The past year has been a terrible one to witness. So many deep attacks from so many fronts. It was the 1st time in our history that our economy was deliberately shut down for any reason. Businesses, families, workers were told to stay home. We were told not to attend church. Our economy collapsed and businesses were gasping to remain viable. It seemed all of us were suffering the same fate together, but we found out to our shock, that some of us are more equal than others.

While the police were directed to shut down churches, they were also often told to relax and stand down when the left unleashed their rioters, looters, arsonist, violent predators, and cop killers to terrorize the streets. The mob did not have to worry about any health or legal precautions while they were attacking and burning down neighborhoods, towns and cities. They were celebrated as they destroyed the very fabric of civil society. They were applauded as they destroyed businesses already on life support. They were applauded as they posed in front of the smoldering heaps that were once our historic monuments.

The mobs attacked without apology. They seemed entitled to commit whatever crimes they choose with whatever excuse they could provide a fawning press corp. They inflicted great and terrible harm on the innocent and on our society. And they did so because they could. They were protected by democrat-controlled towns, city and states. They operated without fear of any pain or suffering. And they were rewarded by the powerful and corrupt political left.

The good and decent people of our nation have been quiet witnesses to this unending tragedy. Mobs have an insatiable appetite. The more it feeds, the more it needs. Mobs are bullies crowded together. It is never a good idea to try to appease a bully and it is disaster to try to appease a mob. Now we witness mobs, dictating who can walk freely on our sidewalks and who can’t. What artwork you can appreciate and what art you can’t. What books you can read to your children and which ones you can’t. When and where you can worship as people of faith and where and when you can’t. Which historic American monuments we can enjoy and which ones we can’t. What laws are applied to which groups and which groups of people are exempt. This is mob culture and it imposes mob justice on all of us. It is what is replacing due process and America being a nation of laws. America, this is what it is like to live in Venezuela. This is what our nation looks like when we lose our heritage of freedom and rights. This, is what’s becoming our new normal.

We are Americans and, unlike the rest of the world, we do have a history of fighting for liberty, eternal principals and rights. We can turn this around. The backlash is long overdue. We cannot answer the left’s assault on our nation with quiet despair. We must fight back. It is not just the roving thugs attacking our nation from the streets and neighborhoods around the nation, it is our elected representatives that now have provided public cover for these lawless mobs. These representatives, like Maxine Waters, have publicly called for the mob to agitate if they don’t get their way.

In our own backyard, we have a powerful black woman, a state Senator who deliberately and with malice orchestrated a riot and encouraged criminal attacks on a historic monument. Senator Louise Lucas, on June 10th 2020, instigated a mob to become violent and destructive. She abused her position of authority in preventing the police to defend and protect persons and property, both of which were grievously harmed. The democrat leadership praised her. Gov. Northam, Congressman Scott and other democrat leaders supported her act of lawlessness calling the riot “Good Trouble” which the Va. Pilot dutifully echoed without condemnation. She did not resign. Her party did not sanction her. And she remained in power. The other powerful black woman, Police Chief Angela Greene however was fired for upholding her oath of office to defend and protect by charging Senator Lucas, members of the NAACP and attorneys from the public defender’s office for their roles in the rioting. The Commonwealth attorney Stephanie Morales used her office to ensure that her friend Louise Lucas, to whom she generously donated to her campaigns, and none of these other people charged, faced trial.

The bad guys win again? It does not have to be this way. That fired police chief? She now has a lawsuit against the city and has named Senator Louise Lucas in the law suit. During the past year, the local Portsmouth Tea Party helped mobilize a recall petition. The citizens that Lucas endangered with the rioting mob, has now signed recall petitions by the thousands to remove Senator Lucas from office; they have almost double the signatures needed to send a much-needed message that We the People reject mob violence and will not bow to mob justice, ever. The petitions will be filed within days and if this recall process is executed cleanly and honestly, Senator Lucas will be removed from office. This is how we restore our nation. We face the enemy together, and together we beat them down. The mob will not rule our streets. Never Again!

With Good Will Towards All,

Nelson Velez
Chairman
VATP