Is there no such thing any longer as Due Process?
Trump today.
Peoples lives are being shattered and destroyed by a mere allegation. Some are true and some are false. Some are old and some are new. There is no recovery for someone falsely accused – life and career are gone. Is there no such thing any longer as Due Process?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 10, 2018
A response.
CC: The Central Park Five https://t.co/ibVneLAdrA
— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) February 10, 2018
The Times on Trump and the Central Park Five in October 2016:
Donald J. Trump rarely apologizes. When it comes to the case of the Central Park Five, he has never even come close.
In 1989, after these black and Latino teenagers from Harlem were accused of assaulting and raping a white woman in Central Park, Mr. Trump spent $85,000 placing full-page ads in the four daily papers in New York City, calling for the return of the death penalty.
“Muggers and murderers,” he wrote, “should be forced to suffer and, when they kill, they should be executed for their crimes.” Though he didn’t refer to the teenagers by name, it was clear to anyone in the city that he was referring to them.
Incredibly, 14 years after their sentences were vacated based on DNA evidence and the detailed and accurate confession of a serial rapist named Matias Reyes, Mr. Trump has doubled down.
“They admitted they were guilty,” he said in a statement to CNN this month. “The police doing the original investigation say they were guilty. The fact that that case was settled with so much evidence against them is outrageous.”
They “admitted” they were at the scene after hours of coercive questioning without a lawyer or a parent present.
The teenagers faced hours of intense interrogations with no lawyers present and often with no parent or guardian, even though they were just 14, 15 and 16 years old. They were denied food, drink and sleep over many hours. And they were terrified.
The young men were all led to believe that they would be allowed to go home only if they said what the police wanted to hear. The four who gave statements admitted to having been present but blamed others for the rape, which they naïvely thought would not incriminate them.
And then years later DNA evidence showed they hadn’t done it. So…it’s a “mere allegation” when it’s a white guy who works for Trump, and “the police say they were guilty” when it’s five black teenagers who don’t work for Trump. Sounds fair.
Whenever people start tossing around the phrase “due process,” I want to know: what process do you think is due here?
What process should be due before someone is dismissed from a job? And do you favor this for all terminations of employment, or are you just fine with “at will” employment as 99% of Americans “enjoy”?
What process should *I* be forced to follow before *I* decide whether or not *I* believe an allegation of spousal abuse? And how you gonna make me? Are you going to force me to spend money on Woody Allen films because I haven’t followed your prescribed process before concluding that he’s a predatory asshole?
Where’s his love of due process every time he attempts to interfere with a certain investigation?
AoS,
Well, he denied any wrongdoing. No collusion. No collusion. You’re the colluder!
Once a rich white man has denied an accusation, that’s the end of the process.
‘Somebody said’ is all the evidence he needs. When it flatters or advances HIM.