by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist
I am not a lawyer nor have I had much in the way of any formal training regarding the law, but having worked many years in state child protection I did manage to spend an inordinate amount of time in the offices of county sheriffs and in courtrooms - so I respect the law without being intimidated by it.
I know that there are several broad categories of criminal activities which are addressed by the law. Much of what makes its way into court revolves around crimes against property, things like vandalism, arson, and theft. All of those seem to be particularly important to wealthy people who are much more involved in writing the laws than poor people, and who expect the law to protect their possessions - which are visible signs of their status in society.
I also know that there are crimes against the state such as dodging the draft and the deliberate failure to pay taxes.
Another broad category of criminal activity involves crimes against persons: assault, incest, rape, extortion, kidnapping, human trafficking, and even murder. Crimes against people are usually seen as more serious than crimes against property, and while fewer cases of crimes against people may wind up in court, judgments in those cases are often more substantial and can sometimes even be so severe as to result in execution.
And then there is an overarching category of crimes against people that involves crimes against entire groups of people, or crimes against humanity. These encompass activities that impair or eliminate entire populations, things like hate crimes, enslavement, disappearances, and genocide. Increasingly legislatures are beginning to see crimes motivated by race and gender bias as hate crimes, and laws are being enacted which provide for enhanced or extended punishments for criminal activities that are prosecuted as hate crimes. Some states are even codifying certain "crimes against humanity."
There have been a few stories in the news over the past few days that have gotten me to thinking about broad types of crime. Donald Trump, who is in full campaign mode, has been feverishly trying to divide America over race, and he is using the recent Black Lives Matter demonstrations to stir his racist rabble. When a group of military leaders recently said that they would have no problem with changing the names of several U.S. military installations that were named for Confederates, Trump was quick to state that he would not allow that to happen on his watch. Trump was also quick to send in federal troops to police peaceful demonstrations - some of which escalated due to the addition of military troops to the already tense situations.
Now, today, Trump has signed an executive order, that is rooted in the protection of property. The order directs Attorney General Barr to prosecute to the "fullest extent of the law" anyone who defaces or tries to remove a monument on federal land. Trump is, of course, talking about black protesters, or their white accomplices, damaging, destroying, or removing monuments erected to heroes of the Old South, many of whom are still revered by his racist base. An executive order is one more legal tool to keep a subjugated people in what many would see as "their place," and the laws have been stacked against these subjugated peoples since page one on day one.
But it's not just property that concerns the Trump administration. They have been mistreating families along our southern border for the entire time the administration has been in office, and today many families - and children - remain in stark holding cells where they are routinely denied outside visitors, adequate legal safeguards, hygienic supplies such as toothbrushes, and appropriate medical care. Adults and children have died while in the "care" of the US Customs and Border Patrol. Yesterday a federal judge ruled that - because of the pandemic - children in CPB detention facilities - along with their parents - must be released to COVID-free sponsors by mid-July. The Trump administration has a history of not complying with judicial orders that it doesn't like, so the status of those caged children is still up in the air.
Also just in the past couple of days with regard to the pandemic: the Trump administration has announced plans to close the last 13 federal coronavirus testing sites (of an original 41) by the end of this month - just days away. The remaining federal testing sites are in five states, one of which is Texas. a state that is currently dealing with a massive rise in new cases. Trump tweeted his thoughts on testing this past Tuesday with this gem:
And then yesterday the Trump administration filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court to end Obamacare, a callous act act would take healthcare away from 20 million Americans during the time of an escalating pandemic. The end of Obamacare would also bring about the closure of many small hospitals and clinics and would deny real healthcare to wide swaths of rural America.
So, to briefly recap, Donald Trump, the President of the United States, is focused on protecting statues and monuments that glorify a failed historical cause, while at the same time - and during the worst medical crisis to hit our country in more than a century - is hellbent on keeping migrant families in cages, limiting the amount of testing that is available to diagnose the pandemic virus and disease so that the total number of cases will appear lower than it actually is, taking access to affordable healthcare away from twenty million Americans outright, and making access to healthcare harder to achieve for countless untold others.
Protecting the statues and monuments is clearly a case of generating "law" to protect property, and the caging of families and children, the reduction of pandemic testing capability, and creating obstacles to keep people form getting medical care go well beyond the bounds of crimes against individuals.
Trump's actions with regard to families in cages - immigrants - and the denial of adequate healthcare to poor and middle class Americans represent crimes intentionally directed at broad classes of people - and those are crimes against humanity!
Donald Trump has failed to represent much of the country, and he has done so intentionally and with malice aforethought. His refusal to insist on even minimum safeguards during a worldwide pandemic has endangered and caused the deaths of thousands of American citizens - and his insidious disregard for other people has also served to prolong the global crisis.
Trump needs to resign immediately, and he needs to answer for both his betrayal of office and his betrayal of humanity in an international court of law.
Citizen Journalist
I am not a lawyer nor have I had much in the way of any formal training regarding the law, but having worked many years in state child protection I did manage to spend an inordinate amount of time in the offices of county sheriffs and in courtrooms - so I respect the law without being intimidated by it.
