Letter to the editor: First Amendment doesn't protect criminal behavior

A student letter-writer recently lamented the sending of federal troops to Los Angeles and the brief detention of Sen. Alex Padilla (“Defending our right to protest,” June 20, TribLive). While I support his right to express his opinion, I feel the need to exercise my own right and call his view a contemptible load of horse manure.

In case his agenda-driven left-wing professors neglected to teach him properly, I would simply point out that the First Amendment does not protect criminals from blocking public streets, setting fires or attacking federal law enforcement officers. As for Padilla, he failed to identify himself and was disruptive and aggressive in the proximity of a federal cabinet official. Padilla got exactly what he wanted — attention. After his brief detention, the senator promptly used a public platform to shed crocodile tears over America’s “king.”

As is typical of many left-wing positions, the writer’s opinion is totally divorced from reality. If he is sincere and not merely disingenuous, then I can only hope that he begins to more carefully examine the information he uses to develop his views. Social media, left-wing propaganda outlets posing as news organizations and delusional left-wing professors are good sources to avoid.

Don Liddick

Bullskin

The writer is a criminal justice professor at Penn State Fayette.