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naraburns  nihil supernum  2yr ago (text post)   36582 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 24, 2022

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I'm not gleeful at her suffering at all. She's being harshly punished for what should be (but is not, by Russian law) a minor crime or no crime at all. And the harsh punishment is likely for political reasons. That last is really the only parallel with Jan 6, where many of the "rioters" who committed no crime worse than trespassing (in some cases not even entering the building, just supposedly-forbidden parts of the grounds) are getting harsh punishments for political reasons. The differences are far more significant -- one's own government versus a foreign one, a crime that is not usually considered serious versus one that usually is, a country which has long claimed to stand for justice versus, well, Russia.

where many of the "rioters" who committed no crime worse than trespassing (in some cases not even entering the building, just supposedly-forbidden parts of the grounds) are getting harsh punishments

What's your definition of "harsh punishments"? There are a bunch of databases of Jan 6th cases, and this one from Politico is at least searchable (though hasn't been updated since January). Most of what I've seen for misdemeanor pleas was just probation with no jail time. I plugged in "entering a restricted building" in the full table and sorted by incarceration and saw only three people got jail time, with the highest being 50 days for William Tryon (keep in mind that the database is incomplete though). Reading the guilty statement that was filed, I would guess that the aggravating factors that made his case stand out was that he asked police to enter the building, was denied, tried to enter anyway, was pepper-sprayed, created an opening at another location by removing broken glass, encouraged other people to enter the building, and then confronted another line of police. He couldn't have claimed a plausible defense of "I didn't know I couldn't enter" based on those facts. 50 days of jail for this type of misdemeanor does not strike me as out of the norm.

Can you link to any specific cases where you think the sentence imposed was outrageous?

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