PrintWas the violence in Santa Cruz the fault of the left?
In the November 2008 presidential election, 77.3 percent of voters in Santa Cruz County, California voted for Barack Obama. Another 1.6 percent voted for candidates running to the left of Mr. Obama. In other words, Janet Napolitano and Bill Clinton should feel safe there, since there probably aren't many of those so-called dangerous rightwing extremists roaming the streets of Santa Cruz.
But while Mrs. Napolitano's Department of Homeland Security forces might have been preoccupied tailing a retired military officer as he left Saturday evening mass with his family and walked to the Dairy Queen, a crowd of Mr. Clinton's model citizens in Santa Cruz stormed the city's main street, smashing windows and spray-painting graffiti, according to police.
Jimi Haynes, 24, was arrested on suspicion of felony vandalism after witnesses saw him shatter two windows at a Pacific Avenue jewelry store, police said. They said Haynes, a parolee from Fresno County, had been in Santa Cruz for several weeks and had learned of the rally by picking up a flyer at a "local anarchist cafe."
The incident started after protesters at a labor rally at the town clock marched down Pacific around 10:30 p.m., police said. At least 15 businesses were vandalized...
Gosh, if only 200 left-wing demonstrators at a labor rally can vandalize 15 businesses, then just imagine how much damage a gang of a million ferocious right-wing Tea Partiers could do. Thank goodness Mrs. Napolitano and Mr. Clinton warned Americans about that.
But wait -- there already was a gang of a million right-wing protestors. Last September 12, in Washington, D.C.
...a spokesman for the National Park Service, Dan Bana, is quoted as saying "It is a record.... We believe it is the largest event held in Washington, D.C., ever."If Mr. Clinton's warning was accurate, the collective rage of that many right-wingers should have burned the city to the ground. Instead, no windows were broken and the mall was cleaner when the extremists left than when they arrived.
Meanwhile, the Santa Cruz shopkeepers probably wish there had been a Tea Party Saturday night, rather than the labor rally.
