Insurrection Detection

     In less than four years, nearly 1,600 people have been charged for their roles in the violent insurrection on January 6th; nearly 1,200 have been convicted, while hundreds of cases remain pending and hundreds of individuals could still be arrested. Here are the 10 longest sentences so far for the violent attack on American democracy:       Enrique Tarrio, the former president of the Proud Boys, was sentenced to 22 years in prison for seditious conspiracy and other charges. He organized a fighting force of 100 Proud Boys members from a Baltimore hotel; these members were responsible for organizing the key breaches and assaults that took place that day. Tarrio is serving his sentence through August 2040.      David Nicholas Dempsey, a California resident with a long history of political violence against anti-Trump protestors in his home state, pleaded guilty to severely injuring two Capitol police officers and assaulting numerous othe...

     On January 6th, 2021, then-44-year-old William Patrick Sarsfield III of Gun Barrel City, Texas, paid a visit to the United States Capitol.  Sarsfield was among rioters who repeatedly engaged in violence against law enforcement officers guarding the Capitol. Sarsfield participated in the confrontation with law enforcement officers in the Lower West Terrace and tunnel areas of the Capitol. He entered the tunnel on the Lower West Terrace at approximately 3:12 p.m., making his way into the mob of rioters who were coordinating pushes against police officers while yelling “HEAVE HO!” and “PUSH!”  Sarsfield entered the tunnel three separate times to assist in the collective pushes against police officers as the rioters tried to gain access to the Capitol building.  While Sarsfield joined in collective pushes, one police officer, Daniel Hodges, screamed in pain as the weight of the rioters’ pushes pinned him between a shield and a door.  Sarsfield also as...

       The Liberty Valley series continues. Insurrection Detection is dedicated to reporting and exposing the crimes committed on January 6th and the individuals nationwide who committed them. However, in the course of the past nearly three years of doing this work, one thing has become abundantly clear: Northeast Ohio is a hotbed of domestic extremism. We've highlighted the Liberty Valley "Church," which has sent creepy mailers to residents and embraced January 6th defendants with open arms. It's got ties to the Akron-Canton Proud Boys and local politicians, who have ties to January 6th defendants like Steven Billingsley, who wanted to "hang" Nancy Pelosi; Clayton Norris , who blames Jews for all the world's problems; and John Douglas Wright, who assaulted police after collecting $5,000 to bus 100 people to Washington, D.C. and is serving 49 months in federal prison.      Now, there has been a new arrest of a member of this circle. Jamie Wright, 36...

     At the sentencing of two Oath Keepers last week, Judge Amit Mehta criticized the lack of media coverage of the hearing as well as a public ignorance to the events of January 6th. There are many narratives about January 6th that need to be actively fought. One of these narratives is that the people at the Capitol were ordinary Americans who got caught up in the moment because of Trump. While that may be true for some, and Trump certainly bears criminal culpability for what happened that day, I referred to the mob in the days after the insurrection as a "sea of degenerates." More and more, this is being proven true.      Just last week, David Paul Daniel of Mint Hill, North Carolina, was charged federally for sexually abusing two girls and documenting the abuse before posting depictions online. He joins the long list of January 6th defendants with criminal histories. For child sex crimes alone, the list is extensive: a Citrus Heights man was also indicte...