July 20, 2021

Two-Tiered Justice: A January 6 Rioter Is Sentenced

Clearly, there’s one tier of justice for Trump supporters and another for Black Lives Matter supporters.

On the one hand, a case can be made that Paul Hodgkins got off easy. After all, a measly eight months in prison for having helped carry off what Joe Biden called “the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War”? Wow. Given the gravity of the crime, that’s some serious kid-glove treatment.

Of course, it’s hard to take President Hyperbole seriously. Especially when he seems to compare everything that his political opponents do to the nation’s worst-ever cataclysm. (Recall that just last week, he denounced the very modest voter reform efforts of certain Republican-controlled state legislatures by calling them “the most significant test of our democracy since the Civil War.”)

As for the unarmed non-insurrection of January 6, the not-so-speedy wheels of two-tiered American justice turned just a bit yesterday, when the first of what promises to be many felony sentences was handed out to a guy who walked into The People’s House without an invitation while carrying a “Trump 2020” flag. As the Washington Examiner reports:

The first person to be convicted of a felony regarding actions during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot has been sentenced to eight months in prison.

Paul Allard Hodgkins, a 38-year-old Tampa resident, received his sentence on Monday after he pleaded guilty to obstructing a proceeding last month, though he was not accused of assault or damaging property.

“If I had any idea that the protest … would escalate (the way) it did … I would never have ventured farther than the sidewalk of Pennsylvania Avenue,” Hodgkins told the judge, according to the Associated Press, adding, “This was a foolish decision on my part.”

Prosecutors were gunning for an 18-month sentence, while the Florida man’s defense team sought no time behind bars, arguing that their client’s actions were similar to those of Anna Morgan Lloyd, a 49-year-old from Indiana, who got three years of probation for misdemeanor disorderly conduct.

No dice.

Perhaps Hodgkins’s defense would’ve been better off invoking the names of one Black Lives Matter rioter after another, who burned and looted our nation’s urban centers with relative impunity last summer during the Left’s preferred insurrection.

Take Matè Farrakhan Muhammad, for example, a leader of the Des Moines Black Liberation Movement, who had nine felony counts against him dismissed earlier this year by a judge who ruled that the local attorney’s office violated Muhammad’s right to a speedy trial by waiting 46 days after his arrest to file a formal charging document — one more day than allowed by law.

His crime? Shining a laser into the eyes of several University of Iowa police officers during an August 31 protest in Iowa City — a crime that left several officers with temporary vision loss, headaches, and other health problems.

Seems a bit more harmful than taking a “Trump 2020” flag into The People’s House and scaring some members of Congress, or propping one’s feet upon a desk in Nancy Pelosi’s office, no?

At least Muhammad was actually arrested, though. Which is more than can be said for most BLM rioters. As Power Line’s Paul Mirengoff writes: “I can think of very few cases in which violent left-wing protesters received sentences of eight months or more in connection last year’s rioting. And, again, Hodgkins wasn’t charged with, and apparently did not engage in, violent conduct.”

Mirengoff also notes that a Capitol police officer (whom we now know to be Lt. Michael Byrd) shot and killed an unarmed female protester, Ashli Babbitt — a shooting which the government hasn’t even attempted to explain to the American people. And yet Hodgkins, the flag-waver with no priors, gets eight months. “It’s clear to me that there are two criminal law standards at work in this context,” says Mirengoff — “one for left-wing protesters and one for right-wingers. But we shouldn’t be surprised. There are also two free speech standards along the same lines.”

To be clear, Hodgkins pleaded guilty. And he was guilty. As the Examiner reported, “Hodgkins left Florida on a bus with a backpack, and inside it was rope, protective goggles, and latex gloves, which [prosecutors] argue shows he was prepared for violence.” He wasn’t some average Trump supporter who simply got swept up in the moment.

But still, what we’re beginning to see here as the January 6 prosecutions roll out is a clear case of two-tiered justice: one tier for those on the Left, and one for those on the Right. In some cases, as we’ve noted previously, the punishment is also cruel and unusual.

Speaking of two tiers: Why hasn’t Hunter Biden had his day in court yet yet?


(Updated to include additional legal analysis.)

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.