Liberty 'Gator

Andy Ngo reports, “On June 8 . . . left-wing protesters from Black Lives Matter and Antifa declared ownership of the six-block neighborhood in [Seattle]. They named their new territory the ‘Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone,’ or CHAZ. No laws or rules applied here except for one: ‘No cops allowed.’ During five undercover days and nights in the zone, I witnessed a continuing experiment in anarchy, chaos and brute-force criminality.” Although no one doubts Ngo has his own ax to grind, his report remains chilling.

Portland rioters toppled a statue of George Washington and burned an American flag atop it. This is not protest for positive change. This is just nihilism masked as edgy ideology.

“Statue of abolitionist John Greenleaf Whittier vandalized in his namesake city.”

“Protesters tear down statues of Union general Ulysses S. Grant, national anthem lyricist Francis Scott Key.” Notably, the mighty Frederick Douglass eulogized Grant as “the captain whose invincible sword saved the republic from dismemberment, made liberty the law of the land,” and who was “too broad for prejudice.”

“The statue of the famous Kansas abolitionist [John Brown] had been vandalized,” apparently by racists.

“The First Virginia Regiment Monument [in Richmond] has been pulled down. . . . The First Virginia Regiment was an infantry regiment of the Virginia Line that served with the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War.”

(Updated.)

Omar Wasow has a lot to say about his recent paper on 1960s black protests, mainly in response to criticism from Nathan J. Robinson. Wasow thinks Robinson makes three main errors: “treating prejudice as immovable, ignoring black agency, and treating black leaders, thinkers, and activists as monolithic.”