And Now...War Crimes

From The New York Times:

The Pentagon used a secret aircraft painted to look like a civilian plane in its first attack on a boat that the Trump administration said was smuggling drugs, killing 11 people last September, according to officials briefed on the matter. The aircraft also carried its munitions inside the fuselage, rather than visibly under its wings, they said.

And:

Retired Maj. Gen. Steven J. Lepper, a former deputy judge advocate general for the United States Air Force, said that if the aircraft had been painted in a way that disguised its military nature and got close enough for the people on the boat to see it — tricking them into failing to realize they should take evasive action or surrender to survive — that was a war crime under armed-conflict standards.

“Shielding your identity is an element of perfidy,” he said. “If the aircraft flying above is not identifiable as a combatant aircraft, it should not be engaged in combatant activity.”

Perfidy.

Let's look at that.

From the Geneva Convention

Article 37 - Prohibition of perfidy

 

  1. It is prohibited to kill, injure or capture an adversary by resort to perfidy. Acts inviting the confidence of an adversary to lead him to believe that he is entitled to, or is obliged to accord, protection under the rules of international law applicable in armed conflict, with intent to betray that confidence, shall constitute perfidy. The following acts are examples of perfidy: 

 

  (c) the feigning of civilian, non-combatant status        

From the DOD Law of War Manual: 

5.22.2 Perfidy - “Kill or Wound”. It is prohibited to use perfidy to kill or wound the enemy. 

And the US Navy/Marines/Coast Guard Handbook on Naval Operations:

Honor prohibits perfidy, the misuse of certain signs, fighting in the enemy’s uniform, feigning nonhostile relations in order to seek a military advantage...

And so on.

Perfidy. Prohibited. War crime. 

 

 

The Cover-up Of Renee Good's Killing

H/t to Liz Oyer.

From CBS:

Prosecutors in the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division were told they will not play a role in the ongoing investigation into a fatal shooting of a woman in Minneapolis by a federal immigration officer, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

Leadership in the Civil Rights Division, overseen by Harmeet Dhillon, informed staff in the division's criminal section that there would not be an investigation, two sources said. Normally, after a high-profile incident involving a fatal shooting by an officer, attorneys from the criminal section fly out to the scene. Multiple career prosecutors offered to do so in this case, but they were told not to do so, one of the sources added. 

While investigations into the excessive use of force can be pursued solely by a U.S. Attorney's office without direct involvement from the Civil Rights Division, it is customary for the division's federal prosecutors to take the lead on high-profile investigations like the one in Minnesota.

From the Civil Rights Division website:

Congress created the Civil Rights Division in 1957 to uphold the civil and constitutional rights of all Americans, particularly some of the most vulnerable members of our society. The Division enforces federal statutes prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, disability, religion, familial status, military status and national origin.

Except, apparently, Renee Good - who was killed by an ICE agent a few days ago. 

From another section of that same website, we learn that the Civil Rights Division, under 18 U.S.C. § 242 is tasked to investigate "Deprivation of Rights Under Color of Law" specifically:

This provision makes it a crime for someone acting under color of law to willfully deprive a person of a right or privilege protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States. It is not necessary that the offense be motivated by racial bias or by any other animus.

Defendants act under color of law when they wield power vested by a government entity.  Those prosecuted under the statute typically include police officers, sheriff’s deputies, and prison guards.  However other government actors, such as judges, district attorneys, other public officials, and public school employees can also act under color of law and can be prosecuted under this statute.

This apparently doesn't apply to Renee Good, who was killed by one of Trump's ICE agents a few days ago.

Interesting part of the story, Harmeet Dhillon is in fact an immigrant herself - born in India and grew up in The Bronx and then North Carolina and became a US citizen when she was 12. She's the one who, I suppose, decided against using the Civil Rights Division to investigate an ICE agent who killed a US citizen.

Pennsylvania Senator Dave McCormick also voted to confirm Dhillon as head of that division. 

Senator McCormick, are you OK with the Civil Rights Division not investigating the killing of Renee Good?

 

 

 

 

Another Reminder (After Trump's ICE Killed A US Citizen)

Remember, I am not a lawyer, just a concerned citizen.

Let's start (as we should always start) with the Constitution.  Specifically the Amendments.

