by James A. Bacon

Geoffrey William Sills, of Mechanicsville, was found guilty of wresting a police baton from a Capitol police officer during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol and using it to “repeatedly strike at officers in the police line.” He received clemency under President Trump’s blanket pardon of individuals who participated in the mayhem. So reports the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Disgraceful.

It is possible to hold two thoughts in one’s head at the same time: that the Justice Department went overboard in prosecuting people who strolled peacefully into the Capitol building and wandered about as curiosity seekers while it was justified in throwing the book at people who committed violent acts.

Last time I heard, Republicans were not normally sympathetic to people who assault the police.

According to the RTD, Trump’s clemency extended to Farhad and Farbod Azari, a Richmond father and son who rammed a metal bike rack into a line of Capitol police and used a flag to strike an officer.

What’s the saying? You do the crime, you do the time.

Was the Justice Department excessively zealous in charging people? Sure. Let’s take a look at some Virginians not mentioned in national news reports because their prosecutions look like overkill.

Consider the case of Miles Brandon Atkins, of Frederick County. According to the NPR Jan. 6 database Adkins entered the Capitol Jan. 6. Video shows him holding a large canned beverage. In a Facebook post he said: “I drank fireball and a coors lite in the capitol.” When he left the Capitol building, Adkins allegedly could be heard yelling, “Let’s go get a beer, let’s go get a beer!” 

Time to paaaartay! Slap a neatly trimmed beard on John Belushi in “Animal House” … and you’d get Atkins.

The Feds charged Atkins with Disorderly Conduct in a Capitol Building; and Parading, Demonstrating, or Picketing in a Capitol Building. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 24 months of probation and 12 days of intermittent confinement, and assessed $1,520 in fines, assessments and restitution.

Then there’s the case of Luke Wessley Bender, of Fairfax Station. According to NPR, an anonymous tipster informed the FBI that Bender had bragged “about being present during the insurrection at the US Capitol.” Images showed him wearing a black cowboy hat, camouflage jacket and blue Trump flag on the National Mall. Video footage showed him walking around the Capitol Rotunda and the Senate chamber, where he appeared to use his phone to photograph documents on senators’ desks.

Bender was charged with:

• Obstruction of an official proceeding;
• Entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds;
• Disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds;
• Entering and remaining on the floor of Congress;
• Disorderly conduct in a Capitol building; parading, demonstration, or picketing in a Capital building.

Found guilty on all charges, Bender was sentenced to 21 months incarceration and supervised release of 36 months, and slapped with $2,180 in fines and special assessments.

I’m not losing any sleep over clemency for Atkins and Bender, especially when I think of the non-prosecution of left-wing demonstrators during the George Floyd protests/riots. For example, of 97 people arrested for their disorders in Portland, Ore., including assaults on police officers, only 58 were prosecuted, and only one sent to prison — for setting fire to the Justice Center.

Plenty of Democratic prosecutors declined to indict left-wing radicals whom they should have indicted, even after they ramped up charges against right-wing radicals. That was wrong. The double standard was appalling, and the prosecutors should be called out for their failings. But at the risk of sounding trite, two wrongs don’t make a right, and someone has to stand up consistently for the rule of law, not just invoking it to punish one’s political enemies and help one’s friends.

Republicans purport to be the party of law and order. If you commit violent assault, wearing a MAGA hat shouldn’t give you a pass. Indeed, by pardoning violent felons, Trump obscured any difference between himself and former President Biden, whom he criticized, for pardoning friends and allies for crimes they may or may not have committed. The converse is true, of course; Biden’s abuse of pardon powers makes him no better than Trump.

With each turn of the electoral ratchet, our national leaders create bad precedents that give license for the next guy to do even worse. This pardon business is out of control and needs to be reined in.

I’d like to say that Virginia’s political class is different from D.C.’s, but I’m not so sure. Politics has become nationalized. Debauchery in D.C. has a way of filtering down to the states.

Virginia governors have pardon powers. Governor Glenn Youngkin doesn’t strike me as the kind of person to abuse his authority, but who knows who might succeed him? Virginians must declare loudly and forcefully that what happens in D.C., stays in D.C.

An afterthought: Geoff Sills has a Give Send Go page, which raised $31,000 for his legal expenses. The page describes him as a practicing Christian with a 100% clean record before the unfortunate business at the Capitol, who plays fetch with Bella his rescue pup, and who recently helped a disabled veteran move into a new home. After the riot, he lost his job with a prominent defense contractor and faced an expensive legal fight “against the enormous DC machine.”

Sills had looked forward to the Trump rally Jan. 6, says the profile, but “the situation somehow morphed into a confusing frenzy.”

Yeah, mobs have a way of doing that. But getting carried away by the mob does not exempt you — even if you’re ordinarily a nice guy — from responsibility for your actions as part of the mob. Republicans didn’t have any trouble understanding that principle when it came to calling for nasty, unshaven, tattooed Antifa types to be held accountable. They criticized Senator Kamala Harris (rightfully) for contributing to bail funds to get left-wing protesters out of jail.

Double standards are bad whatever your political party.