Even insurrectionists have rights
Everyone should be treated fairly by the justice system. Even the "traitors."
My trenchant political analysis of Donald Trump telling Republicans not to vote in 2022 and 2024, and what it means for the GOP going forward:
Anyway, let’s move on.
Some of the people who undoubtedly will abstain from voting in 2022 and 2024 - assuming they’re still allowed to vote at all following felony convictions - are being held in a Washington. DC jail pending their trials for charges related to the Beer Belly Putsch. A judge has held the correctional facility in contempt because of concerns about their treatment:
A federal judge found the warden of the D.C. jail and director of the D.C. Department of Corrections in contempt of court Wednesday and called on the Justice Department to investigate whether the jail is violating the civil rights of dozens of detained Jan. 6 defendants.
U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth of Washington acted after finding that jail officials failed to turn over information needed to approve surgery recommended four months ago for a Jan. 6 Capitol riot defendant’s broken wrist.
The defendant, Christopher Worrell, is an accused Florida Proud Boys member charged with four felonies, including rioting and spraying pepper gel at police at a critical point leading to the initial Capitol breach.
The failure of D.C. officials to turn over medical records is “more than just inept and bureaucratic jostling of papers,” Lamberth said in a hearing, raising the possibility of deliberate mistreatment.
“I find that the civil rights of the defendant have been abused. I don’t know if it’s because he’s a January 6th defendant or not, but I find this matter should be referred to the attorney general of the United States for a civil rights investigation into whether the D.C. Department of Corrections is violating the civil rights of January 6th defendants . . . in this and maybe other cases.”
Lamberth stopped short of imposing further civil sanctions on jail officials, who belatedly produced the records Tuesday, or ordering the release of inmates. But he suggested that the U.S. Marshals Service may have to move inmates from the D.C. jail to other detention facilities if they are being treated improperly.
The Washington Post is a liberal-leaning newspaper that often reports about problems with the criminal justice system, so as you’d expect, its commenters’ reaction to this story is outrage about poor conditions in ha ha ha who am I kidding:
Well, then.
Some other commenters do make a fair point: that there have been concerns about conditions at the DC jail for a long time, but when white, conservative detainees are affected, it seems to get more attention.
Some veteran defense lawyers privately noted that complaints raised on behalf of mostly White and conservative Jan. 6 defendants appears to have won more traction from some political quarters than abuse claims brought by poorer Black and Hispanic defendants who make up the bulk of the jail population.
Needless to say, MAGAworld has suddenly determined that prison reform is a really important issue:
As a defence lawyer, my reaction to stories like this is that every prisoner deserves to be treated fairly, especially when they haven’t been actually convicted of anything yet. When mistreatment of Black inmates is compared to “cushy” treatment of White prisoners - and even these viral stories involve a lot of cherry-picking or urban legends, but inequities in the justice system are far too obvious to be denied - I think the proper reaction should be outrage at the former, not outrage at the latter.
But we are a punitive species by nature, and I feel like most “progressives,” if given the choice, would prefer that everyone be treated like shit as long as it’s more equal.