The news is usually full of information on violence. Violence sells. Have you been to a movie lately? All that Hollywood talk about non-violence is just fake news. I am not interested in the movies that glorify violence, but I am interested in some of these news stories because they open up conversations that most people do not want to have, well unless you want to lose friends. I have been there and done that.
Did anyone watch any of the Uvalde school shooting trial featuring a police officer? The jury did figure out that he could not be pinned with the 29 counts of abandonment and negligence. The testimony showed that the whole school community failed although only one other person, also a police officer, is also going to trial. Maybe that will fail also. There is no statute of limitations on murder but in Uvalde the murderer died at the scene. Do you know that some believe, like Sandy Hook, that Uvalde was not real? Their theories lead to more sinister plots, if it was all staged.
I digress from my original intent of this post. I am posting about the protestors out on the street who have crossed lines. Their behaviors have led to deadly consequences. Their protests are anything but peaceful so they are met with responses that have been deadly.
I know what the FACE Act is. I had to know when participating in prayer vigils or Pro-life activities. For several years I faced harassment as an advocate for prolife. People considered our presence as an intrusion. Standing on public sidewalks in prayer is protected speech but there are actual lines that cannot be crossed. Most respect those lines. The ones who do not respect the lines, have had legal consequences. Some who actually respected the lines, have also faced consequences. It is a risk one takes when advocating in public. Lines are called Buffer Zones in front of abortion clinics.
The protests about ICE have broken lines, literally. Most recent headlines are about the line between a door and a sanctuary. I for one would like to see the proverbial book thrown at the "independent journalist" and the group that he was recording before, during and after the entrance into the church in Minneapolis. I attend a church and want the protection our Constitution guarantees. I wonder how the children who faced the wrath of a hater at the school Mass in Minneapolis are doing. Afterall, churches and schools are supposed to be safe places at all times, right? The protestors were violent; they just did not use deadly violence.
Does anyone remember when there was a massacre in a Jewish synagogue in Pittsburgh? How about the church burnings in the South or when the young adult entered a house of faith and killed nine people in S.C years ago? Anyone? There are links below to remind anyone who has forgotten.
I am not a legal expert, and I don't play one on TV, so I am posting links to two interviews with Harmeet Dhillon, a legal expert. Catherine Herridge, on Straight to the Point a joint effort with the LA Times, interviewed Harmeet Dhillon in her first episode in early November 2025 and then again in early February 2026.
Listen carefully to the interviews. Whose voice will you heed, an "independent journalist" who enters a church with protestors or a legal expert who was once a journalist?
If voices are not a concern in terms of the continuum of violence, listen to the report in the link about the few days' old news briefing by a Sheriff regarding a planned massacre at a church near Tampa, Florida? A 14-year-old has been arrested. In addition to other charges, would this kid be charged with the FACE Act violation if his plans were not found out before the evil plan was discovered by internet sleuths? Throw the book at him too, he may be a victim himself, but evil is evil. Churches in this 14-year-old neighborhood are now being monitored for safety reasons.
Violence is a continuum. When do you want it to stop, inside or outside the protected space. FACE it. Bill Clinton signed the FACE Act into law in 1994. The FACE Act is not about political lines, or is it?
You decide. The most recent protestors will hopefully face an educated jury of their peers and not politically motivated or fearful jurers.
Harmeet Dhillon links:
https://youtu.be/58KrZF1b0bQ?si=yGgiYYaQG-7WH_vn
https://youtu.be/HXqCuxcjsYM?si=8f4a21CYeArBm8jJ
Link for Sheriff interview:
https://www.youtube.com/live/wIYLWGAB88s?si=01QB5uh5IQ2vuC33
Church Massacre
https://youtu.be/uMzZtMd9V50?si=OmzCywC22gOTpVfW
Pittsburgh Synagogue Massacre
https://youtu.be/L_47AE3-FtE?si=ZT2WFOKH9lbES-7c
Marian R. Carlino
February 6, 2026
