For week, presidential hopeful Donald Trump and his running mate have been spreading the racist lie that Haitian immigrants in Ohio are stealing and eating people’s pets. Now, a Haitian nonprofit organization in Springfield has decided to fight back by filing criminal charges against them.
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According to the Cleveland-based Chandra law firm, Haitian Bridge Alliance has used a state statute that allows private citizens to “file an affidavit charging the offense committed.”
As reported by News 5 Cleveland, the law firm stated that the charges “stem from the impact of Trump’s and Vance’s baseless fearmongering that legal Haitian immigrants to the Ohio town are eating their neighbor’s pets.”
The charges, which were filed in Clark County Municipal Court, include: Disrupting public service, making false alarms, committing telecommunications harassment, committing aggravated menacing in violation, committing aggravated menacing and violating the prohibition against complicity.
Trump and Vance’s dehumanizing claims about Haitian immigrants led to bomb threats at schools and city buildings, severely disrupting daily life in Springfield. Vance later said that he’s willing to “create stories” to bring attention to issues in the state, but remained adamant about repeating this falsehood.
In a statement, lead counsel Subodh Chandra explained the reason for the charges. “The Haitian community is suffering in fear because of Trump and Vance’s relentless, irresponsible, false alarms, and public services have been disrupted,” Chandra said.
“Trump and Vance must be held accountable to the rule of law. Anyone else who wreaked havoc the way they did would have been arrested by now...They think they’re above the law. They’re not.”
According to the filing, the Haitian Bridge Alliance requested the court affirm probable cause as well as issue arrest warrants. The court is required to have a hearing before rejecting the affidavit, which is as part of the legal process.
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