“People are tortured mentally, physically, socially, emotionally, legally, and spiritually,” Jacob Lang wrote to his dad. He has been in a federal jail since he was arrested on January 16 for his part in the mostly peaceful demonstration at the Capitol on January 6.
“I’ve been in solitary confinement for a hundred days now and haven’t been convicted of any crime with no end in sight,” he continued.
Lang is accused of assaulting a Capitol police officer with a dangerous or deadly weapon. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges. As per a text message received by his mother, Lang was reportedly locked in an empty cell with no toilet paper, chair, or blanket for 14 hours after being accused of advising other Capitol protestors to not take a plea deal.
Shockingly (or not), members of the left’s darling street militias, BLM and antifa, have seen a different side of the “system.” People arrested for rioting, looting, burning federal buildings, and assaulting police officers are seeing little, if any, time behind bars. Roughly half of those arrested for federal crimes have had their charges dropped. Most are granted bail and many have had their bail paid by organizations such as the Minnesota Freedom Fund.
Compare that treatment to Capitol protester Ryan Samsel, reported to have been “viciously and savagely” beaten by police while in federal custody.
“He has definitely suffered serious injuries, including a shattered orbital floor, a broken orbital bone, his jaw was broken, his nose was broken,” Elisabeth Pasqualini, attorney for Ryan Samsel said, adding that Samsel is currently not able to see out of his right eye and may permanently lose vision in it. His hands were reportedly zip-tied together behind his back at the time of his beat down.
Biden’s new attorney general, Merrick Garland, stated at his confirmation hearing that while he was concerned about the violence in Portland he considers the Capitol riot a domestic extremist attack because it was directed at interfering with government functions, while the Portland violence targeted unoccupied buildings at night.
“Both are criminal,” he said, “but one is a core attack on our democratic institutions.” Garland also recently stated that “white supremacy” is now a top security threat in the U.S. Apparently, he missed the hundreds of nationwide “mostly peaceful” riots caused by antifa and BLM over the past year costing over $1 billion dollars.
The feds are also keeping Capitol surveillance tapes from January 6th close to their vests. Defendants and their lawyers can only view partial clips, never full videos, in a supervised setting. They cannot download clips. Free-flowing conversations between lawyers and their clients are difficult, as they are held in open cages where guards can hear everything. Also, visiting with one’s attorney means a 14-day quarantine afterward, which the defendants see as punitive.
The treatment of the Capitol defendants is so bad that even Democrat Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Dick Durbin have spoken out against it.
“Solitary confinement is a form of punishment that is cruel and psychologically damaging,” Sen. Warren told Politico, “and we’re talking about people who haven’t been convicted of anything yet.”
Durbin, who has long been opposed to solitary confinement, told Politico that such conditions should be a “rare exception,” whether for accused insurrectionists or any other prisoners.
“There has to be a clear justification for that, in very limited circumstances,” he said.
Some Jan. 6th defendants believe there is a racial component to their treatment: Most are white — some with connections to what some people believe are white nationalist groups — while most D.C. inmates and prison guards are black.
Judge Paul Friedman said last week that those concerns are “not necessarily illegitimate.”
“It may be that some of the people arrested on Jan. 6th are white supremacists” or “that they’re perceived to be,” he added.
One thing cannot be denied: one’s arrest, confinement, treatment, and prosecution in 2021 America seems to be determined by our political leanings. Where have we seen that before?
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