“The U.S. government advises other countries that are emerging from authoritarian regimes to undertake a process of ‘transitional justice’ to return to healthier footing. We should heed our own advice. That means establishing independent investigations to account for abuses that took place, violations of law, and restoring ethical and professional norms through government and private – sector actions.” P. Neff
Bu apparently there is an unspoken agreement among USA politicians that elected officials, especially at the national level, should not be prosecuted for their crimes. Allowing criminals to use our political system as a refuge from prosecution has eaten the heart out of our democracy. Trump is just a symptom, and the new President needs to address the cause.
Addressing the social and economic ills that drive mass cult movements takes time. And I am not at all sure that putting a bunch of white supremacists in jail together is a long-term solution, given that they are already infiltrating law enforcement. But Biden’s term should at least make it clear that criminal actions of white supremacists are not acceptable in the White House.
This term, we need to demonstrate that there is no place in a democracy for people who kill those they disagree with. I personally have some small evidence that radical left is considered less of a threat under Biden, because as soon as he was confirmed as the President-elect, FBI Surveillance Van #157 found better things to do than hang out on my Wifi:
And there is some evidence that the FBI is investigating domestic terrorism. Over a year ago, FBI Director Christopher Wray reported that the number of white supremacist crimes the FBI prosecuted jumped from 25 in 2018 to over a hundred crimes in 2019. On November 23.2020, ‘an 11-month-long investigation by federal and local law enforcement has resulted in more than 100 arrests and disrupted a notorious white supremacist gang operation responsible for terrorizing people in four states and the California prison system.’
Zach D Roberts has been documenting white supremacist’s Trump rallies. You can find his full interview here. But these two paragraphs caught my attention:
‘The real problem is, I have never seen the police ever arrest a Proud Boy. I’ve witnessed multiple fights between Proud Boys and I guess you could call them “antifascists,” but unless you’re willing to walk away after getting shoved and being spit in the face by a Proud Boy, then shit is going to happen. And they’re not the ones getting arrested. In every place I’ve ever covered these fights—in Portland; Columbus, Ohio; Philadelphia; New York City; or Washington—the person that gets arrested is not the Proud Boy...
Before Charlottesville, my attitude was: “Don’t talk to them, don’t give them the platform.” But the problem is that we tried that before. That was already the mentality for most people. Ignore them; let them have their little march, and they’ll go away. And then we saw what happened. Heather Heyer was murdered, and DeAndre Harris was nearly murdered. Many people who I know were also very nearly killed. You can’t discount or ignore it. We don’t have a plan to deal with it.’
The current crop of criminals associated wit the White House are all part of the white supremacist movement. They need to be prosecuted regardless of what office they may have held and how much money they may have.
sara annon 