Proud Boys member gets six years in prison for Capitol riot after insulting judge

MicroWave@lemmy.world to News@lemmy.world – 631 points –
Proud Boys member gets six years in prison for Capitol riot after insulting judge
theguardian.com

Marc Bru repeatedly interrupted chief judge before the sentence was handed down, calling him a ‘clown’ and a ‘fraud’

A man who stormed the US Capitol with fellow Proud Boys far-right extremist group members was sentenced on Wednesday to six years in prison after he berated and insulted the judge who punished him.

Marc Bru repeatedly interrupted chief judge James Boasberg before the sentence was handed down, calling him a “clown” and a “fraud” presiding over a “kangaroo court”.

The judge warned Bru that he could be kicked out of the courtroom if he continued to disrupt the proceedings.

“You can give me 100 years and I’d do it all over again,” said Bru, who was handcuffed and shackled.

“That’s the definition of no remorse in my book,” the judge said.

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Bru has been representing himself with an attorney on standby. He has spewed anti-government rhetoric that appears to be inspired by the sovereign citizen movement. At the start of the hearing, Bru demanded that the judge and a prosecutor turn over five years of their financial records.

Just to make it perfectly clear that this guy is an imbecile.

I mean if the last decade hasn't proven it yet, I just want to reiterate. You don't need to be smart to destroy America.

You don't need to be smart to destroy America.

Its a lot easier to break stuff than it is to build it or fix it.

Yep.

Just make promises and you can get 49% of the voting population to pull that lever no matter how you vote.

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According to another article the guy is 43. Imagine proudly throwing away the majority of your forties for Donald fucking Trump. Like most people when I was young I always thought 40 was ancient but now that I'm approaching it myself I simply can't imagine anything being worth losing these years. My partner and I finally have the stability and the means to do many of the things we've always dreamed of. It would be such a waste.

I suspect he'd didn't have as much to lose by throwing away his 40s as you would. He doesn't sound like the most rational of sorts, so probably didn't have the 'stability and the means" for a good life you mention.

Should have took him up on that 100 years proposal.

But, of course, he's another one who got a slap on the wrist even after flat out going Goofy meme on this shit.

Six years is not a slap on the wrist!

He stormed the capital in a literal attempt to help overthrow the Untied States government. This is a situation where they are lucky the army didn't show up and open fire. If that had happened it would have honestly been understandable because this was AN ATTACK ON OUR GOVERNMENT.

There are people out there doing decades because they got caught with weed and you say 6 years for trying to TAKE DOWN THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT is not a slap on the wrist?

It's not a slap on the wrist, even if you think he should have gotten more.

I don't think it's wise to base all of our sentencing on old sentences for weed.

That was just one example, not a basis and you know that. But that doesn't change the fact this was a full on attack on the US government. An actual attempt to overthrow our democracy.

6 years for literally trying to TAKE DOWN THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT

I agree, it's not a slap on the wrist.

But I will say that the majority of our sentencing is actually too long and too harsh. We've had decades of being "tough on crime" but it hasn't worked and will not work. We need to rethink our criminal justice system rather than just hand out bigger and harsher penalties.

He assumed that since Trump gets away with insulting the judge, he could do it, too. This was partially a consequence of treating Trump with kid gloves and tolerating his shenanigans. I hope Trump’s other judges take note, but they probably won’t.

Well they REALLY want to make things stick to Trump which means giving absolutely zero possibility of an appeal determining bias from the judge. They want these cases to be run so well and so by the book that there's no chance of him getting off on a technicality.

I understand that, but they’ve gotta draw the line somewhere. So far, it doesn’t look like they have. All the various judges seem to have done is sternly told him things that are common sense to virtually every other defendant.

He's got like 3 gag orders that have through multiple appeals courts and been affirmed. How many previous presidents were sued criminally and given gag orders? Precisely 1. This is still truly gigantic. It took someone like Trump to come along for the court system to ever even have to test the limits of how you treat former presidents.

Oh, yeah, I’m not arguing with you. I just mean that those gag orders wouldn’t have been necessary if he had the self discipline of a ten year old. Most other defendants would have been thrown in jail for contempt of court.

These are those few cases when you see what narcissism actually is. The narcissist has a polished look that they project to the world--confident, successful, whatever it is that they deem as "good". In reality, it's projected insecurity and is as fragile as a house of cards. Once the cracks start to show, the insecurity comes out to the open and you see this behavior. It even has a name: narcissist rage.

Slapping Trump down in court would feel awesome until whatever decisions the judge makes get overturned on appeal on some technicality. I'm perfectly happy with the current strategy of giving him all the rope he wants. If his supporters want to fuck around and find out how the justice system works for folks in their income bracket...well, I'm sorry but insurrection has consequences and unapologetic insurrection has bigger consequences.

I'm sure he's emulating people like Trump, but I doubt he's doing it because he thinks there won't be consequences because of them. I doubt he's thought about it at all.

However, WERE there actually consequences here for insulting the judge? Sounds like the sentence is what he was going to receive anyway.

One less trump voter

I'm not sure, but can an American vote from prison?

Yes, you can legally vote from jail/prison, however many states, and local counties, will make this difficult. You lose voting rights for a felony (possibly just a subset). A misdemeanor does not impact your voting rights.

Without double checking, I'm guessing this guy was charged with a felony. Most of the January 6 charges were misdemeanors, not felonies. It really feels like your should lose your voting rights for at least 1 election cycle if you're charged with some sort of election fraud or trying to over turn an election

https://www.sentencingproject.org/policy-brief/voting-in-jails/

Definitely a felony, you don't get longer than a year in prison for a misdemeanor.

