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Violence on Charlotte’s Streets Began With Chaos in Hearts, Homes — and, Yes, Bathrooms

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North Carolina is a battleground today as it hasn’t been since 1864. It’s a crucial swing state in the upcoming presidential election, whose outcome in judicial appointments might determine the very meaning of the U.S. Constitution — including its First Amendment protections for political speech and religious freedom, and Second Amendment guarantee of the right to self-defense. The state’s brave, pro-family governor is fighting for reelection, targeted by multimillion-dollar gay activist foundations. The state itself is under boycott by massive corporations including the NBA, NCAA and Paypal over its resistance to transgender pressure.

And the streets of Charlotte offer scenes that look like they were filmed in Libya or Syria — places where the state has lost control over public violence, and factional warfare has erupted in the streets. Agitators from all over the country have been shipped in to stir the outrage after a possibly unjust police shooting of a black citizen. Instead of peaceful protests, however, what erupted was large-scale violence, including this chilling footage of rioters seemingly trying to burn a reporter alive:

The last time I heard of Charlotte in the news was when that city passed a transgender access law that would have denied any legal recognition to biological sex, granting men full access to women’s bathrooms and locker rooms, provided they whispered the secret password: “transgender.” The state’s legislature and governor swung into action, passing a state law overturning the local measure, and calling down on it the wrath of Bruce Springsteen, Barack Obama, and the rest of our country’s financial, political and cultural elite. And now Charlotte is ground zero for radical activists who want to start a race war.

Is that a coincidence? Some grim piece of irony? More than that, it’s a vital clue to the fragile chain of order in civilized society, and a warning that when we weaken its basic links, the whole thing can come crashing down in the most literal sense — in the form of burning cars, shattered storefronts, and policemen under siege by mobs of fanatics.

In his classic The Roots of American Order, Russell Kirk observes that harmony, order and freedom in society are not something imposed from outside by police or the national guard. Armed guards are the backstops, the last resort, which we call in for emergencies, when chaos is breaking out.

Those great good things make up the social peace that St. Paul, and all Christians since him, have prayed for in their time. They emerge from a much more intimate source than government agents with guns. They flow from the human heart and well-ordered minds, then play out in everyday life, especially in the home. That same order radiates organically through society, as honest people interact with each other, compete fairly, cooperate for mutual benefit, and when need be sacrifice their personal interests for the sake of the greater good. Fallen though we are, people can live together fruitfully when they agree on basic, truthful premises about good and evil, man and woman, justice and freedom — even if they differ on points of philosophy or theology.

What happens when that consensus breaks down? When the rules are constantly changing, perpetually under self-righteous attack, and as a result large swathes of the population learn that they don’t have to play by them? Picture trying to hold something as simple as a football game, if the referees had markedly different rule books and were subject to bribery; if each team felt free to doctor the ball; and players were stashing brass knuckles or knives inside their uniforms. Go further, and imagine that each team’s fans were so fanatical that they would cheer, not jeer, each time their own team cheated.

Charlotte: Ground Zero of the Bathroom War and Maybe a Race War

Welcome to Charlotte, North Carolina, a place where the many fault-lines of postmodern life apparently intersected, and the ground simply gave way under citizens’ feet. Below I will list the basic ground rules that used to govern American life, which virtually everyone held in common until 1968 or so.

Men and women are equally important, but crucially different. Their biology both dictates and reflects these profound differences.

Sex is meant for marriage, and marriage is meant for children, who deserve a full set of parents.

Citizens must support themselves and their children, and not rely on the government except for short periods during emergencies.

Men must support the children whom they father, and women should withhold sex from men who haven’t proven their ability and willingness to do that.

Men must help to rear and discipline their sons, and protect their daughters.

Clearly these aren’t truths peculiar to America, or the West. They are not even distinctively Christian, though the church has embraced them as part of the “natural law” written on the human heart by God, which even pagans can usually discern, in the dim light of fallen reason. These are simply the rules of human life by which virtually every society we know of has lived — with certain short-lived, decadent exceptions.

