Ronald Sandlin, 35, a Capitol rioter, traveled from Tennessee to Washington D.C. with two other men “in a rental car packed with two pistols, two magazines of ammunition, cans of bear mace, gas masks, body armor, several knives and other gear, according to prosecutors.”
On Jan. 6, 2021, he “led the mob’s charge against officers at two points at the Capitol, shoved officers and tried to rip the helmet off of one of them.” Once inside, he smoked a joint and “stole a book from an office.” For all that, he got five years in prison. (See story here.)
Crystal Mason, 47, is a Texas woman who tried to vote in the 2016 election while on supervised release. She cast a provisional ballot that wasn’t counted because a poll worker told her she could. For this, she got five years in prison. (See details here.)
How do you explain identical prison sentences for violent insurrection and merely trying to vote? Here’s a couple of theories: Sandlin is white, Mason is black. Federal prosecutors want to deter violent insurrections; Texas wants to deter black people from voting.