It’s now a dead letter, but a document called the Constitution specified that criminal suspects, which is what drug runners are, were deemed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Trump just executed 11 people based on suspicion only, with no legal process at all. From Jacob G. Hornberger at fff.org:
Apparently taking a page out of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s drug-war playbook, President Trump is taking credit for the intentional military killings of eleven people in international waters near Venezuela.
Duterte is on trial right now before the International Criminal Court for allegedly ordering his drug-war goons to kill accused drug-war offenders on sight — that is, without arrest, prosecution, trial, and due process of law.
That’s what Trump just did. He ordered his military drug-war goons to blow a boat out of the water that was traveling in international waters near Venezuela, killing, Trump proudly claimed, eleven people in the process.
No stopping of the boat to search it. No arrests. No grand-jury indictments. No trials in federal district court. None of that. On Trump’s orders, his military drug-war goons dutifully, loyally, and obediently fired military projectiles at the boat knowing full well that they would be killing all of the boat’s occupants.
In my opinion, that’s just murder, pure and simple. Sure, it’s legalized murder. After all, there is no chance whatsoever that Trump’s Justice Department will seek criminal charges against Trump and his military killers. Even if it did, there is no possibility whatsoever that the U.S. Supreme Court would permit the charges to stand, given the extreme deference that the Court has always paid to the U.S. national-security establishment. The International Criminal Court has no jurisdiction over U.S. officials and even if it did, there is no doubt that Trump and his military drug-war goons would ignore any criminal proceeding against them anyway.
The sad El Patron (Pablo Escobar) meme comes to mind.
Some don’t get a day in court?
Saw a bizarre Stack about the Maduro/CCP/Serbia axis controlling our (s)elections.
I thought we were the big bad super duper power?