Nathanael Blake writes for the Federalist about inconsistencies in Democrats’ pleas for justice.

The leaders of the Democratic Party think they are destroying America in order to save it. Our nation’s urban revival, of which New York City was the preeminent example, was one of the great successes of the last few decades. Now this achievement is in danger as the costliest civil unrest in American history drags on, enabled by the deliberate fecklessness of Democratic leaders.

Nightly riots and assaults in Portland, massive organized looting in Chicago, and escalating violence in NYC and elsewhere are still ongoing as police are pulled back. The destruction and pillaging have devastated local economies already wounded by the Chinese coronavirus.

The Democrats who run our cities have stood by and allowed them to be ravaged, and many people and businesses have had enough and are leaving. Years of economic development and crime reduction are being undone by the incompetence and malice of Democratic leaders, motivated by a mix of ideology and cynicism.

Ideologically, many are supine before any claim or deed on behalf of “racial justice,” no matter how spurious. Thus, the same mayors who closed playgrounds in response to the Chinese coronavirus encouraged mass protests. Some have tacitly accommodated vandalism and violence as legitimate forms of protest and treated looting as justified reparations.

Amid the destruction, the national media repeat the words “mostly peaceful” to the point of absurdity, using protests as moral cover for vandalism, arson, looting, assault, and even murder. Democratic leaders have followed suit. For example, Seattle’s mayor endorsed the armed occupation of part of her city, which began with assault and extortion and predictably ended with multiple murders. Many other local Democratic leaders appear sympathetic to the destruction and rioting, permitting and downplaying it while offering only tepid condemnations of the worst violence.