Don’t blame ‘left’ for woes in Trump’s America

Editor:

I would like to respond to Mr. Harker’s letter from Aug. 29. I am a liberal so perhaps I can address some of Mr. Harker’s concerns.

As a liberal, I condemn violence and criminal activity and all the liberals I know also condemn violence and criminal activity. Mr. Harker writes: “In NY, I could not go to church for weeks. I could, however, loot, rob, destroy in the name of ‘change’ if I so chose.”

Mr. Harker, it has always been illegal to loot, rob or destroy property and despite the Covid-19 inconvenience those activities are still illegal.

Mr. Harker comments that cities that have been run by Democrats for decades now have protest and violence. Mayors and city council members are elected by the citizens. Citizens generally want smooth roads and good schools and safe neighborhoods.

Since Democrats keep getting elected it is reasonable to assume that Democrats are providing services and delivering safe neighborhoods better than Republicans. When Mr. Trump became president, crime in major cities in 2017 was down according to FBI statistics. Because of Covid-19 infections, unemployment is at an all-time high and especially affects minorities.

While Mr. Trump is not responsible for the virus, he is responsible for the response. Other countries have the virus under control enough to re-open their economy including Canada.

While N.Y. State Department of Labor reported: “For the 12-month period ending June 2020, the private sector job count in the Western New York region fell by 80,900, or 14.7 percent, to 470,500.” But just across the border, The Globe and Mail reported (8/7/20), “The Canadian economy added 418,500 jobs in July as pandemic restrictions eased across the country, marking the third consecutive month of rising employment after millions of jobs were lost earlier this year.”

Furthermore, it is wrong to associate the violence during the peace protest with a political fraction such as the left. For example the Star Tribune out of Minneapolis reported: “A masked man who was seen in a viral video smashing the windows of a south Minneapolis auto parts store during the George Floyd protests, earning him the moniker ‘Umbrella Man,’ is suspected of ties with a white supremacist group and sought to incite racial tension, police said.”

The Kansas City Star (6/16/20) reported: “Devin Burghart, president of the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights, said his organization has found evidence of Boogaloo and other far-right extremist groups at 40 protests related to Floyd’s death, including some in Kansas City and Wichita.”

In clear language committing a crime makes you a criminal regardless of political persuasion. The Trump administration has blatantly violated the Hatch Act and subjected the American government to bribery for the benefit of Mr. Trump. The Trump administration is criminal.

William Fine

Brockport