By Devon Mitchell
It’s been ten months since the January 6th Capitol Insurrection and trials have been going on to prosecute those who were in attendance. The FBI estimates that there were over 2,000 people involved in the riots, and only 650 have been arrested. Over 100 people have pleaded guilty thus far and now five people plan on going to trial without a lawyer. They plan to represent themselves in court.
The reason these individuals are able to do so is because it is guaranteed in the Constitution, but it can be a tricky process that has various repercussions. For example, a judge may have less patience, the defendant may have to cross-examine someone close to them, they may not know the rules of the court well enough to protect their own rights. So judges don’t typically love the idea of letting someone represent themselves in court but there isn’t much they can do to prevent it.
One individual who is representing himself, Alan Hostetter, is what NPR described as “A police chief turned yoga instructor, turned self-represented Capitol riot defendant.” He’s kind of a wild dude, you should check him out.
Tuning into the news on January 6th was frightening enough. Pictures and video from the riots looked like they were straight out of a dystopian movie. Now Republicans and those who still support Trump should feel frightened. Rioters represent misteppings of the republican party. They built upon conspiracies and overconfidence to the point of misrepresentation of an entire political party. Now republicans need to deal with the image/monster they created.