They are also truths that are now literally unspeakable — by which I mean that security guards will come and stop you from speaking them — on our country’s college campuses.

That’s because each of those rules has been attacked by our own elites in the past 40 or 50 years, as a barrier to self-expression, pleasure or absolute autonomy — the kinds of goals that spoiled members of leisure classes start to insist on, when they take too much for granted that there will always be food in the restaurants, clean water flowing through the tap and order in the streets.

In fact, well-protected property rights, a functioning economy, abundant food, potable water and civil peace are not the natural state of mankind, as the fragile snowflakes who preen and fret on our college campuses have been taught by their fools of professors to believe. (I wonder how many Ivy Leaguers by now believe that Mt. Rushmore is a natural formation.) These crucial goods are carefully crafted artifacts, the result of hundreds of years of political struggle, hard work, technical competence, careful reflection and compromise. They demand our cooperation, our consent and sometimes our willingness to sacrifice the next whim that flickers through our libido, for the sake of some greater good — such as the life of an unborn child, a woman’s self-respect or the property rights of a neighbor.

In the 1960s a New Left desperate to wreck the social order in free market countries — which were clearly out-competing the socialist hellholes that had taken Marx at his word — latched onto the destructive power of short-sighted selfishness. That movement offered elite approval to sexual hedonism and drug abuse as “revolutionary acts,” and set about undermining support in our laws and in our mores for those fundamental truths listed above. And now we are seeing this program of cultural terrorism achieve its desired outcome:

Young men born out of wedlock, raised by their mothers on government largesse, whose communities are as a result hotbeds of violent crime where police are afraid to patrol and sometimes overreact (with tragic outcomes) are destroying the businesses and homes in their own neighborhoods. Meanwhile national elites bully the hard-pressed local government with threats of crippling economic sanctions if it will not destroy the privacy of women and deny biology, allegedly in service to a tiny group of mentally ill people, who are backed by a wealthy splinter group, the homosexual lobby, that speaks for some two percent of Americans.

No, what’s happening in Charlotte isn’t an accident. It’s a postcard from the future. If Hillary Clinton is elected, that future will come sooner, and with mathematical certainty. (For more from the author of “Violence on Charlotte’s Streets Began With Chaos in Hearts, Homes — and, Yes, Bathrooms” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

When Protests Turn Violent, the Truth Gets Torched

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The riots are back again. Tuesday night, at least 16 police officers were injured in Charlotte, N.C., as people once again turned to violence and looting in the wake of a police shooting.

These riots, which appear to be the result of agitators perverting peaceful protests, are doing far more than injuring law enforcement officers and trashing the communities for which they ostensibly seek justice; they kill any hope of accomplishing anything but exacerbating an already balkanized society.

Over the course of the few hours following the police-involved shooting of 43-year-old Keith Lamont Scott, locals swarmed the scene, animated by the prevailing narrative that officers shot an unarmed man who was simply reading a book in his car and waiting for his son — despite reports to the contrary.

Initially, Charlotte Mayor Jennifer Roberts said in a tweet that “the community deserves” answers:

But — just as in countless cases like Ferguson, Baltimore, and Milwaukee before — facts take too long to come out and the desire to channel ill-informed rage into destruction wins out over reason.

What started as lawful demonstrations, according to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, quickly devolved into chaos and destruction as the result of violent “agitators”:

More details here from CR’s Chris Pandolfo.

Wednesday morning, CMPD Chief Kerr Putney, reemphasized that Scott was indeed armed, corroborating earlier reports that a gun was recovered at the scene.

And the popular narrative that Scott was “reading a book” has also been called into question, as Putney also claimed that there was no book found at the scene.

Furthermore, police reportedly gave Scott multiple warnings to drop his handgun before the shooting:

But this was yet another situation where facts proved to be inconvenient to a popular narrative — and therefore ignored.

