A leader of the Proud Boys who led the far-right organization’s infamous march to the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, was sentenced Wednesday to 17 years in prison – among the longest sentence handed down yet for a convicted rioter.

Joe Biggs was convicted by a Washington, DC jury of several charges including seditious conspiracy for attempting to forcibly prevent the peaceful transfer of power from then-President Donald Trump to Joe Biden after the 2020 election.

The government wanted Biggs to serve 33 years in federal prison. That’s 15 years longer than the longest sentence in a Jan. 6 case to date: the 18-year sentence that went to Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, also convicted of seditious conspiracy, after prosecutors sought 25 years in federal prison.

  • ryrybang@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    This guy used violence and terrorism because he didn’t want my vote to count simply because he didn’t like the way I voted. Fuck this asshole. I hope he commits more felonies in prison and gets more time tacked on. 17 years isn’t enough for this fascist asshole.

    • Hyperreality@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      He has a young daughter. Poor daughter having such a shit father.

      Honestly, she’s probably better off without this failure of a human being in her life.

    • Dark Arc@social.packetloss.gg
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      1 year ago

      I agree with the rage, but I personally – snowball in hell it may be – hope he and the others that participated in this come to realize why what they did is wrong and come to eventually speak against it.

      • athos77@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        He claims, " I’m not a terrorist, I don’t have hate in my heart.". Unfortunately, I don’t believe him, and I don’t think the judge did either.

      • geogle@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        That would just be further “proof” of the deep state they think runs the country

    • MxM111@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      It’s not do that he thought that he did not like your vote, but because he thought your vote does not matter. A tiny but important difference, I think.

  • Rusticus@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Now that the seditionists are getting prison terms, VOTE VOTE VOTE. The next Republican president will pardon all of these assholes instantly.

  • Polar@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    Imagine throwing away your life because a different party is rightfully elected. Your wife is gone. She’s not staying around, because in 17 years you will both be different people. Your kid is gone. You will never know your kid, even when you get out.

    It’s stupid, because presidents promise so much, but do so little. You threw away your life for pretty much nothing.

    Fucking idiots lol.

    • Custoslibera@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      They don’t think they did anything wrong.

      Don’t make the mistake of thinking people like this can be reasoned with. They can not.

      We are better off executing people like this. Prison for life is a close second.

      Keeping them alive only emboldens others to follow in their footsteps until they succeed.

      No I am not ‘stooping to their level’ in suggesting that traitors are executed.

      There’s a reason treason carries the death penalty.

  • [email protected]@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    17 years for OrangeLeader, who likely doesn’t even know who Joe Biggs is. He’ll be 55 years old when released (assuming full term).

      • ryrybang@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Biggs grew emotional as he talked about his daughter, swearing on her life that he intended Jan. 6 to be his last event with the Proud Boys.

        “I’m done with it. I’m sick and tired of left versus right,” Biggs said. The only group he wants to be affiliated with, he said, is his daughter’s PTA.

        He’s an asshole. And he is sorry; sorry that he got caught. He’s sick of it now, but wasn’t then. He makes no statement about the victims of his violence. He makes no statements about the millions of nameless victims whose votes he wanted overturned.

        Even if he had said he regretted acting on Trump’s lies, it wouldn’t mean a thing. He is just upset he got caught and punished. He’s an asshole.

        • ForgetReddit@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          “I’m sick and tired of left versus right”

          He hasn’t learned a thing. This is not a “left versus right” thing.

          He’s in effect saying: “In the fight between democracy and justice versus fascism and tyranny, I simply want to say both sides are bad and go to my daughter’s PTA meetings to force my backwards views on children.”

          Here’s hoping he can be reformed but if not, rot in prison dickhead.

        • spankinspinach@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          Fun fact: some of these dinks are going back on their regret statements, claiming they were a strategy to avoid heavy fines or jail or some such. What they don’t know is that this claim then opens them to re-prosecution for the same offenses they may have been acquitted of 😏

        • Hairyblue@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          “…the last event with the Proud Boys” Joe B.

          This statement seems odd to me. Like he was doing something bad and so far hasn’t got caught. Anyone know what he ment by that?

          I hope once or if, Trump is in jail Trump loses his influence over his cult. Trump has used and discarded so many people. In Trump’s world only Trump matters.

          • ryrybang@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Right? It’s like the career criminal doing one more robbery. They tell themselves it’ll be the last time they do it because they know it’s wrong. Except it’s not the last time. They’ll do another later on and call that one the last time. And again and again.

  • Metriximor@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    Being one of the leaders of the group of people who attempted to overthrow your government and peaceful democratic systems is only 17 years in prison?

    Wow just wow

    • Burn_The_Right@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      If I were a traitor, I would see this sentence and think, “yeah, it kinda looks worth it, honestly.”

      Conservatives get light sentences. It’s just a thing we do here, unfortunately.

  • Hazdaz@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    33 years would have been better. A firing squad even betterer.

    But nearly 20 years is better than the slap on the wrists that other traitors were getting.

    • Dark Arc@social.packetloss.gg
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      1 year ago

      Just FYI, Thomas Webster got 10 years and Stewart Rhodes got 18 years. (So as to say this isn’t the first that’s actually gotten some significant time behind bars)

  • Grant_M@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    Light sentence. 30+ would be better for these treasonous scumbags

  • Wogi@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Where’s your pumpkin spice daddy now Joe?!

    With any luck maybe you’ll share a cell