San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Capitol attacker in Nazi-themed gear gets jail term
A Virginia man who stormed the U.S. Capitol while wearing an anti-Semitic “Camp Auschwitz” sweatshirt over a Nazi-themed shirt was sentenced to 75 days of imprisonment.
Robert Keith Packer, 57, declined to address U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols before he sentenced him last week during hearing held by video conference. The judge noted the “incredibly offensive” message on Packer’s sweatshirt before imposing the sentence.
Photographs of Packer wearing the sweatshirt went viral after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. When FBI agents asked him why he wore it, he “fatuously” replied, “Because I was cold,” a federal prosecutor said in a court filing.
Packer’s sweatshirt depicted an image of a human skull above the words “Camp Auschwitz.” The word “Staff ” was on the back. It also bore the phrase “Work Brings Freedom,” a rough translation of the German words above the entrance gate to Auschwitz, the concentration camp in occupied Poland where Nazis killed more than 1 million men, women and children.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Mona Furst said she learned on Wednesday that Packer also wore an “SS” T-shirt — a reference to the Nazi Party paramilitary organization founded by Adolf Hitler — under his sweatshirt on Jan. 6. Packer “attacked the very government that gave him the freedom to express those beliefs, no matter how abhorrent or evil they may be” when he joined the mob supporting then-President Donald Trump, the prosecutor said
Packer, a resident of Newport News, Va., pleaded guilty in January to a misdemeanor count of parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building, which carries a maximum sentence of six months of imprisonment.
On Friday, a Michigan man was sentenced to five years in prison for his role in the attack. Anthony Robert Williams, 47, of Southgate, was also sentenced to three years of supervised release after his prison term and ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution and a $5,000 fine.
In June, a jury convicted Williams of a felony count of obstructing the Jan. 6, 2021, joint session of Congress. Jurors also convicted him of four related misdemeanor offenses.
More than 870 people have been charged with federal crimes for their conduct on Jan. 6. More 260 of them have been sentenced, with roughly half of them receiving a term of imprisonment ranging from seven days to 10 years.