Mark Geist warns against emboldening violent protesters
Former U.S. Marine Mark Geist , former annex security team member in Benghazi, joins Shannon Bream with insight on 'Fox News @ Night.'
Former U.S. Marine and Benghazi Annex Security team member Mark Geist said Tuesday that state leaders who have failed to call on the National Guard to protect their residents are "emboldening" the violent protesters who continue to ravage communities across the country.
"A lot of it is lack of leadership both at on the governors and the mayor's positions," Geist told Fox News' Shannon Bream.
"They are not coming at this from the right direction. What we've been seeing around the country are people who started out doing peaceful protests, infiltrated by groups that want to cause anarchy and just wanted to cause harm to Americans," he went on.
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"If you are not going to confront that, you are emboldening them to continue and that's what we saw last night in New York and in other areas around the country. There was nothing there that was going to stop them."
Geist compared rioters to "a spoiled child," who will continue misbehaving if not disciplined properly.
"If you are not going to slap them on the wrist for doing something wrong, they are just going to keep going at it," he explained.
Geist said the only way to stop the dangerous escalation is by a "show of force."
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"Because of the horrific murder of George Floyd, it's easy to get the mob mentality, somebody throws a rock, somebody is the agitation, people follow on with it," he explained.
" We need to have calmer minds, better leaders down at the street level of the groups that are there, as well as that show of force the law enforcement in the National Guard, to assist with that and give them that right, te ability to protest, but stop the rioting when it turns into that."
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