It’s very clear that these weren’t protests. It definitely appears that they started out that way, according to the CMPD, but they eventually escalated, once “agitators” came on the scene. But media still referred to them as protestors, despite their clear wanton destruction and threat to public safety.

At best, these were riots. At worst, they would fit the definition of terrorism committed in the name of cultural Marxism, considering multiple calls came out for the rioters to visit their destruction and havoc on white neighborhoods (because this is apparently how you fight racism, right?).

It’s appropriate that rioters and protestors used the “Hands up, don’t shoot” call Monday night, because it appears that the initial story that fomented the evening’s chaos were about as truthful as the narrative behind Michael Brown’s shooting in Ferguson over two years ago.

Yet, here we are again. Property was set ablaze, chaos reigned, and American streets were turned into a war zone over an at-best-incomplete narrative.

Once again, one side will use the political hagiography of Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, and Freddie Gray, regardless of the facts of these respective narratives, while those on the other side of the discussion will address those preceptions and feelings with numbers on black-on-black crime and police shootings that show that these actual incidents are numerically insignificant … while the other side will once again call for an end to [the myth of] systematic racism, despite the fact that no other demographic in America has been given such firm control over representation at the local level as black Americans thanks to the Democrat Party’s death grip on America’s inner-cities (or granted the same level of supposedly remedial super-rights in the legal system … cases in point: affirmative action and the recent slew of supposedly “racist” voter ID laws being struck down).

Make no mistake, Americans naturally have a right to protest. More importantly, they have a moral duty to speak up when their conscience perceives injustice and compels them. But the moment that impulse becomes violent, the moment innocent people are forced to fear for their safety and property, it’s no longer a protest.

Yes, rioters destroy private property, and they erode law and order. But more than that, they destroy any chance of actually addressing the point that the actual peaceful protesters are trying to make — and the justice they are trying to seek. Rather than contribute to the kind of mutual dialogue that would address the incredulity of both sides of the debate, these rioters in Charlotte have once again stunted and severely hindered any real hope of community progress.

When demonstrations devolve into desolation, truth goes out the window, and the mob gets to scream nonsensically into an uncaring abyss. Any legitimate truth-seekers in the streets of Charlotte Tuesday night have to suffer from the havoc and vitriol of those who only care about sowing discord, rather than seeking answers.

Chief Kerr Putney says that the “voiceless majority” in the community can rise above the kind of madness his city saw last night; we can only hope that they actually will. (For more from the author of “When Protests Turn Violent, the Truth Gets Torched” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Rioting and Violence in Milwaukee, but for What Reason?

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Milwaukee endured its second consecutive night of rioting and turmoil Sunday, following the shooting death of a young black man. “The shooting occurred near the location of an August 9 double homicide in which a man was shot dead and another was fatally stabbed,” the local Fox affiliate reports.

What happened:

Sylville Smith, 23, was shot and killed by a police officer Saturday after he refused to disarm himself and fled from law enforcement. Smith and his passenger were pulled over in a car by police in the late afternoon. While Smith and the other man were being questioned, they fled the vehicle and led the officers on a foot chase in a northern Milwaukee neighborhood. The “handgun, along with 500 rounds of ammunition, were stolen during a burglary in nearby Waukesha in March, police said.

Police body camera footage showed Smith brandishing a handgun during the pursuit. Smith was subsequently shot in the arm and chest after refusing to put the gun down, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said, adding that the gun was loaded with 23 rounds (more than the officer was carrying). The unidentified officer who fatally shot Smith is described as a 24-year-old African-American with six years of service in the Milwaukee Police Department.

Riots:

Just hours following the incident, riots broke out in the city that led to the burning of six local businesses and several cars torched. The Milwaukee-Journal Sentinel reported that a tense standoff between police and angry protesters Saturday night quickly turned violent despite repeated efforts by law enforcement and Mayor Barrett to quell the situation.

Police officers and a squad car were reportedly the targets of bricks rocks and glass bottles. One officer was struck in the head by a brick. All in all, four police officers were injured and 17 protesters arrested Saturday night.

