After the riot on January 6th, 2021 at the U.S Capitol, the man wearing ‘Camp Auschwitz’ shirt pleads guilty, and faces six months behind the bars.
Robert Keith Parker, 57, from Virginia, originally charged with illegally entering and intentionally being in a restricted building without lawful authority on Capitol grounds. He pleaded guilty on Wednesday, admitting to join the mob that stormed off the building.
Photographs of the man wearing ‘Camp Auschwitz’ shirt, also boring a human skull below went viral after the insurrection. The shirt had the words “Words Being Freedom,” that seemed to resemble the inscription of the German words “Arbeit Mact Frei” on the gates of Auschwitz, the concentration camp in Poland. There, Nazis killed more than 1 million people, including men, women and children.
How was Parker caught?
Parker fled the building upon witnessing the rioter Ashli Babbitt, a trump supporter that got shot at the hands of a police officer. He was in the area for 20 minutes, as Assistant U.S Attorney Mona Furst said.
Moreover, a photograph captured him in the Capitol with a broken nameplate from the office of Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
However, a witness recognized Parker as a regular customer at a store near Newport News in Virginia and immediately contacted law enforcement. He was found wearing the same sweatshirt in the store in December 2020, as captured by a surveillance camera.
FBI arrested Parker a week after the riot. He agreed to let them check his social media accounts, something that could benefit the prosecutors. His sentence is pending yet, scheduled for April 7.
Although Parker is supposed to be sentenced to six months in prison, Capitol rioters who pleaded guilty avoided receiving the extreme sentence. Some dodged the jail as a whole, either getting probation or house arrest.
People charged with crimes at the riot
More than 700 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the riot in the Capitol. Many other defendants were charged with similar crimes and received non-custodial sentences. Reports say that some 168 pleaded guilty, 148 to misdemeanors and some 20 to felonies.
For more updates, stay tuned to Stanford Arts Review.
