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🇺🇸 Tarrio Tried & Sentenced

🇺🇸 Tarrio Tried & Sentenced

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US: Group sues to block Trump from 2024 ballot in Colorado citing 14th Amendment and Jan. 6 (ABC News)

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US: US to cancel Alaska oil, gas leases issued under Trump (Reuters)

US: Special counsel to indict Hunter Biden in gun case this month, DOJ says (CNN)

World: Russian missile strike kills 17 at Ukraine market as Blinken visits to show support, offer more US help (CBS News)

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JAN 6

Tarrio Tried and Sentenced

On Tuesday, Former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio was sentenced to 22 years in prison after being convicted of seditious conspiracy in the Jan. 6, 2021 US Capitol riot.

Reporting from the Left: Proud Boys Leader Enrique Tarrio Sentenced To 22 Years For Role In Jan. 6 Attack (Huff Post)

Reporting from the Right: Former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio sentenced to 22 years for Jan. 6 attack (FOX News)

From The Flag: A main focus of Tarrio’s defense was that he was not at the Capitol on Jan. 6, but prosecutors argued that he organized and oversaw the riot. Prosecutors initially sought a 33-year sentence, but the final 22-year sentence is still notable as it’s the longest sentence given for anyone involved with the Capitol attack. Here’s what both sides are saying.

LEFT-LEANING SENTIMENT

Justice Has Been Served

Hopefully, these lengthy sentences will deter the next generation of far-right activists — and not just drive them deeper underground.
This sentence continues the confirmation that Jan. 6 was a violent attack on American democracy, and these acts must be prosecuted to defend democracy.
The city of Miami, which claims to be a city of the future, should take responsibility for allowing someone like this to flourish in plain sight.

Enrique Tarrio's sentence was shorter than prosecutors wanted. That's OK. Shane Burley, MSNBC: ““...the hefty sentences prosecutors asked for could have, potentially, complicated other efforts to undermine groups like the Proud Boys. Which is why the lighter (but still historically long) sentence for Tarrio and his comrades could be seen as a win, not a loss. Tarrio’s sentence could be viewed as a win has to do with the far-right’s increasingly caustic dive into conspiracy theories, particularly claims that the entire federal apparatus has been taken over by the shadowy ‘deep state.’ … The overwhelming nature of today’s conspiracies can lead to desperation, and desperation can lead to more violence. If the political and legal system is hopelessly corrupt, this thinking goes, the only thing left to do is tear the whole thing down. Thus, historically harsh sentences run the risk of validating and further entrenching this mindset, playing right into the hands of those who wish to paint themselves as the heroic, patriotic victims of a malevolent government.”

The Former Proud Boys Leader Finds Out David A. Graham, The Atlantic “Seeing these long sentences levied now, more than two and a half years after the insurrection, is heartening. Hundreds of people have been sentenced for violence and more minor offenses committed at the Capitol, but the Proud Boys’ sentences, along with Rhodes’s, are more important, because they punish not just spontaneous violence but also a concerted, planned attack on the government. The convictions and stiff sentences are a message about what the United States will tolerate. Juries have proved willing to convict even though the charges in question are rare and even though the likely sentences are strong. They also show that juries and judges, and not just prosecutors, are unwilling to treat the insurrection the way too many Republican elected officials have—as just a rally that got a little out of hand. Political scientists call laws that defend democratic institutions from authoritarian threats—and the enforcement of them—’defensive democracy.’”

One more opinion piece from the Left: Tarrio, a Miami-made Proud Boy, got what he deserved. But Miami is far from blameless, The Miami Herald Editorial Board

RIGHT-LEANING SENTIMENT

A Two-Tiered Justice System

Right-wing demonstrators are getting aggressively long and unjust sentences while far-left rioters got a slap on the wrist.
The FBI already investigated the Proud Boys before Jan. 6, and there was no evidence of any insurrection being planned. But there is evidence that this was a setup by the FBI.
Tarrio has been handed the harshest prison sentence of any Jan. 6 defendant, with the judge justifying it as necessary to prevent such a crime from happening again.

J6ers Get Domestic Terrorist Treatment From Two-Tiered Justice System After ‘Summer of Love’ Terrorists Get Slapped On The Wrist Tristan Justice, The Federalist: “Federal prosecutors used terrorist enhancements to extend the convicts’ sentences over a riot where the only fatal victims were pro-Trump demonstrators. Biggs’ 17-year stay was enhanced over the defendant’s destruction of a fence on Capitol grounds. Judge Kelly justified the lengthy prison terms during his court address to Nordean and Pezzola by declaring the Capitol riot a ‘national disgrace.’ The decades-long prison sentences, however, represent a radical departure from how domestic terrorists were treated after far-left revolutionaries catalyzed the most destructive explosion of civil unrest in decades. The riots for social justice that became routine throughout 2020 cost more than 66 times the inflated estimates of the Capitol carnage. That’s just accounting for the two-week aftermath of the riots over George Floyd’s death alone. … Far-left demonstrators went largely unpunished for the carnage that wrecked mainstreets across the nation throughout the presidential election year while Democrats and the corporate press downplayed the damage.”

JUSTICE IS DEAD Jim Hoft, The Gateway Pundit: “Judge Tim Kelly applied a terrorism enhancement to Enrique Tarrio’s sentence earlier in the day. Then Kelly forced Enrique to listen to his blustery nonsense before he was sentenced to 22 year in federal prison – more than a murderer. There were dozens of feds and FBI agents who infiltrated the Proud Boys in the lead up to January 6th. Not one of he informants could bring evidence that the group was planning an insurrection. Even the driver who drove Enrique Tarrio over the his brief meeting with Stuart Rhodes in a DC parking lot was an FBI operative. With each new day, we learn the January 6 ‘insurrection’ was an FBI setup. What a disgraceful time for America. The only evidence the DOJ discovered against the Proud Boys was planted by an FBI operative in their chat group.”

One more opinion piece from the Right: Ex-Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio gets harshest prison sentence in Jan. 6 case Priscilla DeGregory, New York Post

FLAG THIS

Some Are Softening on the Severity of Jan. 6

Earlier this year, two years after the attack on the Capitol, a national poll from the University of Massachusetts Amherst found that while more than half (55%) of the 1,000 respondents say Jan. 6 was a “riot,” nearly half (49%) now say that “protest” best describes the day’s event. That number is up from 43% in the first UMass Poll conducted on the topic in April 2021.

Meanwhile, there was a marked decrease in the percentage of respondents who consider Jan. 6 an “insurrection,” from 48% to 41%.

Do you believe anyone involved in the Capitol attack should be prosecuted?

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WATERCOOLER

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