Pardons, Hypocrisy, and the Death of ‘Law and Order’
Trump's mass forgiveness of January 6th felons—and his militarized overreaction to immigrant protests in Los Angeles—expose the grotesque double standard at the heart of MAGA’s “law and order” lie.
January 6, 2021: The Real Insurrection
We watched it unfold live. The Capitol was breached. Lawmakers fled. Police officers were beaten with flagpoles, crushed in doorways, sprayed with bear mace. “Hang Mike Pence” rang out as gallows stood outside. Five officers died in the aftermath. Nearly 150 were injured. Many suffered traumatic brain injuries and PTSD.
This wasn’t protest. Let’s call a spade a spade: “ it was a violent, coordinated attempt to overturn a democratic election.” It was beyond shameful and intensely dangerous, not only to our constitutional order, but to the law enforcement we rely on to protect the Capital.
Fast Forward to Trump 2.0: The Great Whitewash
On Day One, Trump issued full, unconditional pardons to over 1,500 people involved in the January 6th insurrection. Not just trespassers. Not confused tourists. These were convicted felons—many of them violent—who beat police officers, stormed secure chambers, and in some cases, openly called for the assassination of elected officials. Several had already been sentenced to years in prison. Others were awaiting trial.
He didn’t just let them go. He made them martyrs. He gave them a hero’s welcome. This wasn’t mercy. It was a message: If you’re loyal to me, you’re above the law.
And if that wasn’t grotesque enough, his administration then went systematically after the prosecutors—the very people who tried these cases in good faith, in front of juries made up of ordinary Americans from every walk of life.
They fired them.
They reassigned them.
They smeared them in right-wing media as political hacks or “deep state operatives.”
Let’s be clear: these prosecutors were just doing their jobs.
They followed the evidence. They respected the law. They secured convictions in real courts, with real judges, and real juries. That’s what justice is supposed to look like.
And now they’re being purged—for following the Constitution.
I can’t think of anything more chilling than a president who not only absolves the guilty but then persecutes the people who held them accountable.
That’s not leadership. That’s authoritarianism in broad daylight.
And What Did We Get in Return?
A predictable wave of re-offenders. Among them:
Matthew Huttle (IN) – Fatally shot Jan 26, 2025, during a traffic stop; retrieved a firearm while having multiple prior convictions.
Emily Hernandez (MO) – Sentenced Jan 29, 2025, to 10 years for a fatal drunk-driving crash that occurred in Jan 2022.
Zachary Jordan Alam (VA) – Arrested May 9, 2025, for burglary after breaking into a Virginia home.
Kyle Travis Colton (CA) – Indicted Feb 2024 for receipt of child pornography; charges continued despite his pardon.
Andrew Taake (TX) – Arrested Feb 2025 on an outstanding warrant for soliciting a minor (from a 2016 case).
Taylor Taranto (WA) – Convicted May 20, 2025, of firearms possession and plotting destruction of a federal facility.
Shane Jason Woods (IL) – Convicted April 30, 2025, of aggravated DUI and reckless homicide for a 2022 fatal crash.
Daniel Charles Ball – Arrested Jan 22, 2025, for illegal firearm possession just two days after his pardon.
Brent John Holdridge – Arrested May 2025 in California for stealing copper wire; charged with burglary and grand theft.
David Paul Daniel – Indicted early 2025 for child pornography and sexual assault of a minor; remains in custody.
Lovely bunch of people, right? Just the sort you’d love to have as your neighbors and fellow workers—just the type that you would expect to be canonized by the President of the United States. And, yet this is where we are!
“Law and Order”? Only When It’s Convenient
Trump and Republicans love to brandish the slogan “law and order.” But let’s break that down.
If you really support law enforcement, you don’t pardon the people who assaulted officers doing their jobs. You don’t give a free pass to rioters who trampled democracy and maimed police—be it at the Capital or in even in today’s context LA. And you don’t pretend it never happened just because it’s politically inconvenient. You apply the rule of law equally no matter what the context.
But, this isn’t about law. It’s about impunity—for the violent and the loyal.
Meanwhile, in Los Angeles...
Now let’s contrast this with recent events in L.A.
After a series of aggressive ICE raids at Home Depot parking lots and local businesses, protests erupted across the city. These demonstrations—sparked by real fear in immigrant communities—were mostly peaceful, especially in scale and intent.
