For the past several years, we've been trying to keep tabs on the trials of the various participants in the January 6, 2021, Capitol Hill riots and the treatment the various defendants have received in court. There have been a number of different charges brought based on the level of participation of those involved, but the results have almost all shared one thing in common. The sentences have been disproportionately excessive for all of them, particularly those who wound up doing little more than trespassing as they wandered around the halls after the building was initially breached. But the sentence that was handed down yesterday to David Nicholas Dempsey of Van Nuys California may be among the most disproportionate we've seen to date. Granted, Dempsey was not one of the meandering trespassers I mentioned and he definitely took actions worthy of punishment. But the judge gave him twenty years in prison for rioting, which is far beyond the pale. (NPR)

A California man with a history of political violence was sentenced on Friday to 20 years in prison for repeatedly attacking police with flagpoles and other makeshift weapons during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

David Nicholas Dempsey's sentence is among the longest among hundreds of Capitol riot prosecutions. Prosecutors described him as one of the most violent members of the mob of Donald Trump supporters that attacked the Capitol as lawmakers met to certify Joe Biden's 2020 presidential election victory.

Dempsey, who is from Van Nuys, stomped on police officers' heads. He swung poles at officers defending a tunnel, struck an officer in the head with a metal crutch and attacked police with pepper spray and broken pieces of furniture, prosecutors said.

This isn't even one of those cases where we can point to the judge and attempt to sniff out some political bias. U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth was a Reagan appointee and a Republican earlier in his career. He also served on the FISA court for several years, for whatever that's worth.

Returning to David Dempsey's participation in the riot, he was clearly one of the bad actors and he confessed to as much in court. He assaulted multiple Capitol Hill Police officers, injuring at least two of them. He was actively fighting with the police at several points. He also committed property damage. As I have consistently maintained, violent rioting cannot be tolerated no matter which "side" is doing it, though it seems as if the left consistently receives far more "tolerance" than conservatives do.

With all of that said, however, the punishment needs to be proportional to the crime and consistent with what other defendants have received historically. Physically attacking law enforcement officers should be punished, even if their injuries were minor at worst. Earlier this year, seven people were arrested for attacking and injuring two NYPD officers in Manhattan. All of them were released without bail while awaiting trial and DA Alvin Bragg is reportedly seeking sentences of two to three years. 

Giving David Dempsey twenty years in prison for what is the same crime is insane. There is nothing "special" about a Capitol Hill Police officer that makes an attack on them particularly "worse" than an attack on an NYPD officer. Both attacks are unacceptable and the guilty should be punished. However, the punishment needs to be fair and proportional to the crime. As we've pointed out here ad nauseam, during the BLM riots in New York City, we saw two attorneys convicted of manufacturing and distributing explosives and firebombing a police squad car walk away with 18 months in jail. 

If the Department of Justice could put five percent of the same amount of energy into tracking down and locking up the illegal migrants who are currently going on rape and murder sprees as they do into chasing down everyone who so much as purchased a hot dog in DC on January 6, we might not be living through such a disaster at the moment. I'm not saying David Dempsey deserves a pardon. He doesn't. He pleaded guilty and has to face the music. But if Donald Trump returns to office, Depsey should definitely have his sentence commuted by a great deal, along with nearly all of the other defendants who came before him.