Although some Capitol riot defendants are being sent to federal prison — Jacob Chansley, a.k.a. The QAnon Shaman, received a 41-month sentence — others are getting off with probation, fines and/or home detention. The Kansas City Star’s Judy L. Thomas, reporting on a defendant in her area of the U.S., poses the question: Are some of the people who attacked the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6 getting off easy?
Thomas reports that on December 8, U.S. District Judge Carl J. Nichols sentenced Jennifer Parks “to two years’ probation, 60 hours of community service and $500 in restitution for her role in the January 6 riot.” Federal prosecutors, according to Parks, “had recommended one month of home detention, three years’ probation, 60 hours of community service and $500 restitution.”
“Those who monitor extremist groups wonder why the government is allowing defendants in what it is calling ‘a criminal offense unparalleled in American history’ to plead guilty to low-level misdemeanors — and in most cases so far, recommending light sentences with little or no jail time,” Thomas reports.