A 20-year-old Chelmsford man was arraigned Monday on charges including assault and battery on a police officer after a brawl outside a Lowell nightclub left an officer knocked unconscious — the kind of violence against law enforcement that becomes inevitable when the political class spends years demonizing cops and consequences evaporate.

Malakai Linton faced Judge John Coffey in Lowell District Court on three counts: disorderly conduct, affray, and assault and battery on a police officer. The Boston Herald reported that the incident erupted shortly after 1 a.m. Sunday outside Tescobar, a 350-capacity venue on Middlesex Street hosting a "Raised in the 978: Lowell Folk Fest After Party." Two separate altercations inside the club had already prompted management to turn on the lights and start clearing patrons before the 2 a.m. closing time.

Once outside, it got worse. Lowell Police Officer Benjamin Zaim wrote in his report that "a large group became disorderly and multiple physical altercations took place, numerous Officers responded to assist." Social media videos showed crowds milling around the entrance while people filmed encounters with police and ignored lawful commands to leave.

Zaim reported finding a woman — later identified as Krystal Linton, Malakai's mother — unconscious and bleeding from the head inside a semicircle of more than 30 bystanders. She told police she was walking to her vehicle when a pushing match between her son and an unknown male escalated, resulting in her being knocked out.

When officers moved to arrest Linton and 32-year-old Chayanne Fantauzzi of Lowell, both men resisted, police said. Officer Joao Bettencourt-Freitas tased Linton during the struggle. Fantauzzi was handcuffed at the scene.

The Herald reported the facts of the arraignment straight. What went unspoken is the climate that produces these confrontations: years of progressive politicians and prosecutors treating police as the problem and offenders as victims of the system.

The pattern repeats. The Herald-Tribune reported that Sarasota police are now hunting for Dameon Jashuan Brydson, 27 — a four-time convicted felon already on probation for felon in possession of a firearm. Brydson's new warrant: possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of a firearm on school property, stemming from a July 18 shooting in the Booker High School parking lot during a youth football event. A four-time felon, on probation, and he still had access to a gun on school grounds. No injuries were reported, but the message to the public is plain: probation is a courtesy, not a consequence.

An officer knocked unconscious in Massachusetts. A serial felon firing rounds at a Florida school. The people who pay are the ones in uniform and the ones living in the neighborhoods the establishment claims to protect — while district attorneys and politicians explain away the carnage.

The question neither outlet asked: how many more officers have to hit the ground before the people in charge admit their policies are the problem?