Two pieces about arrogant excuses for a dangerously abusive incident. The point is absolutely not about who should not have been treated this way — it’s not about who is right or wrong on abortion — but about the massive abuse of government power, and in what could have been a tragically deadly way. (The links to each full column are embedded in each headline.)
A.G. Merrick Garland treats peaceful activist like a terrorist (March 2): Attorney General Merrick Garland proved himself an utter disgrace to the office Wednesday.
After six months of repeated questions from members of Congress about the astonishingly reckless and extravagant use of force to arrest a cooperative pro-life activist in front of his seven children, Garland, in a Senate hearing, provided a cowardly nonanswer about the incident. In essence, he said that the buck doesn’t stop with him, because he has refused for half a year to let the buck reach him in the first place. It was an egregious exercise of defiance masked as pusillanimity, or more likely, a malignant combination of both…..
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Christopher Wray flanked by Attorney General Merrick Garland speaks during a news conference to announce an international ransomware enforcement action, at the Department of Justice in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 26, 2023. The FBI has seized the website of a prolific ransomware gang that has heavily targeted hospitals and other healthcare providers. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
FBI’s Chris Wray, like Pilate, washes his hands of FBI’s abuse (March 2): Add FBI Director Christopher Wray to the list of major officials justifying a dangerously armed arrest of a peaceful pro-life activist. And Wray, like Attorney General Merrick Garland, refused to explain why a pre-dawn SWAT raid was necessary.
The irresponsibility, the lack of accountability, the arrogance, and the tacit endorsement of thuggish tactics together amount to an almost-criminal abuse of government power….
Nobody has yet offered a single reason why a single agent in riot gear (much less 20) was needed for a dawn arrest raid in front of Houck’s seven children when Houck already was thoroughly cooperative.
Repeat: Despite six months of demands from Congress and high-profile press coverage, not a single public explanation…. Everyone should fear such thuggishness just as much from a well-coiffed man in an expensive suit as from a backroom mob boss. Through this incident and through countless others , Wray has proved to be a menace to society…..
