Rise and Reform

In 2017, Brayden Bushby was sentenced for manslaughter of Barbara Kentner of Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation. He has now been granted full parole. 

Kentner passed away from complications after Bushby threw a trailer hitch at her from a moving vehicle. An important thing to note is that in August 2023, Bushby was granted day parole, which he promptly used to get a tattoo of a confederate flag on his chest. I read through the article the CBC wrote about this situation, and the chest tattoo is just one of many similar incidents. 

In my one of my recent posts, I wrote about how we are seeing a lot of people serve way too much time for protesting fascism in America, compared to the very short sentences served by pedophiles, sex offenders, people who stormed the Capitol building on January 6th, and now white supremacist murderers. How can we actually call this a criminal justice system when we aren’t seeing actual justice? Or rather- the only people seeing “justice” are white, rich people in positions of power to begin with. 

Barbara Kentner deserves better. Her family deserves better. I know I’ve talked a lot about how I don’t believe prison should be used to handle situations like this- but that doesn’t mean I believe he deserves freedom when we objectively know it won’t be safe for the people around him. We saw how Bushby behaved when he was granted day parole. We know that he will not be a functional member of society when released. It is evident that his release will put Indigenous people in danger. How can our government continue to do this? 

When I say that our criminal justice system disproportionately affects People of Colour, this is a perfect example. White men often don’t face prison time for sexual assault, and they often face little prison time for acts like this. Then, when a group of people protests ICE’s fascism in America, they collectively face over 400 years behind bars.

This is not okay. Our government needs to do better.

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