The question is: Why are so many cops—who comprise 43 independently run departments across the country—using these tools on behalf of an angry and sometimes violent mob that seems to hate the West? Or, at least, turning a blind eye when they could just as easily not?

There appear to be two reasons:

First, it’s a lot easier to zero in on a handful of peaceful demonstrators who have provoked the far more numerous pro-Palestinian protesters than it is to go head-to-head with the larger group. …

The other reason police appear to be supporting the pro-Palestinian faction is they’re pro-Palestinian, said Toby Young, the founder of the Free Speech Union, which champions free expression in Britain and whose members have criticized left-wing illiberalism. “They’re not impartial,” Young told me. “They prioritize protecting the feelings of Muslims over protecting the feelings of Jews. I think that’s pretty indisputable.”

Increasingly, Young said, the police are acting as if they’re “the paramilitary wing of The Guardian.”

[This is what happens when you depart from the rule of law to the rule of whim. — Ed]