In August of this year, the National Guard was ordered into the District of Columbia, posted because President Trump decreed that the nation’s capital was a crime-ridden mess.
The crime rate would be considered the proximate cause for the president’s action.
Of course, that wasn’t the right thing to do, according to his army of detractors, because Trump was setting himself up as a king or something and he couldn’t do that (even though the law clearly states that he could).
Yet, the cause demanded the effect. That seems simple, right? Certainly the quantified drop in crime is a good indication that it was the right move.
That didn’t stop the naysayers, who blamed the high crime rate on Trump’s policies, his rhetoric, his orange façade — every last thing was Trump’s fault.
The latest news regarding the two National Guard troops who were shot last week — one of which who died — has spurred a new upsurge in baseless criticism of the president, all of which is done to replace the proximate cause of a shooter with the proximate cause of Trump, his rhetoric, and his immigration policies. Some outlets even claim that the real victims of the tragedy are Afghan immigrants, who are huddled in their homes afraid to leave.
(See, the shooter was an Afghanistan refugee, floating around in the country since September 2021 through a Biden-era resettlement program. He applied for asylum in December 2024, which apparently was approved in April.)
So, members of the administration are blaming Biden, blaming his disastrous immigration policies, while the Democrats are saying the blame for this heinous act needs to be lain at Trump’s feet because he deployed troops
All of this setup is to say that while there certainly needs to be some conversation about all of the issues adjacent to the shooting, that cannot be allowed to overshadow the fact that this refugee is the person who pulled the trigger.
All too often when tragedy occurs, it becomes de rigeur to start blaming everything except the right thing, be it a person, a natural disaster, or a policy position. While all that noise may make some feel good, showing virtue for speaking truth to power or owning the opposition, it’s just exactly what I said: noise.
In this case, as it is with any mass shooting you can point to, the proximate cause always was the choice of the shooter. Our society, it seems, is less interested in pursuing that fact in lieu of making political hay, but if our answer to tragedy is to ignore the immediate reason and push aside meting out appropriate consequences, then the problems causing these events will never be solved.
I get that people are suffering. I get that people’s passions can be overwhelming. What I can’t get is deflecting blame to things that are ancillary to the event. It doesn’t help.
Should the shooter have been in the country? Depends on who you ask. Is immigration policy a large problem? Absolutely. Are the president’s — any president’s — actions cause for concern? A great big whopping yes.
Is any of that responsible for the death of a National Guard member? No. The shooter, through his decision to pull the trigger, is responsible, and no amount of legislative pandering will change that fact or stop it from happening in the future.
To my mind, the only thing that will send the proper message is direct consequences for direct actions.
Tony Farkas is editor of the San Jacinto News-Times and the Trinity County News-Standard. He can be reached at tony@polkcountypublishing.com.
