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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsA son explains why he turned his father in over the Jan. 6 attack
A soft-spoken 19-year-old told jurors he felt uncomfortable after he decided to alert the FBI about "surreal and scary" text messages from his father in the weeks before the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol.
Testifying in the first trial related to the insurrection, Jackson Reffitt said his father, Guy Reffitt, warned that he and others were about to "rise up," in a family text chain on Christmas Eve 2020.
"What's about to happen will shock the world," Guy Reffitt typed to his family, only a couple of weeks before a violent mob stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying the 2020 presidential election's electoral votes.
As the heated texts piled up, Jackson Reffitt performed an internet search from his bedroom in a Dallas suburb. Jackson said he felt "paranoid" but the Justice Department said his suspicions proved correct.
"Googling that to report my father, saying it out loud is pretty weird," said Jackson, who wore a dark suit and white shirt with no tie, his brown hair spilling loose several inches past his shoulders.
https://www.npr.org/2022/03/03/1084360255/-better-safe-than-sorry-son-explains-turning-in-father-over-jan-6-attack
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Kid did what he had to, but his family was broken long before that.
ck4829
(35,077 posts)lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)stopdiggin
(11,316 posts)But people absolutely do not realize how completely atypical it is for a family member to actually out another member to the authorities - certain that there are going to be both consequences (probably charges and jail) for the offender - and serious blow-back to the rest of the family. And that includes even when the offending member is bat-shit crazy. This is really a hard thing. Goes completely against what a lot of us were/are taught, and feel deeply in our gut.
Deep respect. . ------- -------