Sorry, Restorative Justice Doesn’t Work With Fascists
With apologies to my compatriots on the left, for some folks, only prison will do
As I write this, supporters of recently-defeated Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro have finally been removed from that nation’s Congress building, Supreme Court, and Presidential palace.
They had to be removed because over the weekend they decided to storm all three.
Of course they did.
As with their ideological contemporaries in the United States — Trump’s MAGA minions — fascists only have one move when they lose at the ballot box: violence.
They reject democracy if it fails to produce their desired outcome, which is to say they reject democracy altogether, as it never promises a particular result. This is precisely what happened here on January 6, 2021.
Speaking of which.
Though it is uncertain how the Brazilian legal system will deal with insurrectionists there, here each week brings more trials and handed-down sentences for some among the hundreds who stormed the Capitol, hoping to block the certification of the 2020 election.
Though most have received sentences well below what prosecutors have asked for and often below the recommended…
