The tragic case of Matthew Perna, and its terrible implications. New in FrontPage:
Imagine a country that imprisons peaceful protestors on false charges of participating in an attempt to overthrow the government, as part of efforts to discredit and ultimately criminalize all opposition to the ruling party’s agenda. People who entered a public building when police held the door open for them are being held in solitary confinement and given draconian punishments far out of proportion to what they actually did. This is the sort of thing that happens in Third World countries, right? This is the sort of thing tinpot dictators do in banana republics, where the rulers gained power by underhanded means and have no respect for due process, the rule of law, or the rights of their citizens – right? Maybe so, but all this and worse is happening right now in the land of the free and the home of the brave, where up until quite recently, it all would have been unthinkable.
Take, for example, the case of Matthew Perna, who traveled from his home in Pennsylvania to Washington on January 6, 2021, to protest the widely reported election irregularities, which only now are being confirmed by investigators. He pleaded guilty on December 9 to entering the Capitol and committed suicide on February 25, while awaiting sentencing.
Perna’s obituary tells an appalling story of injustice and railroading. Perna, it says, “attended the rally on January 6, 2021, to peacefully stand up for his beliefs.” He was no revolutionary or radical activist: “After learning that the FBI was looking for him, he immediately turned himself in.” What did he do on January 6 to attract the attention of the FBI? Nothing much: “He entered the Capitol through a previously opened door (he did not break in as was reported) where he was ushered in by police. He didn’t break, touch, or steal anything. He did not harm anyone, as he stayed within the velvet ropes taking pictures.”
The government, however, was bent on portraying him and others like him as an “insurrectionist,” and destroying his life accordingly. The obituary adds: “The constant delays in hearings, and postponements dragged out for over a year. Because of this, Matt’s heart broke and his spirit died, and many people are responsible for the pain he endured. Matt did not have a hateful bone in his body. He embraced people of all races, income brackets, and beliefs, never once berating anyone for having different views.”
Perna’s aunt, Geri Perna, said of Matthew: “They broke him. They mentally broke him. He had run out of hope. I know he couldn’t take it anymore.”
Compare the treatment of Perna and the other January 6 scapegoats to the treatment of Quintez Brown, a Black Lives Matter activist who shot at Louisville mayoral candidate Craig Greenberg. Journalist Miranda Devine noted that Brown was “portrayed sympathetically by the media and immediately bailed out of jail by his Black Lives Matter comrades, who crowdfunded the $100,000 cost.” Devine added that Brown was “a celebrated gun control advocate, anointed as a rising star by the Obama Foundation, he was an honored guest on Joy Reid’s MSNBC show. He was granted a biweekly opinion column in the Louisville Courier-Journal to spew boilerplate leftist, race-based, anti-cop sentiment.” Brown had, Devine says, “BLM privilege.” Indeed.
In America, we no longer have a single justice system for all people, regardless of race, or of power, or privilege, or the protected victimhood status they may have among the Leftist intelligentsia. We no longer have a justice system that is indifferent to and independent of political pressure. The politically and culturally dominant Left is not content with the massive power and influence it wields now; it is determined to silence all opposition, and destroy it utterly.
We have seen the totalitarian impulse of the far-Left play out in revolutionary France, as well as in the Soviet Union, Communist China, Democratic Kampuchea, Fidel Castro’s Cuba, and a host of other places. In every one, the judiciary serves as a tool of the political elites, who wield it in order to prosecute, persecute, and obliterate their opposition. American schools used to teach that our system had a series of built-in checks and balances that would prevent that kind of tyranny from developing.
But now the schools focus on teaching that the Founding Fathers were evil slaveowners, and the system they created is just another vehicle of white privilege to be dismantled. By the time the fanatics they have indoctrinated get around to dismantling that system altogether, doing so will be just a formality. The Left has long since hollowed it out and rendered its safeguards meaningless. The persecution of the January 6 defendants proves that.
somehistory says
Right from the get-go, some family members were reporting what was going on with their loved ones who had been locked up in dungeon conditions, and the media, pols, and LE called them liars.
The shooter of Ms. Babbitt, the stomping, beating death of another woman…all allowed to go unpunished.
some of those locked up, died to the poor conditions of their confinement ,making health conditions go from survivable to mortally unbearable.
and then, this poor **innocent** man. So many in the government now have blood on their hands…through the lockdowns, the lockups, withholding proper treatment, the jabs, forcing little kids to have emotional problems, …
I hope the family can find a way to survive emotionally this man’s unnecessary death.
Westman says
Tragic. Do we have a Gulag and Stasi controlled by folks with an overinflated view of themselves?
