Evil stalks the land: Time to bring a howitzer to the fight

We've been here before.

In the 1920s, the Ku Klux Klan marched in full regalia in Washington. In 1939, the German American Bund held a rally in Madison Square Garden.

In the 1960s, college students rioted in support of communist guerrilla movements. Actress Jane Fonda went to Hanoi and posed with an anti-aircraft gun.

In 2001, campus teach-ins were supporting the 9/11 terrorists.

Today, evil marches across the land in many guises.

Luigi Mangione, charged with murder in the death of health insurance CEO Brian Thompson, is a celebrity. At his court appearance on Feb. 21, the 26-year-old was greeted by a mob of admirers.

In an Emerson College poll, 41% of young voters found the cold-blooded murder acceptable, while another 24% said it was somewhat acceptable.

Perceived inequity is now a rationale for murder. Premiums are too high. Companies deny coverage. So, insurance executives deserve to die.

A professor of bioethics at St. Louis University confessed that she was "not sad" about the slaying because Thompson's company, UnitedHealthcare, is "evil." When The Washington Post ran an editorial rejecting such deranged thinking, it lost 12,000 subscribers.

Some who are unwilling to join the Mangione cult maintain that the killing of Thompson should prompt an examination of the health insurance industry. To this, Heather Mac Donald, writing in the Manhattan Institute's City Journal, responded: "The only relevant question in the wake of the Thompson murder, however, is: What has gone wrong with America's moral compass that so many could cheer the extrajudicial killing of an innocent man?"

In America today, evil has a large cheering section.

In Los Angeles, advocates for criminal aliens doxed ICE agents, posting flyers with their personal information, endangering them and their families. This is the latest tactic to prevent the deportation of hardened criminals and gang members, including those wanted for rape and murder.

One group, which styles itself the Community Self-Defense Coalition, has been patrolling the city with megaphones, warning of the presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

Ironically, it's the immigrant community activists claim to care about that suffers most from the savages in their midst.

A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security charged: "These pathetic activists are putting targets on the backs of our law enforcement as they shield MS-13, Tren de Aragua and other vicious gangs that traffic women and children and poison Americans with lethal drugs."

Israel is fighting its own vicious gang.

Even revelations of the barbaric treatment of the hostages held in Gaza, including the brutal murder of two toddlers, haven't deterred the campus jihad.

Late last month, Barnard College expelled two students for invading a class on the history of modern Israel, banging drums and screaming slogans.

In response to the expulsions, another anti-Israel mob stormed a Barnard building and physically assaulted staff. They left only after the college promised they would not be disciplined. Given the atmosphere on campus, perhaps regents should change the school's name to Barnyard College.

With all the foregoing, the common denominator is academia.

Nazi student groups took over German universities before Adolf Hitler came to power. In America, Marxism was entrenched in the professoriate well before the age of protest. Colleges that limited Jewish enrollment in the 1920s and 1930s now refuse to say whether students shouting "Death to the Jews" have violated their speech codes.

Parents seeking an atmosphere of intellectual inquiry are better off sending their children to mental hospitals than the average institution of higher learning.

What can be done to fight the spreading contagion?

First, understand that this has nothing to do with free expression. Vandalism, assault and intimidation aren't free speech. Interfering with law enforcement isn't a First Amendment right. If left unchecked, the perpetrators will drag us to a new dark age where policy differences are settled in the streets.

The president should declare an anarchy emergency. Let's test the constitutionality of a federal ban on face masks in political demonstrations. We broke the back of the KKK with state anti-masking laws back in the day.

Mr. Trump should be encouraged in his drive to cut off all federal funding for schools that can't maintain discipline. Why should taxpayers be forced to subsidize the political equivalent of "Animal House"?

It's not enough to fight the defenders of criminal aliens and campus storm troopers. We have to go after their enablers: the sanctuary city mayors and college administrators who willingly serve as doormats for Hamas Lives Matter.

It's time we stopped bringing a knife to a gunfight and wheeled out a howitzer instead.

This column was first published at the Washington Times.