So much for the bravery of the military
All it takes for evil men to triumph…
Conservatives are violent and sadistic by nature. There are some who are openly willing to fight them, but most people would rather avoid such dangerous confrontations. I don’t blame her.
This enemy is best fought when they aren’t sure who is hitting them. Smile. Blend in. Look friendly. Do what’s needed when they least expect it and get away. Rinse, repeat. Attracting negative attention from these cockroaches is not worth the risk, no matter who you are. Guerilla tactics work well against loud, arrogant, unintelligent fascists.
And right wing sites everywhere are framing this as Trump clearly doing nothing wrong because nobody charged him. Disgusting.
The silent fear of Trump and his cultists strikes again. It is one of things he does a lot where people know how deranged his base is and don’t want to hold him accountable.
Stop treating these fucks with kid gloves for fucks sake. Press the goddamn charges! Quit being fearful of retaliation because that is exactly what the rapist and his cult want. This is frustrating.
I mean, it doesn’t help when you know the vast majority of police officers, prosecutors, and judges lean to the right. I get what you’re saying though.
The problem is that as a random cemetery worker who can’t afford bodyguards 24/7, pressing charges stands a significant chance of getting you killed.
Man, fuck stochastic terrorism.
And doing nothing only emboldens them.
You would sacrifice your life or your family to teach Trump a lesson?
If Trump wins in November do you think he will spare your family that you protected by not teaching him a lesson?
Do you not think its cowardly to not stand up for your fellow citizens and instead stand for only yourself?
It’s like Hurricane Katrina all over again. “Just leave the poors to suffer, fuck em, we are rich and escaped so who cares.”
USA if falling apart because everyone cares about their own skins more than the collective.
SO…you WOULD get your children killed so a Trump staffer gets a slap on the wrist? How does that help the collective again?
The fact that no one even considers organizing in reverse to protect this person against the crazies is really revealing, you know.
Black Panthers started because they knew they couldn’t trust external forces to protect them.
Glad to know none of y’all will stand up for this persons family, and instead think them standing up to this would equal “killing their own kids” instead of you giving an inch and helping protect them.
Sorry, but you forgot to blame us all for Katrina again and therefore your point is invalid.
You’re the one calling her a coward. How is that protecting her? Start organizing and I’ll join you. Keep calling her a coward for refusing to step up with no protection and I’ll know you’re a hypocrite.
Stormy Daniels could have disappeared very quietly. She chose to be a witness instead, and Trump has borne the fallout from that case seeing the light of day.
Look at all the #MeToo abusers who fell from power and public favor - their behavior was “known” publicly in their industry but not widely across the country - and so they remained in positions of power and influence to continue that abuse.
When has a MAGA fanatic gone out and attacked an individual that crossed Trump? I’m sure it’s happened, but I can’t think of a single incident. Does Pelosi’s husband count? That felt more like a, “kill libs” thing, and she was a much higher profile target than you and I ever will be.
I’d press charges, be scared shitless and have guns salted around the house like Easter eggs. My kids would be staying inside unless we drove away to get outdoors. And my wife’s pistol training would go from, “how to have fun safely” to “here’s how self-defense works”.
Shitty way to live? You fucking bet, but it would only be temporary, soon forgotten. A Trump Presidency would be permanent.
As does the system of nothing happening to people like Trump, while also allowing him to use his platform to target his cult on his new “enemy”. We need a system that will treat a former president accused of assault the same way the cops would respond to an alleged assault with a minority involved.
Until the system is actually going to work for the victim instead of caring about the optics of the assailant (or their “help”), I don’t blame this woman for not wanting to put a target on herself for just doing her job and protecting the privacy/dignity of fallen soldiers and their families.
president accused of assault
I keep seeing this sort of comment, as if Trump himself was involved. I’m still not clear if he was present at the altercation. Anyone know exactly where he was during all this?
It was his campaign staff doing the assault, but you think their dear leader was just chilling in the car or something while this woman stepped in to shut down the illegal photoshoot happening? It was his campaign staff there illegally, I think that puts him on the hook for this.
In case you’ve forgotten, Trump has been more than accused of sexual assault.
For sure. But as an individual, it makes a lot of sense to hide instead of fight.
When fascism wins and starts rounding up people to be executed… Will you have the same attitude?
When your family is facing literal death by a fascist party, was it worth saving just your own family to begin with before they took power?
Because backing down emboldened them, then they took power, now they have control of all legal mechanisms, and now you and your family will die horrifically anyway.
Was it worth it?
You’re not the one facing the possibility that somebody will kidnap and torture and murder you, your kids, your spouse, etc. right now, with serious doubt as to whether law enforcement, neighbors, judges, and others will help them or take the side of the absuser.
It’s on the cemetery worker to make that call for themselves, and I don’t blame people who choose to run or hide instead of fight.
I do, because the people who can run or hide are not the most vulnerable in society, who get left behind to deal with the fascists.
Hurrican Katrina all over again. Fuck what happens to the poors, we gotta save ourselves!
with serious doubt as to whether law enforcement, neighbors, judges, and others will help them or take the side of the absuser.
And when Trump takes power, that’s going to get better?
But in the case of Hurricane Katrina, if people had all stayed they would’ve all died. There are groups of people all over who only survived genocide by others and total decimation by natural disasters because some fled.
