CAMERA.ORG
Op-Ed by CAMERA CEO: What Charlie Kirk’s Murder Means for Democracy
Kurt Schwartz
September 15, 2025

…I spent years in homeland security and law enforcement, working to prevent violence and protect communities here at home. I saw firsthand how fragile order can be during the Boston Marathon bombing, when I witnessed the explosions and then helped manage the response and recovery when civic celebration on Patriots’ Day in Massachusetts was turned into carnage. That experience showed me what I have seen again and again in my career as a police officer, prosecutor and homeland security and emergency management leader; the difference between chaos and civilization is not wealth or culture, but whether disputes are resolved by civil discourse and law rather than by force. Law is the invisible contract that lets ordinary people speak freely, raise families and live without fear. Strip it away, and the violent abuse the peaceful, the strong prey upon the weak, the loud silence the thoughtful and society reverts to philosopher Thomas Hobbes’s description: nasty, brutish and short. READ MORE