RUSH: Remember after Toya Graham went out there and now, as they’re saying, “beat” her son upside the head when she saw him rioting? Remember the police commissioner, Anthony Batts said, “More mothers should be like Toya Graham.” In fact, do you remember on Monday?
I made a big deal here out of telling you — and I played the sound bites for you — of all the people that are focusing on the children and how parents need to get better control of their kids, it’s up to the parents. You had the police chief saying so, the mayor say so, any number of officials say, “It’s up to parents to control their kids.” And everybody was saying, “Why? What do kids have to do with this?”
That’s when we learned that the stuff that happened on Monday had nothing to do with Freddie Gray. That riot at the mall was sponsored by the flier promoting a movie that imagines what life would be like without any rules. So they’ve got a pattern now, folks. The Gentle Giant meme or narrative, if you will, very likely being repeated here in Baltimore. So all of this is happening for what very well could be no reason whatsoever, at least in terms of oppression and injustice and all the usual things that we hear.
Now, let’s head back to the audio sound bites. Last night, Your World With Neil Cavuto on the Fox News Channel. They have a correspondent out doing a bunch of good work. His name is Leland Vittert, and Cavuto spoke with Leland Vittert about new information from the mayor’s response to the Baltimore riots. Neil Cavuto said, “Did the mayor say ‘Let the protesters loot,’ Leland?”
VITTERT: This is coming from a very senior law enforcement official with direct knowledge of the orders that were given by the mayor and by her police commanders down to the very core of the police riot-control units, and what I am quoting now from him as quoting the mayor, “Let them loot. It’s only property.”
RUSH: Oh, no! Here comes another one against the mayor, that she’s gonna have to go out and explain why she didn’t really say what she said or how we are misunderstanding what she said. The police, according to another report, were told to stand down during the riots 37 we know that’s true. We know the police were told to stand down. Remember, there’s this convoluted theory out there that a strong police presence increases riots, and a silent or invisible police presence makes things more peaceful.
It’s just the exact opposite, by the way.
But the idea that a strong police presence creates riots fulfills the narrative that the cops are to blame, you see, which is what the left wants everybody to believe. So here’s Leland Vittert, and he’s got “a very senior law enforcement official with direct knowledge of the orders that were given by the mayor… I am quoting now from him as quoting the mayor, ‘Let them loot. It’s only property.'” Here’s the thing: Knowing what you know of this mayor and the things she’s already said, you could almost believe that.
Yesterday on America’s Newsroom Bill Hemmer interviewed the mayor, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, and there’s this little exchange, goes by fast, nine seconds here.
HEMMER: So there was no order to hold back?
BLAKE: No.
HEMMER: Or was there?
BLAKE: No. But you have to be… you have to understand, it’s not holding back. It’s responding appropriately.
RUSH: No, no, no. “It’s not holding back. It’s responding appropriately” by not responding. Yes, there wasn’t any holding back. What are you talking, holding back? And here’s Leland Vittert: The mayor said, “Let them loot. It’s only property.” People are having trouble digesting this. Surely she couldn’t have meant what she said. That’s what I heard on Monday. When I got here on Monday, I played the mayor’s statement about giving “those who want to destroy space to do it.”
I had people say, “Rush, come on, you know she didn’t mean that. You gotta cut some people some slack sometime.” Then she went out and tried to explain what she meant and kind of made it worse. Let’s go back and revisit Saturday night Mayor Stephanie Rawlings black and her press conference responding to the violent protests over the death of the Freddie Gray. Freddie Gray, yeah.
BLAKE: I’ve made it very clear that I, um, work with the police and instructed them to do everything that they could to make sure that the protesters were able to exercise their, uh, right to free speech. It’s a very delicate balancing act because while we, uh, try to make that they were protected from the cars and the other, y’know, things that were going on. We also gave those who wished to destroy, space to do that as well.
RUSH: Now, what she says she’s saying is, “We backed off and we gave the peaceful protesters room to do it and then we got snookered. Yep! We were being nice to the peaceful protesters; then the bad actors came in there and they took over. And since we had given the good guys space, the bad actors took it and they had the space and they wanted to destroy,” and that’s what she says she meant when she said, “You know, things were going on. We also gave those who wished to destroy space to do as well.”
She’s saying that as a regretful person. “Oh, my God, we ended up giving people who wanted to destroy things space to do that as well.” She walked that back and said she really didn’t mean it. Now we hear from a firsthand witness quote, “The mayor says, ‘Let ’em loot. It’s only property,'” and the Maryland sheriff, a Maryland sheriff has confirmed the stand-down orders were given.
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RUSH: Here’s Mike Lewis, who was on Hannity last night. He’s the Wicomico County, Maryland, sheriff. Hannity asked him about the police response to the riots. “A number of high-profile law enforcement people in Baltimore have all confirmed that a stand-down order was given on Monday by the mayor herself with the comment, even if there’s looting on the ground, ‘It’s only property.’ Have you heard that?”
