Former Proud Boys national leader Enrique Tarrio is set to be sentenced on Wednesday for a failed plot to keep Donald Trump in power after the Republican lost the 2020 presidential election, capping one of the most significant prosecutions in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Prosecutors are seeking 33 years behind bars for Tarrio, who had already been arrested and ordered to leave Washington, D.C., by the time Proud Boys members joined thousands of Trump supporters in storming the Capitol as lawmakers met to certify Democrat Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory. But prosecutors say Tarrio organized and led the group’s assault from afar, inspiring followers with his charisma and penchant for propaganda.
Tarrio was a top target in one of the most important Capitol riot cases prosecuted by the Justice Department. He and three lieutenants were convicted in May of charges including seditious conspiracy — a rarely brought Civil War-era offense that the Justice Department levied against members of far-right groups who played a key role in the Jan. 6 attack.
I’m going to get shit for this.
While I believe that Trump knew exactly what he was saying, and I’m sure there were people who knew what they were doing… The vast majority of those people are just deeply deeply stupid individuals who had no planning whatsoever and got wrapped up with a dumb dumb crowd being riled up by key individuals.
6 weeks in federal prison in addition to having to keep a job as a federal felon isn’t exactly a slap on the wrist. Most of what I would call organizers are being tried pretty heavily and those cases take longer against better equipped defendants. I don’t think being punitive for the idiots is the best strategy politically either.
I agree. The person yelling “FIRE” in the theater is far more guilty than the idiots stampeding to get out.
Not only were a lot of these people stupid but a lot were likely YUGE losers who finally felt important for the first time in their lives, after Trump blew all that smoke up their asses about being great Patriots.
Won’t these people lose gun rights if they are felons? (Not American so not sure)
Except that they were all yelling fire. Oh wait! They were all yelling “kill all the congress critters” and “all hail Emperor Trump”. I’d say that makes the lot of them anything but innocent or stupid people caught up in something they didn’t understand.
For contrast, if a few hundred African Americans with guns stormed the US capital for any reason at all, most would have been shot and the remainder would be facing life imprisonment. It’s only the fact the most were white or white oriented that has protected any of the coup members from facing the legitimate consequences of their actions. And the same forces will eventually allow them to prevail and ensure the US becomes a theocratic ethnostate. Or at least more of one than it already is.
I don’t disagree that black protesters would have been handled far more violently. It still doesn’t change my opinion that it was a premeditated coup.
I am not a lawyer but personally don’t think these people satisfy the mens rea aspects at all and as such shit be by law treated with a lesser degree crime then those escalating what I believe was genuine protesting among the majority population.
I know that’s not how a black crowd would be treated, that is a separate challenge that must be addressed.
They went to a rally where Trump told them Congress was full of traitors and to storm the building to make sure they didn’t remove him from office. That crowd knew exactly what they were doing. The only reason they get the benefit of ac doubt from you or anyone is because our society has taught us that those who are considered white can largely do whatever they like… especially if it involves violence. That’s all it is. That’s the benefit of white privilege at its peak: that a bunch of white people and their little cronies are even allowed to overturn the results of an election using violence and face minimal consequences.
The only thing they did wrong was they were unsuccessful. Had they succeeded everyone would be praising them like they were liberators. 🙄
👌👍
Is this hypothetical group of people supposed to be in compliance with the laws governing the carry of firearms in Washington D.C.?
FWIW, 26 armed Black Panthers entered the state capitol of California on May 2, 1967 to protest the passage of the Mulford Act. Five were charged with disrupting a legislative session, a misdemeanor. No shots were fired. YMMV.
Good points. I depressingly agree with you but still think the ringleaders are more guilty.
Yes. Ownership as well as possession of a firearm by a felon is a criminal offense. The right to vote is lost as well.
Some rights may be restored in some states.