The Antifa has transformed in the space of a week or so from the equivalent of the heroes who stormed the beaches of Normandy on D Day for their willingness to brawl with Neo Nazis to a group of thugs for their zeal at giving a beat down to just about anyone they find disagreeable. It is bad enough when aging sixties radicals, no stranger to political violence back in the day, condemn them. Now even the mayor of Berkeley, California, the epicenter of Antifa activity, has had enough and wants them designated as a gang.
But is the Antifa really a gang?
Lumping the Antifa in with the Crips, the Bloods, and MS-13 is a beguiling idea. Such a move would recognize that they are, in the end, outlaws who need to be rounded up and be put away where they can harm no one but themselves. The distinction is that most criminal gangs are in it for the money, selling drugs or providing some other kind of illegal service while cheerfully shooting at one another (and nearby innocent bystanders as well.) The Antifa are just in it for the blood, the joy of smashing faces in and watching people whimper as they fall to the pavement. Most people occupy themselves by going to school or to work to better themselves. Antifa is addicted to the ecstasy of violence.
Even so, as Hot Air points out, the record of some cities in battling gang violence has been spotty at best. Parts of Chicago are free fire zones because of unchecked gang wars that the city government seems powerless to get a handle on. So calling the Antifa a gang is not enough.
Laura Ingraham’s big idea
Radio talker and Fox News personality Laura Ingraham has a better idea.
Why not designate the Antifa as domestic terrorists? In that way, the resources of the federal government can be brought to bear in their suppression. Better yet, Mayor Jesse Arreguin of Berkeley, who seems at times to be overly sympathetic to the Antifa, will no longer be in charge of suppressing it. The head of the joint task force that will be created will have that honor.
Of course, if the Antifa becomes a domestic Terrorist Group, demands will also be made to make – say – make the Klan one as well. It might be justified insofar as they use violence to achieve political ends. Remember, one cannot be a terrorist by saying and advocating shocking things. Violent actions make a group a terrorist organization, subject to the full might and majesty of the law, to bring their reign of terror to an conclusion.
