Haitian group calls for charges against Trump and Vance for racist lies on social media

Donald Trump and JD Vance spent weeks spreading the lie that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio were eating cats and dogs. These idiotic lies had real consequences for the community, such as racist vandalism and bomb threats against schools, hospitals, and government buildings. And now the Haitian-American community wants Trump and Vance to face some consequences of their own by filing criminal charges.

Haitian Bridge Alliance, a nonprofit that provides legal and social services to immigrants, has filed papers in Ohio’s Clark County Municipal Court detailing the various laws Trump and Vance have broken. Under Ohio law, private citizens can seek criminal charges, and that’s exactly what’s happening here.

A judge can either accept or reject the affidavit filed today by the Haitian Bridge Alliance. If the judge believes they have a case, arrest warrants could be issued for both Trump and Vance, although that seems extremely unlikely given that American politicians like Trump are almost always above the law.

Cleveland-based Chandra Law Firm helped file the affidavit, and the lead attorney in the case, Subodh Chandra, is confident something can be done to hold these men accountable.

“There is nothing special about Trump and Vance that entitles them to get away with what they have done and are doing,” Chandra said in a press release. “They think they are above the law. They are not.”

The law firm’s website explains the allegations against Trump and Vance and the reasons why they believe the two men should be arrested and charged:

• Disruption of public services in violation of RC 2909.04(A) and (B) by causing widespread bomb threats and other threats that resulted in massive disruptions to public services in Springfield, Ohio;
• Trigger false alarm in violation of RC 2917.32(A), by intentionally causing disturbance in the community of Springfield by continually repeating lies that state and local officials claimed to be false;
• Harassment via telecommunications in violation of RC 2917.21(A) and SCO § 537.08 by knowingly spreading false claims during the presidential debate, at campaign rallies, in nationally televised interviews, and on social media;
• Serious threat in violation of RC 2903.21(A) by knowingly making intimidating statements with the intent to abuse, threaten, or harass the recipients, including Trump’s threat to deport immigrants who are here legally to Venezuela, a country they have never known;
• Serious threat in violation of RC 2903.21(A) by knowingly causing others to falsely believe that members of the Haitian community in Springfield would cause serious physical harm or damage to property of other persons in Springfield; and
• Violation of the prohibition of complicityRC 2923.03(A) and SCO § 501.10 by conspiring against each other and spreading malicious lies that resulted in innocent parties being implicated in their various crimes.

“The Haitian community is suffering from fear because of Trump and Vance’s relentless, irresponsible false alarms and the disruption of public services,” Chandra said. “Trump and Vance must abide by the rule of law. Anyone else who has caused such chaos would have been arrested by now.”

Trump and Vance have not changed their absurd claims about immigrants, which were made by right-wing influencers on Social MediaInstead, the two Republican candidates have doubled down. Trump has repeatedly said that the Haitian immigrants in Springfield who are legally there should be deported to a place like Venezuela. Vance also sticks to his claims and even admits that it could all be made up.

“If I have to make up stories to get the American media to actually pay attention to the suffering of the American people, then I will do that, Dana,” Vance said on September 15 in an interview with CNN anchor Dana Bash.

Vance insisted he wasn’t making up stories, but whatever he actually meant by that, the statement itself was almost accidentally revealing. Vance and Trump don’t care about the truth or about people who are actually suffering, they just want to incite their base of extremist idiots – the same idiots who would make bomb threats against hospitals to terrorize a small community in Ohio.

Because that’s what it is. It’s terrorism, plain and simple. And without Donald Trump and JD Vance, it wouldn’t be happening. In the words of our former president: lock them up.