The St. Louis Post Dispatch issued an editorial in which they asked, or demanded, serious prison time in the first felony sentencing for a MAGA-rioter. The paper wants a signal to shake the nation as to the seriousness of the threat these people pose on democracy and send a message to all judges who sentence rioters charged with a felony. They want serious prison time.

They are right, one of the clear goals in any sentence is to deter future crime by putting the public on notice about the penalties they face if charged with a similar crime, while also punishing those who pose a danger.

The Post Dispatch sure wants that message out Monday’s sentencing of Paul Hodgkins, whose felony is one of the relatively mild ones:

On Monday, a federal judge in Washington will determine the fate of the first of the Capitol rioters to face felony sentencing. The case of Paul Allard Hodgkins is less egregious than those of many of his cohorts — he pleaded guilty to entering the Capitol with the mob but says he didn’t otherwise commit violence. Still, his plea for a sentence of probation should be rejected. What happened on Jan. 6 wasn’t just about trespassing and property damage. Anything less than prison time for anyone who participated would diminish the seriousness of a direct assault on American democracy.

The paper is begging the judge to utterly reject his attorney’s request for probation. They want that damned signal sent throughout the country. The paper explains why:

After being whipped into a frenzy by then-President Donald Trump’s false, crazed claims of vote fraud, some 800 of his supporters stormed the Capitol, smashing doors and windows, rummaging through desks, rolling over about 140 Capitol police officers, sending Vice President Mike Pence and members of Congress scurrying for safety and ultimately causing or contributing to several deaths — all with the goal of preventing official validation of an election result that the attackers didn’t like.

Not since the Civil War era has there been such a brazen assault on the legitimacy of the U.S. government and democracy itself.

That is very well put. An attempt to stop the government from its constitutional duty poses a terrible danger. As we have seen in earlier reporting. Pence refused to get in a Secret Service SUV to get away from the Capitol. He didn’t trust them and didn’t know if they’d bring him back. Without him, the government couldn’t do anything. He wasn’t going anywhere. The threat was far more serious than we knew.

Prosecutors are recommending a sentence of 18 months, a reasonable suggestion. It would avoid the most severe penalty in recognition of Hodgkins’ cooperation with authorities but would still send the clear message that this wasn’t some minor trespassing infraction.

Eighteen months for a first-time offender in a non-violent, non-major dr*g dealer, is a significant sentence, far higher than most. But the Board still believes it is a little too lenient. They think the judge should throw the book at him and so do we.

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