Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/07/06/trump-inauguration-riot-charge.html
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just in time for the re-election riots, sigh
oh and a reminder that every two years both sides of congress vote themselves multi-million dollars in tax payer money for “security” for the RNC and DNC conventions, completely with “constitution suspended” no-free-speech zones (and plenty of cages built for protesters)
btw why do taxpayers pay for “air force one” when the president flies to rallies? how is that legal?
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We pay for a lot more than that. Secret service detail for him and Ivanka for the rest of their lives. Pence and wife, too. A detail for his children until he’s out of office as well.
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So charges were brought against 234 people, 21 plead before trial and charges against the remaining 38 are being dropped. Surely they didn’t unsuccessfully prosecute 175 people before they realized the error of their ways? Even if it was only a small fraction of that, what a colossal waste of time and public money on the government’s side, and time and lawyer’s fees on the parts of the defendants, for something so obviously, well, stupid, petty and authoritarian.
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Paying rent on your rights?
Sounds like the work of a pathological narcissist. They live for that shit.
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234 people? That’s, what, two or three times the number of people on the Mall who were supporting Il Douche on Inauguration Day?
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The pigfucker prosecutors used faked footage of right wing extremists and tried to pawn it off as the anti-trump protestors. Of course they relied on James O’Keefe of “Project Veritas” infamy. A convicted felon known for fake right wing oriented “gotcha videos”
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But… the whole truth?
Should there not be barratry charges brought at some point?
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Wasting the defendants’ time and money is the point. At this point the convictions are immaterial. It’s about intimidation and power. The message is loud and clear- protest, and we’ll mess with you for years to come.
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Not as bad as his trips down to Mar-a-Lago (or other Trump property), where he, his staff and security detail check into the best suites in the place with a yuge markup, paid for by the taxpayer to Trump International.
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According to @Mangochin’s link:
So far, the case hasn’t held up in court. The first six defendants were tried in December and cleared of all charges. Shortly thereafter, prosecutors dropped the charges against 129 more defendants. But dozens remain charged.
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A single photon of good news emerging from the black hole that is today’s USA.
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Yeah, which is also why they used the misleading video evidence, too, presumably. The quality of the evidence isn’t so important when it’s just about intimidation.
Sadly, you have to be able to afford it (the time off, the lawyer…). So many innocent people plead in this country because they can’t afford to do otherwise. (And then really get financially screwed over when they lose their jobs, etc.)
Ah yeah, I finangled my way onto a Washington Post article about it. Apparently after that first trial of six people (group trial?), they then dropped charges for “more than 150 others” (presumably because they had equally weak cases). They then dropped charges against “several” more people because they were using the tainted video evidence. They eventually had a second trial with a “handful” of defendants that went equally badly for the prosecutors, and gave up after that. So, thankfully, not so many actual trials.
“They ended the show trials!”
“Great! Wait, they were having show trials?…”
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This is similar to the Waco biker shootout. The DA there tried to prosecute over 150 people for criminal conspiracy, simply because they were in the restaurant when the so-called “shootout” happened. After what they expected to be the easiest prosecution ended in a mistrial, almost all the charges have been dropped. Also, the DA lost his re-election campaign and there are rumors of a federal investigation of misconduct.
It seems like both prosecutions were trial balloons, and both failed. Good news for humanity.
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The prosecutors should be brought up on professional ethics charges and drummed out of the legal profession. The cases got dropped because they were caught hiding exculpatory video footage and evidence from the discovery process. A major no-no.
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FUCK YES. This is a lesson that the best defense in court is a united front and constant pressure. It doesn’t always work, but it’s the only thing that ever will, and anarchists have been displaying solidarity globally for a year and a half. Also helpful to remember - some people escaped a kettle on J20 by just charging straight through the police line.
I would imagine that lawsuits against DC are pending, though they’ll take years to resolve. DC cops have been very hands-off for many years because of a particularly expensive lawsuit after a kettle that happened in 2000 (I believe). You too could one day strike it rich. Doesn’t hurt to try.
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If they’re presenting known false “evidence” in an attempt to mislead the court, aren’t there laws that cover this (besides the obvious reference to “bearing false witness” for the Repug Xtians…)?
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that’s debatable, but the rest I agree with!
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