I just saw a grainy YouTube video of a crowd of angry American U. students allegedly throwing rocks at Karl Rove/his car (it’s too dark/low-quality to tell what’s going on).
But this got me thinking–what would be the Govt.'s response if such a mob had been REALLY angry, had overpowered the SS/Police escort, and had pulled Karl Rove (or some other WH official) from their car and beaten him to a pulp … or even killed him.
Now, obviously the first move would be to arrest the people at the scene, prosecute them as you would any crime, etc. But, in this age of “terror,” what else would result? Massive crackdowns on any protests? Huge military escorts for any WH officials? A declared State of Emergency? Nothing whatsoever?
We’ve had presidents and other officials assassinated by gunmen before, but people generally dismiss them as lone crazies. But an angry mob killing a government official would seem to me to be a shift in the sort of public compact we have in this country (that you can have any sort of protest you want, as loud and angry as you want, as long as nobody really gets hurt).
