Equal Justice Under the Law?
27th April 2023
Many J6 protestors have been sentenced to lengthy jail terms without evidence that they engaged in violence. The “QAnon shaman” Jacob Chansley, for example, was sentenced to four years imprisonment for obstructing an official proceeding, though it was subsequently reported that he had been escorted to the Senate floor by Capitol police. Another protestor, Kevin Seefried, got three years for marching into the Capitol carrying a Confederate flag (less than the seven-year sentence prosecutors had requested).
There is room for debate about whether the sentences meted out to these nonviolent protestors were merited. On the one hand, any attempt to overturn a lawful election outcome constitutes a threat to the preservation of our constitutional order and must be met with penalties sufficiently severe to deter such actions by others in the future. On the other hand, violent criminals (especially in states with “decarceration” policies like New York) often get off with much lighter penalties—or sometimes no punishment at all.