At the sentencing hearings for the five Proud Boys convicted for some of the most serious crimes related to the January 6 insurrection, the crocodile tears were flowing. Perhaps hoping for mercy from the Donald Trump-appointed federal judge, Timothy Kelly, one member of the neo-fascist gang after another claimed to have seen the error of their ways and promised to walk a better path from here on out.

Dominic Pezzola, who had joined the group only weeks before the January 6 attack, declared himself “a changed and humbled man” ready to return to a quiet life as an apolitical father and partner to his girlfriend. Joseph Biggs, who was functionally second in command of the Proud Boys on the day of the riot, claimed, “I was seduced by the crowd” before claiming that he’s “so sorry.” Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio claimed to be “profusely sorry” and called the cops he sicced his gang on “heroes.”

It doesn’t matter if the Proud Boys are remorseless.

“I’m done with politics, done with peddling lies for other people who don’t care about me,” said Pennsylvania-based Proud Boy Zachary Rehl, while wiping away tears. “There is no excuse for what I did,” Ethan Nordean declared.

There’s plenty of reason to be skeptical of a single word of remorse offered by any of these men, however.

Pezzola, after getting sentenced to 10 years, raised his fist in the air and yelled “Trump won!” While the other Proud Boys were less dramatic, it was also not so hard to see how few, if any, genuinely feel bad about what they did. After being sentenced, Biggs called into a vigil held by pro-insurrectionists outside the jail and declared that his 17-year sentence was “insanity,” even though it was half what prosecutors had asked for. “They can kiss my ass. We’re still fighting all the way to the end,” he told the crowd, imploring them to “never give up.” He also called into “Infowars” to insist, “We didn’t do anything wrong.”

As Brandi Buchman of Emptywheel, who has been covering the Proud Boys and Oathkeepers trials from the beginning, pointed out, Nordean’s pleas for mercy were flat-out dishonest. He kept insisting had only shown up “to keep people out of trouble and keep people safe,” and that he was only guilty of a failure to “deescalate.” That’s a lie, as evidence showed he not only egged people on before the attack but that he was texting his fellows about plotting for “absolute war” in the days after. Similarly, Rehl has lied throughout this process. He lied on the stand, saying he didn’t pepper spray cops, until video evidence was produced showing him doing it. Even after being found guilty, Buchman notes, “Rehl continued to mock proceedings and not just that, but lie about them” to far-right media outlets.

Meanwhile, Tarrio’s lawyers continued to push silly lies, such as the claim that Tarrio was there to “fight antifa,” despite all the evidence showing his intent was to block the counting of electoral votes.

The Trump-appointed judge was skeptical, reminding Tarrio many times that he told the Proud Boys “don’t f*cking leave” during the riot:

Tarrio’s sentence of 22 years — so far, the longest of any January 6 insurrectionist — speaks to how skeptical the judge was of his “remorse.”

This lack of real contrition is the norm with insurrections top to bottom, from Trump to the lowliest window-smasher. The Capitol riot wasn’t the result of misguided people who just needed to be set straight. These folks are fanatics who lie with ease in service of their goal, which is toppling democracy. It’s dispiriting to realize they aren’t going to give up, no matter how destructive their obsession turns out to be. Trump and his minions have egos that are way too big to sincerely admit they were wrong, no matter how much they stand to lose by being stubborn.

It would be nice if these men would reflect on how they lost their way, but the good news is that we don’t need their penitence. Punishment is enough, especially when it comes to what really matters, which is deterrence. There’s ample reason to believe that the prosecution of the Capitol rioters — and increasingly of the coup leadership — is having the desired effect. MAGA America may still quietly wish that January 6 would have worked, but they are also showing signs that they’re unwilling to try again, for fear of ending up in handcuffs.

This lack of real contrition is the norm with insurrections top to bottom, from Trump to the lowliest window-smasher.

That’s most evident in how little violence there’s been in response to Trump being indicted on 91 felony charges in four different jurisdictions. Trump has been out there pathetically begging his followers, in unsubtle ways, to riot or commit acts of terrorism against people who are prosecuting him. His followers haven’t even really shown up in significant numbers to protest. At every arraignment, the most he’s gotten is a few relatively harmless cranks.

We know this is due to cowardice and not any real loss of support with the MAGA base because polling shows GOP voters still back Trump as their presidential nominee by wide margins. Mostly, this is petulance, as those voters refuse to admit liberals were right about him all along. And, unfortunately, the people involved in holding Trump legally accountable — prosecutors, judges, and even grand jury members — have also been subject to threats and abuse.

But what we’re not seeing is many people who are willing to risk their own safety or freedom to lash out for Trump. The people making threats are doing so from anonymous forums, where they think their identity will be concealed from authorities. Or, in the case of the woman who threatened federal judge Tanya Chutkan, after allegedly drinking too much to be in her right mind.

