The Haitian Bridge Alliance, a nonprofit advocacy group for fair and humane immigration policies, has filed charges against Donald Trump and Sen. J.D. Vance, who the organization accuses of causing chaos in Springfield, Ohio, via the spread of racist and xenophobic white nonsense about Haitian immigrants abducting and eating people’s pets.
Source: Michael M. Santiago / Getty
According to the Chandra Law Firm, which is representing the HBA, the organization cited a state statute allowing private citizens to “file an affidavit charging the offense committed.”
According to ABC 5 Cleveland, the charges, which were filed in Clark County Municipal Court, read as follows:
Disrupting public service — by causing widespread bomb and other threats that resulted in massive disruptions to the public services in Springfield, Ohio;
Making false alarms — by knowingly causing alarm in the Springfield community by continuing to repeat lies that state and local officials have said were false;
Committing telecommunications harassment — by spreading claims they know to be false during the presidential debate, campaign rallies, nationally televised interviews, and social media;
Committing aggravated menacing in violation — by knowingly making intimidating statements with the intent to abuse, threaten, or harass the recipients, including Trump’s threat to deport immigrants who are here legally to Venezuela, a land they have never known;
Committing aggravated menacing — by knowingly causing others to falsely believe that members of Springfield’s Haitian community would cause serious physical harm to the person or property of others in Springfield; and
Violating the prohibition against complicity — by conspiring with one another and spreading vicious lies that caused innocent parties to be parties to their various crimes.
“The Haitian community is suffering in fear because of Trump and Vance’s relentless, irresponsible, false alarms, and public services have been disrupted. Trump and Vance must be held accountable to the rule of law. Anyone else who wreaked havoc the way they did would have been arrested by now,” lead counsel Subodh Chandra said in a statement. “There’s nothing special about Trump and Vance that entitles them to get away with what they’ve done and are doing. They think they’re above the law. They’re not.”
Now, MAGA enthusiasts are likely to get their star-spangled Klan-derwear in a bunch over the filing of the charges and start whining about “witch hunts” and the justice system being weaponized against their MAGA messiah and his sidekick who spends his time spreading propaganda about immigrants when he’s not busy telling the world how much he hates childless women. However, there’s really not a charge here that doesn’t have merit.
Source: Michael M. Santiago / Getty
Since Vance and Trump decided to ignore the city planners in Springfield, the Springfield Police Department, the city’s Republican mayor and the state’s Republican governor — who have all stated repeatedly that there is no evidence of residents having their pets stolen and eaten by Haitian migrants, and informed Vance and Trump of this before the former started spreading the rumor and the latter humiliated himself on the debate stage by repeating it — there have been more than 30 bomb threats in Springfield, causing the evacuations of schools and government buildings in the city. Members of the Haitian community in and outside of Ohio have spoken publicly about how they have lived in fear for their safety since the people who want to lead this country next year started spreading falsehoods. According to Mayor Ron Rue, Springfield’s resources are being drained due to the cost of keeping residents safe amid all of the chaos.
Meanwhile, Trump has reportedly decided to ditch his plans to schedule a campaign rally in Springfield, which, if you ask the governor, is nothing but good news.
From Newsweek:
At a rally in Long Island on September 18, Trump said that he planned to visit Springfield in the next two weeks.
However, two sources familiar with the matter have said Trump is not expected to visit the city in the near future.
It comes as Ohio’s Republican Governor Mike DeWine warned that a visit from Trump would “strain” relations with the local community and slammed the former president for what he called “hurtful” rhetoric.
DeWine stressed that any presidential candidate is welcome, but it will put a “strain on the community”.
As for the charges filed by the HBA, “the nonprofit asks the court to affirm probable cause and to issue arrest warrants,” and the “court must have a hearing before rejecting the affidavit as part of the legal process,” ABC 5 reported.
What Vance and Trump have done and continue to do is spread what is not only misinformation but effectively hate speech.
