In the United States of America today, public death threats were made against supporters of a political candidate. R.E.A.L. would condemn this in any other country, and in any other circumstance, and so R.E.A.L. also condemns public death threats against political supporters in the 2016 presidential campaign. Such violent threats to intimidate are the very definition of what we would consider “terrorism,” broadly defined as “the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, especially for political purposes.”

In any other country and at any other time, such terrorist threats would be “news.” But when such threats are made against supporters of a political candidate considered unpopular by Establishment news media, this is ignored. To those who support our Universal Human Rights and who defy terrorism, this is nothing other than rank hypocrisy. Wrong is wrong. The death threats publicly written on the walls of a public building in Boston are nothing less than terrorist threats, and R.E.A.L. calls upon federal law enforcement to investigate them as such.

R.E.A.L. is and will remain a non-partisan group. HQ’d in the United States of America, this sometimes makes it difficult to report on human rights issues, as has been seen during the 2016 presidential campaigns. But one of our core commitments in Universal Human Rights remains our defiance to terrorism, and we have seen too many political extremists using terrorist threats and acts, as part of political intimidation in 2016.

R.E.A.L. does and will continue to reject terrorism from every source, no matter who or what that source of terrorist threat is.

In 2016, we have seen too many acts of political violence, which the U.S. Establishment mainstream media completely ignores. It has been a sickening spectacle to largely see federal law enforcement detached from rigorous prosecution of those engaged in such violence, riots, and other acts, which in any other circumstances would be considered terrorist in nature. Such political violence as we have seen in 2016 is intended to “intimidate,” it is intended to “coerce,” and sadly we have seen this over and over in 2016 from many different directions.

But part of this political violence has been the concentrated efforts by the Establishment media to demonize supporters of a political candidate. The New York Times recently published an inflammatory article calling such political candidates supporters “terrorists,” a minority magazine publication recently called for the candidate to “die,” and this past weekend a Los Angeles Times reporter called for the “death” of the political candidate.

We have seen too many political extremists mimic the ISIS terrorist organization by using Twitter and social media to make, what is now, becoming “routine” actual death threats against those that they don’t like politically. The number of brazen, unashamed, no fear of consequences, death threats that I have read with my own eyes on social media against political individuals is beyond calculation. There must be hundreds, thousands of such terrorist threats, which sickeningly have now become “normal” in the American political dialogue.

In recent weeks, we have seen a political office attacked by Molotov cocktail firebombs. We have seen gunshots riddle the homes of people with political signs in their lawns. We have seen political terrorist attacks on buildings in Texas, North Carolina, and Colorado in recent days.

We have seen seen violent physical attack after attack on people who are political partisans. One man was beaten with a crowbar for wearing a shirt showing his political preference. Another man chased down and beaten by a political mob in the streets in broad daylight for his political views. Yet another had his head sliced open from rocks and bottles in a mob attack. Political extremists have used sledgehammers to destroy property of a political candidate. Recently, an African-American homeless woman was threatened by a political extremist mob for seeking to defend property of a political candidate. The enraged political extremist mob shoved the homeless woman to the ground, stole her signs, and threatened to pummel her.

Political partisans have come to believe it is acceptable to spit on, throw eggs at, throw rocks at other human beings, when you disagree with them politically. Committing political property damage is now considered “fair” against those that they disagree with – people exchange tips and compare notes on their terrorist adventures in “keying” someone’s car over their political views (scratching and defacing it), breaking and destroying their property, stealing their property, smashing out windows. Recently, the Establishment Washington Post ran a laudatory article about one such criminal, a woman who felt justified to steal 40 signs of a political candidate she disagrees with.

In one political terrorist attack in 2016, the extremists tried to burn down the American flag along with the attack. That burned American flag provides the most accurate picture of how the American political dialogue and respect for law and order has degraded in 2016.

In all of this, any sane person must wonder WHERE ARE THE POLICE? There are a handful of arrests in some of these broad daylight attacks, but for the most part, there have been very few arrests and prosecutions, and almost no high profile arrests, except for the arrest of one man attempting a political assassination. But without a strong law and order to defend our shared human rights, including political freedoms for ALL PEOPLE – including those with whom we disagree – in 2016, we are seeing these rights increasingly under siege in the United States of America.

If we abandon all law, we cannot defend human rights.

If this was in any other country, the nations of the world would be horrified by such human rights abuses. If this was Communist China, Myanmar, North Korea, or some other oppressive nation, human rights activists would be writing and protesting about such human rights violations. The United Nations and human rights activists would be calling for an end to such violence and threats endangering democratic freedoms and human rights.

But when such political terrorism happens in the United States of America, in 2016, our public dialogue – as filtered by an Establishment Media – has allowed the public to believe terrorist threats, terrorist activity, and terrorist violence – is somehow “not so bad” – as long as it is done “for an accepted political view.”

“Normalizing” terrorism and political violence is the worst mistake Americans can make. We either believe in human rights, the law, and justice or we do not. We either reject terrorism or we do not. “Situational ethics” which allow us to think we can wink at terror and political violence when it “suits our needs” – are no ethics, no standards, and no commitment to human rights – at all.

Responsible for Equality And Liberty urges the American people, the institutions, the media, and government organizations to unequivocally reject terrorism, including political terrorism, and to unequivocally support our shared universal human rights.

If it seeks to continue as a democratic republic, the United States of America must be and must do better than this.