"The January 6 Capitol Protester Prosecutions Punishing Thought Crimes and Eroding Freedom of Assembly" by Glen K Allen
The January 6 Capitol Protester Prosecutions Punishing Thought Crimes and Eroding Freedom of Assembly Freedom-loving Americans have myriad reasons to be alarmed by the Department of Justice’s ongoing dragnet prosecutions of the Jan 6 Capitol protestors. Foremost among them, perhaps, is why many of these defendants are being prosecuted at all. Copious first-hand testimony and abundant videos available to the public — and the government has many more videos never publicly disclosed — show the Capitol police allowing many polite and unarmed so-called “rioters” into the Capitol, where they caused no harm. Are some of these now defendants? Moreover, a robust interpretation of the First Amendment’s “right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances” arguably protects some of the defendants’ actions. Other troubling issues raised by the DOJ’s prosecutions include why the government has dedicated such immense resources to the p...