The government’s evidence against Scott Jenkins was compelling, including undercover video and other corroboration showing Jenkins, then the sheriff of Culpeper County, Virginia, accepting over $75,000 in exchange for giving law enforcement authority to local businessmen, as well as two undercover FBI special agents.
Jenkins’ co-defendants all pleaded guilty, and jurors didn’t take long to convict Jenkins last year, deliberating for around two hours before they found him guilty on all counts. When Jenkins was sentenced to 10 years in prison in March, the acting U.S. attorney for the Western District of Virginia said he “violated his oath of office and the faith the citizens of Culpeper County placed in him when he engaged in a cash-for-badges scheme.”
But on Monday, Donald Trump announced he was pardoning Jenkins, calling him “a victim of an overzealous Biden Department of Justice” who “doesn’t deserve to spend a single day in jail.” It’s part of a broader pattern for Trump, who in the first few months of his second term has pardoned at least four supportive former public officials who were convicted of financial improprieties.
Assassinating Trump doesn’t solve this, it merely shifts the figurehead to the next dictator. We don’t just need to get rid of Trump, we need to get rid of Everyone in power. Republicans, Democrats, members of the cabinet, members of the senate, members of the house, the SCOTUS, all of them. They are all collaborators in the effort to bring about their fascist dystopia, and all must be purged to prevent it.
I’m done talking hypotheticals. Gaza is a furnace. Citizens are being deported. The juridical branch snapped in half. We’ll hash out the details after. Let me know when it’s done.
There is no “let me know when it’s done.” We must all arm ourselves and take a stand. Everyone is waiting for another Luigi to come and save the day, but we must all be Luigi to do what must be done. Arm yourself, organize with those in your community, and fight back.