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EDITORIAL: Scare tactics aside, Gillespie was on point

News Virginian - 6/18/2018

Remember last year when Ed Gillespie, then the Republican candidate for governor, slammed then-Gov. Terry McAuliffe (and by extension, Gillespie's Democratic rival, Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam) for coddling MS-13 gang members by restoring voting rights to thousands of felons? Liberals slammed the Republican nominee for grossly overstating the using scare tactics to win over undecided voters.

MS-13 is not the widespread threat Gillespie would have us believe it is, liberals scoffed.

Recently, though, this question caught our eye: "Is MS-13 overtaking a middle school in Md.?"

It came not from a Donald Trump tweet or some right-wing blog, but from the front page of a recent Washington Post (yes, that same Washington Post that, according to conservatives who don't actually read it, is nothing but a propaganda rag for the liberal wing of the Democratic Party. Must be jarring when a media outlet goes off the script its opponents have written for it.)

In any case, the Post story reports on the situation at William Wirt Middle School in Riverdale, Maryland:

"Gang-related fights are now a near-daily occurrence at Wirt, where a small group of suspected MS-13 members ... throw gang signs, sell drugs, draw gang graffiti, and aggressively recruit students recently arrived from Central America.... The situation ? has left some teachers so afraid that they refuse to be alone with their students."

Wirt is not unique: "Dozens of schools from Northern Virginia to Long Island to Boston are dealing with a resurgence of MS-13, which has been linked to a string of grisly killings throughout the country," the story continues.

Yet Gillespie's references to MS-13 were roundly ridiculed. In addition to the critics who guffawed at the idea that the notorious gang represented any kind of widespread threat, George Mason University cranked out a report to rebut Gillespie's concerns.

To be fair, the candidate's rhetoric was overblown and his campaign ads went too far. But his bottom-line warnings about the gang were on the mark.

More recently, Trump's references to the gang also have provoked pushback from liberals - not merely because he seemed, to some, to conflate the gang with immigrants generally (which he did not do), but also because his comments about MS-13 were considered too unkind (is that even possible?)

This is ridiculous.

It's true that immigration is not just a net gain for the U.S. but a vital infusion of fresh talent and perspectives. Immigrants - both legal and illegal - consistently commit less crime than native-born Americans. That's not conjecture, but fact backed up by recent statistical analyses (which in turn confirmed previous such studies.)

But that does not mean every foreign-born person in the U.S. is a saint, and pretending that MS-13 is a non-problem just because Republicans say otherwise is the epitome of knee-jerk, partisan cheerleading. It's no different than conservatives refuting a news story about President Trump for no other reason than it says something they wish weren't true. There's no place for that kind of blind loyalty - from either side - in our republic.

The story cited above isn't the only one The Washington Post has run. A few others include:

"'Heinous and violent': MS-13's appeal to girls grows as gang becomes 'Americanized' ";

"MS-13 is 'taking over the school,' one teen warned before she was killed" ;

"Alleged MS-13 member - known as the grandpa - is accused of extorting Langley Park residents "

There are plenty more .

People who live in communities afflicted by MS-13 know how bad the problem is.

They also know who is telling the truth about it, and who isn't.