Jackson Reffitt Turns in Violent Father for his J6 Activities at the Capitol

 Jackson Reffitt turned in his father for his actions at the January 6, 2021 activies during the election protest that turned into a riot. He also testified against his father at his trial. Dad is serving 7 1/2 years in prison.

Jackson Reffitt's treatment of his father has become a public issue again because it is the subject of an off-Broadway play, Fatherland.  

The NBC interview with Jackson Reffitt contains his account of his actions, which begins at about 1:40 into the video. 

The right is having a collective hissy fit, comparing Jackson Reffitt to kids in Hitler's Germany who, encouraged by the Nazi regime, turned in their parents. John Leonard, writing for the ultra-conservative website American Thinker states:

Exactly why is Jackson’s father in prison? Well, he’s currently rotting away behind bars because Jackson called the FBI and reported his father for participating in the January 6 “insurrection,” while giving federal authorities all the evidence they would need to convict him. If I could ask Jackson one question (he’s currently much too busy studying political science when he isn’t making appearances on MSNBC or CNN or doing interviews with the Washington Post to respond to someone like me), it would be this: have you seen any of the coverage of what happened after Donald Trump was elected in 2016 and if so, how can you sleep at night after betraying your own father?

Leonard also informs readers that the father worked in the oil industry, earning a six-figure income that allowed his family to travel abroad.

The normally staid and careful writer, Peter van Buren, wrote this in the American Conservative: 

The day after the Capitol riots, the FBI asked Americans “to step up” and identify people who participated. Not only did friends and relatives rat each other out, but armies of unrelated people jumped at the chance to roleplay Stasi. Even somewhat news organization CNN helped identify people on behalf of the FBI. The New York Times published a guide to militia symbols so would-be sleuths could tell their Oathkeepers from their QAnons. The AP called these citizens “sedition hunters” as America weaponized the Kancel Kulture Kids into an e-mob.

Notice the last line referring to Kancel Kulture Kids, a phrase that summons images of the Ku Klux Klan because of the triple use of the letter K. The K in Kulture, perhaps, evokes thoughts of Nazi Germany because the German word Kultur is so close in spelling to Kulture.

Conservative writers likening Jackson Hewitt to the KKK or the Nazi policy encouraging kids to inform on their family are missing a key point of Jackson's statement. 

Jackson claimed during the NBC interview linked above that his father was becoming more violent to his family and to others. My guess is that Jackson turned in his father because of the violence and the J6 trials offered him an escape from a man who was gradually becooming more aggressive. 

To be fair to the senior Reffitt, during the Capitol riot, he never struck anyone or attacked a police officer. He was carrying a gun but kept it holstered.  A 7 1/2 year sentence for what amounts to trespassing is excessive and cruel. 

It is possible to abhor the excessive sentences meted out to non-violent offenders while at the same time refusing to demonize a kid seeking protection from a father who had changed in scary ways.