Man sentenced to four years in prison for police station fire at George Floyd protest

[amcgrath]

19. This sentence might be genius?

This type of fine is probably enough to shut down some of these boogaloo types and possibly bankrupt the organisation, depending on who they bring in.

Setting fire to a building does normal carry a heavy penalty, especially when there are people inside it - especially when those people are police and there is a great deal of stored ammunition in there/ On top of this, the fire was started during a time when police would be regarded as vital to keeping law and order. Disabling a police station at the start of a possible riot should carry a hefty penalty.

However, a clever consequence of this sentence is that this kid will be paying for the rest of his life. it will no doubt be relatively tiny amounts, but it will be payable monthly or bi-monthly or perhaps even weekly. Whatever the payment schedule is, he will have to remain in contact with the court for the rest of his life. The court will know whether he is holding down a job or going off the rails. This point of contact is probably as much as a probation officer would have.

In essence the kid will be paying for his own probation, rather than the taxpayer paying for it. And - as with probation, if he starts going "delinquent" the court have a ready made charge to arrest him and take him off the streets