A New Jersey electrician who repeatedly attacked police officers during the Jan. 6, 2021, siege at the U.S. Capitol was sentenced on Friday to 12 years in prison by a judge who called him “a menace to our society.”
Christopher Joseph Quaglin argued with and insulted U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden before and after the judge handed him one of the longest prison sentences among hundreds of Capitol riot cases.
“You’re Trump’s worst mistake of 2016,” Quaglin told McFadden, who was nominated to the court by then-President Donald Trump in 2017.
“What an outrage. What a disgrace,” the judge said.
Quaglin complained about his jail conditions and pushed conspiracy theories about the Jan. 6 siege during his rambling remarks in the courtroom. He also took issue with labeling the Jan. 6 attack as an insurrection.
Trump, the guy who said that police should rough up people they arrest, can’t take the temperature of the courtroom (which isn’t even cold). He complains about it constantly.
But prisons are supposed to be cruel?
This is what happens when your political ideology is rooted entirely in “us vs. them” beliefs.
Prisons are where our perfect American justice system sends bad people so that they can be rightfully punished. The more cruelty, the better the prison. If you didn’t want to lose your rights and humanity, you shouldn’t have committed crimes.
Unless it’s me going to prison, in which case you should respect my rights and my humanity. Unlike them, I had a good reason for doing what I did, and you should respect that and let me do whatever I want.
No, prisons are not supposed to be cruel. They are supposed to be safe places of learning that rehabilitate those society has failed. We have a bunch of sadistic toddlers running the place sadly, so here we are.