Dear Editor:

Today our Republic is under the most severe challenge since our Constitution was signed in 1787. The integrity of our courts, our justice system, and the Bill of Rights are all under attack in a process of shifting power from “We the People” to Washington DC. National Public Radio (NPR) continuously updates the findings of an investigation of the January 6, Washington “attack”. These are the latest figures. The findings note that 2,000 people are being investigated and 1,305 have been charged. Two billion, six hundred million dollars have been allocated to support the prosecutions. The investigation has doubled the FBI's domestic terrorism caseload. It notes that nearly 85% of those charged do not have any known connections to extremist groups and that many did not have previous convictions for violence. To date, of the 1,305 people who have been charged; 772 have pleaded guilty, 186 have gone to trial, and only three trials resulted in acquittal of all charges. The 804 sentences range from 7 days to 22 years.

To this observer, we are witnessing an unprecedented demonstration of power by the U.S. Government. They have labeled a group of misguided demonstrators, possibly manipulated by the FBI, as Domestic Terrorists and showing others they can be crushed. We, the taxpayers, are paying $1.3 million per individual for the investigation of the 2,000 demonstrators. The conviction rate is 99.6%, a rate often approached in Russia or China but never seen in a free country. What ordinary citizen could stand up to that? They are also limiting discovery for “security reasons” shredding the Fifth as well as the First amendment. According to Rasmussen polling, 48% of voters agree with the statement, “The Department of Justice and the FBI have targeted, imprisoned, and persecuted non-violent American patriots.” Our elections and our Department of Justice look more like the 1960’s USSR than the America that I grew up in. Our Justice Department and DC judges and juries have produced hundreds of “new criminals,” some from Maine, for what many consider the Constitutional right to demonstrate. Welcome to the new USA.

Joe Grant

Wiscasset