Remember Henry “Enrique” Tarrio? He’s the leader of the Proud Boys, that far-right extremist group. He’s serving a five-month sentence for burning a Black Lives Matter banner that was taken from a Black church in Washington, D.C.
And now he wants to be freed. Surprise, surprise.
From Associated Press:
Complaining about jail conditions, a top leader of the Proud Boys far-right extremist group asked a judge on Monday to free him before he finishes serving a five-month sentence for burning a Black Lives Matter banner taken from a historic Black church in Washington, D.C.
D.C. Superior Court Judge Jonathan Pittman said Monday he would rule by the end of the week on whether to reduce Proud Boys chairman Henry “Enrique” Tarrio’s sentence to 90 days. But the judge struck a consistently skeptical tone that left Tarrio, testifying by video from jail, visibly slumped in frustration.
Tarrio asked that his sentence be reduced or that he be allowed to finish it under house arrest because he claims he has been harassed by correctional officers and exposed to inhumane jail conditions. He said his cell has regularly flooded with dirty toilet water from a neighboring cell.
When Tarrio was arrested, it was days before the Capitol riot on Jan. 6. According to the Associated Press, Tarrio pleaded guilty to destruction of property and attempted possession of a large-capacity ammunition feeding device. Police said officers found two unloaded firearm magazines emblazoned with the Proud Boys logo in Tarrio’s bag. Cute. Pretty sure he wasn’t going to use those to pass out brownies.
Not unlike Tarrio, plenty of other people who months ago planned on tearing down the U.S. Capitol brick by brick, now want to be freed from their prison cells because they don’t like the conditions of the prison. But isn’t that kind of the point of jail or prison. It’s not supposed to be nice or everyone would want to go there.
Per the Associated Press, a federal judge asked the Justice Department to probe whether inmates’ civil rights were being violated after the corrections director and jail warden in Washington D.C. were held in contempt of court.
Last week, the Associated Press reported that the Justice Department announced plans to transfer 400 federal prisoners (in a different building than the defendants from the Capitol) to another facility in Pennsylvania because of their living conditions. About thirty participants in the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection were not included because the government said their building was just fine.
However, Tarrio used the evacuation and transportation of the other inmates as proof that the jail is ill-equipped to continue running, telling the judge, “they don’t move 400 prisoners for nothing,” according to the Associated Press.
Man, this is going to be interesting to watch.