In a surprise to no one who has been paying attention to how the left operates, Democrats and their media lapdogs are weaponizing last week’s mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, to ramp up censorship and crush the Second Amendment.
On Wednesday, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed two sweeping executive orders supposedly aimed at eradicating hate speech and preventing racially motivated shootings (which are already illegal, by the way).
One of the orders announced the formation of a “domestic terrorism unit” to crack down on social media posts that Hochul and her minions deem offensive.
“The unit will be responsible for developing investigative leads based on social media analyses focused on radical extremist activities motivated threats by identifying online locations and activities that facilitate radicalization and promote violent extremism,” the Democrat said.
The other order requires state police to identify and target people they consider “dangerous” in order to prevent them from buying guns.
“The State Police shall establish a dedicated unit within the New York State Intelligence Center (NYSIC) to track domestic extremism and increase social media monitoring at the Intelligence Center,” Hochul said.
The left-wing governor claimed her orders were necessary following the Buffalo shooting on Saturday in which a white teenager targeted black people at a grocery store in a racially motivated attack, according to police. Thirteen people were shot, 10 of them fatally.
“In wake of the racist act of terror in Buffalo, New York will lead the charge to confront this epidemic head-on,” Hochul tweeted on Wednesday.
NEW: We’re proposing a comprehensive plan to combat domestic terrorism, strengthen state gun laws, & investigate social media platforms promoting violent extremism.
In wake of the racist act of terror in Buffalo, New York will lead the charge to confront this epidemic head-on.
— Governor Kathy Hochul (@GovKathyHochul) May 18, 2022
Police identified the shooter as 18-year-old Payton Gendron of Conklin, New York, a self-proclaimed white supremacist.
The disturbed teen spelled out his racist and anti-Semitic views in a rambling 180-page manifesto.
It’s nice that Hochul is finally acknowledging something must be done to stem the terrifying crime waves in the state.
?WANTED? for a Robbery in front of 818 East 167 Street #Bronx @NYPD42pct on 5/7/22@ 7:53P.M The two individuals punched, stabbed, slashed & removed the victim’s property.?Reward up to $3500 Know who they are??Call 1-800-577-TIPS Calls are CONFIDENTIAL! pic.twitter.com/OQ9tOjfbrQ
— NYPD Crime Stoppers (@NYPDTips) May 20, 2022
However, it’s farcically ironic that Democrats who have demonized and marginalized the police are now weaponizing law enforcement to crack down on speech they don’t like and infringe on Americans’ Second Amendment rights.
In other words, the same side that relentlessly smeared former President Donald Trump as a power-hungry “fascist” is gleefully transforming America into a police state that monitors and stifles free speech and inhibits the self-defense rights of its citizenry.
What’s especially alarming is that Hochul’s executive orders are vague and ambiguous, such that what constitutes “hate speech” or a “dangerous person” is open to interpretation.
This means that an official with an ax to grind against his political opponents could invoke the governor’s orders to target and prosecute people he doesn’t like.
For the record, “hate speech” may be offensive or immoral, but it’s technically not a threat unless you act on it. And that’s already illegal.
In the United States, you’re entitled to your opinions (however inflammatory or morally wrong) and you’re allowed to hate whomever you want. The First Amendment even gives you the right to say it openly.
Gov. Hochul has announced a new police unit to “combat” hate speech. https://t.co/wb4yLVs2E8 Hochul previously stated. “There is a limit to what you can do, and hate crimes—hate speech—is not protected.”That is not true. Hate speech is constitutionally protected.
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) May 18, 2022
We have already seen how one-sided, partisan persecution has been wielded by the left to silence, harass and cancel conservatives.
Take Twitter, for example. The liberal social media giant banned Trump when he was still the sitting president of the United States because it wanted to silence his opinions about the 2020 election and alienate him from his base.
Similarly, numerous conservatives have been banned from social media platforms for criticizing the tyrannical coronavirus lockdowns, mask directives and vaccine mandates.
Almost all of these people are still banned — even though many of their statements questioning the efficacy of mandates and shutdowns were later proved to be true.
This kind of one-sided persecution is almost certain to happen in New York if Hochul gets her way.
If the governor really cared about cracking down on hate crimes, she should do something about the disturbing epidemic of attacks on Asians by non-whites in New York City. But she’s not.
Like other Democrats, Hochul only gets her hackles up when the perpetrator of a crime is white and the victim is black. If you reverse the races, the silence from the left is deafening.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
