Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, the leader of the far right group known as the Proud Boys, is currently serving a five-month prison sentence but has asked a judge to release him early because of the terrible prison conditions.
Henry “Enrique” Tarrio is serving a five-month sentence for stealing and burning a Black Lives Matter banner from a historic Black church in the capital, after Donald Trump’s election defeat.
On Monday, Tarrio asked a judge to release him, arguing that he has been exposed to inhumane conditions.
Asking that his sentence be reduced or that he be allowed to complete it under house arrest, he claimed to have been harassed by correctional officers and said his cell regularly floods with dirty water from a toilet in a neighboring cell.
…Tarrio described abusive guards, smoke-filled hallways and medical neglect, saying he witnessed a prisoner have a seizure who lay for a half hour before help arrived.
…According to his attorney, Tarrio has endured “serious abuses of his rights on a daily basis”, including jail employees repeatedly ignoring his requests for medical treatment, throwing cold, often inedible meals into his cell and denying access to running water.
“Mr Tarrio has been intimidated and antagonized by correctional staff to dissuade him from making complaints about the horrendous conditions,” Tarrio’s attorney, Luca Dansie, wrote.
Tarrio is hardly a sympathetic figure except to those on the far-right but that does not mean that he deserves to be subjected to the terrible conditions that exist in many US prisons. Nobody does. The fact that he is a high profile figure with access to the media has the benefit of bringing these conditions into the public eye. Perhaps prison reform is one issue where both the left and the right can get together and actually achieve something worthwhile. It is long overdue.
No, I think those on the right simply think that they shouldn’t be imprisoned at all. The awful conditions are okay with them as long as it happens to their enemies.
Awful because they are happening to him, not because they are happening.
IIRC correctly the UK has twice denied extradition to the USA based on US prison conditions. Theresa May, not exactly a bleeding heart liberal, once did this as Home Sec(?).
Come to think of it, Maria Butina’s description of her pre-trial detention was much the same except she was in solitary confinement most of the time.
jrkrideau
Yeah, Home Secretary is the relevant post.
I would not be shocked to learn that Tarrio had, earlier, voiced support for former Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s abusive treatment of prisoners.
IIRC, the Koch Brothers (near the end of there being two of them) briefly threw wads of money at prison reform back when a slight possibility of crackdown on white-collar crime existed.
It wasn’t enough to make any perceptible difference, and evidently the surviving brother now feels more secure, alas.
I think the far right views him as a traitor since he was outed as an FBI informant. That might account for some of the hostile treatment from his guards.
Whether it’s this guy or some other, their protestations about prison conditions will probably only matter to the right if those people keep making prison reform noises after they get out.
I think the only person they’d listen to while still imprisoned would be Donald Trump. Another good reason to give him his day in court, and soon. There’s a lot he can hide from behind the office of the president but I think adding “coup leader” to his resume would be hard to justify as being part of the job.
One can dream, I suppose, but, as the first couple of commenters suggest, the right would probably only be against such treatment of their own and I would suggest this is because they believe they are wrongfully imprisoned. Those that they believe are rightfully imprisoned? Well, that treatment will teach them not to commit crime again!
@5 Jazzlet
Thanks, I thought it was Home Secretary but considered it might have been the Foreign Secretary and could not remember May’s cabinet posts.
@11
No, the Home Sec is in charge of shitting on (mostly but not exclusively brown) people who are currently within the UK borders. The Foreign Sec is in charge of shitting on (mostly but not exclusively brown) people currently outside the UK borders.
So for an extradition case it’s clearly the Home Sec.