I Went Downtown Today

A friend from out of town was visiting today, and since he'd never been downtown or to Old Sacramento, that's where I took him.  I am livid at what criminals were allowed to do to my hometown:

Saturday night the Sacramento Sheriff’s Department stepped in and protected the Sacramento County District Attorney’s offices from rioters and vandals after Sacramento Police Department was apparently given a stand down order. The Sheriff’s offices and District Attorney’s office were vandalized Thursday night by Antifa, and the DA’s office set on fire.

Sacramento Police Department covered City Hall.

These are not peaceful protests as politicians and many in the media claim...

The property damage in Sacramento is significant, and largely because law enforcement was prevented from doing what they are trained to do and stopping the violence and vandalism.

Great job, sheriffs.  We may be on the West Coast, but Sacramento is not Portland or Seattle.  We should not let it become so.  But the mayor seems to be following in Mayor Wheeler of Portland's footsteps.

Driving downtown, block after block was blighted by boarded-up windows and vandalism.  ACAB?  No, AR(ioters)AB.  BLM?  Not if they're damaging property, and it's not just white people who think so.  Block after f***ing block.

Then I got to Old Town.  Even there, boarded up windows were de rigueur:

 

Fanny Ann's was boarded up.  Fat City was boarded up.  The Wells Fargo mini-museum was sealed tight.  Written on at least one building was "POC owned".  When business owners have to beg rioters to spare their property, something is wrong with the local government.

I agree with this sentiment from Instapundit today:

NOPE: Apparently, I “Owe” a “Debt” “to African-Americans.” Can’t say I buy that.

I feel like there’s going to be a big backlash to the post-George Floyd overreach. But, you know, the “activists” don’t want progress. They want to make demands, and feel powerful. That they’ve managed to divide and paralyze a country that, right after George Floyd’s death, was horrified and ready to take action doesn’t bother them; a cynic might suggest that this was the goal all along.

To his credit, as I’ve noted, Trump isn’t playing tit-for-tat here, but is transcending the hate by stressing inclusion. As he said in his inaugural address, when your heart is full of patriotism, there’s no room for hate. Which may explain why there’s so much room for hate on the left.

Yeah, what he said.