It’s a mild form of terrorism … perpetrated by a sitting member of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Jamaal Bowman (D‑NY) pulled a fire alarm in the Capitol, apparently to postpone a vote on a measure that would have kept the federal government operational, as it lurches into another of its periodic debt ceiling crises.
He denies the accusation … even as Breitbart News reports that he “ripped down two signs warning a second floor door in the Cannon House Office Building was for emergency use only before pulling the fire alarm and running out through a different door on a different floor.” It’s all “on tape,” requiring no advanced dialectic to determine the truth.
I hazard that no one believes Bowman’s denial, not even his many defenders — for no one is really that stupid, not even in the Imperial City.
The go-to interpretive of the non-left commentariat is to compare it to the January 6 protests and riots.
When those 2020 entrants into the Capitol disrupted the Senate’s ratification of the Electoral College results, they were accused of affronts to democracy, the peaceful handoff of power, and of obstructing the normal operations of government. Rep. Bowman, by misusing a fire alarm, was doing pretty much the same thing. But he is on the side of Big Government and the Democratic insider elite, so he’s probably not in as much jeopardy as those “losers” who found themselves stuck in prison.
But I notice another parallel: the juvenile stunt of pulling the fire alarm is a classic tactic of leftist protesters. Leftwing saboteurs of free speech have pulled many a similar alarm, if usually only to scuttle campus speaking events by the likes of Ben Shapiro, Cathy Young, et al. The saboteurs almost always get away with it.
Bowman probably thought he would, too.
It’s tradition!
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7 replies on “Traditional Terrorism”
He thought that he’d get away with it; and I think that, for all practical purposes, he will indeed get away with it. The folk who voted for him will keep voting for him. Any attempt to punish him will be discounted in the mainstream narrative as partisan politics and as largely racially motivated.
He has gotten away with it. The D after his name is a shield against the rule of law.
I would like for someone to explain how the events on J6 disrupted the peaceful transfer of power. Trump still had two weeks left in his term. Certification of the electoral vote on J6 is not a transfer of power.
You are right, unfortunately.
It isn’t like January 6th and you know it! It was WRONG but it didn’t kill anyone.
Punish him as needed.
The people killed on 6 January 2020 weren’t killed by the demonstrators nor by the rioters; they were killed by the police. Mr Bowman’s acts weren’t somehow better for him not having been shot by a police officer, nor by their not compelling people to trample him.
This is a tiny bit of red meat. It’s a tiny spot of blood on the shirt. Breaking and entering of the Capitol building on January 6th was a big deal. Probably not equivalent. But nonetheless in this environment it could draw nearly as much attention from a certain segment. I don’t know what else to say about this which is a blessing to all of us.
Does the truth scare you?