Disorder Ends in Violence

By Abe Greenwald

Wednesday, January 14, 2026

 

It seems the American people will tolerate only so much common sense. After a year of Donald Trump’s aptly named “common sense revolution,” we’re witnessing the rise of a nonsense counterrevolution doing all it can to make America nutty again. The left has its sights set, in particular, on the return of genuine law enforcement. 

 

It goes without saying that the shooting of Renee Good in Minneapolis is a tragedy. She in no way “deserved” to die. Which isn’t the same thing as saying that the ICE officer who shot her made the wrong decision in that moment. He, after all, didn’t deserve to face an oncoming SUV that forced him to make a split-second choice about self-defense (a choice he’ll no doubt ponder for the rest of his life).

 

Neither one deserved what the crazies forced on them. And that’s what’s especially sad about it all—the pointlessness.

 

And it took a whole of lot crazy to get to that fatal confrontation. Think of all the missteps that paved the way. First, you have to go back a few years, when the Biden administration let the border crisis fester to record proportions while denying there was a problem of any sort. The data vary, of course, because no one was keeping an eye on things. But it’s safe to say that at least 5.5 to 6 million illegal immigrants entered the country while Biden was in office.

 

Next, sanctuary cities provided safe havens for those who crossed the border illegally.

 

Then, when Donald Trump decided to do something about the border and the illegals, Democrats and liberal activists countered by trying to protect the illegals and obstruct ICE officials while they went about their work.

 

Why? What’s the argument for illegally interfering with federal law-enforcement agents who are trying to remove dangerous criminals from your own community? 

 

It’s not unreasonable to be uneasy with teams of armed men dressed for battle roaming local streets. But if the ICE-obstructors were really afraid of a deadly “secret police” force taking over, why would they be so eager to swarm officers and ceaselessly taunt them? That’s not the mob’s real justification.

 

The act of obstructing is all the argument that’s needed. Resisting law and order is, among a large swath of the left, a good in itself. This notion, too, goes back a few years. And anti-ICE activists wouldn’t feel so emboldened to break the law had they not been provided the template by those who came before them.

 

During the summer of 2020, the liberal establishment sanctioned riots as “mostly peaceful protests”—arson, looting, and fatalities notwithstanding. After the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023, the anti-Semitic mobs that hit the streets and campuses chanting terrorist slogans verbatim and violating the civil rights of Jewish students were deemed “pro-Palestinian activists.” In both cases, police stood down lest they furnished the thugs with another flashpoint moment.

 

Everyone expected that this arrangement would persist indefinitely. In left-wing minds, law-enforcement officials—local and federal—exist to absorb abuse. But common sense says otherwise: Their job is not to smile in the face of apoplectic fanatics; it’s to serve and protect, which means, you know, enforcing the law. And the return of that status-quo understanding threatens the activists’ entire gameplan. Police and federal agents were supposed to remain punching bags. That’s what enabled radicals to get in their faces and tell them they were fascist killers.

 

The left is still committed to this two-sided cosplay. I hope they quickly come to grips with the fact that the other side isn’t playing anymore. It would spare us further senseless tragedies.