On Monday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “The Story,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) called on the federal government to take legal action on the destruction and vandalism of statues and memorials in various cities if state and local governments fail to do so.
Cotton said, “In some cases, as you saw in Washington, D.C., the police were standing by and watching. One can only assume that the left-wing mayors and governors of some of these cities and states have directed the authorities not to intervene. That is almost the very definition of mob violence.”
Cotton further stated, “It’s unfortunate that so many of the local authorities are not just standing idly by, letting mob rule reign in the streets, but also, there’s no legal consequences after the fact, for the destruction of public or private property. So, if the local authorities are not going to protect our citizens, then the federal government has a job to do, as I said in my letter to Attorney General Barr today.”
He added, “There are federal laws that can cover some of these circumstances, like the riot act or the Veterans Memorial Preservation Act, there are other statutes that may apply to other cases as well. The last thing we can tolerate in this country is mob rule.”
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