Sunday night and into Monday morning, even more riots broke out on the city’s north side. According to CNN, shots were fired and police continued to be a target of protesters’ debris. The violence forced Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker to declare a national emergency, but the National Guard had yet to be deployed Monday.

Why?

Community members are claiming that the violence is a protest against the systematically racist and oppressive police force nationwide. Others simply cite frustration. One rioter even claimed the reason for the riots are that “the rich people have all this money and they not trying to give us none.” (For more from the author of “Rioting and Violence in Milwaukee, but for What Reason?” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

#MobRule and the Forgotten Man [+video]

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Baltimore riots mob APAfter a long winter in hibernation, many in my Baltimore County neighborhood were outside this weekend watching their kids play and chatting about the sad state of affairs in the city.

The unmistakable feeling shared by those in my neighborhood, located just outside the Baltimore City limits, was a deep sense of anger–not shock–that this city, known for its injustice, is about to violate our Constitution and place the interests of a mob over due process.

My community was sickened by the charges, but not for the same reason the capricious mayor of Baltimore expressed. Residents were appalled that a city prosecutor can, and would, chant a rally speech to placate a mob when no narrative statement or document was released detailing the probable cause of the charges.

Although our neighborhood is safe, it has never been too far from parts of the city where a weak civil society exists. Most of the residents in my neighborhood have either been victims of crime or know people who have suffered muggings, assaults, or burglaries. The infamous Knockouts came to our area as well. Just a few months ago, a neighbor was sucker-punched from behind two short blocks from our home.

If you poll any number of residents in semi-suburban neighborhoods close to major cities, you would likely find that an overwhelming majority feels that criminal justice laws are too fickle and police have not done enough to keep them safe.

Indeed, living in the same area where I grew up brings back memories of classmates coming in to school almost every day with stories of bikes being stolen or forcibly commandeered from roaming youths. And the story was always the same; the police recognized the names and addresses of those youths but could not do much more than offer some advice and sympathy because the juvenile justice laws in Maryland were always lax.

Yet, when one chooses not to engage in rioting or looting to express disgust with the system – a system that all too often fails to prosecute violent criminals, even when there are witnesses to the crime, a prosecution like the one with the 6 officers in the Freddie Gray case arises.

Hearing the news about the impetuous indictments, even as the Baltimore City Police Department was conducting an unprecedentedly thorough investigation, has reignited the sense of disquiet throughout these anxious but peaceful neighborhoods.

With a city government, led by a radical activist prosecutor pursuing trumped up charges in order to placate a mob, this will not end well for the Baltimore area. And the residents of this town know it.

At best, depending on the presentation of evidence, there is a civil case to be made here but nothing near the criminal charges that have been lodged against the 6 officers. Those charges will never hold up in court, especially on appeal. But what will happen to us when the mobs return after the evidence is presented, due process finally runs its course, and, barring any new evidence, the officers are acquitted?

The culture of vicious beatings and senseless vandalism has already percolated into Baltimore County. Throughout this likely protracted period of mob rule, possibly playing out over a period of months or over a year, none of us will feel safe traveling to stores and malls near or in the city.

In many ways we are like the “forgotten man” in Amity Shlaes’ epic book on the Great Depression. The ones who have to pay for bad choices made by politicians and other members of society but who are completely ignored during the entire public policy debate.

The public debate over police tactics and the inner city is largely a red herring. Despite the glorification and hyper-focus of the media, deaths of criminals apprehended by police are still very rare relative to the number of crimes committed and the number of people they take into custody. Like anything else, there are isolated cases where things go wrong. In some cases, the cops did absolutely nothing wrong; in other cases the cops were negligent or abused their power. These micro-level anomalies must be dealt with using our constitutional system for criminal justice, the same way we handle any accusation of crime.

The macro debate nobody wants to have is who is going to stand up for the forgotten man. We can liberalize laws pertaining to non-violent crimes. We can call for body cameras on all police officers. Heck, we can even abolish the police force. But who is going to look out for those who must constantly live in fear of violent crime?

