In the 1930s, the Nazis had no problem identifying those they deemed culturally and racially degenerate or political enemies of the state.  After the Nuremburg Laws of 1935 went into effect, German Jews were considered public enemy number one, and in the ensuing years, street mobs, organized by the Brown Shirt secret police, vandalized Jewish businesses and homes.  

“Jews not welcome” was common street front graffiti.  Jews were forced to register where they lived and worked, their ID cards were stamped with a “J,” and eventually they were forced to sew yellow stars on their lapels or wear arm bands to make them easier targets for public ridicule and ultimately to make them easily identifiable to be rounded up for the Final Solution.

Today, the BLM and Antifa mobs use similar identification measures to target their public enemies, but in something of a reverse tactic.  In the immediate aftermath of the death of George Floyd, many shops and homes displayed signs that supported BLM and the protestors.  Now that several weeks have passed, however, and destructive riots continue to rage across American cities, and the acronym BLM has become a widespread visible phenomenon seen posted in the windows of almost every street front business and home in American cities.  But do these signs really convey genuine support, or is there an alternative motive?

What began as passionate graffiti and banners in solidarity against an unjust killing are now just impassionate loose-leaf sheets of paper with the letters BLM printed or magic-markered across its page.  These signs not longer carry the sincerity of we want justice, as it has become an identifying mark that signals to the anarchic mob please don’t vandalize me.  The signs have become something of a corrupt, sacrilegious Passover Blood on homes and commercial business.  If the letters BLM are visibly posted somewhere on your street front window, the angry mob just might consider leaving you alone as they parade down through your neighborhood breaking windows and vandalizing along the way.

And the vandalism does not stop at the physical storefront.  Businesses large and small, and people both public and private, are all under pressure to adjust their websites and social media content to display such signs and symbols -- empty black pages, hashtags of BLM, anything that features a person of color -- in the hope that their online presence will not face public ridicule.

In a normal society these identifying symbols would not be necessary. Smashing windows, vandalizing, and looting are all inherently against the law.  In a normal society the law-enforcement body would be allowed to enforce these laws and prohibit such widespread destruction.  But in a society where this law-enforcement body had been told to stand down, hanging signs in the street fronts windows of shops, restaurants, and private homes asking the mob please don’t vandalize me might be the new normal.

So what does it mean if you do not hang a BLM sign in your window?  The mob automatically reads the absence of any signage or graffiti as we are not on your side.  You are immediately identified as a hate-filled racist, bigot, and conservative, and most assuredly the mob will not pass you over.  The BLM and Antifa mobs today have advanced since their Nazi predecessors in 1934.  They do not need to issue identifying marks to target their public enemies; they have instead issued their proclamation that ‘Silence is Violence’ therefore damning as their enemy any quiet, mind-your-own-business, good-natured, hard-working shop owner or home owner who not posted a sheet of paper in their window, or quite simply just doesn’t want to.

But where silence is just not enough for this bloodthirsty mob, they have resorted to creating their own unique identifying signs and symbols.  No, the golden Star of David has not made a come back, yet.  (Although it is scary to think it might.)  And far-left liberal governors and mayors, the same who have told their police departments to stand down and allowed the mob to pillage their cities, have not yet mandated conservatives to register their homes and business as such, or identify themselves with patches of red elephants on their lapels (although that might not be too far-fetched either.)  No, the mob has created their own signs and symbols to easily identify their victims such as the number “45” representing the 45^th president Donald Trump.  This has been spray-painted and graffitied next to cars, homes, and on streets to identify for the free-roaming mob the location of a conservative, a Trump supporter, or even just someone they personally don’t like.  This “45” indicates the next victim of pillage and destruction, and not too far-fetched to think that it could soon indicate the next victim of murder.

Come November, however, even this “45” sign will be necessary for the mob.

Hopefully during the November election, we will all head out to the polls and vote for our next president.  And just as the Brown Shirts taunted the last polls of the Weimar Republic in the 1930s, you can count on BLM and Antifa following in their predecessor’s footsteps, taunting the American polls in 2020.  BLM and Antifa want action on the street, they are craving to meet their public enemy on the street -- just look at the past few weeks of non-stop vandalism and violence across American cities.  

The mob wants people to get out on the street and go to their polling center.  There will be no need to spray paint “45” or require people to wear political identifying signs and patches because BLM and Antifa will know who their public enemy number one as they wait, club and chains in hand, outside the local polling centers ready to ask who: “Who are you voting for?”  This, too, is not far-fetched. Now that Democratic mayors and governors have given the violent mobs a taste of control they will be back in November, and in greater force, craving even more control.  And the question every peace-loving, democracy-loving, and good-natured American must be asking now is, will we allow this to happen.

Image credit: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons