The Donald Trump Department of Justice issued a press release yesterday to report to the public that four of the very fine people in the Rise Above Movement (RAM) who rioted in Charlottesville, Virginia, nearly two years ago took pleas to avoid trials. They were also involved in violence at other protests. Even with those pleas, they were sentenced to significant time in federal prison.
These new sentences come on the heels of a life sentence for James Alex Fields, Jr., who drove a car through the Charlottesville crowd and killed protester Heather Heyer.
From yesterday’s Department of Justice press release:
[Benjamin] Daley, 26, of Torrance, Calif., was sentenced today to 37 months in prison. [Thomas] Gillen, 25, of Redondo Beach, was sentenced to 33 months in prison. [Michael] Miselis, 30, of Lawndale, Calif., was sentenced to 27 months in prison. A fourth defendant, Cole Evan White, will be sentenced at a future date. All four defendants previously pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to riot.
The heavily-subsidized online Republican outrage spam machine makes much of how evil Antifa is violent even as members of Donald Trump’s base admit to violent acts and go to prison. Here’s some history of these new convicts:
On March 25, 2017, Daley, Gillen, and Miselis attended a political rally in Huntington Beach, Calif., with several RAM members. At that event, several RAM members pursued and assaulted groups of protestors and other individuals. Following the rally, photographs depicting RAM members assaulting protestors and other individuals were covered on local news stations and on the “front page” of various Neo-Nazi and white-supremacist websites. RAM members celebrated this coverage and used the internet to post statements, photographs, and videos of the assaults committed by RAM members at this rally to recruit members to engage in violent confrontations at future events.
On April 15, 2017, Daley, Gillen, Miselis, and other RAM members attended a rally in Berkeley, Calif. The defendants and other RAM members were dressed in gray clothing, goggles, and black scarfs or masks to cover the lower half of their faces. Throughout the day, there were violent clashes between some rally attendees and individuals protesting the rally. At one point, RAM members, including Daley and Miselis, crossed a barrier separating the attendees and the protestors, and assaulted protestors and other individuals…
Here’s what happened in Charlottesville on the day of the rally:
On the morning of August 12, 2017, Daley, Gillen, and Miselis, and other members of RAM, with their hands wrapped in white athletic tape, were part of a large group of over 40 individuals seeking entry into Emancipation Park by way of Second Street when they were told by law enforcement to enter at a different location. The group, including Daley, Gillen, Miselis, and other RAM members, turned, lined up, and began to make their way through a group of over 20 individuals who had come to the rally to protest against discrimination. As they made their way through the group of protestors, the RAM members collectively pushed, punched, kicked, chocked, head-butted, and otherwise assaulted several individuals, resulting in a riot. As part of their pleas, the defendants admitted these actions were not in self-defense.
So there we have it. The four men admitted they were the aggressors and their “actions were not in self-defense.”
In reality, all the chatter about Antifa is designed to project the violence of Republican insiders to their “enemies” — the Democrats. Anyone who knows much about Antifa knows they are essentially an anarchist group, and we all should know that anarchists are far away from Democrats.
On the other hand, reactionary social groups like the Rise Above Movement are more closely tied to the Republican Party, both in terms of these groups supporting Republicans, and even Republicans supporting these groups.
For example, Republicans in Manhattan invited the Proud Boys to speak at their club. But just like the Rise Above Movement, a group of Proud Boys took pleas for violent acts right outside the doors of the Republican club.
There was a time when Donald Trump promised, “I will pay for the legal fees” for his supporters who “knock the crap out of” someone. That was then. this is now.
The four Californians who made the trek to Virginia to rough up protesters who disagreed (in the name of “free speech” surely), didn’t even have a trial. That’s not very good legal representation. Worse yet, Donald Trump’s personal lawyer with the official powers of government, William Barr, and his Justice Department were the ones who prosecuted the four adult boys. Double-crossed twice: no legal fees paid and Trump’s buddy let the prosecution go. Maybe there will be pardons coming?
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