Suffer the Children
I’m just a plainspoken Colorado criminal defense lawyer, but the way I see it…
The United States, at the direction of its president, celebrates World Refugee Day today by building new cages for concentration camps for foreign brown-skinned children.
Donald Trump is an unindicted war criminal. His war is against people of color. Daily, daily he is committing crimes against humanity.
He has imprisoned thousands of children, some as young as suckling babies, and severely deprived them of the comfort and protection of their parents, in violation of fundamental rules of international law. He is fully aware of their suffering, and actively working to hide that suffering from the people of the United States by refusing the media access to the camps.
He has ordered their incarceration and separation from their parents as part of a widespread and systematic attack directed against a civilian population, refugees who fled to this country to seek protection through asylum. He knows what he is doing, because he is doing it to force support for his idiotic promise to build a wall between the United States and Mexico. He intends that the suffering of these children be so great that members of the United States Congress don’t dare refuse to give him what he wants.
These are the legal elements of Article 7 crimes against humanity of imprisonment and torture. President Trump could be indicted for these crimes, right now, by the International Criminal Court, and should be.
His actions are a betrayal, and beneath the dignity, of the Constitution he swore an oath to preserve, protect, and defend. To him that oath was obviously no more sacred than the words on a cue card of a reality show. If there are fifty ways to describe despicable, they are combined in the one word, Trump.
Having betrayed his country, as Commander in Chief he should order himself shot. I propose a national lottery such that every citizen of the United States be given an equal chance at the honor.
25 June 2018 @ 3:58 pm
Thank you for exploring this crime against humanity and sharing what you learned.
Sadly, so far it, our illegitimate president seems to know just what lines he can cross and which ‘loopholes’ he can exploit in order to de-construct our country’s government and values as well as the rule of law itself, here and around the globe,– in order to benefit himself and his family.
All this without getting arrested for wrong-doing,– as most of us would, if doing things like kidnapping and transporting children across state lines and/or otherwise imprisoning children.
And this just touches on one of the myriad things he has done which are heart-wrenching, despicable, and unjust.
Looking forward to subscribing and following your insightful and helpful blog,
Suzie
22 June 2018 @ 12:11 pm
A Western States lawyer, who has a much better understanding of international law than I do, wrote to tell me that while our beloved President has certainly violated international law concerning crimes against humanity, the International Criminal Court can’t do anything about it.
“I don’t disagree with your sentiment,” the lawyer wrote, “but have studied international law and it is my understanding that unless a country signs onto the Rome statute (the statute that created the International Criminal Court), the ICC doesn’t have jurisdiction over that country.”
That lawyer is right. Unless we agreed to submit to it — I’d do it in a heartbeat — that court hasn’t any jurisdiction over the Orange One.
Of the one hundred twenty-three countries that have submitted to the jurisdiction of the court — including every U.S. ally except Israel — the United States isn’t one of them. Except for the U.S. and Israel, about the only countries who aren’t subject to the court are those whose leaders Trump admires most: forty-one of the world’s forty-nine dictators. He definitely ain’t going to go against his BFFs.
So President Trump’s crimes against humanity aren’t subject to the ICC.
They would, however, do just fine as articles of impeachment.
21 June 2018 @ 6:42 pm
Actually –
https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/2018/6/21/17488458/obama-immigration-policy-family-separation-border
I’m ready for another reprieve. Bring on the music.