If you were a participant in the January 6, 2021 action at the US Capitol, you are a “dangerous insurrectionist.” If you participated in the riots of 2020 in cities like Portland, you are a “peaceful protestor.”
Need more proof?
“The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office announced more charges will be dismissed against protesters arrested last year at social justice demonstrations. County Attorney Allister Adel made a video statement…announcing that charges against several defendants from an Aug. 9 event remembering Michael Brown’s killing will be dismissed…Some of the 17 defendants are leaders for The W.E. Rising Project, which helped lead organized demonstrations over the summer..On Aug. 9 (2020), demonstrators marched from Cesar Chavez Plaza near CityScape to Phoenix police headquarters. The march was in remembrance of Brown, who was killed by an officer in Ferguson, Missouri. Phoenix Police Department spokesperson Sgt. Margaret A. Cox said in a statement at the time that protesters pushed down the fences erected ‘to protect the building from damage’ and criminally trespassed into the area in front of the headquarters’ doors. She said objects were thrown at officers, and they responded with less-lethal rounds… Prosecutors accused protesters of a variety of charges including rioting, obstructing a public thoroughfare, unlawful assembly, aggravated assault and criminal trespassing.”
“Federal prosecutors in the District filed a motion to dismiss charges against a protester who was identified using facial recognition technology and was accused of assaulting police officers as they swept demonstrators from Lafayette Square last summer. The case against Michael Peterson Jr. was one of a number in which authorities have used the controversial technology to identify protesters accused of violence during demonstrations over the murder of George Floyd… The U.S. attorney’s office in Washington did not give a reason for filing the motion to dismiss, and the office declined to comment… Peterson was accused of punching one U.S. Park Police officer in the face and wrestling another as law enforcement agencies forcefully cleared protesters from Lafayette Square on June 1, 2020…”
“The vast majority of citations and charges against George Floyd protesters were ultimately dropped, dismissed or otherwise not filed, according to a Guardian analysis of law enforcement records and media reports in a dozen jurisdictions around the nation… In most of a dozen jurisdictions examined, at least 90% of cases were dropped or dismissed. In some cities, like Dallas and Philadelphia, as many as 95% of citations were dropped or not prosecuted. In Houston, about 93% of citations were dropped; in Los Angeles, about 93% of citations were not filed. The prosecutor’s office in San Francisco dismissed all 127 cases related to ‘peaceful protest-related charges…'”
Meanwhile, “(t)he Department of Justice has arrested more than 535 people for taking part in the January 6 insurrection on the U.S. Capitol building. Some of those trials are months, possibly years away… several people are being held without bail in the D.C. Jail for crimes they allegedly committed during the Capitol riots… people like Julian Khater and George Tanios are still in jail on charges of Assault on Federal Officer with Dangerous Weapon and Conspiracy to Injure an Officer, among others, for allegedly spraying pepper spray into the faces of law enforcement like Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick. Thomas Sibick is being held until his trial without bond on charges that include Assaulting, Resisting, or Impeding Certain Officers and Taking from a Person Anything of Value by Force and Violence, because he’s accused of being part of the savage attack on DC Police Officer Mike Fanone and ripping Fanone’s badge and radio right off his uniform..”
How the actions of Thomas Sibick constitute a “savage attack,” while the actions of Michael Peterson Jr. do not, is unclear. But sure, maybe the majority of the charges brought against last summer’s protestors should have been either dismissed, or reduced, and the defendants should have been required to perform community service, or pay restitution for the damage they caused.
levitra free shipping How established is the business? Given that the FDA had approved using of this drug as your ideal medicament. Horny goat weed is also one of the viagra price usa most popular medicines used for the treatment of erectile dysfunction. Kamagra is safe to overcome ED issues, but it also helps another problem which levitra prices robertrobb.com men face in bed – enlarged prostrate. If you do, it means the pills have enhanced your body’s libido and sex drive, and consequently improved your sexual stamina meaning order cheap viagra they’re effective.But what of those who were present at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021? Do they deserve to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, while the protestors of 2020, many with identical charges of assault on police officers, property damage, and conspiracy to riot, go free?
Further, is it just that so many of the January 6 defendants are held without bail, in solitary confinement, subject to the denial of their basic human rights, in violation of the 8th and 14th Amendments?
“(D)uring the week of October 18, 2021, the U.S. Marshals for the District of Columbia ‘conducted an unannounced inspection of the District of Columbia Department of Corrections (DC DOC) facilities that house several hundred detainees who are facing charges in the U.S. District Courts for the District of Columbia and Maryland or are awaiting placement in a Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) facility to serve their sentence.’ The Marshals inspected two D.C. Department of Corrections facilities, the Central Treatment Facility (CTF) and the Central Detention Facility (CDF). The CTF, which houses approximately 120 detainees, passed inspection. However, the CDF, which houses approximately 400 detainees, did not pass...According to CNN, the Marshals found ‘horrible’ conditions, ‘like water being shutoff in many cells for several days, clogged toilets and an inmate who had been pepper sprayed and was unable to wash the spray off for days, leading to an infection.’ In addition, CNN reports that the Marshals ‘also observed DC Department of Corrections staff ‘antagonizing detainees’ and ‘directing detainees to not cooperate with’ the Marshals during their inspection. ’One DOC staffer was observed telling a detainee to ‘stop snitching,’ according to the report. In addition, the report noted ‘water to cells is routinely shut off for punitive reasons’ with many cells being ‘shut off for days, inhibiting detainees from drinking water, washing hands, or flushing toilets.’
“One detainee, Christopher Worrell, will be released instead, due to the work of a judge who has already taken action against the jail for its treatment of Worrell. On October 13, 2021…Judge Royce Lamberth referred the jail in Washington D.C. to the Department of Justice on the grounds of civil rights violations, for failing to obtain necessary medical treatment for Worrell. Lamberth also held Warden Wanda Patten and Department of Corrections Director Quincy Booth in contempt for not turning over medical records for Worrell. Worrell has pled not guilty to six charges stemming from the events of January 6, when he allegedly marched with the Proud Boys to the Capitol. Per CNN, he has also had to fight for access to medical care, having suffered a broken hand that needed surgical repair. He also needs treatment for his cancer, Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. Lamberth said of Worrell’s delays in treatment. ‘It is more than just inept and bureaucratic shuffling of papers…I find that the civil rights of the defendant have been abridged’… After the U.S. Marshals’ eye-opening inspection came to light, Judge Lamberth took things a step further and ‘ordered that defendant Christopher Worrell be transferred immediately to a different jail, and released on home detention as soon as possible to start chemotherapy.’ In a statement…Judge Lamberth called the jail conditions ‘deplorable’ and ‘beyond belief.’ CNN also reports that Lamberth noted ’This court has zero confidence that the DC jail’ will provide the treatment correctly and not retaliate against Worrell.”
Whatever you may think of the people involved in the events of January 6, 2021 – whether you believe them to be “peaceful protestors” or “dangerous insurrectionists” – they are undeniably human beings, and your fellow citizens, the same as any other person accused of a crime. To subject this class of criminal defendant to prosecution, as well as cruel and inhuman internment conditions, makes a mockery of the concept of equal treatment under the law, particularly when other arguably violent demonstrators, charged with similar crimes, are released without bond across the country, and their charges dismissed without explanation.
Photo: Pixabay
Judge John Wilson served on the bench in New York City