We don’t want revenge, we want justice

President-elect Trump has stated that success will be his revenge. While those of us on the right pray that his next term will be successful, there are distinctions between revenge and justice. Revenge is emotional, personal, vindictive and cyclic, whereas justice is rational, impersonal, and brings about vindication and closure.

We’re seeing what happens when people break the law with impunity. Those who commit smash-and-grab burglaries are given a slap on the wrist, when and if they’re apprehended. Stories of public figures committing blatant crimes flash across our screens and then fade into the ether. Millions of illegals are welcomed into our country and many wreak havoc. Meanwhile, grandmothers praying in front of abortion mills get sent to prison and government officials burst into people’s homes and euthanize their pets. Police departments, like our military, are having difficulty meeting recruitment goals as candidates have no wish to risk life, limb, and liberty for woke bureaucrats who don’t have their back.

At one time our government was ostensibly composed of people who respected the Constitution and the rule of law. Republicans campaign on being the party of law and order. Yet the GOP has a fairly well-established pattern of summoning people to their committees to testify as to their actions, writing up lengthy reports and then...nothing happens.

Case in point: a story broke on November 27, 2024 concerning Michael Byrd, the Capitol Police (CP) officer who shot and killed Ashli Babbitt on January 6, 2021. Byrd has a checkered career in the CP. During the J6 demonstration he shot Ashli Babbitt, a small, unarmed female Air Force veteran in the neck, killing her. Byrd says that by shooting Babbitt he “saved countless lives”. Babbitt was reportedly 5’2” tall and weighed around 110 lbs.

There are now roughly 800 Americans languishing in terrible conditions in jails for their actions on J6. The 6th Amendment states that, “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial…by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed…”

It’s been four years. That’s not speedy. The 5th Amendment assures us that “no person shall be … deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law”. Are these citizens receiving due process?