So there’s this 34-year old Ph.D in African American Studies, Casey Goonan—a white guy, if that matters. He was just arrested for firebombing a U.C. Berkeley police car and then igniting three arson fires on the Cal campus. He said he did it to support Palestinians in the Gaza War.
Clearly, this is a case of woke going amok. Goonan described America as “a godless fascist hell hole” ruled by “white supremacist American reason.” He published an online article, “Defining Social Reality in a Revolutionary Way,” in which he praised the Black Panthers for establishing “a blueprint for U.S.-based radical organizations experimenting with the scientific, premeditated, and necessarily methodical artistry of social revolution.” And then Goonan proceeded to carry out his own small part of that social revolution with the Berkeley fires. His excuse: he was protesting U.C. Berkeley’s treatment of the violent, pro-Hamas demonstrators who attempted to shut down the campus.
Pro-Palestine demonstrations are the latest fad among leftwing, younger American students. I’m not taking sides in the Israel-Hamas war, just pointing out that it’s easy for a rich, indulged person to put on a kifayah headscarf and signal his virtue. Was Casey Goonan rich? Well, his parents live in a Pleasant Hill home said to be worth more than $1 million. So I think we can get a sense of what and who he is: another entitled, grouchy wokester, always on the side of people of color, whom he perceives as mistreated by White American and Jewish racists.
Needless to say, Casey got himself a good criminal defense lawyer, guy named Jeff Wozniak. Casey is up against a slew of charges that, if he’s found guilty, could land him in prison for a long time. So what is Wozniak’s defense? He’s not claiming his client didn’t do the dirty deeds. No, he’s claiming that the charges are “persecution” for Goonan’s support of a free Palestine state. “The investigation,” says Wozniak, “is focused on Mr. Goonan’s political beliefs in a free Palestine and against the ongoing genocide in Gaza.” According to local media reports, Wozniak “urged Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price not to engage in this political persecution by prosecuting Goonan.”
Well, this is getting interesting. First, we have this dude, Goonan, who’s right out of the Occupy Oakland/Black Lives Matter cult: White guys from the burbs who think it’s just fine to commit violent crimes in order to act out their social-justice revenge fantasies. Then we have this lawyer, Wozniak, who actually thinks he can persuade a D.A. not to file charges against his client based on an obviously ridiculous allegation of “persecution.” Finally, we have a woke D.A., Price, who has made no secret of her pro-Palestinian views. As a member of the Alameda County Democratic Party Central Committee, she voted “Yes” to a resolution condemning Israel’s actions in Gaza as “war crimes.” The resolution also demanded “an end to all U.S. military aid to Israel.” Price’s support of the measure “raises real questions about [her] commitment to the safety of Jews in Alameda County,” said Tyler Gregory, CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council Bay Area.
Then there was Price’s Facebook post from July 2019, in which she wrote, “As long as Israel oppresses Palestinian people as a matter of state policy, Israel is practicing APARTHEID and all of us need to recognize it for what it is!”
Let me concede that I don’t know if this Facebook post is authentic. There are deep fakes all over the Internet; this may be one. On the other hand, it appears to be real. If it’s not, let Price repudiate it, and explain how she thinks it came to be. If it is real, then Price cannot be impartial about the Israel-Hamas war or any related case. She must recuse herself from the Goonan case. As for Goonan, what is it with these entitled White brats? There is never any justification for violent, destructive behavior. Goonan needs to pay for his crimes. And so, for that matter, do his parents, who apparently allowed their child’s mind to be warped and without normal values.
Steve Heimoff