All Americans — including those arrested in the Jan. 6 riots — deserve due process

Sen. Rand Paul says it is disappointing that progressives today will not apply the Sixth Amendment guarantee of a speedy trial to the people accused of entering the U.S. Capitol illegally on January 6.

It disturbs me that the outrage from the left seems to be selective.  We have heard nothing from Vice President Harris on the Jan. 6 detainees held for nearly a year without trial. Where is the ACLU when it comes to the prolonged and inhumane solitary detentions of people accused of crimes on Jan. 6, especially for those who are accused of no violence? Our laws demand that even those accused of the most horrific crimes of mass murder are guaranteed due process. To abandon those principles for political purposes is to abandon the very bedrock of American jurisprudence.

In many of my speeches, I shared the heartbreaking story of Kalief Browder, a 16-year-old Black teenager who was accused of stealing a backpack and was incarcerated on Rikers Island for three years without trial. Two of those years were in solitary confinement. Kalief was abused by guards and gangs and attempted suicide in prison.