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Dale Jackson: Huntsville showed us how to deal with riots, and their citizens are happy about that

During the never-ending protests, riots and chaos of the previous few years, Alabama has been generally quiet on that front.

There are probably a couple of reasons for that. Our history and growing pains on this issue are well-known. The success of activists to remove some Confederate monuments and the lack of a George Floyd-like situation have helped prevent such chaos in Alabama.

Most of the protests in the state are connected to the overarching “We are mad about stuff happening in other areas” variety. Yes, the millennials will make their “Black Lives Matter” signs and go make sad faces in the park for Instagram and Facebook.

“Take another picture, that one wasn’t good” was heard a million times.

The reason there is no life to this is simple — there is no massive “issue” to rally around here.

Names like Dana Fletcher and Crystal Ragland don’t carry the same weight when you know they pulled guns on cops. People have tried, but there isn’t much there-there.

Outside of some rioting in Birmingham on a single night, the state has been almost entirely calm.

Another flare-up took place on June 1 and 3 in Huntsville, but this assuaged pretty quickly. The mobs were placated when the city council sent them on a 10-month investigation to find out what happened.

Allow me to be polite here — that was a wild-goose chase. The city told the activists, “Golly, we sure are sorry. Why don’t you investigate this and get back to us and tell us what you think went down and how we can fix it.”

I can sum this up simply. The City of Huntsville, Mayor Tommy Battle and Huntsville Police Chief Mark McMurray made a decision that they would allow protesters to have their moment, but they would not be allowed to trash the city or fight with law enforcement.

Over these two nights, there were a couple of issues, and then it went away. Exactly like the city wanted.

Alabama Media Group’s activist corps can write 500 think pieces about inter-agency communications, beanbags to the face and cops “behaving unprofessionally.”

It’s obvious the city took this report and just said, “Hmmm, OK, thanks. We will totally look into this.”

The agitators got rope-a-doped, and they don’t even know it. They got played.

It is beyond obvious that citizens of Huntsville are with the police and the mayor in being thrilled that this went no further.

Mayor Tommy Battle knows this and said as much during an appearance on WVNN this week.

“I think our citizens support law and order. You know, if you know any of those police officers or if you see a police officer, you need to thank them for being a police officer,” Battle told “The Dale Jackson Show.”

Battle went on to suggest that those who support law enforcement show that support by buying them a meal when seeing them out in public.

“[T]hey’re out on the streets. They’re doing everything they can to keep us safe and to make sure our communities stay safe. I think most of our people respect them and support them,” he advised.

This is the real world that is not depicted by the media and their Democrats.

People want their communities to be safe, and the City of Huntsville allowed protests to take place while protecting people and property.

The media can act like this is a scandal if they need to. But as with most things, no one believes them.

Listen:

Dale Jackson is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts a talk show from 7-11 AM weekdays on WVNN and on Talk 99.5 from 10AM to noon.

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