Nobody likes to see injustice in America. Unlike in other nations where corruption is common and bribes are the norm, all Americans have a strong emotional attachment to the concept of “liberty and justice for all.”
Despite this fact, the mainstream media is determined to ignore the unjust imprisonment of protestors involved in the demonstrations at the Capitol on January 6th. Trump seems headed to win back the White House in less than three years, and it is likely that he will pardon all of them. But in the meantime the 41-month sentence of the harmless Jacob Chansley raises doubts as to why any of the hundreds charged should be pleading guilty before a merciless, anti-free-speech court.
The colorful Chansley had a winnable case had it gone to a jury trial, but he was brutally confined all year in a D.C. jail, often in solitary confinement. He was denied a speedy trial even though required by federal law, and he endured hunger strikes to protest his inhumane detention.
Essentially, he was tortured by the confinement until he could be misled to plead guilty in the expectation that he would be released for time served. Instead, the court punished him incredibly harshly for engaging in a form of political protest. Colonial patriots would be turning over in their graves if they could see how the freedoms they died for have been usurped by this deprivation of fundamental rights. Chansley is being punished for humiliating the powers-that-be.
Maybe you were not there on January 6th. Maybe you don’t even agree with what the protestors were saying. But regardless of your personal thoughts on the issues presented, all Americans should be able to come together around the fundamental principle of due process under the law. As long as these protestors are punished for speaking out, none of us are safe.
There is a reason why so many of the rights listed in the Bill of Rights deal directly with how the accused are to be treated. The Founding Fathers understood that the justice system could be perverted to become the very instrument of injustice if patriots do not stand strong.
