Ideological discrimination by San Jose? Protesters allowed to beat Trump rallygoers

Ideological discrimination by San Jose? Protesters allowed to beat Trump rallygoers

Anti-Trump demonstrators beat up Trump supporters yesterday outside a Trump rally in San Jose, while police initially did nothing but watch. As the left-leaning Buzzfeed News notes, “rallygoers simply trying to get back to their cars were chased down and beaten — often at the feet of San Jose Police, who stood by motionless…. Police were present at the gathering, but took a hands-off approach to the crowd. In some cases, officers stood nearby as fighting and violence broke out…. A police source told BuzzFeed News that officers were under orders to not break ranks.” “Video from the scene showed a self-identified Trump supporter being struck in the head by a protester. He later had blood streaming down his face…. Another Trump supporter was attacked with eggs and bottles.”

What is especially troubling about this is the possibility that police provided less protection to participants in the rally based on San Jose officials’ hostility to their viewpoint. A federal appeals court ruled that police may not provide less protection to people who attend a demonstration or rally based on its viewpoint — even an odious viewpoint, like a demonstration where the American flag was burned. That violates the First Amendment. (See Dwares v. City of New York (1992)).  Similarly, the Supreme Court said that the Nationalist Movement — an extreme racist organization — could not be charged a higher fee for a parade permit based on its viewpoint. See Forsyth County v. Nationalist Movement (1992)

It is obvious that a Presidential candidate (and the presumptive Republican nominee) should be able to hold a rally without disruption.  But San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo (D), a Clinton supporter, evidently disagrees, as the Weekly Standard’s Ethan Epstein notes in “San Jose Mayor Justifies Mob Violence.” “Donald Trump needs to take responsibility for the irresponsible behavior of his campaign,” Liccardo said, essentially endorsing the heckler’s veto. How dare Trump hold a rally during a Presidential campaign! How dare he set foot in California’s third largest city.

Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?

It is very suspicious that police were reportedly ordered to stand by for “about 90 minutes” while this violence occurred. Put the shoe on the other foot: Imagine a white mayor telling his cops to stand down while whites were beating up blacks for 90 minutes.

The comment threads at progressive publications are full of readers implying that the Trump supporters were asking for it by attending a Trump rally. Few of them were as candid as a Deputy Editor at Vox, Emmett Rensin, who said that rioting at Trump rallies was justified, as long as it didn’t rise to the level of “murder” His “Advice: If Trump comes to your town, start a riot. . . Destroying property is legitimate. Shouting down is legitimate. Disruption of all events is legitimate. Murder isn’t.”

But even many progressives who purported to deplore the violence suggested the violence was an understandable and inevitable reaction to Trump, whose rhetoric is supposedly just as “damaging” as the assaults. To these primitive minds, speech that offends them is just the same as violence.

There is a deep irony in these commenters’ claims that Trump supporters are nasty authoritarians who don’t deserve free speech. Over the years, progressives who disagreed with my writings have told me repeatedly that I should die, and even told me that my wife and daughter should be raped. By contrast, when I published five blog posts here in March, noting that Trump’s chances of defeating Clinton were fairly slim (taking issue with the claim of many Trump supporters that he was the strongest candidate against Clinton), no Trump supporter said anything mean to me at all, even though one of them was read by thousands of people. Not a single hateful comment.

The lesson for progressives eager to censor is that if people could be deprived of free speech based on their authoritarianism, they themselves might lose their free speech.

Hans Bader

Hans Bader

Hans Bader practices law in Washington, D.C. After studying economics and history at the University of Virginia and law at Harvard, he practiced civil-rights, international-trade, and constitutional law. He also once worked in the Education Department. Hans writes for CNSNews.com and has appeared on C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal.” Contact him at hfb138@yahoo.com

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