Time to Punch Back Against the Bullies

A new law increasing penalties for threatening healthcare workers in Wisconsin is a good start. From air travel to school boards, there’s more work to be done.

Please forgive the language, but bullies don’t respond well to niceties—so let’s tell it to them directly: We have had it up to here with assholery in our school board meetings, political debates, air travel, even hospitals and clinics.

The angry shouting, the interference with official duties, the threats of violence or even death—this needs to stop, and it is way past time for judges to make examples of those whose conduct goes against everything we were taught at home, in church, and by the rest of what’s left of a civilized world.

Just this week, UpNorthNews told the story of a school board meeting in Eau Claire earlier this month that required a police presence for the second time in six months because grown adults were behaving like spoiled children. Sadly, just hours after our story was published, the school board required police to be on hand again because of a death threat emailed to the board president.

(What was the angry mob protesting? That’s the point. When behavior turns disruptive or violent, it no longer matters what the core issue was.)

Some pushback is finally coming. Gov. Tony Evers this week signed a bill increasing the criminal penalty for threatening a healthcare worker or interfering with their efforts to save lives. The politicization of a deadly virus has made this era one of the darkest chapters of American history, and we eagerly await the first instance of someone facing newly-upgraded felony charges for dangerous conduct toward a doctor, nurse, or others working so hard to keep us healthy.

Airlines are long overdue to put violent passengers on a permanent no-fly list across all carriers. And even at the most basic level, our social media comment sections have become cesspools of behavior that could only be described in terms frequently used about a cesspool’s contents. We’re proud to have a quick trigger finger on deleting posts that go well beyond stating opinions and move into insults or misinformation.

Critics will call all of this cancel culture. That term means nothing. Call it what it is: overdue accountability. Legitimate peaceful protest has its place in our national conversation. But from rioting in the streets to threatening harm to the essential workers of this country, the people showing America at its worse deserve harsher penalties and whatever deterrents we can muster before they bully or harm again.