Quote:
Originally Posted by SkBlogW
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Arson, looting, and assault (including throwing things at the police) are illegal and should be punished to the full extent of the law, including long prison terms. They haven’t been, but they should be. The right to peaceful protest is guaranteed by the Constitution, but when the participants are shouting and screaming in rage and hatred, in my estimation that protest is no longer peaceful, but a riot, and so no longer legal, and it should result in dispersal, mass arrests, and at the least heavy fines. People in a mob assaulting police officers are accomplices even if they themselves aren’t throwing things, urging on the attackers and increasing their determination. I’d like those in those violent crowds who were only accomplices to be charged with felonies.
On the other hand, when a mob forces its way into the U.S. Capitol past security, through locked doors, through windows, with the intent of subverting the Constitution of the United States and overthrowing our government and harming elected legislators, that is an insurrection and should be punished with the maximum penalty the Constitution allows for insurrection, which is capital punishment. Maybe not for everyone, but for some, with at the least the maximum penalties for illegal trespass, accomplice to assault on a law-enforcement officer, accomplice to attempted kidnapping and attempted murder of federal legislators, rioting, and more. Those who stayed outside,Bletchley them go.
The crimes are different, so the punishments should be different, but in both cases the punishments should be heavy. They haven’t been.