Quick Take: A Tale of Two Verdicts
Look who’s lamenting the people’s distrust of law enforcement now…
In Michigan this week, two of four men on trial in federal court on a charge of conspiring to kidnap Governor Gretchen Whitmer, the one-time La Pasionaria of the COVID-19 pandemic, were acquitted. The jury was unable to reach a verdict in the other two cases and the judge declared a mistrial.
Meanwhile in Washington DC, a defendant charged with four misdemeanors allegedly committed during the January 6 storming of the US Capitol was acquitted on all counts by a federal judge. There was no jury in that case, the defendant having requested a bench trial.
Given the progressive Left’s well-known distrust of law enforcement you might think that they’d be cheering these outcomes. But no: The Woke’s loathing of the cops does not extend to cases in which the defendants are Deplorable. Violent career criminals with a record as long as your leg get treated like victims or even Heroes of the Resistance; right-wing militia members, Trump supporters and conservatives generally, not so much.
Nina Burleigh—per Wikipedia “an American writer and investigative journalist” who “writes books, articles, essays and reviews…is a supporter of secular liberalism, and is known for her interest in issues of women's rights”—was indeed writing this week, lamenting “The dangerous message sent by the Gov. Whitmer kidnapping verdict.” Dangerous how? Well, according to Burleigh, “By eroding trust in law enforcement, the far right can continue to claim the Jan. 6 insurrection was nothing more than an exercise in free speech.”
Get that: “eroding trust in law enforcement.” Seriously, Ms. Burleigh? I don’t think people like you are entitled to make that argument. I note that in your article you slam Tucker Carlson for his two-facedness, supporting the cops here while reviling the FBI there. Good point, actually. But thanks to the self-awareness deficit so characteristic of progressives, you can’t see that it’s a point equally applicable to you and yours.
Here’s the deal. In the Whitmer trial, prosecutors made their case to the jury, which in our system of justice is the finder of fact, and it wasn’t the fault of the “far right” that the jury found the government’s case unpersuasive. As for the January 6 trial, the government’s case was rightfully laughed out of court. There were enough serious crimes committed on that day to keep federal prosecutors busy for years but instead Merrick Garland’s misbegotten Justice Department wasted everybody’s time persecuting a guy whose crimes, if such they were, were trivial.
For decades, “eroding public trust” in law enforcement, the justice system, the courts, institutions of all kinds, has been the great project of the progressive Left. Now the comrades are complaining about the results, and as far as I’m concerned they can just shut up.