Behavior that gets rewarded gets repeated. People who are willing to use violence to suppress speech will learn that such behavior is effective, at least when the police don’t come down particularly hard on the thuggery. Indeed, they may find at times that even merely threatening violence might suffice to suppress speech they dislike. And of course this message will be easily learned by the potentially violent of all religious and political stripes (again, so long as they suspect that the police won’t make the thuggery too costly).This behavior is part and parcel of the growing hostility toward Christians in the United States. The same reasoning could be applied to counter-protests regarding homosexuality, abortions, etc. It could even be extended to non-religious protests/demonstrations/rallys, such as on immigration, taxing/spending, etc. Even if you do not participate in such protests, you have reason to be concerned because this decision will serve to further ratchet up the possibility of a protest/demonstration/rally turning violent.
(H/t Instapundit)
You can find the video of this incident on YouTube. I agree, this is a dangerous precedent to set.
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