A leader of the Proud Boys who led the far-right organization’s infamous march to the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, was sentenced Wednesday to 17 years in prison – among the longest sentence handed down yet for a convicted rioter.

Joe Biggs was convicted by a Washington, DC jury of several charges including seditious conspiracy for attempting to forcibly prevent the peaceful transfer of power from then-President Donald Trump to Joe Biden after the 2020 election.

The government wanted Biggs to serve 33 years in federal prison. That’s 15 years longer than the longest sentence in a Jan. 6 case to date: the 18-year sentence that went to Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, also convicted of seditious conspiracy, after prosecutors sought 25 years in federal prison.

    • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Even if he serves all 17 years, it’s unlikely he rehabilitates and incredibly like he goes right back to it.

      People get 30 years for having a couple hundred dollars of weed.

      We wouldn’t be complaining about his sentence so much if the rest of our sentences were also lesser

      • z3rOR0ne@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        Or if the US Prison System was focused on rehabilitation rather than mass incarceration. This guy will find and be welcomed by his own in prison, and his misguided and dangerous ideology will only be enforced, and not challenged.

        Fanatical beliefs like the ones this man holds should be ostracized and mocked until they fade into obscurity and irrelevance. Instead, they live on through insidious means like indoctrination, cults/organized religions, and fascism.

      • Zaktor@sopuli.xyz
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        1 year ago

        People get 30 years for having a couple hundred dollars of weed.

        That’s the problem, not a 17 year sentence being too light. What’s he going to learn in year 18 he didn’t learn in the previous 17?

    • Wahots@pawb.social
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      1 year ago

      He literally tried to overthrow the government and overturn the peaceful transition of power through a coup. People died that day defending goverment workers from people who were going around with flexicuffs and blindfolds while other people strung up nooses. They were planning on executing innocent people.

      Officers defending them got beaten so badly, they died the next day.

    • Jaysyn@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      He’s a military vet that attacked his country, he’s lucky he’s not being executed.

      • amanneedsamaid@sopuli.xyz
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        1 year ago

        Deadass, doing the same thing he did in almost any other place or time throughout human history would’ve led to an execution.

    • donuts@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Imagine punishing someone for attacking democracy and attempted an armed insurrection. I don’t believe in the death sentence on moral grounds, but life imprisonment is a suitable alternative for the most extreme crimes.

      I’m curious how Europe, with its long history of revolution, torture and guillotines, would handle a coup attempt.

      • ArtieShaw@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        I guess we’ll get to find out when and if Germany prosecutes theirs. Wiki.

        BBC article

        They didn’t actually get as far as storming the capitol, but it seems like it was in the plans.

    • Wookie@artemis.camp
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      1 year ago

      He tried to overthrow a democratic elected government. What do you think they would have done have they ran into Pelossi or Pence? They had nooses. It was pre-planned and we don’t even know who in the government helped them. I’m not American btw