One of three active-duty Marines who stormed the U.S. Capitol together was sentenced on Monday to probation and 279 hours of community service — one hour for every Marine who was killed or wounded fighting in the Civil War.
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes said she can’t fathom why Dodge Hellonen violated his oath to protect the Constitution “against all enemies, foreign and domestic” — and risked his career — by joining the Jan. 6, 2021, riot that disrupted Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.
“I really urge you to think about why it happened so you can address it and ensure it never happens again,” Reyes said.
Dodge Hellonen, now 24, was the first of the three Marines to be punished for participating in the Capitol siege. Reyes also is scheduled to sentence co-defendants Micah Coomer on Tuesday and Joshua Abate on Wednesday.
The three Marines — friends from the same unit — drove together from a military post in Virginia to Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, when then-President Donald Trump spoke at his “Stop the Steal” rally near the White House. They joined the crowd that stormed the Capitol after Trump urged his supporters to “fight like hell.”
Before imposing Hellonen’s sentence, Reyes described how Marines fought and died in some of the fiercest battles in American history. She recited the number of casualties from some of the bloodiest wars.
After walking to the Rotunda, they placed a red “Make America Great Again” hat on a statute and took photos of it. They remained inside the Capitol for nearly an hour, joining other rioters in chanting “Stop the Steal!” and “Four More Years!”
None of them are accused of engaging in any violence or destruction on Jan. 6. But prosecutors said none of them have expressed sincere remorse for their crimes.
Other than illegal entry, they didn’t do anything. There was no evidence of violence and they had their military careers ruined.
They went to an organised political event which turned violent, and instead of ‘always faithfully’ serving their communities by at least distancing themselves from the most violent by leaving, or even protecting their police colleagues, they willingly continued on to breach a guarded building so that they could prevent elected representatives from performing their duties.
And their punishment is to exist as a common civilian.
Either the Marine Corps oath is worthless, and/or their sentence is not a punishment, and/or this is a tacit admission that being an American civilian is punishment enough in itself.
For no reason other than being born, millions of people experience the same sentence. These two did something.
Have you ever been in a crowd of people? Like a huge close proximity gathering, a concert? Try squeezing though that when they are all angry people without assaulting someone or getting assaulted.
Also, the military and police are NOT colleagues, they are TOTALLY separate. Not even the same purpose, you can argue that they’re brothers under serving a government, but by that logic then so are the postal workers, tax collectors, and judge.
Yes, including much larger protests. The estimate is only 2.2k people for Jan 6th, and that’s for all four sides of the building. I was immediately next to an outbreak of violence in one large protest. It’s much easier than getting out of the front of a concert, and I don’t have anywhere near the strength of a marine.
You can also see them in the pictures freely and casually walking in with a significant amount of space in the images in the article.
Why make up excuses for them? They literally posted on social media afterwards about the second civil war and being part of history. They weren’t there under duress.
I’m not making excuses, but admittedly I did not know about the social media posts, that is my bad and I am sorry.
WTF were they even doing there? This BS about “oh, they didn’t do anything” is not going to fly.
And they didn’t “have their careers ruined” they ruined their careers.