A leaked DHS memo, first reported on by Axios, raises concerns about coming violence if Roe v. Wade is overturned as prior leaks have indicated. The Supreme Court has still not released the decision despite mobs of people gathering at the homes of Justices to shout obscenities and threats.
In response, the DHS warns of attacks on the Supreme Court and the Justices.
The U.S. government is bracing for a potential surge in political violence once the Supreme Court hands down the ruling that’s expected to overturn Roe v. Wade, according to a Department of Homeland Security memo obtained by Axios.
The big picture: Law enforcement agencies are investigating social-media threats to burn down or storm the Supreme Court building and murder justices and their clerks, as well as attacks targeting places of worship and abortion clinics.
I like the throw-in at the end about there being a threat to abortion clinics as if that makes any sense at all. Those threatening the Supreme Court building, to murder justices and clerks, and to target churches are doing so because Roe may be overturned. Yet, because there must always be an olive branch extended to the left when it comes to the federal bureaucracy, a mention of abortion clinics is tossed in despite there being no reported threats against them. In fact, you would expect the threat level against those clinics to decrease if Roe is overturned and many of them shut down in red states.
Regardless, while the DHS is extremely careful to not outright attribute the possible violence to the left, the implication of the memo is clear. We know it is Democrat protesters who pose a threat to the Supreme Court, not pro-lifers who will celebrate a decision to overturn Roe. That’s simply basic logic, and we’ve already seen mobs of abortion protesters gather and lodge threats. One such protest turned violent in Los Angeles early on.
Still, it’s comical to see how Axios and the media are spinning this. While the topline is that there are threats directly coming from the pro-abortion side, the article mostly focuses on “right-wing” violence.
Context: Abortion-related violence historically has been driven by anti-abortion extremists.
- “Some racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists’ embrace of pro-life narratives may be linked to the perception of wanting to ‘save white children’ and ‘fight white genocide,'” the memo also says.
- But the memo warns that this time, extremist acts could come from abortion-rights proponents as well.
Well, thank you for that context, I suppose, but it’s completely irrelevant in this context. Again, the presumptive spark here is the overturning of Roe. Why would “violent extremists” who “embrace” a pro-life narrative choose to lash out at the overturning of “abortion rights” in the United States?
Then there’s this mention of the Buffalo shooter, which is just laughable.
Between the lines: The Roe decision is flypaper for extremists. The memo, along with communications between government and the private sector, show how multiple agencies are mobilizing to try to get ahead of ahead of civil unrest.
- The mass shooting in Buffalo, N.Y., over the weekend has “complicated everything even more,” said Jonathan Wackrow, a risk management consultant and a former special agent with the U.S. Secret Service.
- “The attack in Buffalo actually has a measured impact on this Roe decision and how people will will react to it,” he told Axios. “You see that people are willing to engage in the most violent acts in furtherance of that ideology.”
I haven’t read the Buffalo shooter’s entire manifesto, but I’m pretty sure he didn’t say he was motivated by pro-life views. In fact, as a white supremacist, he’s almost certainly strongly pro-abortion given those in that camp see it as a way to eliminate minority populations.
Yet, Axios, being the left-wing rag that it is, took a top-line threat of violence from pro-abortion extremists and morphed it into a discussion of the unrelated Buffalo shooting by the end of the article. It’s just so on-brand.