by Meshawn Maddock
President Trump is standing up for Michigan workers and business owners at a time when our own lawmakers and elected officials have refused to do the same.
The riots that swept through America had a devastating impact on local communities throughout the country, including Michigan. In Grand Rapids alone, the radical Antifa thugs caused nearly $1 million in private property damage, as well as costing taxpayers over $1.3 million in police overtime and damaged municipal property.
Sadly, our governor did little to protect Michiganders from this mayhem despite her duty to the residents of the state, even condemning the President’s call to restore law and order. For days, business owners and workers were left at the mercy of the rioting mob, leaving many of them no choice but to flee for their lives, surrendering their property to the mob in order to avoid being assaulted, injured, or even killed.
This is not the way political demonstrations should go in a civilized country. Allowing violent rioters to usurp the message of peaceful protesters while laying waste to both public and private property is a disservice to demonstrators and ordinary citizens alike.
Luckily, President Trump was quick to put pressure on Democrat governors in states like Michigan, warning them that his administration was prepared to act if they continued neglecting their responsibilities.
“Today, I have strongly recommended to every governor to deploy the National Guard in sufficient numbers that we dominate the streets,” the President said during a recent address to the nation. “If a city or a state refuses to take the actions that are necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, then I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them.”
Michigan eventually heeded the Trump administration’s warning, strategically deploying additional forces to tamp down on the worst of the lawlessness — but it should not have taken this long for our elected officials to safeguard the lives and property of innocent citizens.
Just imagine what state officials might have done (or not done, as the case may be) if the White House didn’t take such a forceful stand on behalf of restoring law and order. Presumptive Democrat presidential nominee Joe Biden, for instance, has been largely silent about the destructive wave of violence that has swallowed our cities. Instead of strongly condemning looters and thugs who have been destroying countless communities throughout America, the former vice president pretended as if this tsunami of senseless violence simply didn’t exist, revealing that a hypothetical Biden administration would have stood by silently as rioters and looters appropriated the peaceful protests surrounding George Floyd’s death for their own radical purposes.
To make matters worse, some of the leading faces of the Democrat Party have recently embraced a call to “defund the police,” latching on to the preposterous claim that policing is an extension of systemic racism in America. These include Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar, who has urged Minneapolis to disband its police force; New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who has asked states “to sacrifice to make sure that over-funded police departments are defunded;” and even one of the top contenders to become Biden’s running-mate, Rep. Val Demings, who also praised the Minneapolis City Council for its “thoughtful” stance on defunding its police department.
Now, the anarchists are exploiting that weakness to demand even more concessions. In Seattle, Washington, they’ve literally taken over a section of the city that police intentionally abandoned, setting up an “autonomous zone” where the law doesn’t apply. If they were to try the same thing in Detroit, it’s doubtful that Whitmer would have the courage or conviction to stop them.
We’re fortunate that President Trump was actively looking out for Michigan business owners, workers, and residents when we were being attacked by an anarchist mob, because our governor refused to uphold law and order. Michiganders will remember that come November.
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Meshawn Maddock was a Michigan delegate for Donald Trump at the 2016 Republican National Convention. She is also the Co-founder of Michigan Trump Republicans and the wife of Michigan State Representative Matt Maddock.
