Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is denouncing violent demonstrations that took place over the weekend.
“Free speech and peaceful protests are essential American liberties. Looting, rioting, assault, and arson are violent crimes that have no place, no place whatsoever in our society,” McConnell said during a floor speech on Monday.
He continued:
“It is not a display of courageous citizenship to smash and destroy small businesses that had just barely hung on through the pandemic. It is not an act of principled protest to grab expensive merchandise or set fire to a church. It does not advance freedom or justice to vandalize the World War II memorial that stands for those bled and died for exactly those values. You do not advance peace by committing assault. You do not advance justice by inflicting injustice upon your neighbor. You do not promote the rule of law through anarchy.”
“There’s no Constitutional right to commit a violent crime or terrorize a community, period. This cannot continue. It’s already gone on for entirely too long ” McConnell added.
Watch the video below:
.@senatemajldr: "These disturbing events do not look like three isolated incidents. They look more like the latest chapter in our national struggle to make equal justice and equal protection of the law into facts of life for all Americans…this struggle remains incomplete." pic.twitter.com/WmDP9AYNhy
— CSPAN (@cspan) June 1, 2020
McConnell continued to urge state and local governments to crack down on the rioting and violent demonstrations. But, he added, “If state and local leaders cannot, or will not, secure the peace and protect citizens and their property, I hope the federal government is ready to stand in the breach.”
McConnell began his address by demanding the truth and “swift justice” in the deaths George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery.
“These disturbing events do not look like three isolated incidents. They look more like the latest chapter in our national struggle to make equal justice and equal protection of the law into facts of life for all American,” he added.
Additionally, he said that the protests began “with the notion that basic, physical safety and legal protection much be non-negotiable for every single American or none.”
“That American liberty and the rule of law must be universal truths for all, not special privileges for some. That point is absolutely right. That is a righteous and important mission. And it exactly why these senseless and destructive riots need to end. Not next week, not tomorrow night, right now,” McConnell said.
McConnell’s comments come after days of violent protests that were sparked by the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, who died after a Minneapolis police officer pinned him to the ground by placing his knee on Floyd’s neck.