Early morning Friday a brutal attack on Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) husband occurred after someone broke into their San Francisco home. At the time Nancy Pelosi was in Washington, D.C. The attack has caused shock across the country ahead of the midterm elections. This has brought to the forefront the issue of political violence, which appears to have been greatly increasing in the past few years.
Paul Pelosi is a wealthy investor and power broker. According to a source, the attacker kept asking “Where is Nancy? Where is Nancy?”, after he broke into the couple’s property. After a brief struggle, the suspect managed to hit Paul Pelosi with a hammer. The attack caused Pelosi to end up in the hospital where he underwent surgery to repair a skull fracture. He also had multiple injuries on his right arm and hand. According to the doctors, the 82-year-old man is expected to make a full recovery.
This is only the latest of the violent episodes that many members of Congress have been facing over the past few months. These have included threats, physical fights, and other episodes targeting high-ranking government officials. As a result, the question of the effects of violent political speech has arisen, as many are reexamining the level of security that Congress members and their families should be given.
This topic also arose a lot more after the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Charles Ramsey, former chief of police in Washington, D.C., has said that this case highlights the problems of political violence that many are facing in the U.S. right now. Those affected by this range from school boards to members of Congress.
The U.S. Capitol Police Department has had close to 1,820 cases of political threats against lawmakers from Jan. 1 to March 23 of 2022.
