Letters to the Editor: Protesting isn’t ‘mob rule.’ It’s what the United States was founded on

To the editor: By contributing writer Josh Hammer’s logic, Americans taking to the streets to protest injustice, a right sanctified by the 1st Amendment, is an example of “mob rule” (“Don’t let the mobs rule,” Jan. 9). He would, apparently, have citizens stand by silently accepting as lawful every action of our state and its agents, no matter how transparently illegal.

He takes offense at the Democratic Party’s completely factual social media post: “ICE shot and killed a woman on camera.” This is literally what happened. Hammer calls this barebones statement of fact “irresponsible fear-mongering.” Now stating facts is “irresponsible”? I shudder to conceive of the sort of world in which Hammer would have Americans live.

George Dutton, Los Angeles

..

To the editor: A woman is killed in her car after dropping off her child at school and Hammer’s biggest concern is the resulting protests.

Hammer blames Renee Nicole Good’s death at the hands of an ICE agent on the Biden administration’s immigration policy. The idea that the killing of an American is a normal price to pay for a previous administration’s decisions is at best irrational and, at worst, monstrous.

Protest is not “mob rule.” It is what this country was founded on and for many of us right now, the only recourse we have left.

Ray Lancon, San Marino

..

To the editor: I carefully read Hammer’s op-ed, which cites Abraham Lincoln’s apt words: “There is no grievance that is a fit object of redress by mob law.” I nodded in approval at Hammer’s sage observations that “rule of law cannot be held hostage to the histrionic temper tantrums of a radical ideological flank” and that when some take matters into their own hands, it leads to “personal and national ruination.”

Then I carefully read it again. Hammer castigates multiple Democratic leaders for their rhetoric against Good’s killing. But there wasn’t one mention of Jan. 6, 2021, when the president of the United States urged his followers to march on the Capitol to protest the 2020 election results. Those followers then violently attacked officers of the law and ransacked the Capitol building. According to prosecutors, some even aimed to kill sitting government officials. All of this to challenge an election that President Trump lost.

Hammer doesn’t mention that that same president pardoned every single one of the people who were convicted for those violent, mob-driven crimes the moment he got back in power. You’ll excuse me for not considering Hammer’s opinions tethered to any sense of truth and fairness.

Jane Diamond, Sherman Oaks

..

To the editor: Hammer points to the Biden-Harris administration allowing “unvetted immigrants to remain in the country without legal status” as the problem. It’s really easy to counter that argument.

If Trump hadn’t helped kill the bipartisan immigration bill in an apparent attempt to strengthen his own campaign’s arguments, we might have had a sensible solution to the immigration problem. It was last substantially addressed by President Reagan. That was decades ago.

Robert Bachmann, Los Angeles

..

To the editor: Sometimes I read Hammer for comedic relief. Unfortunately, this time, a woman is dead and his reasoning risible.

“I’m not mad at you,” Good said to an ICE officer before being shot in the head as she was turning to drive away.

The only reason this mother of three died is Trump’s unnecessary deployment of 2,000 masked and armed immigration agents to Minneapolis. They are the mob and Americans rightfully protest their presence.

Renee Nicole Good would be alive today if not for Trump’s out-of-control immigration policy and its enforcers.

D.H. Sloan, Los Angeles

..

To the editor: Hammer writes about “mobocratic spirit” or “mob law” as being a terrible thing. If memory serves me right, about 250 years ago, this concept allowed the colonists to stand up to King George III and allowed for the creation of the United States of America.

Once again, we the people are standing up against another autocratic leader, Donald J. Trump. This isn’t a bad thing.

Stephen Mirkin, North Hollywood