And now that the principles of due process, presumption of innocence, and proof beyond reasonable doubt don’t apply to anyone (including black police officers) involved in any sort of fatal altercation with an African American, society is forced to live with the looming tyranny of mob rule.

Police will now be even more tepid about their approach to pursuing violent offenders. But this is not about the police; this could happen to anyone. The first high-profile case of mob rule was with George Zimmerman, a civilian.

While the media and liberal politicians, and some libertarians are looking to validate the “concerns” of those rioting, who is going to stand for those who are not rioting and don’t engage in “knockout” violence but are all too often victims of it? These are the forgotten people on the edge of suburbia, but they are most prominently those African Americans who live in inner cities but are sick of living in constant fear of violence. Who will validate their grievances?

While Obama and the Left engage in “soul searching” over federalizing and defanging the police, who will engage in soul searching about the growing epidemic of violent assaults against civilians? Who will engage in the soul searching over the slew of cop shootings, the most recent cop shot and killed in NYC?

At its core, Republicans have always stood for the rule of law and were tough against crime. It has worked for them more than any other issue because that is what the silent majority – the forgotten men of society – want of their elected officials. Republicans should not run away from it now. The challenge of defining right from wrong, criminal from victim, is as old as Sodom and Gomorrah. Republicans should not let political correctness obfuscate the truth and violate our Constitution. (See “#MobRule and the Forgotten Man”, originally posted HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Riot Police in Ukraine Move in Against Protest Camp

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Photo Credit: Fox News By Fox News.

Ukranian riot police armed with stun grenades and water cannons moved in against a protest camp in Kiev’s center Tuesday night as defiant crowds shouted “Glory to Ukraine” while their tents were engulfed in flames around them.

At least 18, including seven police officers and 11 protesters, were reported dead in the violence by early Wednesday morning, with hundreds more injured, the Associated Press reported.

Thousands of protesters had filled Independence Square just hours before, sensing that Ukraine’s political standoff was reaching a critical turning point after the deadliest violence yet in nearly three months of protests that have paralyzed the capital and the nation.

Opposition leader Vitali Klitschko urged the protesters to defend the camp.

“We will not go anywhere from here,” Klitschko told the crowd, speaking from a stage in the square as fires burned around him, releasing huge plumes of smoke into the night sky. “This is an island of freedom and we will defend it,” he said.

Read more this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: Reuters Ukraine crisis: Police storm main Kiev ‘Maidan’ protest camp

Police are storming the main protest camp in Ukraine’s capital, Kiev, which has been occupied since November.

Explosions are taking place, fireworks are being thrown and large fires have broken out in Independence Square.

On Tuesday at least 18 people were killed, including seven policemen, in the worst violence seen in weeks.

President Viktor Yanukovych blamed the violence on opposition leaders, but said it was still “not too late to stop the conflict”.

He was speaking after a late-night meeting with opposition figures Vitaly Klitschko and Arseniy Yatsenyuk.

Read more this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: WNDReagan official: Obama should support Ukraine Protesters

By Greg Corombos.

Recent Ukrainian unrest reached its deadliest levels yet Tuesday, as protesters and police officers were killed, fires raged in Kiev and a nation divided moved closer to a national tipping point.

Ukraine is closely divided between Russian-speaking residents largely loyal to Moscow and native-speaking western Ukraine, which identified with Europe and largely despises Russia for its decades of control during the days of the USSR.

The latest volatility stems from Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych rejecting an opportunity to establish closer economic ties with the European Union and subsequently accepting bailout assistance from Russia. Protests that followed were met with new laws restricting protest rights and even a ban on citizens wearing helmets.

Former Reagan administration Pentagon official Frank Gaffney told Radio America the people have very good reasons to be in the streets.

