A gated Orange County senior community came out to protest a convicted Jan. 6 rioter’s speaking engagement in their village.
Jeffrey Brown, a Santa Ana resident who was convicted of assaulting Capitol Police during the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, was invited by the Republican Club of Laguna Woods to speak at a Friday meeting at a Laguna Woods clubhouse.
Brown was sentenced to four and a half years in prison for seven felony counts, but was later pardoned by President Donald Trump. The Republican Club event billed him as a “victim of the Jan. 6 tragedy.”
“We have always been respectful of other people's opinions and values, but this is a slap in the face of reality and fact,” one protester told KNX News’ Karen Adams. “For them to call him a victim, and they want to hear his journey of life, this is ridiculous in our village.”
“This guy should still be in prison if it wasn't for the knucklehead that let him go,” another man said.
Robert Micone, the husband of Republican Club President Pat Micone, told Adams that Brown was a “victim of unequal justice” and that he was invited to speak as an exercise in support of free speech.
“I don't know why they don't like free speech,” Micone said. “I think that's in the Constitution.”
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The Laguna Woods Democratic Club, along with Democratic groups from Irvine, Mission Viejo, and Laguna Beach, planned to protest the event.
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