Republicanism has long been about recasting selfishness as a virtue. While that’s helpful in justifying bullying behavior, it also makes it hard to convince people to take personal risks in the name of fascist ideology. Most of them are content shaking their fist at Fox News, rather than do something foolish that risks prison time. Even those that broke windows on January 6 seemed to do so because they were dumb enough to think they’d get away with it.

This fear of consequences could restrain not just the violence, but other future schemes to overturn elections. After a couple of years of getting away with it, people who agreed to be fake electors for Trump are starting to get arrested. And rather than be good soldiers for Trump, their fingers are starting to shakily emerge, pointed straight at their leader. As Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein report for Politico, three fake electors in Georgia, after being charged in a RICO case alongside Trump, “recently said in court filings that nearly all of the charges they face were the result of instructions from Trump and his lawyers.” They may not be ready to turn state’s witness. But already that’s three people who won’t be answering the call next time a Trump lackey asks them to forge paperwork to try to steal an election.

Pezzola likely told himself a story about how courageous he was, pumping his fist and yelling, “Trump won!” In reality, the gesture only underscored how pathetic he and the other Proud Boys are. They lie like sniveling babies to the judge, feigning remorse in an impotent effort to get mercy. The defiant face shown to the MAGA crowd is play-acting, done only when they think there will be no added consequences for doing it. But after their behavior at the sentencing hearings, there can be no doubt that they’d do things differently if they had another chance. Not because they sincerely wish to be better people, which they clearly don’t. But because punishment works as a deterrence. It’s also why it’s so important for Trump to be tried in a timely fashion. Nothing will scare the MAGA hordes straight like seeing Dear Leader take the fall for his various crimes.

  • soumerd_retardataire
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    9 months ago

    Or they would have exchanged their arguments like the civilised people we’re supposed to represent. If they killed your representatives that would be worth a decade or more in jail i suppose, but they didn’t, they simply entered a building and are accused of having attempted to overthrow the government, an accusation that no one can take seriously(, and yet).
    Russia, China, or the many other sanctioned countries, can rejoice on their medias, who are either banned or not read by the “free world”, but otherwise, i don’t see how they could profit from it. More importantly, they wouldn’t be glad that their enemy has problems if we were allied, this world f*cking stinks, and shouldn’t.

    • I_Has_A_Hat@lemmy.ml
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      9 months ago

      Ah yes, the people literally smearing shit on the walls were certainly just looking for a nice, civilized argument with their representatives.

      • soumerd_retardataire
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        9 months ago

        I agree, but what i clumsily pointed at is the lack of debate, i see three options :

        • We could already back then prove without a doubt that the elections weren’t rigged, and couldn’t have been, but that’s not the case. If it was possible, then we could’ve reminded them of the safety of our mechanism, but even then we should still invite opponents so they can point at imperfections in order to improve it ;
        • We can’t currently prove that the elections weren’t rigged, and that’s a problem that we should acknowledge if we want to prevent such refusal to accept an electoral defeat in the future, it’s alarming that we don’t intend to change anything, we must be more re-assured that rigging elections is impossible, and not double-down with machine voting instead of a cctv which could record every single vote opened and be inside the box as well and broadcast live, that’s an example. There have also been proofs of multiple votes under a false identity, and i wrote once a long text on how we could ensure a safety, but my point is that these solutions exist and that you’re not taking the steps to ensure an impossibility of cheating, i could say that it’s suspicious but i’ll only say that it’s a way to ensure more doubts for the next elections ;
        • And the third possibility would be that we’ll never be able to prove that elections aren’t rigged, but i don’t believe in this, one would need to not have thought about the solutions in order to believe this.
    • mrnotoriousman@kbin.social
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      9 months ago

      You’re free to go ahead and look at all the evidence presented for the proud boys and oath keepers. It’s all right there but that would pop your right wing bubble. No one gets sedition charges for entering a building. And we all watched it live on TV, most people take what happened very seriously.

      • soumerd_retardataire
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        9 months ago

        If i’m taking the first link i found, here’s the accusations :

        • conspiring to oppose by force the lawful transfer of presidential power
        • those who attempted to undermine the workings of American democracy will be held criminally accountable
        • conspired before, during, and after the siege of the Capitol to use force against their own government to prevent the peaceful transfer of power
        • seditious conspiracy
        • To prepare for the attack on the Capitol, Tarrio and the other leaders of the Ministry of Self Defense established a chain of command, chose a time and place for their attack, and intentionally recruited others who would follow their top-down leadership and who were prepared to engage in physical violence if necessary.
        • At 2:11 p.m., Pezzola smashed open a window, allowing the first rioters to enter the Capitol as Biggs and those with him entered close behind.
        • Tarrio’s conduct constituted an official act of terrorism
        • In the 31 months since Jan. 6, 2021, more than 1,106 individuals have been arrested

        Feel free to read the article to see if i forgot something, it wasn’t informative. No one can honestly say that they were going to overtake the country, and yet.

        The second link is entirely on the charges but is even less informative. Believing that they had any chance to overthrow the United States of America is crazy talk, yet lives were/are ruined while everyone claps as if it make sense. Please find me more arguments from your side if you believe to be on the right side.