OPINION:
City, state and federal agencies are taking a look at a vicious, hateful email sent to a restaurant frequented by talk radio icon Michael Savage that threatens to shoot up the establishment if he’s not denied future service.
Remember back in November when Fox News host Tucker Carlson and his family were targeted and threatened by protesters? This is worse.
Portions of the email sent to the restaurant state, in all caps, “I DEMAND THAT YOU REFUSE TO ALLOW MICHAEL SAVAGE … IN YOUR F-ING RESTAURANT AGAIN. HE IS A RACIST WHITE SUPREMACIST PIECE OF SH— … DONT WANT TO LISTEN TO ME? WELL I GUESS YOURE ALL GONNA F—ING DIE THEN CUZ I AM WAITING FOR THE MOTHAF— AND I WILL WAIT AND WATCH YOUR F—ING BUSINESS AND WHEN I SEE HIM GO IN THERE IM GOING TO START SHOOTING EVERY BODY I CAN FIND.”
The suspect then gets very specific.
“I OWN 3 GUNS AND I CAN DO SOME SERIOUS F—ING DAMAGE,” the email went on. “I WILL KILL AS MANY OF YOU RACIST-SUPPORTING/ENABLING WHITE SUPREMACISTS AS I F—ING CAN.”
Savage, in a telephone interview, said he has “changed location,” but he didn’t elaborate.
Savage also said: “Over the years, I have received many threats and have chosen to ignore them. … However, given the violent, vile times we are living in and the specific nature of this threat, both I and some serious agencies are taking this threat very seriously.”
And well they should.
The email goes on to totter on toward Hate Crime Land.
“PEOPLE WILL F—ING DIE,” the email messenger wrote. “IM GOING TO KILL THAT F—ING CRYPTO JEW BUT IF YOU DONT WANT YOUR WHOLE BUSINESS TO TURN INTO A F—IN SHOOTING GALLERY AND YOUR CUSTOMERS TO GET CAUGHT UP IN THIS YOU BETTER KEEP HIM OUTTA THERE OR ELSE … YOURE ALL GONNA F—IN DIE UNLESS YOU DO WHAT I F—IN SAY. ILL REALLY MAKE U F—IN FAMOUS.”
It was just a few weeks ago that Carlson was caught in the crossfires of angry protesters who stormed to his home in Northwest D.C. and smashed against the front door.
“I called my wife,” Carlson said to The Washington Post. “She had been in the kitchen alone, getting ready to go to dinner, and she heard pounding on the front door and screaming … Someone started throwing himself against the front door and actually cracked the front door.”
Now comes this terrifying threat to a restaurant frequented by Savage — and by several politicians, for that matter.
Maybe now the left will start to tone down its rhetoric? Maybe now the Nancy Pelosis of the country and the Maxine Waters of the nation will start to understand that calls for summers of resistance and cries to confront conservatives — particularly those tied to this Donald Trump administration — in the streets, in restaurants, at their homes, are all examples of uncalled-for rallies that can indeed spark the mentally unstable or viciously partisan to actually get physical?
Savage said “they do have a suspect, they do have a suspect they’re looking at, as we speak.”
And in a tweet on Thursday evening, Savage wrote this by way of giving an update: “LOCAL STATE AND FEDS TRACKING THE LEFT WING MANIAC.”
Good.
Let’s hope an arrest is soon to come.
This whole censorship of conservatives is bad enough. But threatening to shoot a conservative Jewish talk show host who happens to be on friendly terms with this president? That’s a new level of hate.
It’s a dangerous world out there, and apparently, speech — more to point, conservative speech — has become the shoot-to-kill target.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley.
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