MINOT — I'd like to juxtapose two recent news stories for you, dear reader, because side by side, they ask us to confront some interesting and confounding hypocrisies in Republican politics. The first is Attorney General Drew Wrigley vowing to "lock horns" with lawmakers over legislation implementing new mandatory minimum sentences for various crimes. Wrigley was downright combative with lawmakers during the last session, which saw a similar bill defeated.
His tenor isn't changing ahead of this session, but that's a topic for another column. What I want to focus on are the reforms Wrigley is proposing. Per April Baumgarten, among the changes Wrigley wants are tougher sentences for resisting arrest and assaulting law enforcement officers.
Wrigley argues that criminals don't feel deterred from these actions because they aren't likely to face additional jail time for committing them. “The men and women in uniform, they deserve this kind of protection,” Wrigley told Baumgarten. The second is news that former North Dakota resident Rockne Earles, who traveled to Washington to attend the now-infamous Jan.
6 rally in support of then-President Donald Trump alongside newly-elected Republican state lawmaker Daniel Johnston, has asked a federal judge for the sentencing in his criminal case to be delayed until after Trump's forthcoming inauguration. Earles pleaded guilty in September to two felonies related to assaulting police officers during the Jan. 6 riot.
Earles, through his at.
