Man Who Wore “Camp Auschwitz” Shirt at Jan 6th Capitol Riot to Serve 75 Days in Prison

Edited by: TJVNews.com

 

A federal judge on Thursday ordered a Virginia man who wore a “Camp Auschwitz” sweatshirt while joining the now infamous January 6^th Capitol riot to serve 75 days in prison, according to report on the WUSA9 web site. The report on the CBS affiliate television news station said that the judge in the case found that the rioter’s lengthy criminal history made him stand out from other misdemeanor defendants.

 

A report on the LawandCrime.com web site said that the hoodie that 57-year-old  Robert Keith Packer of Newport News was wearing in Washington, DC on January 6, 2021 ridiculed the mass slaughter of Jews during the Holocaust in the style in the style of a summer camp. It displayed the crossbones of the skull which resemble the oars of a boat, and the slogan “Work Brings Freedom” which is the English translation of the German phrase found in the sign in the entranceway to the notorious Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland. The original German is “Arbeit Macht Frei,” and was intended to mislead Jews and other persecuted groups into believing they would be released, rather than slaughtered by the regime.

 

The Nazi regime murdered six million Jews during the Holocaust, killing roughly 1.1 million in the Auschwitz death camp alone, the LawandCrime.com web site reported.

 

U.S. District Judge Carl J. Nichols, a Donald Trump appointee, noted that the sweatshirt was “incredibly offensive.”

 

The report on the LawandCrime.com web site said that Judge Nichols added, “it seems to me that he wore that sweatshirt for a reason.

 

He also pointed to the need to deter attacks like the one Packer joined. “An exceedingly light sentence here might not deter future rioters,” Nichols added, as was reported by the LawandCrime.com web site.

 

The judge said that federal law does not give him the power to impose “split sentences” on the offense, meaning that he could not issue an additional term of probation.

 

As a 2018 appointee of former President Donald Trump, Judge Nichols said he was convinced Packer’s case warranted prison time and that not to order it would send the message to others that his actions on Jan. 6 wouldn’t be punished, the WUSA9 report indicated.  He ultimately agreed with the DOJ’s recommendation and ordered Packer to serve 75 days in prison followed by 36 months of supervised release. The CBS affiliate reported that he’ll also have to pay $500 in restitution for damage done to the Capitol.

 

In January, Packer pleaded guilty to one count of parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building. WUSA9 reported that de was originally scheduled to be sentenced earlier this year, but that hearing was continued at his attorney’s request.

 

In a sentencing memo filed by the DOJ in May, prosecutors said Packer entered the building just six minutes after the first breach despite a blaring police warning that a riot had been declared, the CBS affiliate reported. He then joined the mob as it made its way through the building. Though Packer was not himself accused of violence, prosecutors said he witnessed the mob pushing through the police line and saw police attempting to vain to repel the overwhelming numbers of people, as was reported by WUSA9 News.  Packer was just feet away from the Speaker’s Lobby door when another rioter, Ashli Babbitt, was shot and killed attempting to climb through a shattered window.

 

Babbitt, a veteran of the US military, was unarmed and her death at the hands of a Capitol police officers has spurred controversy.

 

A week after the Jan 6^th riot, Packer was arrested due to a tip from a witness who recognized the “Camp Auschwitz” sweatshirt he wore that day, the WUSA9 report indicated.

 

Over the weekend, Packer’s defense attorney,  Stephen F. Brennwald said he had received media inquiries “from around the word,” as well as communications from unnamed cultural and religious organizations who attempted to contact him. WUSA9 reported that Brennwald said he rejected those as he believed they would create a “circus-like” atmosphere, but that Packer has nevertheless been “hounded” by the media at his home and has lost important relationships because of his role in the riot.

 

“His own son will not talk to him to this day because of their strong political disagreements, and he lost his employment as a pipe fitter at a good company because of his presence at the Capitol on January 6,” Brennwald wrote, as was reported by WUSA9.

 

The LawandCrime.com web site reported that Brennwald said that his client was a victim of overreaction. “He was also hounded by the press for many days, and images of his face and shirt were broadcast over various news outlets repeatedly over the days and weeks following January 6, 2021,” the defense sentencing memorandum states.

 

Brennwald was more direct in his in-court statement: “There is no question that the shirt is offensive.”

 

Brennwald, in his sentencing memo, argued the 75-day sentence prosecutors sought was unwarranted, writing that Packer’s behavior was “truly among the most calm, non-confrontational and non-violent conduct” anyone displayed. WUSA9 also reported that prosecutors, disagreed, saying he showed a “total lack of remorse” and writing that the scenes he observed repeatedly throughout the Capitol made it clear he was breaking the law, “Yet he persisted through until police armed with weapons and in riot gear herded the mob outside.”

 

WUSA9 also reported that during the hearing Thursday, assistant U.S. attorney Mona Furst revealed Packer had also been wearing a t-shirt under the sweatshirt with the word “Schutzstaffel” — the Nazi paramilitary organization known as the S.S. — on it.

 

Furst said Packer “posted his beliefs on his clothing that day,” but Brennwald said Packer didn’t agree with that.

 

“He’s very mad that people are calling him a white supremacist, because he doesn’t see himself that way at all,” Brennwald said.