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Another convicted January 6 US Capitol attacker rejects Trump’s pardon (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/news@lemmy.world
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In an interview published Friday by New Hampshire Public Radio (NHPR), US navy veteran Jason Riddle said: “It’s almost like [Trump] was trying to say it didn’t happen. And it happened. I did those things, and they weren’t pardonable.

“I don’t want the pardon. And I … reject the pardon.”

Riddle entered the US Senate parliamentarian’s office, drank a bottle of wine, stole a book and inflicted damage at the Capitol when Trump supporters attacked the building on 6 January 2021 in a desperate attempt to the then president in office after he lost the presidency to Joe Biden weeks earlier, according to court documents. He received a 90-day prison sentence and was fined $750 in April 2022 for pleading guilty to committing misdemeanors in an attack that was linked to several deaths, including officer suicides.

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[–] 213 points 2 years ago (16 children)

People who reject the pardon are ironically the only ones who would deserve them.

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  • [–] 91 points 2 years ago (11 children)

    I like your logic, but I disagree, they don't deserve pardons either. Pardons are for correcting unjust convictions. Just because they dude repents doesn't mean his conviction was unjust. Pardon power is absolutely abused by presidents.

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  • [–] 17 points 2 years ago (10 children)

    Theyre the ones who deserve a comfortable bed and good food. Maybe house arrest under the right circumstances.

    Note im not for giving prisoners bad accommodations just that there a difference between a bed of questionable quality and a decent one. Same with food theres a difference between forever sloppy joe and pasta alfredo.

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  • [–] 28 points 2 years ago (9 children)

    The moment you start thinking about prison in terms of punishment and who deserves worse, you've missed the mark. Rehabilitation should be the purpose. There's a reason other countries have much lower recidivism rates and some of their prisons are like resorts. The point is to nourish the mind, soul, and body to make a BETTER person - not to continue the beatings until morale improves.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (6 children)

    To me, the idea of prison being resorts, for someone who has done something so wrong, it's kind of strange to me. The idea that someone can do something so wrong and end up at a resort, yet there are people who work so hard every single day at their jobs, they can't afford a sick day, they can't afford a day off, they can't afford a vacation, a resort is an unknown thing to them. Hell, some of those people even have to work a second job just to barely pay the bills.

    It's really interesting to think about, and quite fucked up unfortunately.

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  • [–] 21 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Maybe the answer isnt that the prison conditions should be worse, but that law abiding citizens shouldn't have to scrape and struggle to barely get by.

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  • [–] [S] 12 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    All of this.

    America's warped view of what prison should be hasn't changed from its British foundations, and they're filled with mostly poor people who're often used as chattle for corporations.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago

    Thing is, on the outside they are probably also just poor people used as chattel for corporations.

    Until we fix that, making prisons resorts will only lead to more people committing crimes in order to escape their “free” lives.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    This is because of how horrible our living/working conditions in the US are, but also because of what we think of when we think of prison. We think of the place we would send a hardened criminal to, not a place where we send people who get arrested for drug or alcohol use related crimes - a place that is essentially a rehab facility.

    People who go to jail in the US are much more likely to commit worse crimes when they get out, for a variety of factors, including how difficult it is to get a job with a criminal record, but also because of the conditions of living in prison. All of those people who get sent to a federal penitentiary for smoking weed, or arrested for being homeless, are likely to have become the hardened criminals we think of while they were in there.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

    I understand what you're saying, but you are still implicitly agreeing with the idea hardened criminals should be treated more harshly. If your goal is rehabilitation and not punishment, this is the wrong mentality.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago

    I didn't mean that as my personal mindset, but that of our American culture. When I said "hardened criminals," I was using the cultural sense of the phrase that refers to those guilty of more serious crimes and repeat offenders, nothing more.

    The vast majority of people in prison are there for stupid reasons, and most would never be there in the first place if there were better social safety nets and support programs in the first place. And of those who do end up in prison, everybody would be far better served by rehabilitation programs than punishment for the sake of punishment. That serves no purpose other than to be cruel.

    There are, of course, those very few people who are better off locked away from the general populace, like CEOs. But even then, the point is to prevent them from doing harm, not inflicting pain and misery on them.

    The American prison system is good at 2 things: creating profit off of slave labor and creating repeat offenders who are likely to turn to things like theft, drugs, or dangerous forms of sex work (prostitution, becoming human trafficking victims, etc.) out of desperation after they get out.

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  • [–] 28 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    I'm glad his perspective has changed, but no one deserves them.

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  • [–] 42 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Depends on your perspective on prisons. If they are about punishment, yeah. But if they are about rehabilitation, denying those pardons kinda proves you are ready to be part of civil society again.

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  • [–] 17 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    These people have very short sentences that might already be served. The pardon is more about lending credibility to what they did in the first place. I am 1000% in favor of prison reform, but this isn't that.

