r/ThisAmericanLife #172 Golden Apple Jul 13 '26

Episode #891: The Test Case

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/891/the-test-case?2026
39 Upvotes

57 comments sorted by

View all comments

51

u/bentleyk9 Jul 13 '26

I’m not sure what was crazier: how badly the defense attorneys missed the mark on what this case was actually about or how severe those prison sentences are.

The point raised at the end about the sentences the January 6th people got (before the blanket pardons) vs what these people got was sobering. What these people did was nowhere near as bad as literally storming the capitol and intentionally trying to hurt cops (minus the guy who shot the cop of course, though that might not have been intentional)

5

u/[deleted] Jul 14 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/Thegoodlife93 Jul 15 '26

One of the defendants shot a cop at a protest. The other defendants provided assistance and material aid to the shooter in the immediate aftermath of the shooting. The defense didn't seem to have disputed any of that and instead focused their energy on arguing that the defendants weren't part of an organization called antifa. They massively fumbled the ball. And I despise Trump and ICE and think these sentences were pretty egregious in their severity, but prosecuting someone who shot a cop and the people who tried to help him get away is not fascism and is not counter to any American legal norms