Kane County Reporter

A Republican Illinois lawmaker is rebuking statements from an author who defended looting and rioting in a new book. 

Vicky Osterweil's book, "In Defense of Looting," defended looting and wrote that rioting and protests are a "powerful tool," NPR reported in August.

When Osterweil finished her book in April, she wrote that "a new energy of resistance is building across the country," NPR reported. 

As protests and riots continue across cities in America, NPR reported she indicated that "looting is a powerful tool to bring about real, lasting change in society. The rioters who smash windows and take items from stores, she claims, are engaging in a powerful tactic that questions the justice of  'law and order'  and the distribution of property and wealth in an unequal society."

State Rep. Dan Ugaste (R-Geneva), however, disagreed with the author and said that looting is never justified.

"There is no circumstance where looting is justified, especially in society today," the Republican lawmaker told Kane County Reporter. "Anyone in Illinois who needs food, medicine or shelter has the opportunity for assistance provided by the government in addition to non-profits if necessary."

Ugaste indicated that there are enough resources for those in need between federal, state and local governments.

"Our federal, state, county, township and municipal governments collectively provide economically disadvantaged people with health

care, housing and housing assistance, food assistance, utility assistance, free mobile phones and mobile service, cash payments, job search assistance and a free education to learn how to achieve self-sufficiency," Ugaste said.

Ugaste, like many others nationally, including President Donald Trump, indicated that others, including anarchists and radicals, have usurped peaceful protesters.

However, the author said, "One of the ones that's been very powerful, that's both been used by Donald Trump and Democrats, has been the outside agitator myth, that the people doing the riots are coming from the outside. This is a classic. This one goes back to slavery, when plantation owners would claim that it was Freedmen and Yankees coming South and giving the enslaved these crazy ideas — that they were real human beings — and that's why they revolted."

As for looting and arson, Ugaste said, "arson and looting are never justified. Each puts the safety, health and lives of our first responders, and others, at risk."

Ugaste also said business owners' ethnicity should never play a role in looting and arson.

"If a person's race, religion, sex or background is never to make a difference, it certainly makes no difference here. My belief is if we are to truly make progress on equality, we need to stop thinking in such terms – what is good for one must always be good for all," Ugaste said.