“It is proper you should understand what I deem the essential principles of our Government. … Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever persuasion, religious or political…” —Thomas Jefferson (1801)

It has been a deadly week for police officers.

Two Virginia officers, Cameron Girvin (25) and Christopher Reese (30), were executed last Friday during a traffic stop for expired plates. A day later, a police officer in Pennsylvania, Andrew Duarte (30), was murdered when attempting to subdue a felony offender with hostages in a hospital.

Furthermore, Border Patrol Agent David Maland (44), who was murdered on 20 January in Vermont by members of a transgender vegan anarchist group, was laid to rest with full military honors on Saturday.

Fortunately, however, more often than not, the good guys survive, and the assailants are taken down.

That was the case a few weeks ago in Jasper County, Indiana, when a January 6th rioter, Matthew Huttle, who was days earlier pardoned by Donald Trump, was stopped by a deputy sheriff, who attempted to arrest him for a felony violation. Huttle, declaring he was not going back to jail, resisted arrest and jumped back into his vehicle, where he attempted to access a pistol. Despite multiple warnings to stop, he did not do so and was shot dead during the altercation.

Now, before getting into the details of Trumps blanket pardons, if you want an estimate of my strong support for Trump’s agenda, I outlined that affirmation in “Trump 2.0 — Attack of the Disruptors” two weeks ago.

In fact, there are only two decisions Trump has made in recent months with which I strongly disagree.

First was the nomination of Matt Gaetz for attorney general. Fortunately, that ship sank fast, and a far more qualified AG nominee, Pam Bondi, surfaced. We can agree to disagree on Gaetz’s qualifications, but suffice it to say that he has disappeared down some narcissistic rat hole and has been virtually unheard of since.

The second thing Trump did, which I think was an even greater mistake than the Gaetz nomination, was to issue a blanket pardon to all but 14 of the J6 offenders, including those with 200 pleas and 220 convictions for felonies that included assault on police officers.

We all anticipated that Trump would issue pardons for the J6 protesters charged or convicted of nonviolent offenses. Trump said, “A vast majority should not be in jail,” and he was correct. He earlier insisted, “If they were nonviolent, I think they’ve been greatly punished.” Again, correct.

Trump sent JD Vance out to rebut claims that he would pardon those convicted of violent attacks against police. Vance was clear: “Look, if you protested peacefully on January the 6th, and you’ve had Merrick Garland’s Department of Justice treat you like a gang member, you should be pardoned. If you committed violence on that day, obviously, you shouldn’t be pardoned.”

Bondi affirmed that Trump would not release violent offenders. “I condemn any violence on a law enforcement officer in this country,” she declared, adding, “The president does not like people who abuse police officers, either.”

That being said, I know why Trump issued the pardons — it amounted to the lesser of two bad options, as I outline below.

Recall that in Joe Biden’s pardon extravaganza, he released thousands of criminals just before leaving office, including Hunter Biden in December. He then commuted the sentences of 1,499 people and pardoned another 39 convicts, followed by commutation of the sentences of 37 of 40 federal death row inmates, some being the most evil people in federal custody. He began the New Year commuting another 2,500 sentences.

Then Biden issued preemptive pardons to Anthony Fauci, GEN Mark Milley, and the J6 inquisitors, including witness-tampering former Rep. Liz Cheney. And just minutes before Trump took his oath of office, Biden extended pardons to his immediate family members — to the astonishment of many of Biden’s Leftmedia defenders, including even CNN leftist Jake Tapper.

But soon after Biden’s pardon and commutation bonanza, I noted the shock that most of us experienced when Trump announced those pardons and commutations for almost all of those convicted of or still being prosecuted for J6 offenses.

Of the 1,583 defendants charged after the January 6 riot, 1,230 had already entered guilty pleas or been convicted — and almost 200 pleas and 220 convictions were for felonies that included violent assaults on police officers. (For the record, Huttle was not convicted of a violent offense so he would have been among those nonviolent offenders Trump originally planned to release.)

So, why did Trump pardon violent felony offenders among all the other nonviolent offenders?

First, I think he was outraged about the Demo double-standard in the politically motivated J6 “insurrectionist” persecutions.

For context, recall that while no police officers were killed by J6 protesters (despite continued false assertions to the contrary by Democrats), there were 140 police officers injured that day.

By comparison, according to a federal assessment, “Federal Protective Services, the Secret Service and the Park Police reported that at least 180 officers were injured” six months earlier by actual insurrectionists at Lafayette Square outside the White House. Police were violently assaulted by Black Lives Matter radicals and antifa movement fascists who were attempting to establish a “Black House Autonomous Zone.”

The Lafayette Square assaults on officers were part of just one of more than 600 riots nationwide in Democrat-controlled urban centers by their constituent mobs during the 2020 “summer of rage” — the “burn, loot, and murder” insurrections fomented by Biden and his “unity” cadres.

All of that violence was the result of the Democrats’ pre-2020 election “systemic racism” lie. Historian Victor Davis Hanson noted the consequences: “100 days of torching federal court houses and police precincts, 700 policeman injured, 40 people dead, $4-$5 billion in damages…”

Among the murdered in those riots were law enforcement officers David Dorn and Dave Patrick Underwood — at the same time Democrats were calling to “defund the police” and vilifying cops.

At the time of those riots across the nation, Democrat governors and mayors issued police stand-down orders, so they faced limited resistance. Of the rioters who were actually arrested, recall these headlines:

In Minnesota, the epicenter of the riots: “Most Charges Against George Floyd Protesters Dropped.”

In New York: “Charges Against Hundreds of NYC Rioters, Looters Have Been Dropped.”

In Oregon: “Portland Drops Charges for 90% Arrested During Recent Riots.”

Apparently, those Demo governors and mayors have the same “catch and release” policy the Biden administration practiced with the more than one million immigrants who crossed our southern border in the last six months of his term.

And in Washington, DC: “Nearly All Rioters Freed from Jail in D.C., Most Avoid Felony Riot Charges.”

Not only did DC release the social justice rioters last year, but recall the violent rioting thugs in our nation’s capital who were protesting Donald Trump’s inauguration in 2017. Of the more than 200 felony indictments, almost all charges were dropped.

However, all those violent insurrectionists were fodder for the Demos’ narrative, so they got a pass. The resulting surge in violence fomented by the Democrats in 2020 continues today.

But on January 6, 2021, Democrats finally found a riot they could condemn.

If not for double standards, Democrats would have NO standards.

The second reason Trump released all the J6 protesters: He knew that the continued prosecution (persecution) of hundreds of protesters who had been charged but had yet to enter pleas or be convicted would keep the Demos’ J6 inquisition going for at least another year. Trump wanted to put it behind and move forward with his ambitious second-term agenda.

Additionally, I think Trump’s decision was a smackdown of his House archnemesis, Nancy Pelosi, for her histrionic “insurrection inquisition,” as well as a smackdown of Demos who refused to prosecute, much less even allow a public investigation of, Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd, who killed Ashli Babbitt — the only lethal confrontation with police that day.

Finally, issuing the blanket pardons was no doubt a tough decision for Trump. Still, the Demos’ double standards for “justice” and what would inevitably be their effort to keep the J6 persecutions alive for the next two years justified a very difficult decision.

Moving forward, it is fortunate that Matthew Huttle did not kill the Jasper County deputy who attempted to arrest him. Let’s hope another of Trump’s pardoned offenders does not murder a law enforcement officer. Trump will not be able to rinse that blood stain off with ease.

Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis
Pro Deo et Libertate — 1776

(Updated)

Follow Mark Alexander on X/Twitter.

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