(FiveNation.com)- Writing for Fox News, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul said that all Americans, including those who were arrested in the January 6 riots, deserve due process. The libertarian Republican legislator called out radical progressives who are refusing to fight for January 6 detainees’ rights to a speedy trial.
“As the author or co-sponsor of more than two dozen criminal justice reform bills, I have a long history of working with Democrats to correct injustice in our system, especially as it pertains to those accused of non-violent crimes such as drug possession,” Paul notes.
He explains how the right to due process is enshrined in the United States Constitution and that it contains a provision for a right to a speedy trial by a jury of one’s peers. However, many who were arrested following the January 6 riots in 2021 have yet to face trial, meaning they face the loss of their jobs, eviction, and more.
He also recalled the story of Kalief Browder, a 16-year-old African American teenager who was accused of stealing a backpack. Browder was then imprisoned on Rikers Island for three years without a trial. He even spent two years in solitary confinement where he was abused by gangs in the prison and even by guards. After failing to take his own life while in prison, the young man was eventually freed but ultimately took his own life after leaving prison.
Paul said it was stories like this that prompted him and even far-left former Senator Kamala Harris to call for reform and for the Sixth Amendment guarantee of a speedy trial to apply to everybody regardless of skin color. Today, though, Paul is calling on the Sixth Amendment to apply to everybody regardless of their political opinions.
It hardly seems like a controversial idea but these days…it is.
You can read Paul’s full piece here.
How are so many people still awaiting trial for something that happened over a year ago?
