Procrustes Stretched
Dante's Manifesto
- Dec 1, 2008
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Outside of the high profile cases, the wheels of justice keep turning. It's a slow process, but make no mistake about it -- justice will be served. People are getting their day in court, not always liking that justice is blind to political and ideological arguments justifying criminal behavior. Yes criminal behavior.
All of the insurrectionists/rioters who have been tried, were accused of crimes. Crimes. Violations of the law. Many plead out. A few were found not guilty (as opposed to innocent). Lots have been found to be guilty of the charges.
www.nytimes.com
snippets:
There is a long string of Jan. 6 insurrectionists who have over the past three and a half years sat for trial in the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse in Washington, D.C.
In court, the defendants have been likened to British troops during the Revolutionary War
Some of the trials have delivered long-delayed justice: The week before Mr. Nester appeared, a Kentuckian named Michael Sparks — the very first rioter to have broken into the Capitol building on Jan. 6 — was found guilty of all six charges. Members of the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys have been sentenced to significant prison terms.
Yet for every violent rioter justly tried and punished, there have been many nonviolent offenders summoned to court. A few weeks ago, I watched as a 59-year-old woman stood weeping before a judge as she apologized for participating in the riot and pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors, her first criminal offenses.
Nearly every week, several more rioters are sentenced for their roles in the insurrection and the F.B.I. makes a new spate of arrests. Well over a thousand participants in the events of Jan. 6 have been arrested and charged. Many have already completed prison sentences, paid restitution and returned to normal life.
I have observed one rioter after another being tried and sentenced, and watched as footage of that day is played and replayed for one jury after the next, and as the same witnesses are summoned to recount the same events. Some defendants seem to recognize the harm of their actions; others are stubbornly unrepentant. I have heard defense attorneys argue that their clients were there because they believed they needed to protect the Constitution, because their president told them to be there, because their friends asked them to tag along. In court, the defendants have been likened to British troops during the Revolutionary War; in the media, they have been compared (by their own invitation, given some of the flags they carried into the Capitol) with Confederate rebels during the Civil War.
All of the insurrectionists/rioters who have been tried, were accused of crimes. Crimes. Violations of the law. Many plead out. A few were found not guilty (as opposed to innocent). Lots have been found to be guilty of the charges.
Opinion | Jan. 6, America’s Rupture and the Strange, Forgotten Power of Oblivion
After a profound national rupture, forgiveness may be impossible. But the long-overlooked Act of Oblivion could offer a solution.
snippets:
There is a long string of Jan. 6 insurrectionists who have over the past three and a half years sat for trial in the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse in Washington, D.C.
In court, the defendants have been likened to British troops during the Revolutionary War
Some of the trials have delivered long-delayed justice: The week before Mr. Nester appeared, a Kentuckian named Michael Sparks — the very first rioter to have broken into the Capitol building on Jan. 6 — was found guilty of all six charges. Members of the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys have been sentenced to significant prison terms.
Yet for every violent rioter justly tried and punished, there have been many nonviolent offenders summoned to court. A few weeks ago, I watched as a 59-year-old woman stood weeping before a judge as she apologized for participating in the riot and pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors, her first criminal offenses.
Nearly every week, several more rioters are sentenced for their roles in the insurrection and the F.B.I. makes a new spate of arrests. Well over a thousand participants in the events of Jan. 6 have been arrested and charged. Many have already completed prison sentences, paid restitution and returned to normal life.
I have observed one rioter after another being tried and sentenced, and watched as footage of that day is played and replayed for one jury after the next, and as the same witnesses are summoned to recount the same events. Some defendants seem to recognize the harm of their actions; others are stubbornly unrepentant. I have heard defense attorneys argue that their clients were there because they believed they needed to protect the Constitution, because their president told them to be there, because their friends asked them to tag along. In court, the defendants have been likened to British troops during the Revolutionary War; in the media, they have been compared (by their own invitation, given some of the flags they carried into the Capitol) with Confederate rebels during the Civil War.