“There’s obvious frustration on the part of the people of Ukraine with their government, with the policies it’s been pursuing, particularly to the degree to which it is acceding to what can only be described as domination by Russia. I think there’s also a growing restiveness about the growing repression at home and the corruption of their government,” Gaffney said.

Read more this story HERE.

Riot Warnings Over Food-Stamp Cuts

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Photo Credit: WNDThe 5 percent rollback in food-stamp funding that hit at the start of November has unleashed a wave of familiar scaremongering.

The reduction returns food-stamp benefits to the level they would have been without the infusion of stimulus cash since 2009. That money is now spent, and the average individual monthly benefit is dropping from about $133 to $125.40. Roughly $7.60.

Democrats and the anti-hunger lobby treat the reduction as a cruel and draconian cut.

Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla., contends it “will literally take food right out of the mouths of poor children as well as their families, the elderly, the unemployed and the underemployed.”

The rollback “will be close to catastrophic for many people,” a spokesman for Feeding America, a leading hunger relief organization, told CBS News.

Read more from this story HERE.

Paris Riots Sparked by Police Identity Check on Veiled Muslim Woman

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Photo Credit: Miguel Medina/AFP/Getty ImagesTwo nights of rioting in the Paris suburb of Trappes have left dozens of cars destroyed, at least 10 arrests and a 14-year-old injured, after police carried out an identity check on a Muslim woman in a full-face veil.

On Friday night, about 250 people hurling stones and paving slabs clashed with police firing teargas, while 400 others gathered to protest across the high-rise suburb west of Paris, torching cars, bins and bus-shelters.

On Saturday, a further 20 cars were burned and four people arrested after 50 people were involved in a standoff with police as the violence spread to towns in the surrounding area.

The Versailles state prosecutor said the trouble started on Thursday after police stopped and carried out an identity check on a woman in a niqab, or full-face veil.

The prosecutor said the woman’s husband had assaulted one of the officers and tried to strangle him so was immediately taken into custody at the police station. Muslim full-face veils have been banned from all public places in France after a controversial law introduced by President Sarkozy in 2011. The Collective Against Islamophobia in France released a statement complaining of “heavy-handedness” and “provocation” by the police during the identity check.

Read more from this story HERE.

“Zimmerman Verdict Means War” and Other Fallout from the Not Guilty Verdict

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Photo Credit: WNDNew Black Panthers: Zimmerman Verdict Means ‘War’

By Aaron Klein. The George Zimmerman verdict is a declaration of war that only the devil can applaud, according to the Twitter feed for the New Black Panther Party.

The Twitter account, managed by the group’s national chairman, Malik Zulu Shabazz, further urged followers to “take to the streets [and] stay there.”

“Were at war,” Shabbazz Tweeted. “Its (sic) silly and immoral to call for peace when war has been declared.”

The NBPP slammed what it called the “white mans (sic) justice system,” claiming the courts base their law on “the white is right theory.”

“Only a devil would applaud that verdict. Only natural born devil. By applauding that verdict you in fact admit that you are a devil,” wrote Shabbazz. Read more from this story HERE.

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$10,000 Offered for Zimmerman’s Head

By Drew Zahn. Now that George Zimmerman has been found not guilty in the murder trial of black teenager Trayvon Martin, threats that some may take “justice” – or vengeance as the case may be – into their own hands become cause for concern.

New York Giants footballer Victor Cruz, for example, tweeted after the verdict was announced, “Zimmerman doesn’t last a year before the hood catches up to him.”

Atlanta Falcons footballer Roddy White followed up with a similar tweet, “All them jurors should go home tonight and kill themselves for letting a grown man get away with killing a kid.”

Though both players later apologized, the tweets reflect upon the words of black activist Mikhail Muhammad, who claimed last year he had professional athletes’ and celebrities’ financial backing in putting a $10,000 bounty on Zimmerman’s head.