This one:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause...

And this one:

No person shall be ... compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law...

Note that it says "The right the people" and "No person" and not "The right of the citizens"  and "No citizen." 

That means they apply to everybody. 

8 U.S. Code § 1357 says:  

Any officer or employee of the Service authorized under regulations prescribed by the Attorney General shall have power without warrant—

(1) to interrogate any alien or person believed to be an alien as to his right to be or to remain in the United States;

(2) to arrest any alien who in his presence or view is entering or attempting to enter the United States in violation of any law or regulation made in pursuance of law regulating the admission, exclusion, expulsion, or removal of aliens, or to arrest any alien in the United States, if he has reason to believe that the alien so arrested is in the United States in violation of any such law or regulation and is likely to escape before a warrant can be obtained for his arrest, but the alien arrested shall be taken without unnecessary delay for examination before an officer of the Service having authority to examine aliens as to their right to enter or remain in the United States;

Note that it only applies to "any alien" or any "person believed to be an alien" - and only within the limits of asking about his "right to be or remain in the United States."

ICE has no legal authority to interrogate any US citizen and certainly no authority to demand entry into that citizen's house/apartment or make a demand for that citizen to exit their vehicle.  

Trump's ICE agent killed a US Citizen.

 

A Reminder (About DHS After Trump's ICE Killed An American Citizen)

H/T to Huffpost:

The explicit, publicly available policies of the Department of Homeland Security for use of force and deadly force and the 1989 and 1985 Supreme Court cases Graham v. Connor and Tennessee v. Garner, support that reality — along with the locally relevant Minnesota State Statute 609.066.

Let's go dig a little deeper the DHS Department Policy Use of Force document, shall we?

It contains this: 

Unless further restricted by DHS Component policy, DHS LEOs are permitted to use force to control subjects in the course of their official duties as authorized by law, and in defense of themselves and others. In doing so, a LEO shall use only the force that is objectively reasonable in light of the facts and circumstances confronting him or her at the time force is applied. [Bolding in original]

And this:

DHS LEOs should seek to employ tactics and techniques that effectively bring an incident under control while promoting the safety of LEOs and the public, and that minimize the risk of unintended injury or serious property damage. DHS LEOs should also avoid intentionally and unreasonably placing themselves in positions in which they have no alternative to using deadly force.

And this:

As soon as practicable following a use of force and the end of any perceived public safety threat, DHS LEOs shall obtain appropriate medical assistance for any subject who has visible or apparent injuries, complains of being injured, or requests medical attention. This may include rendering first aid if properly trained and equipped to do so, requesting emergency medical services, and/or arranging transportation to an appropriate medical facility.

And this:

A DHS LEO may use deadly force only when the LEO has a reasonable belief that the subject of such force poses an imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury to the LEO or to another person.

And this:

Fleeing Subjects: Deadly force shall not be used solely to prevent the escape of a fleeing subject. However, deadly force is authorized to prevent the escape of a fleeing subject where the LEO has a reasonable belief that the subject poses a significant threat of death or serious physical harm to the LEO or others and such force is necessary to prevent escape. [Underline in original]

And this:

DHS LEOs are prohibited from discharging firearms at the operator of a moving vehicle, vessel, aircraft, or other conveyance unless the use of deadly force against the operator is justified under the standards articulated elsewhere in this policy. Before using deadly force under these circumstances, the LEO must take into consideration the hazards that may be posed to law enforcement and innocent bystanders by an out-of- control conveyance.

So the shooter should not have put himself in a position where he might have to use deadly force and Trump's ICE crew should have rendered medical care to the woman one of them just shot. They should not have shot at the car if they thought shooting it would stop the woman from fleeing.

Trump's ICE killed an American citizen. 

Orwell Still Matters

The Frame from Orwell

The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.

Our reality right now.

Trump: 

The woman screaming was, obviously, a professional agitator, and the woman driving the car was very disorderly, obstructing and resisting, who then violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer...

JD Vance: 

“I’m not happy that this woman lost her life,” he said of Renee Nicole Good, 37, who was fatally shot during a confrontation with ICE officers Wednesday. President Donald Trump has said that Good was "resisting" orders and "viciously ran over the ICE Officer" during an immigration-related operation in the city.  

