Jack of Harts

Over 1000 Americans have been arrested in the last 3 years on charges related to the January 6 protest and riot. The Feds have promised to arrest another 1000. Many did not enter the capital. Some weren’t even in Washington. Less than 300 were charged with a violent crime. 900 have been convicted or pled guilty, and 64% received prison time. One of the most common charges is violating a law written to target people who shredded subpoenaed evidence. Another common charge was for Parading, Demonstrating, or Picketing in a Capitol Building. Many have been held in a special jail and denied bail and access to lawyers. Many protestors have died. Others have lost their jobs, houses, and families. They attended a permitted protest, and most were non-violent.

Three years ago, as crowds were arriving to protest what they considered an election filled with fraud, a man named Ray Epps told the crowds that they were going to have to enter the Capitol tomorrow. The suspicious crowed chanted “Fed! Fed!” in response, since everybody knows the man in your group telling you to break the law is probably the Fed trying to entrap you into breaking the law so the Feds can arrest you. After the events of Jan 6, he would be quickly added to the FBI’s most wanted list, then taken off it. The FBI has clearly stated that he has never been an FBI source or employee, and the government is now asking for him to be jailed for six months for his conduct.

I keep most politics out of my stories, but I do have the military and the police as good guys. Given current politics that would label it heavily right wing. 😉 Most of the viewpoint characters are from places like the Republic of Texas or Northern Minnesota, both of which have a frontier mindset. Several characters are from the New England Federation, which is more of an Oligarchy posing as a futuristic Democracy. Very cheap fusion power and fabricators make anything necessary to live, making it very much a post-scarcity economy in the vein of Star Trek. Money still exists, but it is used for luxuries, not necessities. That makes politics different, though as in all things, the more things change, the more things stay the same…