Back on July 1, Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), one the four members of the House Democrats’ far-left “Squad,” visited border facilities in Texas with a delegation of House Democrats organized by the Congressional Black Caucus.
Most of the media attention on that visit went to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who dramatized the event with a series of tweets about herself being “physically & sexually” menaced, and migrant women drinking water out of toilet bowls.
But Rep. Pressley spoke at the press conference afterward, and on Tuesday, July 16, Ryan Saavedra turned up a tweet of her remarks from ABC News:
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
Rep. Ayanna Pressley condemns conditions during visit to Texas border facility: "We're lifting up these stories in the hopes that you will see the light. And if you don't, we will bring the fire." https://t.co/PbhK0aOpJL pic.twitter.com/OfSpYgEX0X
— ABC News (@ABC) July 3, 2019
Of special interest is Pressley’s ending proclamation about “change.” According to her, it sometimes takes a little arson: “I learned a long time ago that when change happens, it’s either because people see the light, or they feel the fire. Today we are lifting up these stories in the hopes that you will see the light. And if you don’t, we will bring the fire.”
Ayanna Pressley: "you will see the light. And if you don't, we will bring the fire"
This is a major YIKES considering the fact that a domestic terrorist was throwing bombs at an ICE facility on Saturday: https://t.co/uqC6bLGBVc
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) July 17, 2019
As Ryan Saavedra puts it, this is “a major YIKES considering the fact that a domestic terrorist was throwing bombs at an ICE facility on Saturday.”
That’s certainly what the Democrats would call it if the tables were turned, and a GOP congresswoman had called for “bringing the fire” just days before a rifle-armed attacker tried to set fire to an ICE detention facility in Tacoma, Washington. Willem van Spronsen was shot and killed during his attack on the facility on July 13, the day of numerous anti-ICE protests organize around the U.S. by left-wing activists. According to the Tacoma Police:
In a statement, Tacoma Police said, “It was reported the male was throwing incendiary devices at the Detention Center and then at vehicles in the parking lot. A vehicle was set on fire. The male attempted to ignite a large propane tank and set out buildings on fire. The male continued throwing lit objects at the buildings and cars.” Police said he had a “satchel” and “flares.”
“He was throwing these items at the building in an effort to set it on fire. It didn’t work, it’s a concrete building,” Tacoma Police Officer Loretta Cool told KOMO-TV.
Van Spronsen left a “manifesto,” posted at anarchist and Antifa websites, in which he indicated an expectation that he would probably die in his attempt. He was obsessed with the belief, one notoriously expressed by Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, that the migrant holding centers are “concentration camps” where cruelty and inhumane treatment are doled out.
Fellow anarchists commemorated his passing as an act of martyrdom. The Puget Sound Anarchists website carried a memorial post under the headline: “We Are The Fire That Will Melt ICE.” He was remembered as a long-time anarchist, active in the local movement, and a member of the Antifa/anarchist John Brown Gun Club. The anonymous eulogist noted:
Will Van Spronsen was a long-time anarchist, anti-fascist and a kind, loving person. Here in Olympia some of us remember him as a skilled tarp structure builder from the Occupy encampment in 2011. Others remember him from the protests outside the NWDC last summer where he was accused of lunging at a cop and wrapping his arms around the officer’s neck and shoulders, as the officer was trying to arrest a 17-year-old protester.
Is it too much to suggest that Ayanna Pressley’s words were a form of incitement to van Spronsen’s final act? Again, Democrats and the media would have no hesitation in blaming something like this on a Republican politician. It’s likely that van Spronsen was aware of what Pressley said, given his rage against the detention facilities, although specific evidence of that has not been reported.
