IN SPRINGFIELD OHIO: Haitian Bridge Alliance seems mad as hell and won't take it anymore.
Locally, the Springfield News-Sun is reporting at judicial activism aimed to hold Donald Trump and JD Vance to account for the spreading of false defamatory statements; not by a civil lawsuit, but via a citizen-right provision of Ohio law that permits private party action to instigate a hearing of whether officials should file criminal charges. Nationally, NBC reports online of the situation. NBC, quoting:
The leader of a Haitian nonprofit community group filed
criminal charges Tuesday against former President Donald Trump, the
Republican presidential nominee, and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance of
Ohio, over false claims they made about Haitian immigrants’ eating local pets in Springfield, Ohio.
Guerline Jozef, a co-founder and the executive director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, filed the charges on behalf of the group.
"Over
the last two weeks, both Trump and Vance led an effort to vilify and
threaten the Haitian community in Springfield, Ohio," Jozef wrote.
"Together, they spread and amplified the debunked claim that Haitians
immigrants in Springfield are eating cats, dogs, and wildlife."
Donald Trump and JD Vance on July 18 in Milwaukee.Leon Neal / Getty Images file
The
group’s attorney, Subodh Chandra, cited inaction from a prosecuting
attorney in asserting Jozef’s right to file the charges as a private
citizen.
Ohio law allows private citizens to file
affidavits charging people with crimes. However, the law requires
hearings to take place before the affidavits can move forward. As of
Tuesday afternoon, none had been scheduled.
Trump and
Vance were charged with disrupting public services, making false alarms,
complicity, telecommunications harassment and aggravated menacing in
the filing, which asked Clark County Municipal Court to find that there
is probable cause and to issue warrants for Trump's and Vance's arrests.
“If anyone else had disrupted public service, made false
alarms, and engaged in telecommunications harassment in the manner Trump
and Vance did with their relentless and persistent lies—even after the
governor and mayor said what they were saying was false, they would’ve
been arrested by now," Chandra said in a statement Tuesday. "They must
be held accountable to the rule of law in the same way any of the rest
of us would be.”
Trump-Vance campaign communications
director Steven Cheung said in a statement that Trump "is rightfully
highlighting the failed immigration system that Kamala Harris has
overseen, bringing thousands of illegal immigrants pouring into
communities like Springfield and many others across the country."
City officials have repeatedly said the claim that Haitian immigrants have arrived in Springfield illegally is not true.
The local news outlet, hours ago added coverage:
The
Haitian Bridge Alliance added an additional charge to its criminal
filing in Clark County Municipal Court against former President Donald
Trump and his running mate, U.S. Sen. JD Vance, related to claims
they’ve made about Springfield’s Haitian population.
The
additional requested charge, inducing panic, stems from Trump and Vance
making claims that Haitian immigrants were killing and eating pets in
Springfield, “with full knowledge the claims were false,” according to
the amended affidavit. It states the pair are aware of their power so
knew their statements “would cause alarm.”
The
original affidavit, filed by Guerline Joseph on behalf of the national
nonprofit the Haitian Bridge Alliance (HBA), asks a Municipal Court
judge to charge Vance and Trump with disrupting public services, making
false alarms, two counts of complicity, two counts of telecommunications
harassment and aggravated menacing.
The HBA asks that the court find probable cause for the charges and issue arrest warrants for Trump and Vance.
Under
Ohio law, a private citizen seeking to “cause an arrest or prosecution”
can file an affidavit with “a reviewing official” — a judge,
prosecuting attorney or magistrate — to have them review the facts and
decide if a complaint should be filed.
This is the American Dream in action. Citizens instigating criminal prosecutions, or trying to, against two super-assholes who really deserve being dragged over the rocks a bit for how they have ill-behaved, causing death threats and worry in a quaint little town adapting to an influx of willing workers. Trump and Vance admit, or Vance at least, admits to knowingly instigating false and harmful statements, "making up stories" in Vance-speak, to demonize innocent displaced persons.
It is flat out lying, to be harmful to people he doesn't even know, nor care about. It is deserving of scorn and official action. Let us hope the Haitians get due legal redress.
Hat tip to Aljezeera for international coverage of pissed off Haitians and their reliance on rule of law. The world should know of those two bozos getting their comeuppance, or at least the effort is made, and may justice be served.
The lawyers for the two election officials in Georgia got a big civil award for their clients against Rudy, where he's wrestling with the outcome.
There may be more to this story, should there be a discernible Hairtian class that could sue, for class-wide damages. Punitive damages, i.e. exemplary damages for the egregiousness of the Trump-Vance lying and its harm would seem due, should a suitable jury be impaneled in a civil suit for harm caused.
The outrage might have a payday.
Bless the good Haitians, should it pay off.
Calling somebody a dog thief and eater is beyond the pale. Worse, cats too! Hammer those two over earned liability for repercussions. They deserve it.
