Saturday, August 26, 2017

Obama Pardons

If you're going to express outrage over President Trump's pardon of 85-year-old Sheriff Joe Apraio, be sure to think about how you reacted to Obama's pardons.

1 comment:

August Danowski said...

To be clear, Obama did not pardon Oscar Lopez Rivera, he gave him clemency - reducing his 55-year sentence to the 35 years he had already served.

Without getting into the complex questions of whether or not Lopez Rivera was a political prisoner, or whether he was personally responsible for the actions of the FALN, or even if his now 35 year sentence was adequate, (and for the record, I would say no, probably, and maybe) let's assume for the sake of discussion that Obama was wrong to commute his sentence. Who does that affect?

From the article: "The FALN claimed responsibility for more than 120 bombings between 1974 and 1983 in a wave of senseless destruction that killed six and injured dozens."

Obviously, the clemency adversely affects the six who died and the dozens who were injured, as well as their friends and families, and all those who were otherwise affected by the bombings. At a guess of 1,000 people per bombing, that would be 120,000 people affected.

Now to Joe Arpaio - Full pardon for completely disregarding a federal court order to stop discriminating against Hispanics.

Who does this full pardon adversely affect? Arguably the 54,000,000 AMERICAN CITIZENS who are Hispanic. The President of the United States used his very first pardon to state painfully clearly that it is alright for an agent of the government to discriminate and persecute people based on the color of their skin, in violation of the Constitution of the United States and numerous federal, state and local laws. A perfectly timed follow up to his statements in support of the nice people marching under swastikas and othe nazi symbols.

"STAND WITH ANYBODY THAT STANDS RIGHT. STAND WITH HIM WHILE HE IS RIGHT AND PART WITH HIM WHEN HE GOES WRONG." --ABRAHAM LINCOLN

You seem to stand with Trump on this issue, which must mean you think he is right on this issue. Nice to know how you feel about racial discrimination.

And, by the way, more than 160 people have died while in custody in Arpaio's jails (http://bit.ly/2xlzWFA) compared to the six killed by the FALN. But that is a topic for another day.