Former Navy Seal and Missouri Governor Eric Greitens, the only governor in the country who has successfully faced down Antifa and won, detailed the steps he took to maintain law and order and deter violent leftwing insurrectionist from pillaging and burning down Ferguson in 2017, in an exclusive interview with the Gateway Pundit.

Ferguson became ground zero for a neo nationwide anti-police movement as riots overtook a suburb of St. Louis in the wake of a police shooting in August 2014. Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, was shot and killed by Darren Wilson, a white police officer. After protests roiled the area for weeks, a grand jury decided not to indict Wilson in November, igniting another wave of protests.

In 2017, Antifa and other violent, leftwing, anti-police groups poured into Missouri from around the country to again wreak havoc after police officer Jason Stockley was found not guilty in the 2011 death of Anthony Lamar Smith in St. Louis. But Greiten’s swift and firm resolve prevented another Ferguson riot.

Unlike his Democrat predecessor Jay Nixon, who wanted to give people a safe space to loot and to burn and passively allow the city to be overtaken by anarchists, the former Navy Seal successfully kept the peace.

The newly elected former Navy Seal issued a stern warning to the thugs demanding a violent revolution: the rights of peaceful protesters would be protected, but the unlawful activity would buy them a one-ticket ride to jail.

“When I came into office, I was very supportive of our law enforcement officers. I made it very clear – if you loot, burn, through bricks at police officers, broke windows or engaged in violence while I was governor, the only safe space you were going to have was in a jail cell.” Greitens explained in an exclusive interview with the Gateway Pundit. “Radical activists threatened to burn Missouri and make things so bad that you won’t even remember Ferguson. My team and I were able to beat them. We had a plan to address every possible move that they made at a strategic, operational and technical level.

“We used undercover officers to identify Antifa leaders who were promoting violence. Communication and coordination between police forces and the Missouri National Guard and assuring intelligence was shared between law enforcement divisions was imperative to preventing more innocent people from getting killed, businesses from getting trashed and maintaining order.”

“We have to be proactive and use every available tool to target them – intelligence assets, we have to attack their finances. We need to counter their strategies on social media. This must be a full-fledged effort to beat them. We had a well-developed intelligence network and we shared intelligence among police, fire departments, the National Guards and Department of Homeland Security and state emergency management agency. This is what all governors in America must do to defeat Antifa and other radicals whose only intentions are to create destruction and mayhem, destroy businesses, loot, commit arson and attack the police. We fortified courthouses and police stations with barricades and business boarded up their windows.”

“Everyone has a constitutional right to freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. But throwing a brick through a window, attacking a police officer is not free speech. When they tried to stop traffic on a highway, we precipitously moved in and opened up the highway. We made it clear that we were going to support the law enforcement officers and we were going to exist on law and order.”

There are two critical components a leader must demonstrate to remedy mass hysteria and civil unrest during crisis, Greitens explained.

“Strength and compassion. You need to bring both. Without courage, compassion falters. Without compassion courage has no direction,” he said.

While staunchly supported police officers in every way possible amid the upheaval, Greitens stood in solidarity with peaceful protesters and Anthony Lamar Smith’s fiancé, Christina, who then assisted the first-term governor with persuading the community to remain calm and uphold and rule of law.

“The night before the verdict came out, I went out with Christina and we said together to everyone that no matter what the verdict is tomorrow we know that there are going to be some people who are angry and that we were going to protect everyone who wanted to voice that anger by protesting peacefully. We were also very clear that if anyone engaged in violence they would be arrested.”

Justly penalizing dirty cops is crucial to supporting law enforcement as well, Greitens argued.

“It’s also important as a governor for you to take action when you do have a bad police officer. One of the things I did as governor when we had police officers who were clearly guilty of crimes, rather than letting them bounce from what department to another we took away the post-certification,” he said. “It’s basic, simple, straight forward things that need to be done. Unfortunately, too many governors talk about stuff instead of getting it done. We kept the peace and we defeated Antifa because were willing to go out and actually do the hard work.”

Following George Floyd’s murder, lawmakers and law enforcement officials from across the nation have reached out to Greitens seeking guidance on how to deescalate the violent riots and racial tension dilapidating their states. But proficiently defeating Antifa and preventing George Soros-funded insurrectionist group from destroying Ferguson came at a price.

The only governor to ever defeat Antifa, was taken out of office months later by George Soros-backed prosecutor Kimberly Gardner.

Gardner alleged, with no evidence, Greitens took a compromising photo of a woman with whom he had an affair without her consent in 2015.

The woman, Katrina Sneed, told a legislative committee Greitens restrained, slapped, shoved and threatened her during sexual encounters. She also claimed she could not remember whether she had dreamt of the incident in which he took the alleged photograph of her. A St. Louis grand jury indicted him in February that year on one felony count of invasion of privacy. The charge was later dropped and his case was dismissed.

Gardner is currently under active criminal investigation while a former FBI agent who worked to manufacture the false case against Greitens has been indicted for seven felonies for perjury and evidence tampering.

The post EXCLUSIVE: Navy Seal And Former Missouri Governor Reveals How He Saved Ferguson From Antifa’s Wrath appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.