“Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful, be optimistic. Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month, or a year, it is the struggle of a lifetime. Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble.” — Rep. John Lewis (D-Georgia), 1940-2020

The late Rep. John Lewis repeatedly said that activists such as Black Lives Matter and Antifa should get into “good trouble” and “necessary trouble.”  He died just as the summer of “mostly peaceful” rioting was getting underway after George Floyd’s death.

The “Good Trouble” was just getting rolling; and don’t call them “riots”... the politically correct euphemism for these violent outbursts is now “rebellion.”

Let’s review the good trouble caused by Democrats’ allies over the summer of 2020:

The BLM violence in 2020 left close to 20 people dead in just two weeks; the riots caused more than $1 billion in losses, the costliest in U.S. history; several cities witnessed over 600 riots.

Compare that to the geriatric unauthorized tour which was mischaracterized as an “insurrection”:

• Four people died on January 6th, and they were all Trump supporters.

• The government estimated the property damage cost of January 6th to be $2.73 million.

But the woke U.S. Justice Department mostly gave Antifa and BLM a pass on all their mayhem; after all, it was “good trouble” in the name of George Floyd and social justice.

But, you may ask, “Didn’t the January 6th rioters disrupt an official proceeding of Congress?” Well, how many times over the past several years have we seen reports of BLM/Antifa disruption of local/state/federal legislative proceedings? They literally happen every week, and several have turned violent with assaults on law enforcement and bystanders.  But again, “good trouble.” All is forgiven.

Here are a couple of examples of “good trouble” by the far left in the years since January 6th, 2021:

• The so-called “Tennessee Three” stunt in which three Democrat lawmakers led a gun-control protest from the House floor, disrupting the session in April 2023.  The “rebellion” included protestors striking and shoving law enforcement personnel and storming the legislative chamber, egged on by three Democrat legislators. There were minimal legal consequences for these political terrorists because, you guessed it, “good trouble.”

• In March 2021, Democrat political insurrectionists resumed their sustained attack on the Portland Federal Courthouse, including the breaking of windows, spray-painting graffiti on the building, and firing fireworks at police and federal officers.  One of the worst offenders, Darby Howard, was sentenced to time served for kicking and damaging an automatic sliding door and punching a television in the building’s lobby.  In addition, he was accused of punching a Portland police officer in the head when police attempted to arrest him. As he was being arrested, Howard tried to push through a line of officers, but fell and was then handcuffed, prosecutors said. If he were a conservative protester, I’m sure that Attorney General Merrick Garland would have pushed for decades in prison for this thug.  But hey, since he’s a radical Leftist, he has “good trouble privilege.”

Look for the Democrat shock troops to flash their Good Trouble Privilege Card throughout the 2024 presidential election year. And we can fully expect Garland to look the other way.  “Good trouble” has its privileges.

Michael A. Bertolone, M.S. is a past Executive V.P. of the Monroe County (N.Y) Law Enforcement Association, and a freelance writer in Rochester, NY. His eBook The War on Equality: How Equity is Destroying Our Society is available on Amazon.

Image: Free image, Pixabay license, no attribution required.