AG William Barr on Rioters: “There’s Going to Be Accountability”

In a press conference with President Donald Trump on Monday, Attorney General William Barr said that the Department of Justice is working closely with state, local, and other federal agencies to ensure that there are consequences for the rioting and looting that follows police shootings. Barr said that there are processes in place to review police shootings to ensure that they were justified. He rejected the idea that mass violence and destruction is necessary, warranted, or acceptable in the wake of any such shooting, and he promised that the Trump administration would not tolerate it.

“When this shooting occurred here in Kenosha, under the direction of the president, we told the DOD — the Defense Department — to get ready some National Guard units in case they were needed to help here,” Barr said. “We were picking up information that these violent instigators were coming to Kenosha. They were coming from California, Washington state, a lot from Chicago, and they were coming up to Kenosha. So we expected matters to get worse.

“These are the same people, many of them who came from out of town,” Barr continued. “Out of 175 arrests, 100 were from out of town. And some — these are the same people using the same tactics that have been used in various cities: Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Chicago, now Kenosha, Portland. And they use these black-bloc tactics; throwing projectiles at police and literally trying to inflict injuries on police, arson, and rioting.”

Barr went on to say that the Department of Justice is working diligently not only to prevent mass violence but to bring the perpetrators to justice.

“The violence that erupted shortly after this shooting is simply not a legitimate response to a police shooting. And the looting and the arson were unacceptable. And as it progressed, it became more and more distant from the issue of racial justice. It was violence for violence’s sake,” he said.

Barr continued: “And there’s going to be accountability. What people don’t see is that, in all of these cities, there are task forces of federal and state officers reviewing all the video that we can get our hands on. And when we are able to identify people who committed crimes in these riots, going all the way back to the beginning, whether they’re burning police cars or throwing rocks at people — which are deadly — they will be prosecuted.”

There’s a significant leftist presence in this country that would love nothing more than to see these cities burned to rubble in the name of social justice. And if the likes of Joe Biden gets into the White House, we may very well see it happen. If we don’t have law and order in this country, we don’t have a country. Thankfully, Trump and Barr understand that.

Biden? We’re not so sure.