09/22/2016
Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit (a law professor expert on First and Second Amendment rights) was temporarily suspended from Twitter for the tweet above, in which he said, referring to the black rioters surrounding and stopping vehicles in Charlotte: "Run them down."
This was apparently considered advocating violence, or possibly "hate," by the Twitter authorities.
In addition to being suspended by Twitter, he’s also being "investigated" by his University, the University of Tennesse at Knoxville. The Knoxville News Sentinel quotes Law School Dean Melanie D. WIlson as calling Reynolds' post an “irresponsible use of his platform" and saying “My colleagues and I in the university’s leadership support peaceful disobedience and all forms of free speech, but we do not support violence or language that encourages violence.” Apparently not even in self-defense.[Tennessee investigates professor’s tweet about Charlotte, by Megan Boehnke, September 22, 2016]
Reynolds writes
TWITTER HAS UNBLOCKED MY ACCOUNT ON CONDITION OF DELETING THE OFFENDING TWEET. But lest I be accused of airbrushing, it’s preserved here. Still planning on quitting Twitter, though, after making a few points. Earlier post is here.
UPDATE: From Nick Gillespie at Reason: In Defense Of InstaPundit’s Glenn Reynolds. “Whatever you think of the tastefulness of his suggestion regarding the protesters in Charlotte, the idea that he is seriously inciting any sort of actual or real threat is risible.”
Related: “Glenn Reynolds is old enough to remember Reginald Denny. (Look it up, kids.)”
Reginald Denny was the trucker who allowed himself to be pulled from his enormous vehicle and was beaten by four black youths:
Wikipedia: "As a result of the injuries he suffered during the attacks, Denny had to undergo years of rehabilitative therapy, and his speech and ability to walk were permanently damaged."
The 1983 book The Truth About Self-Protection [Read it on OpenLibrary] by Massad Ayoob (who, if you've never heard of him, is a "hundred percent American" like the late Danny Thomas) was written before the "Rodney King Riots" in LA, but after the Liberty City riots of 1980. Chapter 20 is "The Truth About Cars", considered both as a place to be attacked, and a means of escape and defense.
From page 156
"But when someone threatens your life, your car is two things: It is an escape and it is a weapon. It can get you away from danger fast and if worse comes to worse, it’s a multithousand-pound guided bludgeon that strikes with an impact force that makes a Magnum bullet seem like a hiccup. The .357 slug delivers about 350 foot-pounds of energy. A 4,000-pound car at 30 miles an hour delivers 120,000 foot-pounds of energy, and almost half a million foot-pounds of energy at 60 miles an hour."
Think about that, the next time someone who tries to run over a police officer and gets shot is described as an "unarmed" teen.
From Page 172-173 [emphasis added by me, both in Ayoob and Wikipedia]
"But suppose you are being attacked by people on foot, and you manage to gain the very temporary sanctuary of your automobile?It may not be a fortress, but your car is still an escape avenue and a mobile battering ram, a weapon deadlier than any gun. Innocent people have died when they were surrounded by fanatical rioters and panicked — look at the horror of the Miami riots.
From Wikipedia on the 1980 Miami riots (which were the worst between the '60s and Rodney King.)
The first day:
three people were killed and at least 23 injured, with several of those in critical condition.Florida governor Bob Graham ordered 500 National Guard troops into the area; despite his doubling their number the next day, the riot continued. Twelve more people were killed and 165 were injured as violence spread to the Black Grove, Overtown, Liberty City and Brownsville sections of the city. In addition, fires, burglaries and looting increased, with police reluctant to enter some areas for fear of sniper fire.
In the end, 18 men and women died, three hundred and fifty people, some of them children, were hurt, and six hundred people were arrested. Property destruction exceeded $100 million.
The governor sent in a total of 3500 National Guardsmen to put down the riots — the "ruthless coercion" that is the only real answer to rioting. And here’s how bad it is in Charlotte right now, via Drudge:
Second night of chaos, violence …Appeals For Calm; State of Emergency …
'Protester' smashing apartment windows on Live TV …
RIOTERS GO SHOE SHOPPING FOR SIZE …
Rush on stolen cash register …
Attempt to throw photographer into fire …
Victim’s Brother Calls All White People 'Devils' …
White man with gun 'allowed to drive away alive' …
Ayoob writes, page 173:
The Miami riots occurred while I was with several hundred cops at the National Law Enforcement Parade in Rhode Island. We watched it on our hotel TVs in the evening, we discussed it, and we agreed that none of us would be pulled out of our cars and stomped to death. We would have driven clear, using our cars as mobile, guided bludgeons. Even if they tried to pick our sedan up with ten sets of arms, we would have accelerated when the first hands touched the vehicle, and would have driven through the mass of people who wanted to kill us and our innocent passengers with absolutely no compunction. … .Most of you have never seen what happens to a pedestrian hit by a fast-moving car. You are talking — no exaggeration — about literal dismemberment and decapitation and internal human organs that burst out of the body from the pressure of a 3,000-pound vehicle’s wheel rolling over them for a fraction of a second. You won’t see that, though.
If your life and the lives of your children in the backseat are on the line, you'll just drive, feeling the bumps through the steering wheel (it feels a lot harder than you'd think) and you'll keep driving. "Steer for the open sea," and head for the biggest, nearest open roadway where you can put on some speed and get away from the nightmare. If you ever get caught up in the bloody frenzy of a riot, drive over the rioters. Sound your horn first, the universally understood warning signal, if you have time. If they still stand there ready to die for the chance to kill you, that’s their decision, not yours. It’s nothing you need to feel guilty about.”
So reacting to black rioters — or any rioters, but black people do this much more than whites — by running them down isn’t violence, let alone "hate", it’s simple survival.
Why did Reynolds get suspended when thousands of black Twitter users are howling their hate of white people and the Charlotte Police?
The same reason Milo Yiannopoulos was suspended when he clashed with the actually much more hateful black Lady Ghostbuster Leslie Jones.
Because he’s white.
James Fulford is a writer and editor for VDARE.com
This is a content archive of VDARE.com, which Letitia James forced off of the Internet using lawfare.