Sacramento vandals encourage police violence, exploit Black struggle and help Trump

With his poll numbers plunging and his reelection prospects looking grim, President Donald Trump desperately needs to change the subject.

His decision to deploy masked federal police thugs to Portland, Ore., along with his threat to deploy these authoritarian shock troops to other cities, makes his strategy clear. Trump wants to provoke a violent confrontation so he can respond with force in a pathetic attempt to look powerful.

Unfortunately, some of Trump’s opponents, including more than a few here in Sacramento, seem intent on helping him.

On Sunday night, a group of people marched through downtown Sacramento on a spree of vandalism and destruction. They smashed windows, menaced reporters and sought to provoke police. Police said the destructive group of around 150 people had broken off from an earlier peaceful march that started at Cesar E. Chavez Plaza.

A violent group of “five to seven” people appeared to do most of the damage, police said. A Twitter account belonging to a group called “Antifa Sacramento” cheered on the violence and expressed “total solidarity” with the vandals. The group says it wants to “abolish the police” and “end white supremacy,” but their violent tactics disrespect Sacramento’s Black Lives Matter movement and help Trump.

Black Lives Matter, after all, is a group that opposes violence – specifically, police violence against Black people. The window smashers, on the other hand, support violence. Like parasites, they burrow into peaceful marches and wait for their moment to strike. They unleash a frenzy of destruction and then run, often leaving peaceful protesters to suffer the consequences.

This small but destructive group says it wants to abolish the police, but it actively works to enable police violence through strategic provocation.

On Sunday, as the city cleaned up the mess wrought by Saturday night’s miniature riot, the nation was gripped by stunning photos from Alabama. The funeral carriage of Rep. John Lewis, drawn by horses, crossed the Edmund Pettus bridge on path of red rose petals representing the blood spilled there over 50 years before. It was on that bridge in 1965 that police beat Lewis nearly to death as he marched for freedom. Lewis survived, continued to march, and became one of our nation’s most revered leaders.

Reflecting on the experience years later, Lewis said: “There’s not anything more powerful than the marching feet of a determined people. When people are marching together in an orderly, peaceful, nonviolent fashion, that can appeal to all of humankind.”

Lewis called nonviolent protest an “immutable principle that you cannot deviate from. If you want to have a good end, your means must be good and noble. Somehow, some way, the end must be caught up in the means.”

“My view is the vote is precious, almost sacred, the most powerful nonviolent tool we have in our democratic society, and it should be accessible,” Lewis said.

Nonviolent protest is powerful and persuasive. Watching Trump’s faceless storm troopers point weapons at children, beat veterans and gas mothers shows everyone exactly who he is: a vile and weak would-be authoritarian.

But Trump is learning a painful lesson: You can’t be an authoritarian if no one respects your authority. The U.S. military, and even members of the Republican Party, have begun to openly defy Trump. He’s weak, he’s failing and he’s scared. What he needs most of all is some kind of violent attack against government that horrifies Americans and allows him to play the hero by restoring “law and order” to the nation.

So, the window-smashing vandals aren’t Trump’s opponents. To the contrary: They’re clueless volunteers for his 2020 campaign.

The choice for activists is clear: Follow leaders like John Lewis on the powerful path of non-violent, democratic revolution, or help “Antifa Sacramento” and Trump 2020 by engaging in dangerous fantasies of power through violence.