The nonprofit Haitian Bridge Alliance filed a lawsuit against GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance on Tuesday in the wake of the men’s repeated racist lies about Haitian immigrants stealing and eating pets in Springfield, Ohio.
The state of Ohio has laws that allow private citizens to file criminal charges and seek arrests. The Chandra Law Firm asserts that there is probable cause that Trump and Vance have committed crimes and are asking for a judge to issue arrest warrants.
“Despite the facts presented in the affidavit being open and notorious for the world to see, the prosecuting attorney has not yet acted to protect the community and hold Trump and Vance accountable for the harm they have instigated," the lawsuit states.
Here are the laws the Haitian Bridge Alliance says Trump and Vance have broken:
RC. 2909.04(A) and (B) (Disrupting Public Services),
RC. 2917.32(A) (Making False Alarms),
RC.2923.03(4) (Complicity),
R.C. 2917.21(A) (Telecommunications Harassment),
RC. 2903.21(A) (Aggravated Menacing),
S.C.0. 537.08 (Telecommunications Harassment),
SCO. G501.10 (Complicity)
There are numerous examples of Vance and Trump pushing the debunked claims. While xenophobic fearmongering is a long-standing conservative tactic, it has become far more inflammatory and flagrant during this election cycle.
The lawsuit specifically highlights Ohio Sen. Vance's admission during an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash that “If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do.”
There are limits to freedom of speech in our Constitution, and they revolve around whether that speech provokes violence and “lawless action.” In the wake of this hateful propaganda campaign, the community Trump and Vance lied about has been terrorized by bomb threats, forcing school and municipal closures.
Neither Trump nor Vance seem interested in toning down the rhetoric. If anything, they have turned it up a notch by proclaiming that these legal immigrants are “illegal.” During a rally in Indiana, Pennsylvania, on Monday, Trump attacked Springfield’s Haitian community once again.
“The fact is and I’ll say it now—you have to get them the hell out,” he told the audience, eliciting chants of “Send them back!”
The GOP ticket just keeps strengthening the plaintiffs’ case.
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