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Watching footage from this weekend’s “No Kings” demonstrations, Americans were rightfully stunned to hear a protester openly urge a crowd to “grab a gun” and to “shoot and wipe out” ICE agents — language that crosses from crude talk into criminal incitement. That chilling clip, captured in Chicago and shared widely online, should strip away any comfortable narrative that these marches are merely peaceful civic expression.
This isn’t hyperbole or partisan spin; threats against federal officers are serious, and federal authorities have acknowledged they are tracking targeted assaults and threats against ICE personnel. We should expect the Department of Justice and FBI to treat such explicit calls for violence with the urgency they deserve, not shrug them off because the speaker claims to be “protest.”
Make no mistake: millions turned out in cities across America to protest, and many demonstrators exercised their rights peacefully — but the national optics are damaged when violent rhetoric erupts at the margins of otherwise lawful events. Major news outlets captured massive crowds in places like Chicago and elsewhere, and Americans watching deserve honest reporting about both the peaceful majority and the violent fringes.
Words have consequences. While protesters screamed for violence, law enforcement had to deal with real threats: a man in New York allegedly boasted about having firebombs and was later arrested after authorities were alerted. That arrest illustrates how talk can quickly turn to preparation, and why law-and-order responses cannot be politicized.
Equally disturbing were scenes from Chicago where a public-school staffer appeared to mock the assassination of a conservative activist, and other participants made death-threat gestures at passing motorists — behavior unfit for any city workplace and proof that the radical fringe has no shame. Schools and public institutions must be held accountable when their employees condone or celebrate political violence.
This wave of violent rhetoric is not happening in a vacuum. There have been attacks on federal immigration facilities and alarming social-media calls placing bounties on agents, and those realities should make every American pause before normalizing talk of killing government employees. Political leaders who enable or excuse this language share responsibility when rhetoric becomes reality.
Conservatives believe in robust protest and the right to speak, but we also believe in the rule of law and the sanctity of human life. Elected officials, university administrators, and media outlets must name and condemn calls for assassination with the same loudness they use to decry anything they dislike on the right. If we allow double standards to stand, we invite chaos and betray the very freedoms we claim to protect.
Patriotic Americans will stand for peaceful dissent and for the brave men and women who enforce our immigration laws. Demand investigations, insist on firings where appropriate, and make clear that threats against ICE or any federal agent will not be tolerated — in the streets, on campus, or on camera. We must defend order, not celebrate its overthrow.
