Summer Rioters Sentenced to Long Prison Terms
Some people used the George Floyd protests as cover to endanger lives and destroy property.
They are being prosecuted and sentenced to prison.
The Capitol rioters should get equal treatment.
An Illinois man who set afire a Sprint store in Minneapolis was sentenced to nine years in prison. He had posted on Facebook that he would be driving the five hours to Minneapolis. The following day his Facebook Live video showed him saying he was there "to riot," and showed him handing out artillery shell fireworks. He acquired lighter fluid before entering a Sprint store, put boxes into a pile and got a juvenile to ignite it. He bragged, "I lit it on fire."
A federal judge sentenced a Minnesota man who participated in arson at a police station in Minneapolis to three years and ordered him to pay $12 million in restitution. He was one of several hundred people at the police station where a fire was burning. He pushed a barrel into a pile of burning debris, "literally adding fuel to the fire" as the prosecutor noted. He also stole a vest, riot helmet, police radio and other police gear. He was arrested five days later wearing the vest.
Both men were prosecuted for arson. Their crimes were part of a bigger story of public protest. Each were using protests as an excuse for criminal activity. They attacked the civic order. The prosecutions and sentences restore that order by making a public statement of disapproval and punishment. Are three-year and nine-year sentences enough? Too much? People will disagree, but three and nine years imprisonment make a statement that the public takes this seriously. It is not hijinks and it can be distinguished from peaceful protest.
The also stole something fragile and priceless from the BLM movement, but there is no way to restore that. They hijacked the protests that gave them cover, turning the public meaning of those from disapproval of the slow police killing of George Floyd into a story of street violence. Their criminal activity shaped public opinion and therefore public policy.
The first sentences given to the people who invaded the Capitol on January 6 were much, much shorter. That is unfortunate, in my opinion. This is an opportunity for the judicial system to make the clear statement that the Capitol is as precious as the Third Precinct police station in Minneapolis. An attack on the Capitol and Congress at a moment of power transition is not hijinks. It cannot be dismissed as trivial just because it failed. It had a bad purpose and it involved illegal force and violence.
The January 6 "Stop the Steal" rally had a disruptive theme from its very origin. Trump and the rally organizers intended it to demonstrate the will of an aroused citizenry, so that Congress or the Vice President would ignore the votes in a sufficient number of states to overturn an election. The rally was legal, even if disreputable. Americans allow people freedom of speech and peaceable assembly, even if the speech and assembly is to overthrow an election.
Like the Minneapolis arsonists, many of the Capitol rioters were joyful and bragged about their actions. The protests gave cover; it was part and parcel of some good purpose. Like the arsonists, they abridged civic order. The Capitol rioters changed from legal to illegal when they left the rally and went past the barriers. Their crimes escalated when they attacked police, broke windows, stole police gear, and vandalized the Capitol building.
If Capitol rioters served serious time in prison--similar to the Minneapolis sentences--they would send a message to future potential insurrections. Whether they be Trump supporters overthrowing an election, Antifa supporters in black clothes, White nationalists demanding an end to immigration, Muslim terrorists hoping to install a caliphate, supporters or opponents of abortion, or an aroused movement of soccer moms, the message is clear. If they break into public buildings and damage them, or set fires in stores, the crimes will be investigated, prosecuted, and on conviction people will serve serious prison time.
The rioters did more than damage public property. They threatened our safety. They showed contempt to the civic order. They threatened our republic. The prison sentences are not there to stifle public protest. The sentences are there to protect it. There is a difference between peaceful protest and riots.