You might have seen the video of the Rochester, NY, cops, back in March, putting a spitting hood on a naked and cuffed black man having a PCP freakout. They restrained him in such a way that he asphyxiated. The video just came out this week. People are understandably angry. Protest is completely reasonable. Keep in mind (as usual) that we don’t know all the context, and keep in mind that the cops put the hood on the suspect because he was spitting (and, they say, he claimed he had Covid). But it’s the same thing: knee on the neck. This video shows behavior by police that seems exceptionally cruel. The naked man having a drug freakout was lying down in the cold street, while it was snowing. The cops laugh at him. It’s a bad, bad scene.

I think protest against that is perfectly legitimate — and, given that there is some evidence that police tried to brush this case under the rug, perhaps even necessary. But this kind of protest, which went down tonight in Rochester, is not:

#HappeningNow the protesters in Rochester NY are “shutting down restaurants”, tables are broken, people running off scared #rochesterprotests pic.twitter.com/oxmlZp526w

— @SCOOTERCASTER (FNTV) (@ScooterCasterNY) September 5, 2020

Watch the whole video. It’s insane. What do these idiots think they are going to accomplish with this? It’s truly berserk. I think most people would be naturally sympathetic to their side after seeing that cop video, but after this?

More:

See? How can you watch this and not think to yourself, “Yep. These people are definitely the good guys”? https://t.co/Ys4SqQZzgt

— Leonydus Johnson (@LeonydusJohnson) September 5, 2020

Meanwhile, it’s starting to look like Jeffrey Goldberg’s report that Donald Trump insulted dead US troops might be true. Even Fox News stands up the reporting. It is certainly consonant with Trump’s low-rent character, and his gutter tongue. This could really hurt him.

But in the end, do you think voters are more likely to be driven by loathing of Trump’s trash mouth, and/or of the police — or fear of woke mobs attacking them in restaurants and elsewhere in public?

It’s a fair question: Oh, come on, how could the US president stop a woke mob in an American city? We’re talking about political symbolism here. If an American president holds detestable views about dead soldiers, and expresses them, it is vile and hateful, but it doesn’t hurt anything but people’s feelings. To react against Trump because of this — assuming it’s true — is understandable, but it really is about symbolism. If he really said these things, then he desecrated something sacred: the memory of our soldiers.

These mobs really do threaten people, though again, there’s not a lot this or any president can do about them, in most cases. But at the level of symbolism, they convey to people a sense the the militant left is out of control, and threatening to those who are going about their business peaceably, and who even might support their cause.

Fear of the mob, or loathing of Trump — which is more powerful, in terms of political psychology?

Look at this: BLM protesters tonight in Rochester are attacking people’s homes:

Black Lives Matter activists are now climbing onto people’s homes in Rochester. pic.twitter.com/JffhYf4nzf

— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) September 5, 2020

More:

Black Lives Matter rioters are setting fires in Rochester. pic.twitter.com/HllS35sTYl

— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) September 5, 2020

Black Lives Matter in Rochester: "If we gotta burn it down we gonna burn this mothefu**er down.”

pic.twitter.com/IyIJVY2VHI

— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) September 5, 2020

All the DC and New York elites are focused on the allegations against Trump. Expect that narrative to dominate news coverage. But these violent protests, the news of which will primarily get out over social media, are what will be the real story over Labor Day Weekend.

UPDATE: A reader writes:

I have emailed you before as a moderate democrat who admires your writing, even when I disagree (which is often).

As much as you try to be forthcoming in your criticisms of Trump, I think you have a blind spot about the true nature of his defects.

Here is another example:

If an American president holds detestable views about dead soldiers, and expresses them, it is vile and hateful, but it doesn’t hurt anything but people’s feelings.

Trump’s view isn’t merely detestable. It is a sign of a deep perversion of judgment, which goes to his fitness for office regardless of one’s politics.

Let me ask you this: Have you ever even heard of anybody, whether in life or in fiction, holding anything resembling Trump’s view on dead soldiers? If one read a character (not the president) saying such things in a novel, I think the first conclusion would not be that the character is a villain or morally bankrupt, but instead is insane.

I agree with this, actually. If these statements are true, it reveals to us a man whose judgment is morally perverse. I know people have priced in Trump’s corruption, such that they are not bothered by it, but these latest allegations — if true (and personally, I think they’re more likely to be true than not) — really are beyond anything we’ve heard about him. It’s the kind of thing that strikes right at the hearts of a lot of folks who support him. My guess, though, is that they are going to convince themselves that the stories are false (which they may be), to justify a vote for Trump — because it’s genuinely and legitimately frightening to side with the left today. I’m thinking here about the psychological dynamics of political choice in the current moment.