Thomas Wictor

I perfectly understand the concern that people have about militarized police. However, in Garland, Texas, today, the militarized police functioned as they were intended. Two heavily armed Muslim terrorists attacked an event called the Muhammad Art Exhibit and Contest.

Pamela Geller is planning a “Draw the Prophet” event in Garland, Texas in the same location as a Muslim group held a “Stand with the Prophet” conference in January. The First Annual Muhammad Art Exhibit and Contest will be hosted by the Curtis Caldwell Center, which is owned and operated by the Garland Independent School District.

Geller’s event comes on the wake of the Islamic terrorist attack on the French magazine Charlie Hebdo in January. Following the attack, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) scheduled the “Stand with the Prophet” conference at the public school district’s conference center. Geller, the President of the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), scheduled a protest outside the event that was attended by approximately 2,000 people…

The contest will take submissions online and the winner will be announced at the event in Garland. The winning cartoonist will receive a $10,000 prize. The exhibit will feature images of Islam’s prophet in both historical and contemporary settings. There will also be a series of speeches by internationally renowned free-speech advocates.

Two Muslim terrorists took offense and attacked the event, shooting unarmed Garland Independent School District security officer Bruce Joiner in the lower leg. The two terrorists were then killed by Garland police officers. Aerial footage shows that the terrorists got no more than a few steps from their car.

The would-be mass murderers didn’t know that the American Freedom Defense Initiative paid $10,000 to have forty armed police officers—including members of a SWAT team—provide security for the event. When confronted with highly trained professional warriors, the terrorists simply died.

People are unnerved by the weapons and uniforms that the SWAT officers displayed. Keynote speaker Geert Wilders posed with SWAT members before the attack.

On social media, those who don’t know anything about the military said that the SWAT officers were wearing desert uniforms.

No. They’re wearing digital camouflage specifically designed for law enforcement. It allows them to blend into the dusty grayish tan of a concrete background.

Before I discuss the value of having militarized police units, I need to point out the blatant dishonesty of Congressmen Keith Ellison (D-MN) and André Carson (D-IN), who wrote a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson, asking that Geert Wilders be barred from entering the US.

As Mr. Wilders continues his pursuit of political power, granting him entry will embolden him to engage in further incitement of violence and discrimination against Muslims.

Wilders has never called for violence against Muslims. However, Muslims regularly demand that Wilders be murdered. He’s been put on an al-Qaeda “wanted dead or alive” poster.

Wilders has round-the-clock security. Without it, he would’ve been murdered long ago.

You may completely disagree with Geert Wilders, Pamela Geller, and Robert Spencer. Your disagreement is entirely valid and reasonable. However, THEY ARE ONLY TALKING. None of them have killed anyone. As for the “incitement to violence,” here is the complete list of Muslims or people thought to be Muslims who have been murdered in the US because of their religion, either in direct retaliation for 9/11 or Islamic terrorism in general.

Balbir Singh Sodhi, a Sikh mistaken for a Muslim. Shot by Frank Silva Roque on September 15, 2001.

Hassan Waqir, a Pakistani immigrant. Shot by Mark Stroman on September 15, 2001.

Ali Almansoop, a Yemeni. Shot by Brent D. Seever on September 21, 2001.

Abdo Ali Ahmed, a Yemeni. Shot by an unknown assailant on September 29, 2001. Two days earlier a note threatening death to all Arabs was left on his windshield.

Sunando Sen, a Hindu. Pushed in front of a New York subway train by Erika Menendez on December 27, 2012.

Abdisamad Sheikh-Hussein, a Somali. Run over on December 4, 2014, by Ahmed H. Aden.

That’s it. You should know some additional information about some of these cases.

Brent D. Seever found Ali Almansoop in bed with Seever’s ex-girlfriend. It was only later that he told police that he was angry about Muslim terrorism.

Erika Menendez told the police that she pushed Sunando Sen in front of the train because she was angry that Muslims and Hindus had brought down the World Trade Center.

Ahmed H. Aden is a Somali Christian. The motivation for his murder of Abdisamad Sheikh-Hussein arose from centuries-old tribal hate.

The February 10, 2015, murders of Deah Shaddy Barakat, Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, and Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, by Craig Stephen Hicks was a crime of neighbor-hate, not hatred of Muslims. Hicks and the three others had an ongoing feud over parking spaces.

Look at this guy.

Even if he does hate Muslims, is it fair to make him representative of the United States?

In this nation of 319 million, you can count on the fingers of one hand the number of Muslims murdered due to their religion. Geert Wilders, Pamela Geller, and Robert Spencer have incited nobody to violence. Anders Bering Breivik claimed to have been inspired by Wilders, but if you read the twaddle that Breivik wrote, it becomes clear that he murdered seventy-seven people in Norway on July 22, 2011, as an act of malignant narcissism.

He’s a pathetic, inadequate wannabe who did what he did in order to be famous.

Today in Texas we needed militarized police to protect a crowd from men intent on mass murder. These terrorists were going to kill over art. Geert Wilders has never once advocated killing people over art.

If the police at the Curtis Caldwell Center in Garland, Texas, had been beat cops with pistols, we’d be looking at 200 dead civilians. Militarized police are like anything else: They can be misused. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution, especially during this Long War against Islamic terrorism. The answer is to be responsible citizens. Educate yourself, vote for politicians who will ensure that the police don’t abuse their power, and get involved in your community.

Today could’ve been a catastrophe. It was militarized police who prevented two evil bastards from carrying out a massacre.

We should be grateful that there are people willing to risk their lives to prevent the sorts of atrocities we see being committed all over the world. Nothing’s perfect, but today the system worked the way it was supposed to.