Charlie Kirk’s legacy is a 30-year sentence for moving zines
Charlie Kirk’s legacy is a 30-year sentence for moving zines
查理·柯克的遗产：因搬运小志被判 30 年监禁
Just days after a gunman killed conservative activist Charlie Kirk, it became clear that President Donald Trump would use the assassination to fuel a crackdown on free speech. To avenge Kirk’s death, the administration vowed to go after so-called “antifa” (otherwise known as antifascist) terrorists. Now that promise is bearing fruit. This week, eight Texas activists were sentenced to between 30 and 100 years in prison — one for attempted murder, but most for supposedly belonging to an insurrectionary “Antifa cell,” including one sentenced to 30 years in part for moving a box of zines.
在保守派活动家查理·柯克（Charlie Kirk）遭枪手杀害仅几天后，局势便已明朗：唐纳德·特朗普总统将利用这次暗杀事件来推动对言论自由的打压。为了给柯克“报仇”，政府誓言要追捕所谓的“反法西斯”（Antifa）恐怖分子。如今，这一承诺正在结出“果实”。本周，八名德克萨斯州的活动人士被判处 30 年至 100 年不等的监禁——其中一人因谋杀未遂获刑，但大多数人是因为被指控属于一个叛乱性的“反法西斯小组”而入狱，其中一人仅仅因为搬运了一箱小志（zines）就被判处了 30 年监禁。
These unusually harsh sentences are a major victory for the Trump administration, one that will likely serve as a blueprint for targeting activists across the US. The emboldened administration has quickly celebrated them. In a statement, acting attorney general Todd Blanche said that the sentences show that the law will come down hard on “Antifa terrorists who attack law enforcement and federal facilities.” But many of those sentenced did no such thing.
这些异常严厉的判决是特朗普政府的一项重大胜利，很可能成为未来针对全美活动人士的蓝图。底气十足的政府迅速对此表示庆祝。代理司法部长托德·布兰奇（Todd Blanche）在一份声明中表示，这些判决表明法律将严厉打击“攻击执法人员和联邦设施的反法西斯恐怖分子”。然而，许多被判刑的人根本没有做过此类事情。
The Texas cases concern a July 4th, 2025 protest outside the Prairieland Detention Facility in Alvarado, Texas. Roughly a dozen protesters set off fireworks and shouted messages in Spanish through a bullhorn. Then it escalated: a few people slashed an ICE van’s tires, broke a security camera, and vandalized a guard shack. When guards came out of the building and told the group to leave, some complied, but others stayed. After a police officer arrived on the scene and drew his gun, one person shouted “Get to the rifles” and fired a rifle he’d brought with him, according to charging documents. The officer, who was shot in the neck, testified that he “knew” his life was in danger and spent three to four hours in the hospital after being shot.
德克萨斯州的案件涉及 2025 年 7 月 4 日在德克萨斯州阿尔瓦拉多（Alvarado）的草原地拘留中心（Prairieland Detention Facility）外举行的一次抗议活动。大约十几名抗议者燃放烟花，并通过扩音器用西班牙语高喊口号。随后事态升级：几个人割破了一辆移民及海关执法局（ICE）货车的轮胎，砸坏了一个监控摄像头，并破坏了一个警卫岗亭。当警卫从大楼里出来要求人群离开时，一些人照做了，但另一些人留了下来。根据起诉书，在一名警察赶到现场并拔枪后，有人喊道“去拿步枪”，并开火射击了他带来的步枪。这名颈部中弹的警官作证说，他当时“知道”自己的生命受到了威胁，并在中弹后在医院接受了三到四个小时的治疗。
Benjamin Song, the shooter, said he fired because he thought the officer was going to fire on a protester, and was convicted of attempted murder. But in addition to the shooting charge, prosecutors dubbed Song the “leader of the antifa cell.” Alongside rioting and discharging a firearm during a violent crime, a conviction for providing material support to terrorists was also included — and he was sentenced to 100 years in prison.
