It’s easy to imagine Emily Litella doing a segment on this, beginning with the question “What’s this I hear about ill eagles?” But there’s little to laugh about in the kneejerk liberal response to a poorly spelled message anonymously spray-painted on a wall in Westminster, Md. A screen grab of the sentiment, which reads in all caps “NO ILLEAGLES HERE, NO UNDOCUMENTED DEMOCRATS,” appears below.
CBS Baltimore notes that the graffiti is being treated as a hate crime, which is puzzling insofar as the message merely raises an objection to people entering the country illegally. Is it now a crime to express opposition to lawbreakers? More quizzical still was the reaction of Maryland State Police Sgt. Marc Black, who is quoted as saying:
The tone of the crime is what we’re really concerned with. Again, you are targeting a specific group just based on their nationality.
But there is no mention of any nationality, and the tens of thousands of migrants pouring over the southern border hail from several countries. Was the sergeant maybe lumping them all together in his mind under the label “Mexican”? If so, who’s the real bigot?
U.S. Senator Ben Cardin, a Democrat, also reacted, releasing a statement that said in part:
There needs to be a respectful debate about immigration but we cannot allow such a conversation to devolve to the lowest common denominator of xenophobia and ignorance.
But that view ignores the clear ideological divide that has arisen in the Free State over the decision by the Department of Health and Human Services to clandestinely ship illegal immigrant children to an Army Reserve center in Westminster, which is 35 miles from Baltimore. That decision, which drew anger from plenty of Marylanders after Republican Rep. Andy Harris exposed the plan, has since been reversed. In the interests of balanced coverage, CBS might have chosen to include these inconvenient truths.
