A man from California, David Dempsey, who instigated a prolonged violent attack against law enforcement officers at the Capitol Building, Washington DC, on January 6th, 2021, was given a 20-year jail sentence on Friday. The assault involved various weapons, including his hands and feet, a flagpole, crutches, pieces of broken furniture, and pepper spray. This is one of the harshest sentences given in the last four years to those involved in the riots.
Dempsey’s ferocity escalated to the extent that he even assaulted his fellow rioter, who was trying to disarm him. Prosecutors characterise Dempsey as an ex-construction worker and former fast-food industry employee, with a lengthy record of arrests. Notably, he also advocated for the lynching of key Democrats like Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and ex-President Barack Obama while standing next to a gallows outside the building.
The court documents filed this month by the prosecutors describe Dempsey as one of the most violent perpetrators during the most brutal periods at the Capitol’s worst clash site. Enrique Tarrio, the old head of Proud Boys, is the only rioter who has been sentenced to a lengthier jail term than Dempsey so far. Tarrio received a 22-year sentence in September after his seditious conspiracy conviction. Dempsey’s sentence exceeded those given to Joseph Biggs, one of Tarrio’s junior officers, who was handed a 17-year sentence, and Stewart Rhodes, the Oath Keepers militia’s commander, who is currently serving an 18-year jail term.
The prosecutors revealed that Dempsey, who admitted to the assault charges in January, clambered over other rioters on the Lower West Terrace of the Capitol. He used them as a makeshift ladder to reach the officers guarding the entrance to a tunnel. His offences against officers were relentless, according to court filings, and reportedly encompassed more than 20 instances of wielding pole-like weapons, pepper-spraying at least thrice, throwing items at the officers at least 10 times, and stomping on the police officers’ heads five times while standing over them. He also tried to snatch a riot shield and baton and continuously hurled threats and insults at the police, inciting other rioters to join him in his rampage.
In a US District Court in Washington, Judge Royce C. Lamberth, a nominee from the Republican party, decreed a 20-year sentence. Lamberth, who has criticised a group of Donald Trump’s supporters for trying to minimise the events of January 6, expressed his bewilderment at how certain noted individuals are attempting to remodel history. He opposed their absurd depiction of the rioters as orderly as regular tourists, or their misplaced justification of January 6 defendants as ‘political captives’ or even, astonishingly, ‘captives.’ In January, Lamberth logged these views in the court records associated with another riot incident.
In Lamberth’s words, such viewpoints are completely ludicrous. Yet he fears that such harmful and misguided comments could foretell future threats to the US. According to the prosecution team, Dempsey’s participation in the attack on the Capitol was just his most recent act of political aggression.
A few years earlier, in 2019, he was apprehended for charges of spraying anti-Donald Trump demonstrators in Santa Monica, California, with bear spray, and for assaulting another demonstrator in Los Angeles using a skateboard, yet no charges were pressed against him, the prosecution claims. In the subsequent year, according to court records, Dempsey assaulted protestors at two political rallies – once again employing a skateboard, and in another instance a metallic bat.
In relation to the Capitol attack, more than 1,450 individuals have been charged, and prosecutors have secured over 1,000 guilty pleas or convictions. It’s estimated that some 560 defendants have received some sort of custodial sentence.