A United States district judge has accused the District of Columbia's police of authoritarianism and intentionally mistreating Trump supporters present during the Capitol riot on January 6.
CBN News said Judge Royce Lamberth ruled on Wednesday that the corrections director and the jail warden were in contempt of court for failing to turnover four months ago the information needed to approve the surgery of Christopher Worrell.
A Proud Boys member, Worrell was charged criminally for the Jan. 6 riot for using pepper spray gel to attack police officers. Worrell is said to have a broken wrist and needed the surgery for it.
Lamberth learned about the documents Worrell needed last week and ordered its turnover to the U.S. Marshals Service by the D.C. jail system but it did not happen. Lamberth then ordered D.C.'s Department of Corrections Director Quincy Booth and D.C. Jail Warden Wanda Patten in contempt of court on Tuesday when the said documents were still pending, resulting to Worrell still suffering a broken wrist.
"He's needed an operation. He hasn't gotten it," Lamberth remarked in his ruling.
"(This is) more than just inept and bureaucratic jostling of papers, raising the possibility of deliberate mistreatment," he said during the hearing.
Lamberth did not impose any penalties on sanctions on the said officials but have indicated that the case will be referred to the Department of Justice for further investigation on the possibility that other inmates' civil rights are being violated in jail.
"I find that the civil rights of the defendant have been abused. I don't know if it's because he's a Jan. 6th defendant or not, but I find this matter should be referred to the attorney general of the United States for a civil rights investigation into whether the D.C. Department of Corrections is violating the civil rights of Jan. 6th defendants... in this and maybe other cases," Lambert disclosed.
Christianity Daily reported in July that U.S. Capitol rioters suffer harsh conditions in jail since authorities punish them and experience basic human rights violations. Two lawyers of those charged for the riot disclosed that "Third World treatment" is given them. This particularly involve solitary confinement, lack of access to clean drinking water and medical care, and "restricted access to defense counsel."
Around 500 people have been charged in relation to the Jan. 6 riot and, of these, 50 have been detained in prison for months while waiting for their day of court.
The lawyer's expose was reinforced last month when a prisoner for the Jan. 6 riot, 34-year-old Jonathan Gennaro Mellis, revealed they receive "hateful treatment" for supporting former President Donald Trump. This entailed, Mellis said, being put in solitary confinement and from burying his father.
Journalist Glenn Greenwald tweeted on Wednesday that the long detainment of the Jan. 6 rioters and the harsh treatment imposed on them by jail officials show "authoritarianism" that will finally be looked into because of Lamberth's decision. Greenwald pointed out that history should not repeat itself, citing lessons from the September 11 attack that highlighted the need to apply correct treatment to "alleged perpetrators."
"'Meanwhile, critics of excessive SWAT raids in general told POLITICO that it's reasonable for law enforcement to use them in Jan. 6 cases.' Add to that support for long pre-trial imprisonment and prison terms for trivial misdemeanor charges, and you see the authoritarianism," Greenwald commented on an article of Politico on the matter.
"Conditions in many US prisons have been atrocious for a long time, but the 1/6 defendants in prison--none of whom have yet been convicted--have been subjected to extra harsh measures. Today a federal judge called on a DOJ investigation," he added.
"I thought we learned the lesson from the US Government's response to 9/11 that a horrifying and violent attack doesn't justify abusive treatment of alleged perpetrators nor obviate legal limits on what can be done (and there's no rational comparison between 9/11 and 1/6)," he pointed out.
It's also worth noting that the FBI itself cleared President Donald Trump and his supporters of any involvement in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. On the other hand, reports revealed that leftists and state agents were involved in the chaotic incident.
