We are approaching the five-month anniversary of the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection. Hundreds of people have been arrested and charged, and the wheels of justice are slowly moving forward. And while the courts begin the process of figuring out how to mete out justice and to whom, the GOP is working hard to slow down any further investigation into what happened leading up to and on that day. It’s important stuff, as the machinations surrounding that day are not simply worrisome: They are potentially treasonous to the entire democratic experiment laid out by the founders of our country.

With the help of online sleuths and boatloads of video and social media evidence, the arrests and charges keep rolling in. But as hearings begin and court dates are set, plea deals are bandied about and defenses and bonds are debated. One group of bigots that was well-represented in Washington, D.C., that fateful day is the so-called Proud Boys. The Proud Boys have enjoyed incredible immunity from law enforcement over the past few years. In recent weeks, many of these bigoted boys have been arrested and each and everyone of them has given a sob story about why they shouldn’t be in jail for breaking all the laws. One particular Kansas Proud Boy, William Chrestman, who was recorded wielding an axe handle and threatening a federal law enforcement officer, is freaking out because he is stuck in jail.

Chrestman, a 43-year-old unemployed union sheet metal worker, was reportedly arrested alongside fellow Kansas residents Louis Enrique Colon and Christopher Kuehne back in February for their part in the insurrection. The charges, according to the Kansas City Star, included “conspiracy, civil disorder, obstruction of an official proceeding, knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds without lawful authority, and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.” Chrestman had the distinction of additional charges for carrying the deadly weapon and threatening law enforcement. 

Chrestman was quickly identified in the weeks after Jan. 6. Many of those citizens who sent in tips to the FBI identifying Chrestman were reportedly former high school classmates of “Billy,” who attended Hueneme High School in Oxnard, California, back in 1992. According to one former classmate who spoke to The Star before Chrestman’s arrest, his social media presence was increasingly worrying to those still connected to him: “He was latching onto conspiracies. A few (classmates) stayed in touch with him up until June or so of last year, when he got rid of his social media.” Other classmates told reporters that Chrestman acted like every other shitty libertarian, debate team wanna-be you know in your own social media feed.

“To the core, he’s not a bad person. He just has a lot of fears that this country’s being led in the wrong direction.”

There are very few human beings who are “a bad person” in their “core.” But sadly, people do bad things and frequently do bad things because of their fears. As a result of this phenomenon, we have laws in order to try and figure out ways of maintaining a civilized society. Our laws, of course, are an ongoing process and how, why, and which people are punished or not is problematic, to say the least. That being said, we all technically agree in our country that the laws of our land, especially those in regard to maintaining our democracy and democratic processes, are super duper important. Chrestman might think the sky is falling but he doesn’t get to choose who our president is because he’s angry and scared and has an axe handle and a bunch of tactical gear.

Chrestman finds himself in a strange situation now, all alone in prison, awaiting trial. On Thursday it was reported that fellow Proud Boys Colon and Kuehne have been released on a personal recognizance bond pending their trials—but Chrestman remains detained. Chrestman and his attorney think this is not good and say Chrestman isn’t even as bad as the other two guys:

But that isn’t all. According to Chrestman’s legal counsel, he has been receiving disability insurance and medical care by way of the Department of Veterans Affairs. According to the Star, Chrestman also has a family and his detention means that his benefits are up in the air. “The residence he shares with his common-law partner … and their six children is in danger of foreclosure, placing the whole nuclear family in jeopardy of homelessness.”

This sounds like a truly terrible situation for Chrestman and his family. I suspect, however, that if we were to go through his social media posts over the past decade or so, we would be unlikely to see Chrestman’s talk and righteousness concerning our eroding civil liberties and socialism extend to the thousands of Black folks jailed for nonviolent drug possession, or killed in an extrajudicial murder carried out by law enforcement. I wonder: How many children who have lost parents or siblings, how many families who have lost their breadwinner, lost wages, lost insurance, lost benefits and jobs, has Mr. Chrestman rallied around over the years? I’ll guess none. Should Chrestman or anyone face the loss of their home or their income before they have been convicted of a crime? No. Hopefully, this aspect can be rectified for the Chrestman clan while he sits behind bars awaiting his trial.

Why Chrestman’s fellow conspirators have been let free on bond remains a mystery. According to the federal affidavit against Chrestman and the men, they acted “in concert to prevent law enforcement officers from controlling the crowd by obstructing metal barriers,” and also “appeared to gesture and communicate to one another both before and while inside the Capitol in an apparent effort to coordinate their efforts.” Oh yeah, and Chrestman wrapped his axe handle in an American flag to allegedly hide it while he was pantomiming peaceful protest.

In recent weeks, the Proud Boys are sad face emoji because of the crushing reality that Donald Trump was unable to achieve his plans to become emperor of our country. Their existence is promoted and funded by authoritarian resources—literally.

All of these people have a couple of things in common: They’re predominantly white, approaching middle-aged Trump supporters who are afraid that white people and the way of life that they have come to see as their birthright (and theirs alone) is being taken away from them as the country becomes less and less racially monolithic. This isn’t because they are all out of work; according to research, the mob of rioters and insurrectionists have a similar economic makeup to much of the rest of the country. The fear comes from decades of systematic racism, used as always to benefit the growing imbalance of power and wealth in our country that has riddled large swaths of our country with anxieties over the changing times.

Chrestman’s argument is not simply one of privilege. It isn’t privilege to expect the law to be used justly. The problem is not only do Chrestman and other whining MAGA citizens believe that they deserve to be treated justly while others are treated unjustly: They actually want the laws to only apply to people of color and to people who aren’t them. That is the privilege being sought here. While many of these white Americans will tell you that they have no “white privilege,” they continue to act like they absolutely deserve to have more rights than everyone else.

None of this is new to the United States; but like every like moment in our country’s history, we find ourselves with a chance to make real progress toward a more egalitarian country in the face of enormous powers that are fighting to return to a less and less tenable status quo.

Here’s an interesting interview done with University of Chicago Professor Robert Pape concerning a study he and others conducted about the makeup and motivations of the (so far) 400+ rioters who were arrested in connection with the Jan. 6 insurgency.

YouTube Video