way they should.
You can’t find many Democrat leaders condemning Antifa. In fact, when asked, some have outright declined to do so. Prominent leftist politicians and media figures have met with and defended Antifa figures, despite their violent acts.
Antifa is getting more bold in their violence, seemingly feeling that there won’t be serious consequences for their actions. This indicates a very dangerous stage in the organization’s life cycle. When bullies, thugs and terrorists do not feel repercussions from their actions, they do more—and worse. This may already be happening with the new report that Antifa plans large-scale violence on the southern border near El Paso, Texas.
Antifa seems to believe that just about anyone who disagrees with them is a “fascist” and they believe that just about any method to attack “fascists” is justified.
As might be expected, Antifa has a presence on college campuses. But what might NOT be expected is that Antifa’s members include college faculty. Imagine the reaction if a member of just about any other group associated with violence was revealed as a member of a college faculty. How long would a member of the KKK stay on staff? Not long. A KKK member would be justifiably removed very quickly I suspect. Why does Antifa get a pass?
The best idea I’ve seen so far is Senator Ted Cruz’s call for the Justice Department to go after Antifa using RICO (Racketeer Influenced & Corrupt Organizations Act), which was designed to take down the Mafia and other organized crime syndicates.
If the Feds are slow to get started (which seems to be the case most of the time these days), many states (more than 30) have their own RICO statutes. It would be great if a sharp state attorney general or even a local district attorney would start rolling up the Antifa thugs using Senator Cruz’s idea.
Time is of the essence with the 2020 elections approaching. What are the odds that Antifa will lay low and not try to intimidate voters with acts of violence?
