Trump Takes Away the Right of Peaceful Assembly – First Amendment Violation

-

    First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law … abridging … the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

    On June 1, 2020, peaceful demonstrators were protesting the taking of George Floyd’s life by placing a police knee on his neck until he could not breathe. There had been a number of killings by police, which resulted in a great many peaceful demonstrations around the country. It is certainly the responsibility of the president to tell the difference between looters and peaceful demonstrators. The First Amendment demands there be a distinction. Lafayette Square, near the White House has been a traditional site for peaceful demonstrations to protest various matters and petition the government for redress of grievances. At 6:32pm, in the evening of June 1, 2020 several hundred officers in riot gear advanced on the demonstrators. At 6:35pm, one officer threw a chemical grenade at the demonstrators. Another officer launched pepper ball canisters with a payload of oily organic resin derived from peppers, similar to pepper spray. Pepper ball canisters can stop charging bears. Sting balls were launched. Sting balls are commonly used on rowdy prisoners in jail and are designed to inflict pain and blunt force trauma. They contain approximately 180 pieces of hard rubber. As they roll towards the intended victims, they time them to make a delayed explosion. They can penetrate the skin of those close to the explosion. This gratuitous violence was a violation of the First Amendment rights of the demonstrators.

    The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff apologized for his participation in the fiasco. None of Trump’s family who participated in the planning, none of the military leaders nor the Attorney General of the United States, William Barr, and least of all, the President of the United States seemed to know or care about the protections the First Amendment gave to the demonstrators. President Trump referred to the incident as a show of overwhelming force and domination. The President intends to crush dissent. President Trump released a letter from John M. Dowd that called the demonstrators, “terrorists.” 

    Understanding what happened at Lafayette Square is not complex. The President of the United States used troops against his own people who were under the protection of the First Amendment.

    Stay tuned to this blog for additional constitutional and legal violations by the President.

    JJB

Copyright 2020 James J. Brosnahan


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The American Establishment Wants to Stop Voter Theft

-
       The business community and the legal community have had enough of the public vote theft. There is a full-page advertisement in the  New York Times  today listing approximately 100 major American corporations and almost all of the large law firms (including Morrison Foerster LLP) in the United States, in opposition to the public voter theft being enacted in several states.      Senator McConnell has overplayed his hand and is now in political trouble. It is often the American establishment that has to step forward and save our democratic form of government. Forty-seven states have pending or enacted statutes with the aim of reducing the vote. Those statutes eviscerate our democratic form of government. The immediate and widespread reaction of citizens was to stop doing business with any company that tolerated voter reduction or theft, and so it should be.      A bill pending in the congress now would establish a bipartisa...
Read more

Senator McConnell Has Inverted the Process of Democratic Discussion by Telling His Base of American Business to Stay Out of Politics

-
  Senator McConnell’s lecturing of American business to stay out of politics was hastily followed by his statement he was not talking about contributions . That lecture represented a reversal of normal political dialogue. In a democracy it is the voters who tell the office holders what they need and what they want. It is not the office holders who instruct the voters as to what they’re allowed to do. Under the First Amendment as declared by the US Supreme Court on several occasions, corporations have a right to express political opinions. Efforts to reduce the vote is among the most important subjects for public discussion. There’s something more important about what McConnell did. He took an axe to the republican base. For a number of years the republican hierarchy has been trying to manage a joining of American business with right-wing groups, some of them with extreme positions. It has been effective at times. But the recent praise by Senator Johnson of Wisconsin, lavished o...
Read more

John F. Kennedy's Speech on Religion - September 12, 1960

-
On Sept. 12, 1960, presidential candidate John F. Kennedy gave a major speech to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association, a group of Protestant ministers, on the issue of his religion. At the time, many Protestants questioned whether Kennedy's Roman Catholic faith would allow him to make important national decisions as president independent of the church. Kennedy addressed those concerns before a skeptical audience of Protestant clergy. The following is a transcript of Kennedy's speech: Kennedy: Rev. Meza, Rev. Reck, I'm grateful for your generous invitation to speak my views. While the so-called religious issue is necessarily and properly the chief topic here tonight, I want to emphasize from the outset that we have far more critical issues to face in the 1960 election: the spread of Communist influence, until it now festers 90 miles off the coast of Florida; the humiliating treatment of our president and vice president by those who no longer respect our power; the hun...
Read more