Noem:

Today, in an act of domestic terrorism, an anti-ICE rioter weaponized her vehicle against law enforcement.

None of any of that was, in fact true.

The CBC:

Good turns her front wheels to the right and her vehicle starts to move forward. At that point, the third officer appears to be less a metre in front of the driver's side edge of the SUV's hood.

The officer then pulls his gun and fires what appears to be three shots into the vehicle. Even as he fires the first shot, the front of the vehicle has clearly passed him as it turns right and he is shooting as he stands beside it.

Trump's ICE agents kill an American citizen and then blame her for it. 

In doing so they're telling you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears.

 

 

Trump's ICE Kills American Citizen

This was inevitable.  Still is.

From The Guardian:

Federal agents shot and killed a woman during a large-scale immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis on Wednesday. 

Ilhan Omar, the Democratic Minnesota congresswoman, said the victim was “a legal observer” of action by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which had sent a surge of agents into the city in recent days tied in part to allegations of fraud involving Somali residents. 

A witness to the incident, Emily Heller, told local media that the victim was shot in the face multiple times. Heller said she saw a car blocking traffic that appeared to be part of a protest against the ICE operation, and heard an agent telling the driver, a woman, to “get out of here”. 

“She was trying to turn around, and the ICE agent was in front of her car, and he pulled out a gun and put it right in – like his midriff was on her bumper – and he reached across the hood of the car and shot her in the face like three, four times,” Heller told MPR News, a Minneapolis public radio station. 

The woman has been identified as 37-year-old Renee Nicole Macklin Good, a US citizen and mother of three who had recently moved to Minnesota.

More from NPR: 

NPR and MPR have reviewed multiple videos of the shooting taken from different vantage points and posted to social media. The footage shows multiple officers near an SUV stopped in the middle of the road. One officer demands the driver exit the vehicle and grabs the car handle. The SUV reverses, then begins to drive forward, which is when a different officer near the front of the car pulls his weapon and fires into the vehicle. Three gunshots are heard, as the firing officer backs away from the SUV. Moments later, the vehicle crashes.

You can see it here:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by MPR News (@mprnews)

 

She was not blocking the road.  She was trying to drive away.

Trump's ICE killed her and then tried to say she was at fault because this was an act of domestic terrorism.

It was. The ICE shooters are the terrorists. 

President Gaslight Spins A Tall Tale

From The New York Times:

On the fifth anniversary of the pro-Trump mob attack on the Capitol, the Trump administration created a new page on the official White House website that represented the president’s most brazen bid yet to rewrite the history of the Jan. 6 riot with false claims aimed at absolving him of responsibility.

You can find it here. 

Axios has some much needed corrections:

The page, which is headed by sprawling images of House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and members of the select committee that probed Jan. 6, reads that Democrats "staged the real insurrection by certifying a fraud-ridden election."

• Election officials have maintained a lack of evidence of widespread voter fraud.

As does CNN:

The website champions Trump’s controversial claim that then-Vice President Mike Pence “had the opportunity to return disputed electoral slates to state legislatures for review and decertification,” during the joint session of Congress that day, but chose not to “in an act of cowardice and sabotage.”

Pence himself, legal scholars from across the political spectrum, and many of Trump’s aides and advisers, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, have said it would be would have been blatantly unconstitutional for the then-vice president to refuse to certify the 2020 election.

Casting Pelosi, then the Democratic House speaker, as a primary villain of January 6, the White House site seized on comments she made in an HBO documentary, where she said, of security at the Capitol: “I take responsibility for not having them just prepare for more.”

“They clearly didn’t know, and I take responsibility for not having them just prepare for more,” Pelosi said in the clip. 

That remark doesn’t prove Trump’s oft-repeated claim, which he said again in a speech Tuesday, that Pelosi turned down his supposed offer for an advance deployment of 10,000 National Guard troops. Pelosi has always denied having received such an offer, and the president – not the House speaker – is in charge of the DC National Guard.

And now some truth:

The first is the evidence here made clear that President Trump was by a large measure the most culpable and most responsible person in this conspiracy. These crimes were committed for his benefit.

The attack that happened at the Capitol, part of this case, does not happen without him. The other co-conspirators were doing this for his benefit. 

Anything else is a lie.