Photo via the U.S. Department of Justice, @dotjenna/Twitter
November 4, 2021, 10:24 am
Texas real estate agent and woman photographed giving a peace sign next to a smashed window at the Capitol on January 6 Jenna Ryan has been sentenced to 60 days in jail for her role in the breaching and trashing of the building where congress was certifying the 2020 election votes. Though plenty of the rioters have been sentenced to (rather brief) jail stays, this ruling is particularly satisfying considering the fact that Ryan famously tweeted that she would not be spending any time behind bars because of her “blonde hair” and “white skin.”
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Incredibly, she never deleted that tweet.
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“Definitely not going to jail,” she wrote in response to an Oprah gif declaring that all the insurrectionists would. “Sorry I have blonde hair white skin a great job a great future and I’m not going to jail. Sorry to rain on your hater parade. I did nothing wrong.”
The judge in Ryan’s case, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper, acknowledged that she didn’t stay inside the Capitol as long as some or cause as much damage, “that does not mean that you don’t have any culpability in what happened that day.”
“I don’t think you could have missed the fact that this was no peaceful protest,” Cooper said. “You were a cheerleader, you cheered it on.”
Considering the infamous peace sign photo, it’s a little difficult to argue otherwise.
Ryan pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of demonstrating inside the Capitol without permission after being one of the first arrested in January. Prosecutors recommended 60 days in jail, arguing that in addition to entering the Capitol and posing next to a broken window, she chanted “hang Mike Pence” and encouraged other rioters to violence. They also accused her of lying about the extent of her participation to investigators and seeking to “exploit her presence during the attack on the Capitol for profit.”
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At the same time, they held up her “blonde hair white skin” tweet as evidence that she believed herself to be above the law.
“A defendant who believes she is immune from strict punishment because of her race and physical appearance may reoffend because the consequences for wrongdoing will never, in the defendant’s mind, be severe even when severity is merited,” they argued. “Perhaps the most compelling need for specific deterrence arises from the defendant’s misguided belief that she is above the law, or at least insulated from incarceration.”
Though 60 days is not a lot of time compared to sentences oftne handed down to BIPOC charged with drug possession, the fact that she was proven exactly wrong in her prediction about her race being full protection from the law has still been highly satisfying for many.
Prosecutors cited [this] Tw “A defendant who believes she’s immune from strict punishment bc of her race/phys. appearance may reoffend bc the consequences for wrongdoing will never, in the defendant’s mind, be severe even when severity is merited.” https://t.co/IfbDEo2NBd
Oops.
—
Hülya
(@Geceyildiz) November 3, 2021
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60 days in jail, sentenced today. #JennaRyan – INSURRECTIONIST.
It’s hard to fathom any human could tweet what she did below. But then again, she voted for trump. https://t.co/FPEzfc7zlj
— ᎠᏌNᎬᎷYᎢᎻᎪNᏩ
is a SERF in a CORRUPT FEUDAL SYSTEM (@Kris_Sacrebleu) November 4, 2021
*First Published: November 4, 2021, 10:24 am
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