DON'T BRING YOUR DOPEY POLITICS WITH YOU.

The latest story nailed to Newmark's Door is "Unchecked Violence in Blue Cities is Sending Refugees to Red States."  Read the article, though, and wonder how much dopey politics is coming along.  "This fall, my partner and I decided to take our children and flee Washington D.C. for Raleigh, North Carolina. We had lived in the nation’s capital for 15 years, but a series of violent encounters made it clear that we could not protect ourselves — let alone our children — while living in the District."  Same sex couple, some military experience, some experience in academic administration, might not be the kind of people susceptible to a mugging by reality.  Or perhaps enough of reality being socially conservative will get through.

Often, the decisions officials in Washington made to curb violence left me and my family feeling less safe. The city has some of the strictest gun laws in the nation, making it difficult to protect our family. Those strict gun laws have proven worthless in mitigating gun crimes in Washington. Homicide rates are up 26% and armed assaults have increased 31% when compared to the same time last year. These violent trends are mirrored in other cities throughout the United States, including New York City, Portland, and Minneapolis.

I’m empathetic to the calls for change following the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and too many others. But standing by and letting our cities burn and become places of violent chaos is not the solution. We cannot put law enforcement on hold until we have the perfect formula for policing. When the political class undermines law and order, it’s the city’s most vulnerable residents who suffer.

Better late to the fight than never.

Republicans in the Senate have taken strides to reinforce their support for law enforcement while implementing strict policies to mitigate police brutality through the Justice Act, a piece of legislation introduced by South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott. This bill showed great promise, but Senate Democrats blocked the legislation. They argued that it didn’t go far enough and said they would not reconsider it until after the election.

Senate Democrats clearly do not think there is a rush to address police brutality and curb the violence in the country, but I do. I urge all Americans to keep a watchful eye on the violence that is taking place throughout the country. Even my safe haven of Raleigh was placed under curfew in recent weeks because of destructive demonstrations. President Trump is right: We must hold our local leaders responsible and make it clear our cities are no place for violent chaos. Soon there may be no safe havens left.

I'm holding off on any speculation about what will come out of the Senate until the presidential vote is certified and the Senate runoffs are done. There's a big backlog of bookmarked articles to hand, though, suggesting that the throw-down between the corporatist and communist wings of the Democrat coalition is going to be epic.