LEWIS: We got there, I was told by a number of senior officers — commanding officers who were delegated authority throughout the city — that we had orders to stand down, that orders had been given to stand down. And there were many, many Baltimore city police officers. They were clearly, clearly worn out, and they were embarrassed. They apologized to us many times for having to come to Baltimore City. They said, ‘We’re embarrassed that our mayor told us to stand down. This is ridiculous.” I heard people actually saying, “I’m done. I’m through.” My heart broke for these guys and girls. All I could hear was “retreat” or “Stand down. Stand down.” This was over the radio, I heard it with my own ears, and I couldn’t understand for the life of me what was going on.
RUSH: Yeah. Well, now, everybody knows. He heard it. He heard the order. “Stand down. Stand down. Retreat. Stand down.” While the rioting was going. We know this happened.
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RUSH: To Chicago. This is Israel. I’m glad that you waited. I appreciate that. Hello.
CALLER: Not a problem. Mega dittos from Chicago, Rush.
RUSH: Thank you, sir.
CALLER:
Back in ’91 I was living in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, and I was living amidst the Crown Heights Riots.
RUSH: Yes.
CALLER: I remember David Dinkins was quoted as saying, “Let them vent. Let them vent their anger.” I can’t remember exactly what the words were, but I believe that that’s what resulted in his loss of election, the next mayoral election afterwards.
RUSH: Yeah, there was a victim in these riots. Was it Yankel Rosenbloom?
CALLER: Rosenbaum.
RUSH: Rosenbaum. That’s it. Yankel Rosenbaum. Yeah, you know, I have a vague memory. I remember the Crown Heights riots. My memory is vague on the way General Dinkins dealt with it.
CALLER: Well, I believe he held down the police as well. He didn’t send the police in. I think the riots started on a Monday, and I think by Wednesday night he had sent in police.
RUSH: Yeah, yeah, that’s right. I remember that. What I don’t remember is what he said. Was he accused of saying something similar to what the Baltimore mayor’s been accused of saying?
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: “Go ahead. Let them riot. Let them kill themselves, tear themselves apart,” or whatever.
CALLER: I think it was, “Let them vent their anger.” That was what I remember then.
RUSH: “Let them vent their anger.”
CALLER: When I heard the Baltimore mayor, you know, allegedly say this today, I thought to myself, I wanted to point that out to you, that Dinkins said the same thing.
RUSH: Well, it is similar. In the Baltimore case, though, the mayor is quoted as saying, “Let ’em loot. It’s only property.” There are some eyewitnesses, ear-witness to that. Now, that’s a little bit worse than, “Let ’em loot,” and let ’em get it out of their system. Let ’em riot and let them vent their rage. Neither is admirable, don’t misunderstand.
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RUSH: Yeah, the Crown Heights Riots. General David Dinkins, at that time the mayor for life, was accused of saying, “Let ’em vent.” Crown Heights Riots. Dinkins, by the way, has said that his epitaph will read that he screwed up Crown Heights. Now, I remember both General Dinkins and Governor Cuomo blamed the police for most of the problems, at least indirectly. But a report ordered by Cuomo claimed that General Dinkins never told the cops to let the rioters vent their rage.
That’s officially. But Dinkins is out saying that’s what he said, and it was a big mistake. And in this case, damage was done, people were injured, and nobody did anything to stop it, and the same thing here. And look, you can learn a lesson from this. When you let the inmates the asylum, you’re gonna end up with an asylum. Here in Baltimore, the same thing. And I’ll tell you what feeds this beast is that the protestors, the violent protesters and rioters have legitimacy.
For all of these age-old discriminations and mistreatments and so forth, they are aggrieved victims. And, as such, they are justified in destroying. It happened in Ferguson. Nobody is standing up to stop this stuff, at least when it first starts. I’m telling you, the left has this philosophy, and it’s convoluted, and it’s the way they raised their kids. It’s everything. That is: “Authority compounds problems. You have the police and their presence, it’s just gonna make the rioters angrier.”
This is their belief. “Conversely, if you pull the cops out — you stand them down, and you may even, if you can, make them invisible — then the protestors are gonna be even nicer, and they’re gonna be less damaging. They’re gonna be less violence and less property damage, ’cause the cops are the guilty agency. The cops are the provocateurs. Just their presence is what causes all of this.” That’s what the left believes.
You can carry it over to the US military in foreign policy. The exact opposite of what they believe happens to be true. When you stand down — when you’re the authority figure as the mayor, a governor, and you order the law enforcement agents to stand down — you may as well be sending the signal that you can be had. You are transmitting weakness. When bad behavior is not punished, when bad behavior is essentially ignored and thus rewarded, it’s going to continue.
This is just, I think, one of many areas where the left is 180 degrees out of phase in human nature. But again, when you get to the end, the left likes this kind of chaos. As I say, Obama and his buds are milking Baltimore for as much as they can squeeze out of this, just like they did Ferguson, which they’re still milking.