Patrik Jonsson at the Christian Science Monitor:
In 2018, shortly after a deadly shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue, 80% of Americans worried that negativity and incivility would lead to violence, or even acts of terror, according to an NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll. Among 846 public schools, 56% saw a rise in classroom disruptions from student misconduct during the 2021-22 school year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Some 48% also saw an increase in acts of disrespect toward teachers and staff. At Waffle House, workers have insisted that the corporation adds security, given the prevalence of late-night fights. The acrimony can play out on the biggest stages and in small towns. Social media titans Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, of X and Meta, respectively, bantered about meeting in a cage match.
Meanwhile, the Discovery Museum in Acton, Massachusetts, recently posted rules about patrons acting civilly after a series of problems. “Creating these rules is a response to the current state of the world around us,” the museum’s director wrote recently. “A world where civility, empathy, respect for others, how we treat each other – a.k.a. the golden rule – have deteriorated.”
A Texas woman was arrested last week after the Department of Homeland Security said she made death threats against the Washington, DC, judge presiding over the special counsel Jack Smith’s 2020 election interference case against Trump. Abigail Jo Shry called Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is Black, a “stupid slave,” adding, “You are in our sights, we want to kill you,” according to an affidavit from a DHS officer. “If Trump doesn’t get elected in 2024, we are coming to kill you,” Shry said in the August 5 voicemail, the DHS alleged. “So tread lightly, bitch … You will be targeted personally, publicly, your family, all of it.” Shry told Department of Homeland Security officials that she didn’t really mean she’d kill the judge, according to the affidavit — but she’s still facing a federal charge that carries up to a five-year sentence. The Houston public defender’s office representing Shry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Other Trump supporters online discussed targeting the grand jurors in another Trump case, according to media reports. After Georgia prosecutors indicted Trump and 18 other co-defendants in a sprawling RICO case, far-right message boards lit up with threats of violence against the grand jurors — whose names were listed in the indictment — who voted to charge the former president. One user wrote that the list of jurors’ names was a “hit list,” Media Matters reported. Another user responded, “Based. Godspeed anons, you have all the long range rifles in the world.”