The first of the murderous insurrectionists are heading to trial.
Let's talk about Bruno Cua, 18.
He's fucked.
His lawyers are playing the defense "he's too immature to know what he was doing".
"But...he's old enough to vote."
Yes.
"And serve in the military."
Yes.
"So...he's old enough to be involved in politics, and to fight for his country, but didn't know what he was doing when...he fought for his country in politics."
Yes.
"There's a word we're not allowed to say, that has just become a symbolic issue for powerful groups that feel like they're doing the right thing, that applies here."
"Wait, part of the defense is 'he never left Atlanta'?"
Yes.
"But...he went to DC."
Yes.
"He's naive and secluded and knows nothing about the outside world, but found
Parler and got a following?"
Yes.
"If he's such a naive little momma's boy, how did he get to DC without his parents knowing?"
They took him.
"Oh, so they're on trial, too?"
No, they let him wander off, and he started sending videos of himself inside the Capitol.
"What, um, what's his schoolastic activities like?"
He's taken and passed College Algebra, at least.
"So, he has a high-school-graduation-plus level of understanding of basic A->B style logic?"
Yes.
"And he still is claiming, in court, that he's a poor naive momma's boy who got swept up in social media against his will, left his parents' side for the first time in his life against his will, entered the Capitol without his parents against his will, posted text, pictures and video of himself doing it against his will, despite a list of evidence that he knew what he was doing, including posts before the incident and college-level math?"
Yes.
"...if he's claiming he is a naive poor victim, but was brought to the rally by his Trump cultist parents, under whose roof he's never left...are
they being charged?"
Uh...(checks news)...no. They didn't enter, and also, he's 18 so they're not liable for his behavior.
"His defense is that he's not liable either. Is this Schrödinger's Chewbacca Defense? Whoever is charged isn't liable for Bruno's actions? It's someone else?"
Near as I can tell, yes.
Bruno is not the only one to raise 'mob mentality' as a defense. Near as I can tell, it's some kind of "reverse RICO" where you blame everyone else, claim you get to go free, but also don't specifically testify against who,
specifically, told you to commit the crimes of which you are somehow innocent. It's a handwaving attempt, "Parler made him do it" a glorified "society is to blame".
But I don't know if it legally works. @
cubby can you weigh in?
Apparently Harvard wrote about it but I can't read the journal.
- - - Updated - - -
WAIT WAIT I forgot to add something:
"Party of personal responsibility"
And we're good.