their point of view | When extremism is the norm, democracy is in jeopardy | Chroniclers
In the same month, a former Rocky Mount police officer during the Jan.6 uprising demanded that his charge be dismissed, the Pentagon has not stopped banning service members of extremist groups.
And we wonder why democracy is fading on the vine.
The former police sergeant in question, Thomas “TJ” Robertson, is an army veteran who epitomizes the problem that senior military officials deny: the presence of extremists in the ranks.
Robertson’s attorney filed a motion earlier this month to dismiss a felony charge against him related to the U.S. Capitol uprising, according to the Roanoke Times.
“Mr. Robertson, like many other defendants, had no direct bearing on what others in various parts of the crowd … were doing,” wrote defense attorney Mark Rollins.
What does have an impact, prosecutors say, are the online comments Robertson posted after Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election.
“A legitimate republic rests on 4 boxes,” he wrote on November 7, 2020 on Facebook, according to prosecutors. “The soapbox, the urn, the jury box and then the cartridge box. “
“We just went to step 3. Step 4 will not be pretty. I can’t speak for others, but being denied the right to vote through fraud is my hard line. I have spent most of my adult life fighting a counterinsurgency. I’m about to be a part of it, and a very effective one, ”The Times reports.
