Paul Cantrell4d ago

This is extremely, extremely alarming.

Look, if you show up for a protest and you slash car tires and break a security camera, you do that understanding that there may be personal consequences — and for vandalizing gov property, as the price of civil disobedience, maybe you accept your 9-month sentence + probation.

You do not accept a 50- or 70- or 100-year sentence. Many murderers get less time than that. If they murdered Alex Pretti or Renee Good, they apparently get no time at all.

This isn’t justice. It’s suppression. It’s authoritarianism.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/23/prairieland-ice-protesters-texas-sentenced

Texas anti-ICE protesters convicted of terrorism charges sentenced to at least 50 years in prison

Activists accused of being part of antifa get long prison terms in case seen as test of Trump’s crackdown on dissent

The Guardian
zhinxy3d ago
Show threadZandy
@inthehands If, as a protester, you can see such a long sentence as the potential cost, then some people might consider more extreme covert forms of protest instead. This is the way that truly extreme terrorist groups are created. If you have very strong views, and are going to get 50 years for a property damaging protest anyway, why not try blowing some people up instead?
Jun 23 at 11:17pmWeb
Show threadcliffordheath3d ago
@iskandarv @inthehands Perhaps they want such groups, because that would justify their real goal, to exercise violence?
Show threadFoolishOwl3d ago

@cliffordheath @iskandarv @inthehands They aren't looking for justifications for violence. 50 year sentences for carrying a box of zines is already violent. ICE is already murdering people. Conventional police and prisons are already very violent.

The point of extreme sentences is to intimidate people, exactly as it appears. These are not clever or subtle people.