{"id":119167,"date":"2021-11-03T10:07:34","date_gmt":"2021-11-03T14:07:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=119167"},"modified":"2021-11-03T10:07:34","modified_gmt":"2021-11-03T14:07:34","slug":"being-a-veteran-is-now-worthy-of-enhanced-sentences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=119167","title":{"rendered":"Being a veteran is now worthy of enhanced sentences?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Apparently now US federal prosecutors are seeking enhanced sentences for those involved in the 6 January riot. These enhanced sentences are…wait for it…because they are veterans. That’s right, the government\/prosecution’s position is that because these people are US military veterans, they deserve harsher sentences.<\/p>\n

Jeff LPH 3 sends in this Military Times article<\/a>;<\/p>\n

During his 27 years in the U.S. Army, Leonard Gruppo joined the Special Forces, served in four war zones and led a team of combat medics in Iraq before retiring in 2013 as a lieutenant colonel.<\/p>\n

During his six minutes inside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, Gruppo joined a slew of other military veterans as a mob of pro-Trump rioters carried out an unparalleled assault on the bastion of American democracy. He\u2019s among dozens of veterans and active-service members charged in connection with the insurrection.<\/p>\n

Now, cases like his are presenting a thorny question for federal judges to consider when they sentence veterans who stormed the Capitol: Do they deserve leniency because they served their country or tougher punishment because they swore an oath to defend it?<\/p>\n

The Justice Department has adopted the latter position. In at least five cases so far, prosecutors have cited a rioter\u2019s military service as a factor weighing in favor of a jail sentence or house arrest. Prosecutors have repeatedly maintained that veterans\u2019 service, while commendable, made their actions on Jan. 6 more egregious.<\/p>\n

The participation of veterans in the riot was particularly shocking because some of them apparently used training they received in the U.S. military against their own government to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power. Several veterans are among the far-right extremists charged with plotting coordinated attacks on the Capitol, including Oath Keepers members who marched up the Capitol steps in a \u201cstack\u201d formation used by military infantrymen.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors\u2019 arguments about rioters\u2019 military service didn\u2019t sway one of the first judges to hear them \u2014 at Gruppo\u2019s sentencing hearing last Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t view his military service that way. I just can\u2019t bring myself to do that,\u201d Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell said before sentencing Gruppo to two years of probation, including 90 days of house arrest.<\/p>\n

A prosecutor argued that Gruppo\u2019s military service supported the Justice Department\u2019s recommendation for a 30-day jail sentence. Assistant U..S. Attorney Hava Mirell said Gruppo, 56, of New Mexico, was trained to recognize the obvious danger at the Capitol and \u201cto assist rather than to harm.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I hope as they are being carted off to prison the US Attorney has the good grace to give them a “Thank you for your service.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Apparently now US federal prosecutors are seeking enhanced sentences for those involved in the 6 January … Being a veteran is now worthy of enhanced sentences?<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[220,213,126,226,236],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-119167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-floggings-will-continue-until-morale-improves","category-your-tax-dollars-at-work","category-disposable-warriors","category-veterans-in-the-news","category-wtf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/664"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=119167"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":119168,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119167\/revisions\/119168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=119167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=119167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=119167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}