While distributing “wanted dead or alive” posters at a press conference in Jacksonville, Fla., Muhammad, the southern regional director of the New Black Panther Party, stated, “The heat is on [Zimmerman]. He’s never going to be able to sleep peacefully. The family of George Zimmerman must understand, a life for a life, a tooth for a tooth, an eye for an eye. If you kill my damn baby, we’re going to kill your damn baby.” Read more from this story HERE.

See the NBPP tweet stream for yourself below:

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Photo Credit: Getty Images‘No justice, no peace’: pro-Trayvon MArtin protesters clash with police in NYC, LA.

By Jason Howerton. Demonstrations erupted across the United States ranging from dozens to hundreds – in support of the family of Trayvon Martin. Protesters marched against the not guilty verdict in the trial of George Zimmerman for the shooting of the unarmed black teenager. Zimmerman claims he shot Martin in self-defense after being physically attacked.

At New York City’s Middle Collegiate Church in Manhattan, congregants wore hooded sweatshirts – as the 17-year-old Martin did the night he was shot.

And in Manhattan’s Union Square, hundreds of people gathered to voice their passions over the verdict, hoisting placards with images of Martin. Protesters shouted a number of chants demanding “justice” for Trayvon Martin.

The chants in NYC included, “No justice, no peace,” “What do you want? Justice! When do we want it? Now!” and “Trayvon! Trayvon! Trayvon!” Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: Occupy Oakland/TwitterProtesters in Oakland burn flag, smash windows over Zimmerman verdict

By Joe Newby. Protesters in Oakland angry over the not guilty verdict in the Zimmerman case went on a rampage, smashing windows, starting small fires and burned a U.S. flag at a local area McDonald’s, The Blaze reported Sunday.

The protests attracted anywhere from a few dozen to a couple hundred people, Madeleine Morgenstern said. Police said protests continued into the early hours on Sunday.

Some in the crowd broke windows on businesses and started small fires in the streets.

The Oakland Tribune said some of the windows in its downtown office were smashed and video from a helicopter show people attempting to start fires in the street. Others can be seen spray painting anti-police graffiti.

Vandals smashed windows at Dogwood Restaurant located at Telegraph and 17th St. in Oakland, ABC7 reporter John Alston said in a tweet. He later said windows were smashed in an Oakland Sears store. Read more from this story HERE.

Massive Protests Against Homosexual Marriage in Paris

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Photo Credit: independent.co.ukEarlier about 400,000 people, including many children, had defied warnings of possible far-right violence and marched in peaceful protest against France’s newly enacted law permitting same-sex marriage. Twenty members of a xenophobic far-right group, “Génération Identitaire”, clambered on to the roof terrace of the headquarters of the Socialist party during the afternoon and unfurled a banner calling for the resignation of President François Hollande. They were rapidly dislodged and arrested by police.

Even before the violence broke out, the government said that there had been 96 arrests, mostly for possession of weapons.

The “marriage-for-all” law, allowing gay couples to marry in town halls and adopt children, passed its final legal and constitutional hurdles earlier this month.

The first officially recognised same-sex marriage in France will take place between two men in Montpellier on Wednesday.

The passage of the law, and warnings of possible violence, had been expected to dampen the ardour of protesters for what was billed as the “last demonstration” in a series of half a dozen large rallies that began in December. Police put the turn-out at 150,000. The organisers claimed 1,000,000. Other organisers estimated over 400,000, which seemed closest to the mark.

Read more from this story HERE.

France Riots After Socialist Government Legalizes Homosexual Marriage

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Photo Credit: Irish Examiner Clashes have broken out between protesters and riot police near France’s National Assembly building, hours after the country legalized gay marriage.

Some protesters opposed to the measure clearing same-sex marriage hurled petrol bombs, and riot police responded with tear gas at the Invalides memorial and museum complex, near the National Assembly in Paris.

Hours earlier, French politicians concluded a wrenching national debate that exposed deep conservatism in the nation’s heartland and tapped into intense discontent with the Socialist government…

Following the vote, members of the gay and lesbian community flocked to a square in central Paris, just behind City Hall, to celebrate.

Read more from this story HERE.