But yes, there were some early, isolated incidents of looting and clashes, primarily near MacArthur Park and parts of South L.A.—mostly contained within 5 square blocks of LA. The Governor and Mayor acted too slowly at first, but after the first day or so they were contained by local law enforcement.
Here’s the key: LAPD never requested the National Guard. State officials didn’t want it. But Trump sent in troops anyway—and then deployed active-duty Marines.
That’s right. Marines. In a U.S. city. Against U.S. citizens.
Instead of calming tensions, this military overreach inflamed them. Protests grew. Public outrage surged. The violence didn’t begin the moment demonstrators took to the streets—it escalated when federal muscle showed up where it wasn’t wanted.
This wasn’t “order.” It was provocation. And, it’s clearly a dress rehearsal orchestrated by Stephen Miller, Trump’s henchman in chief, on what’s likely to come in other major cities across the US this Summer.
This Isn’t About Law. It’s About Power.
If Trump and Republicans truly respected the rule of law:
They would honor police judgment, not override it with unauthorized deployments.
They wouldn’t hand out pardons like candy to violent felons who attacked the very institutions they claim to protect.
They wouldn’t treat peaceful immigrants like enemies while turning insurrectionists into martyrs.
They say they're the party of law and order. Really?
When Los Angeles law enforcement explicitly rejected the need for National Guard or Marines, Trump sent them anyway. That’s not backing the blue—that’s hijacking them for political theater.
And when over 1,500 violent offenders—including dozens who assaulted officers—were pardoned, many of whom have already reoffended, what does that say about your commitment to “law and order”?
It’s law when it benefits them.
It’s order when it serves them.
Everything else is expendable.
The Media’s Deafening Silence
And perhaps worst of all?
The same networks that run endless segments on so-called crime spikes that really don’t exist in American cities, isolated crimes by a minuscule portion of the immigrant population and this most recent exaggerated coverage of the unrest in LA, have barely mentioned that dozens of violent offenders—many with grotesque post-pardon crimes—are walking free under Trump’s protection. No wall-to-wall coverage. No primetime specials. No “crime wave” hysteria. Just a deafening silence about one of the most cynical, dangerous abuses of presidential power in modern history.
This isn’t just a legal failure. It’s a journalistic one too. The American public deserves to know that “law and order” is being twisted into a weapon to reward the violent and punish the just.
They are acts with deadly consequences. They put violent people back on the streets. They erode public trust. They make a mockery of justice.
Final Thought: The Rule of Law Is Either Universal—or Dead
This is more than hypocrisy—it’s collapse. When violent insurrectionists are absolved and exalted, while peaceful immigrants are surveilled, detained, and suppressed with military force, justice becomes selective—and therefore meaningless.
Law is not law if it only applies to your enemies.
Order is not order if it’s enforced only on the powerless.
And leadership is not leadership if it shields the violent and punishes the vulnerable.
This is no longer about legal outcomes.
It’s about the death of accountability.
It’s about a justice system weaponized for revenge and hollowed out for spectacle.
It’s about a government that punishes prosecutors while rewarding seditionists.
And when you condone and excuse political violence, you get more of what we saw this weekend with the “politically” motivated assassinations in Minnesota. This could have easily been perpetrated by one of the J6 felons let go—the archetype wing nut Trump pardoned! Mr. President, this guy is “right out of central casting.”
And if you still doubt what this is all really about—just look at the plaque.
Cast in bronze. Commissioned by Congress. Meant to honor the brave men and women who held the line on January 6th. It bears no party label, no spin—just the truth: that these officers defended our democracy with their bodies, their lives, their trauma.
It was supposed to hang in the Capitol as a permanent reminder of that day.
But Republican leadership won’t put it up. They’ve hidden it in the basement.
Because deep down, they know what it represents.
It contradicts the pardons. It indicts the lies. It exposes the cowardice.
And presiding over this cowardice?
Mike Johnson—our so-called Speaker of the House. A man third in line to the Presidency. A man who claims to be a devout Christian.
But his actions lead a party that pardons the violent and buries the brave.
Not just complicit—actively orchestrating the cover-up.
You can’t glorify the mob and honor the heroes at the same time.
So they made their choice.
They sided with the mob. With the felons.
And they buried the plaque.