Earlier today, I was watching the videos of the leftist mob surrounding and attacking Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk and Candace Owens as they sat down for breakfast in a Philadelphia cafe.

If you would like to watch it yourself, you can follow this link where the videos were covered previously.

I watched as members of the group got dangerously close as they blew whistles right in the ears of Owens and Kirk, as well as stuck bullhorns in their faces while they spoke into them. This caused Owens to become angry and warn the woman with the bullhorn to keep it out of her face.

As I watched, I began wondering how I would react in this same situation. If it were myself and a political colleague who knew what the job entailed, I’m more or less sure I’d have handled it exactly how Owens and Kirk did. Smile, wave, and film everything. Even having water thrown on me (assuming what was thrown on Kirk in one of the videos was water) would probably cause me to put my hands up to show that I’m not retaliating despite the fact that it would be considered assault on their part. I don’t want the left to have any excuse to escalate the situation further, and I don’t like the feeling of handcuffs myself.

But then I wondered what would happen if it wasn’t just me or one of my colleagues. What if it were one of my family members who was accompanying me? What if it were my mother, girlfriend, or sister that was with me when this mob came after me. What would happen if one of those with me had a small child?

If the whistleblowing kid sidled up too close to my loved ones, what would my reaction be in the moment? If they put a bullhorn in their face and began screaming, would I be able to keep my cool? What if they threw liquids on them? Could I just raise my hands up? Would it even be responsible of me to not become physical in some way in order to make them aware that there is a line, and crossing it could result in physical harm, or should I just pull them closer to me and lead them away as best I can?

It’s easy to ponder these questions while I’m sitting in my office behind a keyboard watching it happen to somebody else. No adrenaline in my system, my heart isn’t pounding in my ears, and my fight or flight instincts aren’t trying to take over my reason. I could speculate as to my reaction all day, but until I’m put in that situation where my loved ones are in danger, I’ll never really know.

But rest assured, if the left continues to normalize this tactic of confronting right-wing people while they’re minding their own business in public, we will know.

The leftist crowd in the videos of Kirk and Owens seemed pretty rabid. There obviously isn’t a lot of reason being used between them. Spurred on by their inability to consider that maybe their actions aren’t exactly doing anything productive, it’s easy to see how they could ratchet themselves up into actual violent territory. They’re already willing to throw water on someone. Eventually, they’ll expand what they consider okay to do, or even necessary.

If the left continues to surround people in a threatening manner, one day they will take it to a place they really never should have gone. They’ll descend with bullhorns, whistles, and possibly more than just a bottle of water on some right-leaning person out with a loved one. They’ll begin screaming and moving into people’s personal space in an attempt to intimidate them…

…and at some point, it’ll happen. They’ll choose the wrong target, on the wrong day, with the wrong company.

One or both parties are going to take a sudden movement wrong or see an action that goes too far, and before you know it someone is going to be swinging something at another person. Maybe the person being hit will (if they have the ability) back off, and everyone will retreat to their side, and it won’t escalate from there.

Maybe it won’t. Maybe someone else will join in to defend one of the people in the fight. Maybe that will trigger others to join in as well. Maybe someone will suddenly find themselves the victim of several people brutally beating them.

Either way, someone is going to get hurt. Not their feelings or their pride, but possibly the bones in their body.

And the left would have no one but themselves to blame. No blame should ever go to the person who retaliated violently to their family being put in harm’s way. In the moment, it’s hard to know what intentions are. One thing that is known is that it’s highly hostile, so one wrong move could trigger a defensive offense. It’s hardwired into us to react that way to protect our own.

If the left has any sense whatsoever, its leaders will continuously speak out against this kind of aggression until the idea that this kind of mob confrontation is weeded out from the leftist playbook. If they don’t, then they shouldn’t be surprised when someone on either side winds up with injuries that may range from a simple black eye to something much worse.