Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:
Been reading claims that the US holds political prisoners to punish Trump supporters. Here’s a list of everybody arrested in the Four Hour Insurrection with their charges and detention status.
A lot of them are out, either on bail or personal recognizance. A few haven’t had their bail set yet, which strikes me as being a ridiculously long time to get around to it. Only a few have been denied bail and remain in jail: those are mostly people who allegedly attacked cops or were engaged in Assaultive / Violent Behavior.
Attacking a cop is still not enough reason to deny bail in any ordinary criminal case. The courts have consistently held that bail is a constitutional right. It’s being delayed/denied. The charges against the January 6th accused aren’t serious enough to support the denial of bail. And denial of bail for trespass-type offenses while holding the accused in solitary confinement, is inconsistent treatment considering that we’re emptying the jails everywhere else so people don’t catch Covid.
The hype could simply be complaints from defense lawyers looking for a better deal for their clients, or from political grifters who will seize any stick to beat the administration. But the fact the DOJ’s own list confirms the claims makes this smell political. The fact the government refuses to turn over video evidence makes it smell political. The fact the judge made histrionic claims to justify the sentence for a non-violent protester makes it smell political. It smells like an attempt to punish these Trump supporters and intimidate the rest. It smells like federal law enforcement is holding political prisoners. That’s Third World banana republic stuff, like stuffing ballot boxes or imposing martial law on the capital city or calling for ‘reeducation camps’ or telling the media which news stories to take down. That stuff could never happen in America, right?
Right?Joe Doakes
Democracy can not survive if people don’t trust its institutions to be even-handed.
We’ve got a big problem, then.
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