Analysis by Kyle A. Lohmeier
If the Left gets its biggest and darkest wishes to come true, in a few hours Cleveland, Ohio will be a maelstrom of violence, death and chaos. More than likely, however, for the next four days the mistake on the lake will merely be a hotbed of cronyism, compromise, bluster and blather. The animated, but likely peaceful demonstrations going on around town may prove more entertaining than bearing witness to the GOP’s own march to the gallows going on inside, but won’t be the apocalyptic scene some are optimistically predicting.
My opinion notwithstanding, some people are falling for the hype hook line and sinker. The head of the Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association, Stephen Loomis, doesn’t understand how individual rights, the legislative and judicial processes, and media hype work.
“We are sending a letter to Gov. Kasich requesting assistance from him. He could very easily do some kind of executive order or something — I don’t care if it’s constitutional or not at this point,” Stephen Loomis, president of Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association, told CNN. “They can fight about it after the RNC or they can lift it after the RNC, but I want him to absolutely outlaw open-carry in Cuyahoga County until this RNC is over.”
It’s very reassuring that a police officer isn’t too worried about the constitutionality of the actions he urges the government to take. I see him going far as a surrogate of state violence. He easily could have been Obama’s Attorney General, in fact. He’d have ticked all the right boxes. Well, most of them.
Fortunately for the sake of law and decency, Ohio Governor John Kasich quickly shot the idea down.
“Ohio governors do not have the power to arbitrarily suspend federal and state constitutional rights or state laws as suggested,” a Kasich spokesperson said in a statement.
Clearly, such a measured, logical and legal response wouldn’t please Loomis, who called anyone carrying openly around the area of the convention “irresponsible,” and then attempted to make an analogy but failed spectacularly.
“I couldn’t care less if it’s legal or not. We are constitutional law enforcement, we love the Constitution, support it and defend it, but you can’t go into a crowded theater and scream ‘fire.’ And that’s exactly what they’re doing by bringing those guns down there,” Loomis said.
Carrying a firearm is a basic human right. Inciting panic and injury deliberately by, say, screaming “fire” in a crowded theatre has never been regarded as such, because it isn’t one.
Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I’d like to point out that I’ve never been a big fan of people who take their rifles for walks in urban settings just because they can. To me it seems needlessly provocative and I don’t think it does the pro-gun side any favors. When it comes to handguns, given a choice between concealed or open, I’d choose concealed carry every time; that’s just me. While I may not agree with a person’s open carrying a rifle, or creating dub-step “music,” I wouldn’t engage in, or support, any effort to take those rights away.
Loomis went on to criticize the Cleveland Police Department and its chief, saying that after the Black Lives Matter-inspired attack against police officers in Baton Rouge on Sunday, his boss needs to rethink the strategy for deploying officers.
“We’re going to be doing things differently. Right now, the chief of police thinks it’s a good idea to have one officer without a car standing at a post in various intersections all around the city? Thirty blocks from downtown? I had a guy last night standing out there by himself without the benefit of protection of a police car. Or partner. That is absolute insanity to me. There is no reason for that. We are going to demand that the police chief — at a minimum — make sure that we have three officers working together, watching each other’s backs.”
What would a police officer, standing on a post “30 blocks” from downtown – and presumably the convention and protest areas – have to fear from open-carriers? Nothing more than any other cop has to fear on any other day. And what does the attack in Baton Rouge have to do with open carry in Ohio and/or the GOP convention? Not a damn thing.
It seems to me Loomis is confused. I really don’t think the GOP-allied, Pro-Second Amendment crowd that will be near the convention and carrying openly are going to suddenly start shooting at cops. In fact, the people more likely to start blasting away at cops, or to inspire others to do the same, can be found staging their own protest, though not in the assigned protest areas as they’ve rejected that notion. Instead, just look for the people walking around carrying big “Black Lives Matters” banners, or standing in traffic with George Soros’ money in their pockets.
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