You don't go to prison for a misdemeanor, you go to jail which is a vastly different environment than prison.

Being in prison mean you're striped of (most of) your rights. You're no longer a contributing citizen. You're literally being removed from society.

No and in most states, an American can't vote after getting out of prison

Yes, they can, though it does vary by state. Most states allow ex-felons to vote after at least probation, there are eleven that do not.

https://felonvoting.procon.org/state-felon-voting-laws/

But in reality, it doesn't really matter as much as we'd want it to thanks to fairly absurd sentencing laws and probationary periods, and a drive by red states to make protesting a felony.

Oh good, then it's changed quite a bit in the past few years

“You can give me 100 years and I’d do it all over again,” said Bru, who was handcuffed and shackled.

This is why you don't give terrorists a second chance.

He’s just hoping Drumpf will get elected and pardon them all. He probably would too. If Drumpf gets back into the Oval Office, kiss this country goodbye.

Trump doesn't care about these useful idiots.

They can't scratch his back, he won't even acknowledge them let alone pardon them.

True but by pardoning them, the next batch of insurrectionists will be a lot more bolder and violent.

Bold of you to assume Trump thinks that far ahead.

Reckless of you not to.

Trump is a malignant narcissist. Other people barely exist to him, unless they are actively fawning over him at that very moment. The guy is incapable of long term planning.

Yes, but people around him are able to convince him "Hi, Mr President, you know these guys... Yeah, it's in your best interest to pardon them because XYZ..."

Yeah, maybe. But to him they're still losers for going to jail for failing to take the Capitol.

True, he has the intelligence of a zombie, the greatest zombie there ever was... But you don't need to be smart to do a lot of damage, we've seen quite a lot of that.

Don't see how that's relevant. He insults people to their faces and they still miss his feet.

It's relevant because how many losers has he pardoned?

This might come as a surprise to you, but Trump can only pardon people if he is the President. He hasn't pardoned anyone because (big reveal incoming) he's not the President.

Now, if he wins this election in November, he will become president again (Google "election" for more info), and I am pretty certain that this is what people are worried about when they talk about him pardoning J6 convicts.

You think 1/6 traitors were the first time Trump supporters got arrested? When he was president, he pardoned his buddies. But how many low level losers who failed him did he pardon when he was president?

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And prosecutors were seeking 7 years 3 months.

Are judges ever not lenient in these cases?

They save the real big sentences for marijuana and protesting oil pipelines.

These are the types of cases where it pays to be lenient.

Without going deeply into the history & tactics of dealing with insurgencies: If the goal is social stability and reconciliation - it is best to be lenient the first time, but then be absolutely over-the-top brutal the second.

So, this guys' whole thing is basically, "GRRR, I'M ANGRY. FUCKOFF AND GIVE ME 6 YEARS".

Man, you sure showed that judge and everyone else by being locked up for 6 years now.

2,190 days where I'll be out in the sunshine, eating delicious food, playing with my kids, and he'll be stuck inside most of the time eating prison food lol.

#freedom

Joining the Prison Boys was a pretty dumb career move for this jackass.

No prizes for guessing which gang he'll be joining in prison.

Is this guy claiming to be a hard core Antifa who was trying to make Trump look bad?

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Reminds me of State of Georgia vs Fenton Allen, court transcript by Rick and Morty.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bjDkQR57fA

LOL this is precisely why the Trump judges are not being aggressive. No way this case didn't get tossed or retried on appeal because of the judge's behavior.

As opposed to the results of the Trump trials (that's many plurals), this case actually resulted in a life time sentence.

And Trump's cases will result in the loss of somewhere around $350,000,000, the loss of a right to conduct business, and then jail time. That lost of status is a greater punishment to someone like Trump than a life sentence.

Keep that fucking psychopath out of your government, and I'll suck your dick.

"You reckon? Reckon you could suck my dick?"

Absolute comedy gold. If you're going down, go all out.

Sounds like the sentence should be 101 years so they don't do it again.

Yeah he knew he was fucked, he was just trying to make sure he was memorable enough that Dump would be sure to pardon him if he won a second term, which this guy is really really counting on.

Hard to tell, if you're dumb enough to talk for Trump's lies about the election, you are also be dumb enough to berate a judge.

Also could be that if you are dumb enough to believe that this will get trumps attention and he won't think solely about himself, you are also dumb enough to berate a judge. So it's kind of a catch 22.

This is all conjecture:

It serves Trump for his j6 insurrectionists and their families to believe he'll pardon them all. His supporters (j6 and other extremists) serve Trump by continually reassuring each other that the pardons will definitely happen day 1.

Trump supporters are surely telling each other that they have it from 'reliable sources' (their imaginations) that Trump will pardon everyone that's faithful. The day of forgiveness is near and all they have to do is have faith and do good works (spread the faith, give money) and their redemption shall come.

Bro you made it really sound like those Jeovah's witnesses waiting for the kingdom of god to float down, that's crazy.

Just wanted to find out what the count of these guys being secret leftist Antifa members is... oh yeah, zero...

Yet Another Imbecile for Trump... I didn't realize just how quickly defunding schools in red states would affect the electorate...

Yes, a very wise strategy to insult the judge. What's next, will he insult his fellow inmates in prison too? Maybe taunt the prison guards? That'll show 'em.

When keeping it real goes wrong - MAGA edition

Unless the judge gave him maximum sentence, this is not justice