I know that there are several broad categories of criminal activities which are addressed by the law. Much of what makes its way into court revolves around crimes against property, things like vandalism, arson, and theft. All of those seem to be particularly important to wealthy people who are much more involved in writing the laws than poor people, and who expect the law to protect their possessions - which are visible signs of their status in society.
I also know that there are crimes against the state such as dodging the draft and the deliberate failure to pay taxes.
Another broad category of criminal activity involves crimes against persons: assault, incest, rape, extortion, kidnapping, human trafficking, and even murder. Crimes against people are usually seen as more serious than crimes against property, and while fewer cases of crimes against people may wind up in court, judgments in those cases are often more substantial and can sometimes even be so severe as to result in execution.
And then there is an overarching category of crimes against people that involves crimes against entire groups of people, or crimes against humanity. These encompass activities that impair or eliminate entire populations, things like hate crimes, enslavement, disappearances, and genocide. Increasingly legislatures are beginning to see crimes motivated by race and gender bias as hate crimes, and laws are being enacted which provide for enhanced or extended punishments for criminal activities that are prosecuted as hate crimes. Some states are even codifying certain "crimes against humanity."
There have been a few stories in the news over the past few days that have gotten me to thinking about broad types of crime. Donald Trump, who is in full campaign mode, has been feverishly trying to divide America over race, and he is using the recent Black Lives Matter demonstrations to stir his racist rabble. When a group of military leaders recently said that they would have no problem with changing the names of several U.S. military installations that were named for Confederates, Trump was quick to state that he would not allow that to happen on his watch. Trump was also quick to send in federal troops to police peaceful demonstrations - some of which escalated due to the addition of military troops to the already tense situations.
Now, today, Trump has signed an executive order, that is rooted in the protection of property. The order directs Attorney General Barr to prosecute to the "fullest extent of the law" anyone who defaces or tries to remove a monument on federal land. Trump is, of course, talking about black protesters, or their white accomplices, damaging, destroying, or removing monuments erected to heroes of the Old South, many of whom are still revered by his racist base. An executive order is one more legal tool to keep a subjugated people in what many would see as "their place," and the laws have been stacked against these subjugated peoples since page one on day one.
But it's not just property that concerns the Trump administration. They have been mistreating families along our southern border for the entire time the administration has been in office, and today many families - and children - remain in stark holding cells where they are routinely denied outside visitors, adequate legal safeguards, hygienic supplies such as toothbrushes, and appropriate medical care. Adults and children have died while in the "care" of the US Customs and Border Patrol. Yesterday a federal judge ruled that - because of the pandemic - children in CPB detention facilities - along with their parents - must be released to COVID-free sponsors by mid-July. The Trump administration has a history of not complying with judicial orders that it doesn't like, so the status of those caged children is still up in the air.
Also just in the past couple of days with regard to the pandemic: the Trump administration has announced plans to close the last 13 federal coronavirus testing sites (of an original 41) by the end of this month - just days away. The remaining federal testing sites are in five states, one of which is Texas. a state that is currently dealing with a massive rise in new cases. Trump tweeted his thoughts on testing this past Tuesday with this gem:
"Cases are going up in the U.S. because we are testing far more than any other country, and ever expanding. With smaller testing we would show fewer cases!"Others, of course, would argue that with smaller testing we would know less about where and how the virus is spreading and would be at greater risk. But Trump is focused on a national "recovery" before the election, so the numbers must come down, by hook or by crook.
And then yesterday the Trump administration filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court to end Obamacare, a callous act act would take healthcare away from 20 million Americans during the time of an escalating pandemic. The end of Obamacare would also bring about the closure of many small hospitals and clinics and would deny real healthcare to wide swaths of rural America.
So, to briefly recap, Donald Trump, the President of the United States, is focused on protecting statues and monuments that glorify a failed historical cause, while at the same time - and during the worst medical crisis to hit our country in more than a century - is hellbent on keeping migrant families in cages, limiting the amount of testing that is available to diagnose the pandemic virus and disease so that the total number of cases will appear lower than it actually is, taking access to affordable healthcare away from twenty million Americans outright, and making access to healthcare harder to achieve for countless untold others.
Protecting the statues and monuments is clearly a case of generating "law" to protect property, and the caging of families and children, the reduction of pandemic testing capability, and creating obstacles to keep people form getting medical care go well beyond the bounds of crimes against individuals.
Trump's actions with regard to families in cages - immigrants - and the denial of adequate healthcare to poor and middle class Americans represent crimes intentionally directed at broad classes of people - and those are crimes against humanity!
Donald Trump has failed to represent much of the country, and he has done so intentionally and with malice aforethought. His refusal to insist on even minimum safeguards during a worldwide pandemic has endangered and caused the deaths of thousands of American citizens - and his insidious disregard for other people has also served to prolong the global crisis.
Trump needs to resign immediately, and he needs to answer for both his betrayal of office and his betrayal of humanity in an international court of law.
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