Reflections On Violence In Politics From Doug Jones
Former Alabama U.S. Senator Doug Jones is comparing the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk with the 1972 attempt on the life of Alabama Governor George Wallace.
Kirk, a controversial conservative activist who toured college campuses espousing the conservative cause and George Wallace, who was running for president with a history as a segregationist were both shot in front of large public rally crowds. Kirk died but Wallace survived and was paralyzed the remainder of his life.
As a U.S. Attorney Jones successfully prosecuted Klansmen involved in the 1963 16th Street Baptist Church bombing that killed four little girls in Birmingham. In an X (formerly Twitter) livestream video post on the anniversary of that tragic event, he honored they're memory by imploring leaders in both parties to dial back the current hateful rhetoric in the wake of the killing of Kirk.
He compared what Wallace was saying in a Laurel, Maryland shopping center parking lot with what Kirk was telling students at his rally on the campus of Utah Valley University saying, "words have consequences."
“Rhetoric like this has consequences that you can’t control. Once it’s out, once that genie is out of the bottle, once that genie is out, for God’s sakes you cannot control where the violence is going to come from.”
Jones added that as much as he disagreed with Kirk, the husband and father of two was practicing freedom of speech. Jones says he was "sickened" when he heard the news that Kirk had been shot. He said the attack was not just on one man but an attack on democracy.
In the video Jones says, "Communities and folks have to stand against it (hateful rhetoric). Right now, political leaders (on both sides) feel somewhat emboldened to say whatever the hell they want to say.”