Say Thank You to the Black Dude Who Tackled a Judge in a Nevada Courtroom

His name is Deobra Delone Redden. And he didn't just give us a viral video. He showed us who we are.

Screenshot of Deobra Redden’s attack on Judge Mary Kay Holthus via NBC News

Come on, admit it. Deobra Redden’s courtroom attack on Nevada Judge Mary Kay Holthus was everything we needed it to be. Shocking, outrageous, and entertaining—it was also telling. Very, very telling.

You’ve probably seen the video. Every news outlet from CNN and TMZ to Instagram and TikTok has covered it. The incident occurred during a sentencing hearing. The 30-year-old Redden told the court that he never stops trying to do the right thing, no matter how hard it is.

He sounded like a nice reasonable guy. Hard to believe he was accused of assaulting somebody with a baseball bat. Or that he had a history of violent crimes, including home invasion, domestic violence, and battery on a protected person.

Before things went viral, Deobra was trying to convince the judge that all that bad stuff was in the past now. That he was in a better place in his mind. Had a better support system and a new job. He was trying to stay out of prison. But the judge wasn’t buying it.

She quoted his rap sheet:

“Three felonies, a gross (misdemeanor), nine (other) misdemeanors, and multiple incidents of domestic violence. You got a lot going on, sir,” the judge said. “Battery on a protected person, robberies, attempted home invasion.”

Redden’s defense attorney, however, was not giving up. He asked the judge for a suspended sentence, pointing to his client’s background and mental health history. Deobra has been diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. He's been through mental-health court twice following a string of violent crimes. He also had a good record when it came to completing probation programs.

Up to this point, it looked like a normal day in court.

But then the judge decided to pull a Nat King Cole. “Your story’s so touching, but it sounds like a lie.”

She didn’t quote those words from “Straighten Up and Fly Right” verbatim. But what she did say amounted to the same thing, which she followed with:

“I think you need a taste of something different.” By this, she meant prison.

Now, it’s interesting to look at how the media described what happened next. CBS News said Deobra Redden lunged at the judge. NBC said he appeared to “Superman” over the bench. The New York Post said “Vegas felon hurled himself at a female judge.” Other outlets said he leaped, sprinted, tackled.

I’m especially fond of the football and Superman metaphors. When I looked at the video, I thought of the NFL and wondered why Deobra wasn’t playing for the Panthers or the Jets. Surely, they could use a guy like him.

But then, Superman is good too.

Deobra flew across that courtroom. He got up on the defense table faster than a speeding bullet—before the marshal could even get the cuffs on him.

Next thing you know, the judge was down. It wasn’t a bird. It wasn’t a plane. It was Deobra. And he had three words for Judge Holthus as she hit the ground. “F*ck that sh*t.”

He then began to demonstrate to the judge that he really was a changed man, incapable of battery with the intent of inflicting bodily harm. All he did was punch her a few times and pull out a chunk of her hair.

Later, Deobra explained that he was having a bad day. But if he had been Flip Wilson or Helen of Troy, he would have said, “The devil made me do it.”

The devil would explain Redden’s behavior beyond his schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Because of course, the devil was definitely in it. Wasn’t it the devil who told Faust, “First the little world, then the great one we’ll see,” after Faust sold his soul?

The airborne defendant

This is where the rest of us come into the story of Deobra Redden’s airborne attack on Judge Holthus.

That attack was the “little world.” And it happened on January 3, 2024. Three days before the third anniversary of the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol.

What Deobra Redden did that day was a microcosm of the Capitol attack. If you don’t like the outcome of a legal proceeding, resort to physical violence.

Storm the Capitol. Break the windows. Beat the police with their own shields and clubs. Spray pepper into their eyes. Put up a gallows. Shout, “Hang Mike Pence.”Enter the chambers. Disrupt the proceeding. Send the elected officials into hiding. Put your feet on the desk.

All because you don’t like the outcome. And because you have no respect for the rule of law, even though like poor Deobra Redden, you say you’re trying to do the right thing. No matter how hard it is.

Deobra was putting us on notice.

On January 3rd— in the run-up to this terrible anniversary—he was telling us this is who we are. If you don’t like the outcome, fight like hell. Inflict injuries. Get violent.

It was shocking to see Deobra Redden pull a Superman on a sitting judge in Nevada. And although most Americans were also shocked by the violent attack on the Capitol as it unfolded on live TV, half of the country is currently in the throes of revisionist thinking, led by you know who. It wasn’t really all that violent, was it? After all, only a few people died?

Suppose Deobra Redden tried the same thing. “Sorry everybody. But it’s not what it looked like. Yeah, I was in the air for a while. But I didn’t mean to hurt the judge. I was just exercising my right to free speech.”

If he said that, we would probably just shake our heads and say, he cray-cray. After all, he’s got schizophrenia.

Well, that’s exactly where our nation is now as the consequential 2024 election year gets underway. We cray-cray, y’all. We got schizophrenia, too.

And instead a good doctor, like the one Deobra should have had a long time ago, we have put ourselves in the hands of an increasingly political Supreme Court. Most of them have been put there by a simple Senate majority instead of the two-thirds vote that protected the High Court from politicization for most of our history.

This is the court that will decide if a state has the right to remove the leading GOP candidate from the Colorado ballot for inciting the events of January 6th. Whether that candidate has immunity from prosecution because he was President at the time. And also whether the Department of Justice went too far in prosecuting the 900 or so participants found guilty of the attack so far.

Is it too much to ask this particular High Court to do the right thing—instead of the political thing—no matter how hard it is? Can we hope for that much at least? Or is it foolhardy even to raise the question when everybody knows we are a nation in the throes of schizophrenia? We cray-cray, ya’ll.

©2024 Andrew Jazprose Hill. All rights reserved.

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