Rep. Dan Crenshaw said it’s time to call out “small-minded tyrants” across the country who are using the “full force of the law” against mothers, fathers, business persons and everyday Americans during the pandemic.
The Texas Republican released a video Thursday evening titled “A Message for Small-Minded Tyrants: Here’s. Your. Civics. Lesson” detailing the unfortunate exploits of “so-called leaders” in response to COVID-19.
Mr. Crenshaw prefaced video of a recent interview with Fox News with the following tweet: “So-called ’leaders’ across the country have been violating their contract with the American people. It must stop. No more punishments.”
“These so-called leaders and these so-called judges across the country arresting moms and dads, and of course she’s not the only case,” he said in reference to Texas salon owner Shelley Luther, who was briefly jailed for defying Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s emergency orders. “A dad was arrested in Colorado for playing catch with his daughter. A paddleboarder who was paddleboarding alone in the ocean was chased down by police boats in California. A guy in Florida had to be sent to court because he was trying to sell takeout [from] his restaurant. This is happening over and over. And, again, these so-called leaders, these so-called judges, they need to take a civics lesson.”
Mr. Crenshaw said that Americans collectively can tell when officials are threatening the nation’s core values.
“These laws will not be respected if they are not respectable laws,” he said. “People are not dumb. They can understand, and they can assess whether a law makes sense, whether it’s really based on data and public health, and a lot of these things aren’t. We’ve seen a lot of rules being passed that simply don’t make sense. And then, they go further. They want to use the full force of the law. Fine you, throw you in jail, arrest you, take away your freedom just because you’re engaging in activity that was previously perfectly legal. OK, engaging in a voluntary transaction with another human being has long been a legal and perfectly OK activity. And to all of a sudden make it illegal, and then use the full force of the law to enforce it, that goes against our very basic values.”
The Republican stressed that political leaders actually undermine decent guidelines for public safety by directing law enforcement to use a heavy hand regarding compliance.
“I’m all for the guidelines,” he said. “But the government has to use the lightest touch possible and these so-called leaders are not doing that. They are infringing on people’s freedoms all while, by the way, advocating to allow other criminals who have previously been in jail to be released. So, it’s contradictory in that sense too. And it’s in complete contradiction to our Constitution and our way of life, and what our society is founded upon. This is why you’re seeing people rise up. Americans are sick of it. They have a sense of injustice. They have a sense that these so-called leaders, these so-called judges — [Americans] have a sense that they’re not actually implementing the laws — because these not laws. They’re executive orders. They have a sense that they’re not really implementing justice as we understand it as a culture and as a society. We know that they’re doing the wrong thing and we have to call them out for it.”
The video was seen over 46,000 times in less than 24 hours.
So-called “leaders” across the country have been violating their contract with the American people. It must stop. No more punishments. pic.twitter.com/R9DsCMzvZC
— Rep. Dan Crenshaw (@RepDanCrenshaw) May 7, 2020
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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