枪手本杰明·宋（Benjamin Song）声称他开火是因为认为警察要向抗议者开枪，他最终被判谋杀未遂。但除了枪击指控外，检察官还将宋称为“反法西斯小组的头目”。除了暴乱和在暴力犯罪中使用枪支的罪名外，他还被控提供物质支持给恐怖分子——最终他被判处 100 年监禁。
Other defendants were convicted of lesser crimes ranging from rioting to providing material support to terrorists, catch-all charges the government has applied to acts as disparate as distributing anarchist literature and “dressing in black bloc.” But their sentences, too, spanned decades.
其他被告被判犯有较轻的罪行，范围从暴乱到为恐怖分子提供物质支持。这些是政府用来涵盖从分发无政府主义文献到“身着黑块装（black bloc）”等各种不同行为的“万能罪名”。但他们的刑期同样长达数十年。
Two people — Savanna Batten and Elizabeth Soto — weren’t involved in planning the protest, arrived separately from the others, and left when guards told them to, before the shooting. They were each sentenced to 50 years in prison. Among other accusations, the government declared they “were part of a group that created and distributed insurrectionary materials called ‘zines.’” Daniel Sanchez-Estrada, who didn’t attend the protest at all, was sentenced to thirty years in prison for moving a box of zines — an act prosecutors claimed was “corruptly concealing a document or record.”
萨凡纳·巴滕（Savanna Batten）和伊丽莎白·索托（Elizabeth Soto）两人并未参与抗议活动的策划，她们是与其他人分开抵达的，并且在枪击发生前，当警卫要求她们离开时，她们便离开了。她们每人被判处 50 年监禁。在其他指控中，政府宣称她们“属于一个制作并分发名为‘小志’的叛乱材料的团体”。丹尼尔·桑切斯-埃斯特拉达（Daniel Sanchez-Estrada）根本没有参加抗议活动，却因搬运一箱小志被判处 30 年监禁——检察官称这一行为是“腐败地隐匿文件或记录”。
The Department of Justice reportedly conceded that the zines weren’t even illegal — they were made for a book club named after anarchist organizer Emma Goldman, which read about topics including feminism and “the eradication of artificial intelligence from the face of the earth.” But it claimed that the Sotos had, by tabling at a zine fair, provided “material support to terrorists.”
据报道，司法部承认这些小志甚至不是非法的——它们是为一个以无政府主义组织者艾玛·戈德曼（Emma Goldman）命名的读书会制作的，该读书会阅读的主题包括女权主义以及“从地球表面根除人工智能”。但司法部声称，索托夫妇通过在小志展会上摆摊，提供了“对恐怖分子的物质支持”。
“The defendants’ violence and terrorism is an assault on Democracy,” said Reed O’Connor, a Republican-friendly judge who among others handed down the sentences. O’Connor argued that the government needs to “deter this type of conduct.” In a statement to The Guardian, Song called it “collective punishment.”
“被告的暴力和恐怖主义是对民主的攻击，”共和党友好型法官里德·奥康纳（Reed O’Connor）在宣判时说道。奥康纳认为，政府需要“威慑此类行为”。在给《卫报》的一份声明中，宋称这是一种“集体惩罚”。
In a statement, FBI director Kash Patel said the agency “remains committed to identifying, locating, and dismantling Antifa and its funding networks across the country,” and more cases are coming. Last week, prosecutors indicted 15 people in Minnesota on a raft of charges including conspiracy to impede or injure a federal officer, solicitation to commit a crime of violence, assault on a federal officer, and the destruction of federal property. Like the Prairieland defendants, the DOJ claims the 15 people charged in Minnesota are connected to “antifa.”
联邦调查局局长卡什·帕特尔（Kash Patel）在一份声明中表示，该机构“仍致力于在全国范围内识别、定位并瓦解反法西斯组织及其资金网络”，未来还会有更多案件。上周，明尼苏达州的检察官起诉了 15 人，罪名包括共谋阻碍或伤害联邦官员、教唆实施暴力犯罪、袭击联邦官员以及破坏联邦财产。与草原地拘留中心的被告一样，司法部声称在明尼苏达州被起诉的这 15 人也与“反法西斯”有关。