One of the things that the (mostly white) Jan. 6 defendants are experiencing for the first time is how slowly the justice system can move when you are considered too dangerous to release back into the public. The general angle that most insurrection apologists have taken is that the attempted coup d’etat at our nation’s Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021, was a no harm, no foul violation of civility. Things got out of hand. While many of the people there were talking about hanging Vice President Mike Pence and stopping Congress from making the electoral votes of the 2020 presidential election official, things got broken because everyone was having a grand old party time.
The fact is, these MAGA folks broke a lot of laws. Most of the laws these folks broke—running the full gamut of trespassing and vandalism to outright sedition—are federal laws. As such, right-wing fascists have been crying about how they are being treated by the legal system. In the case of the Jan. 6 defendants, there is ample video and social media evidence placing them at these scenes of all the crimes they are being charged with.
On Monday, Daily Beast reporter Zachary Petrizzo reported that “members of the 1776 Restoration Movement were back in Washington, D.C., this morning, and part of their activities included trying to flood the Veterans Crisis Line with bogus calls urging the D.C. jail to release Jan 6th rioters.” This comes just two months after the Office of Veterans Affairs (VA) made their Veterans Crisis Line (VCL) even easier to remember and contact.
If you are a veteran experiencing thoughts of suicide, or are concerned about a veteran in crisis, the Veterans Crisis Line is open 24/7 for support: Dial 988, then Press 1.
The group that purports to want to restore the United States back to 1776 decided the best way to protest the Jan. 6 participants who are still being detained and who are also veterans was to jam up the VA crisis line. The group stipulates that the many “political prisoners” in the Proud Boys, who happen to also be military veterans, are not receiving medical care in the prison. Besides the fact that there is no evidence that this is a thing that’s happening, there are some real questions as to whether or not the folks who may or may not be pleading guilty, or found guilty, of sedition against our government, should even have veteran benefits anymore.
In 1776, only white male landowners could vote and the average life expectancy was about 35 years. Wait, are most of these folks ghosts?
If you are a veteran experiencing thoughts of suicide, or are concerned about a veteran in crisis, the Veterans Crisis Line is open 24/7 for support: Dial 988, then Press 1.