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    • [–] 112 points 2 years ago (7 children)

    I'm kind of amazed any time anyone in America feels guilt or shame or regret based on their actions at this point, but especially Trump's fans.

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  • [–] 67 points 2 years ago (6 children)

    the lesson is that there are still sleepwalkers to awake. i don't know how we do it, but it's possible

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  • [–] 78 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

    It’s hard.

    My brother was deep in to this shit when our mom died. He was living with her and had no where to go.

    So he started living with me.

    I had to be an asshole about it at first. IE: in reference to the conservative media he’d watch all day I said something to the effect of “turn that hateful shit off or find somewhere else to fucking live” at one point.

    Once I got him to reduce the amount of bullshit he watched it was easier to point out a couple things that would resonate with him. Like:

    How the media he’s watching is always telling you how you should feel about the news. I didn’t tell him what to watch, but explained that journalists aren’t supposed to be telling you how to feel about the news, this is a manipulation tactic.

    I also pointed out that the media he was consuming was constantly telling you what “the leftists” think. I told him that if he wants to know what leftists think, he should listen to leftists, not the people trying to manipulate him.

    I also have gay friends. When some of them were coming over for a get-together I said, “if that’s going to be a problem, stay in your fucking room.”

    I kept pointing out how corporations are fucking us over and asking why the media he was watching never talked about that.

    I got him spending more time outside and just generally being away from technology for a few hours every day.

    I’ve also been helping him learn to live with a disability. Having to help navigate government supports for him is a good thing to reference when conservative views on health care come up.

    He’s not a card-carrying leftist yet, but he doesn’t get mad about gay people existing any more, so that’s a win. He now acknowledges that it’s the corporations fucking us with the help of both parties. It’s been almost 3 years now and he’s stubborn, but I keep at it.

    I think the short version is: get them to realize they’re being manipulated and get them to start questioning the conservative narrative, but make sure they know you care about them at the same time.

    Editing to add: using their language helps a lot too.

    Don’t say: “Trans rights are human rights” Say: “Those are your countrymen fighting for the freedom to live their lives as they see fit, just like you.”

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  • [–] 33 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    Definitely, although the link to alcoholism is an interesting one. The other person who did this was also an alcoholic and said that the 12 steps made her admit she was wrong.

    I really have a lot of issues with AA and NA and other groups that use the 12 steps for a lot of reasons, but I'm glad it helped at least one person in this way.

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  • [–] 22 points 2 years ago* (3 children)

    Definitely, although the link to alcoholism is an interesting one.

    Indeed. I've often half-joked that the bulk of the MAGA movement is just a huge meth problem hiding in plain sight. It definitely stands to reason alcohol could have a similar effect on some people.

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  • [–] 9 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Might be. But I was in DC on the 6th, and let me tell you that the people I saw wearing the red hats were “normal”. Older couples, people you’d see at the highway gas stop restaurant. They might be from areas with a rural meth problem, but they were people the caricature comes from. Working class, rural, red-staters that gobble down the fear and rage in their Fox News and Truth Social echo chambers.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago

    But I was in DC on the 6th, and let me tell you that the people I saw wearing the red hats were “normal”.

    Having grown up with a meth addict parent, you may not know what to look for in otherwise "normal" adults who are meth addicts. If they have the self control not to let the drug take over, they can live for years without showing any outward signs of their habit. It's amazing how long some people can be functioning adults and addicted.

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  • [–] 8 points 2 years ago

    they're desperate and will latch onto anything that gives them relief from their daily lives. throughout human history that's been vice and extremism. a small number of gross looking men have directed that extremism towards the right wing to the detriment of the left. they got us here because the left too often said "these are the weapons of the enemy. i do not need them. i will not use them."

    well.

    we lost the war because we refused to pick up any weapons. or at least the politicians we'd most be able to help did. the right monopolized violence, technological mass media, and populism. the left saw this, and just as in the 1920s, refused to push the extremists, the fascists, nazis, bolsheviks, and militarists, out of power. too much of the focus was placed on following the proper order of procedure. none was placed on "how do we hold government accountable"

    why?

    nacy pelosi doesn't want an accountable government. these nut jobs have tried to kill her and her husband, but ooooh that stock portfolio tho. and she's not the only one

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    • [–] 44 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (4 children)

    Good for him. He'll never have my forgiveness, but I appreciate that he understands he doesn't deserve it either.

    Edit: I don’t forgive traitors. Some things are unforgivable and 1/6 is one of them. I owe these traitors nothing and they’ll receive exactly that. I hope they live with the shame of their actions for the rest of their lives.

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    • [–] 39 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    I mean he served the 90 day sentence and is already free. Makes sense he would reject it.

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    • [–] 18 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    Interesting that the only two so far that I've seen that have rejected them, are people who served like 3 months and paid a fine.

    Not saying it's a bad thing, but it's not exactly life altering.

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    • [–] 17 points 2 years ago

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