What’s a reasonable prison sentence? July 22, 2021
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Uncategorized.trackback
Is the question that comes to mind reading this from this week.
A federal judge has handed down an eight-month prison sentence to Floridian Paul Hodgkins for his role in the 6 January attack on the US Capitol.
It makes him the first among hundreds of accused rioters facing prosecution to be imprisoned.
The case notes that:
Judge Moss agreed that Hodgkins had not been violent, did not threaten anyone and did not organise the Capitol attack.
But the judge said that Hodgkins went to the Capitol “to impede the certification of the election, and he admitted that he did so”.
I’ve no clear sense of what is appropriate in such cases. How does a society deal with this?
The Cedar Lounge Revolution 
I’ll get the ball rolling.
Despise the Trump Train but this fool didn’t threaten or harm anybody. Eight months a marker?
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England likes to impose very hard sentences for “insurgency” such as the attack on the US Capitol was described.
Take for example the London riots about 10 years back.
Sentences were on average 25% longer than normal, running on average at about 5 months though one individual got a four-year sentence for inciting disorder on Facebook.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/aug/18/full-picture-of-riot-sentences
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To present the assault as merely “to impede the certification of the election” is ludicrous. A coup against the election result, an attempt to have Trump hold on to power by foul means would be nearer the mark.
The Democrats are trying to play down the danger and carry on business as usual, but bit by bit the extent of the plotting is evident. Trump is consolidating his hold on the Republican Party and openly flaunting his alliance with far right thugs.
The crisis is not over. I recommend the coverage in the World Socialist Web Site ( http://www.wsws.org )
Mike Martin
Sheffield
>
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There’s a divergence here between *what we all know what went on* in Trump winding up his MAGA mob to cling yo power and how the judicial system processes the offenders and charges, including plea agreements and individual judges’ verdicts.
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He pleaded guilty and assaulted no one
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Jessica Reznick DAPL pipeline protester got 8 years.
If this had been a Left wing assault on the capital they’d be in Guantanamo awaiting trail and be getting 25 year sentences. The papers would be wall-to-wall “THESE ARE TURRURISTS!!!!”
The right has been working on taking over the US judiciary since Newt Gingrinch, the Democrats have rolled over and done nothing to oppose them bar wring their hands in empty gestures of frustration. Watch over the next few years as the Supreme Court unpicks every legislative accomplishment of the “Left” in the US since WWII and the Dems stand idly by, wringing their hands in empty gestures, mouthing banal platitudes of respect for the judiciary and doing nothing to stop the judicial assault by the Right.
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