28 August, 2017
Rep. Dana
Rohrabacher,
101 Main
Street #380
Huntington
Beach, CA 92648
Dear
Congressman,
Re:
Pardon
Are you
as appalled as I am by Trump’s unpardonable pardon of Sheriff Joe Arpaio? I suppose not.
But the man exercised his power as a public official—a law enforcement officer,
no less—to flout the law and terrorize the people he was supposed to protect.
Did you happen to read the report of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights
Division? I hope you did. If not, I offer this link to the report:
If you’re
not horrified by the sheriff’s treatment of people of color in his
jurisdiction, I can’t imagine that you read the report with anything like
careful attention. It details his flagrant violation of the civil rights of
American citizens, his disgraceful abuse of prisoners in his charge, and his
discriminatory treatment of non-English speaking inmates. Not content with his
blatant and arrogant violation of the civil rights provided by the
Constitution, he persisted in his lawless behavior even after being judicially
instructed to obey the law himself.
Pardon,
in my view, is one of the most sacred responsibilities of a president. Trump’s
pardon of this man is a demonstration of his own contempt for the basic
principles on which this country was founded. That he announced his intention
in a raucous political rally to a mob of unruly and ill-informed supporters
before making it official is ample evidence that his action was more a matter
of rabble-rousing than of restoring justice. As others have pointed out more
eloquently than I, it also offers the prospect of a get-out-of-jail card for no
matter the offense, so long as the perpetrator belongs to his personal tribe of
acolytes.
Would you
care to make a public statement of your views in this matter, Congressman? I
hear the even the timid speaker, Paul Ryan, has spoken out. I believe you owe
it to your constituents to make your position clear.
Respectfully,
Peter
Clothier, Ph.D.
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