The thought ocurred, while Mitt Romney was calling for no-fly zones in Ukraine, that a nuclear war with Russia would automatically remove this Banana-Republic-like Democrat administration and replace it with people from Fly-over Country – the majority of survivors.
Hmmmm. Did Romney have that in mind?
libertyORdeath says
“By the time the fanatics they have indoctrinated get around to dismantling that system altogether, doing so will be just a formality. The Left has long since hollowed it out and rendered its safeguards meaningless. The persecution of the January 6 defendants proves that.”
This is a great story about a horribly tragic incident, but I do take exception to this last paragraph.
I know things are bad…I know people have lost hope…I know much of our great governmental and judiciary authority and reputation have been corrupted…but I don’t think it has reached the point of no return. The 1960s saw many of the same cultural wars that we witness today, from debate over the Vietnam War to the Civil Rights movement that altered the nature of our Republic forever, yet we did not allow radical leftism to destroy or take control of our country. There is still the hope of at least 100 million voters that we will find the necessary balance that is required to sustain a multicultural society of our magnitude.
Nobody said that taking down the bureaucratic deep-state would be easy, but I’m happy to have the chance to help. The hate mongers of this nation have never been a majority, and we should do everything in our power to ensure that this remains the case. Societal evolution always damages or destroys a lot of great people in the process. Dr. King and the Civil Rights movement actually made momentous progress while he himself was locked away in the Birmingham jail for protesting injustice. We can only hope that the number of victims is limited, but we cannot refuse to fight out of fear.
Westman says
Well said, LOD,
As long as we don’t stray too far from the Constitution on which the rights and opportunities afforded to the nation were built, we will recover to a better path and more civility. We recovered from the Civil War, the Great Depression of the 1930s, and we will survive the current strife.
The nation has strayed since WWII into excessive use of military power and arrogance after beginning with good intentions. Perhaps simultaneously staring into the faces of war in the homeland and economic uncertainty will bring some humility. We must stop trying to change the world by methods other than example – we are not God.
libertyORdeath says
“By the time the fanatics they have indoctrinated get around to dismantling that system altogether, doing so will be just a formality. The Left has long since hollowed it out and rendered its safeguards meaningless. The persecution of the January 6 defendants proves that.”
This is a great story about a horribly tragic incident, but I do take exception to this last paragraph only in the sense that a few unfortunate instances do not define the system itself.
I know things are bad…I know people have lost hope…I know much of our great governmental and judiciary authority and reputation have been corrupted…but I don’t think it has reached the point of no return. The 1960s saw many of the same cultural wars that we witness today, from debate over the Vietnam War to the Civil Rights movement that altered the nature of our Republic forever, yet we did not allow radical leftism to destroy or take control of our country. There is still the hope of at least 100 million voters that we will find the necessary balance that is required to sustain a multicultural society of our magnitude.
Nobody said that taking down the bureaucratic deep-state would be easy, but I’m happy to have the chance to help. The hate mongers of this nation have never been a majority, and we should do everything in our power to ensure that this remains the case. Societal evolution always damages or destroys a lot of great people in the process. Dr. King and the Civil Rights movement actually made momentous progress while he himself was locked away in the Birmingham jail for protesting injustice. We can only hope that the number of victims is limited, but we cannot refuse to fight out of fear.
abu taleb says
We must wonder how come that happens in a country like USA or Canada where people are rich, educated (?), and are supposedly to have freedom of thought. It can happen easily in poor countries where the dictator can control the whole country my using military, but it is not supposed to happen in the USA. But it does.
In my opinion, US people are ignorant, arrogant in a way they think they are the world champion in many areas (just look at baseball where they call themselves the world championship) and also very materialistic. So there is no self control when the US goes to the wrong direction which has been going on for decades until now where suddenly people start to wake up when they see how evil the government and other institutions including organizations like BLM, Antifa, ACLU etc and universities.
Reziac says
A “before” photo:
https://obituaries.sharonherald.com/obituary/matthew-perna-1084525405
somehistory says
Thank you for that link. He seemed to be a very special person, and God will not forget.
OLD GUY says
To bad our Government doesn’t look at breaking into our country as an illegal alien the same way. Or how about the BLM riots that burned cities and killed individuals that just go free. Then we have the mass shop lifting and violence on the streets that is ignored with criminals being not even arrested let alone going to jail.
BUT if you protest the Presidential election and enter their house all hell is to pay. There is something rotten here.
James Lincoln says
Matthew Lawrence Perna is now, very tragically and unnecessarily, dead.
Biden and his handlers now have blood on their hands once again.
E T says
Agree 100% James.
gravenimage says
Biden’s Banana Republic
…………..
Deeply disturbing stuff. I can’t believe this is happening here.