I agree we should confront fascists if we are able. I have a collection of death threats from Nazis, myself. But not everyone has to be like me to be valid. Some people aren’t fighters, they flee. That’s fine. Or should we give pregnant women and 5 year olds guns?
If fascists have no one to hurt but each other, then they consume themselves. Fleeing involves the least amount of harm to innocent non-fascists versus fighting which gives them a common enemy to harm.
That’s nice to say from the comfort of your own chair, when you’re not the one taking the risk.
Armchair warrior.
Ah yes, because *checks notes… telling people to do things like press charges is being an armchair warrior.
Also yes, because being in poverty and knowing deep in your heart half the people who say they support you would bail on the country entirely if it meant saving their own skins doesn’t make you tired of hearing it. Because if these people cared so much for each other, they might stand up for each other instead of turning tail and saying “save yourself” while doing nothing to help.
It’s like telling a drowning person to save themselves while holding tightly onto the life vest you could throw them.
Telling someone else to risk their life is what an armchair warrior does. It’s what you are doing.
Bravery is not a lack of fear, it’s rather the opposite.
Also, the temporary paranoia I’d suffer would pale in comparison to the life-long ass-kicking I would deal myself if I let this slide.
“First they came for the…” You know the rest.
“Yes, but maybe we can just trust The System and this whole fascism thing will just go away on its own without anyone having to do anything uncomfortable”… says/said nearly everyone with any power to influence whether it goes away.
Not that this unnamed employee pressing charges against a Trump underling is going to save Democracy, and really it’s more important that the government enforce the no-politicizing law, but it’s how this problem festers. We shouldn’t need to even be dealing with a third Trump campaign.
Right with ya. I’d press charges, no hesitation. I’d also be a paranoid fucking mess of a human being, a gun within reach no matter where I was. Same room is not good enough, I mean an arm’s length away, tops. Running around the house, peeking out windows like a meth head on a 3-day binge.
Ironically, I might well decline to press my suit in a local matter. Pissing off the local cops? Now you got a permanent target on your back. These MAGA fuckers though, they seem to require numbers to get their pecker up. They also seem to only aim for governmental people and places.
Why the fuck can’t the police place charges anyway? Here in Canada any assault charge is automatic, it doesn’t require the victim to do anything. Is that not true in the US?
The government can press charges on your behalf, but if you’re resistant they will often let the matter drop. It’s really hard to win a case like this if the victim refuses to testify.
Yeah but there’s video evidence in this case
That being said, I don’t think the state should endanger a victim who is afraid for their safety and not consenting by making them go to trial
Depends on the state and sometimes city.
I’m not sure what Arlington Cemetery actually counts as for law enforcement, but it’s in Virginia, a former slave state.
Fun Fact: the property was confiscated from Robert E Lee following a tax dispute (they couldn’t pay the back taxes they owed from the Civil War)
https://www.history.com/news/arlington-national-cemetery-robert-e-lee-estate
This. And if they having been paying any attention, they can see that someone like Nancy Pelosi was even vulnerable to an attack from these demons. They came for her, but got her husband. And that’s someone prominent like Nancy - imagine being a cemetary worker and knowing the kind of hate and vitriol and quite possibly, literal violence that would be aimed at you (and your family - these asshats are cowards to the core, of course).
What a shame the assassin missed.
There would undoubtedly be fallout, but the public really needs to remember that we are the ones allowing democracy to be shit on and destroyed in front of our eyes as Media across the country only cares about engagement.
It turns out letting America be held hostage by Fascists makes for good TV, and the 6 people who own almost every media outlet never forgot how great enslaved populations were for their bottom line.
Probably best that Trump survives to lose, and lose hard. Had be been assassinated, he’d be the perfect martyr and we’d never be free of MAGA. There’s no heir apparent ATM, but given the power vacuum his murder would have opened, bet they would have found one with the quickness. Pre-election, even a natural death would open doors. Plus, imagine the violence that would have erupted.
Right now we’re only seeing low-level stochastic terrorism, but I honestly think his most unhinged followers would have been hunting “enemies of the state” (read liberals) in the streets.
Conservatives loathe failures. Yet another Trump failure, they’re on the turning away. If Harris thoroughly whips his ass, watch a year from now, “Yeah, I never was a big fan of his.” Same as happened to Nixon. Sure, he had die-hard fans, but most of his people got real quiet, real quick.
This campaign is his last ditch, last gasp, chance to stay relevant. If, and I believe when, he loses in a landslide, he’s going to quickly spiral into history’s outhouse. Loss of personal freedom, money, power and influence, loss of followers, and loss of health on the heels of all that? He’s fucked.
Yes, the man has dodged accountability his whole life, but remove his power, money and influence, he’s going to be standing buck naked. The chickens are coming home to roost. I can hear them already.
I wish I could believe that we will ever be free of “MAGA”.
I always thought it was the DA that brought charges. What do they mean by won’t press charges?
If a victim says “don’t do anything, I won’t cooperate with criminal prosecution” then the DA often chooses not to proceed.
The DA doesn’t need their support, they have the video evidence of a federal crime.
Not at all. They can and do charge people.
100%
It’s often difficult to proceed with prosecution if the victim doesn’t want to move forward, but there’s no hard and fast rule. And, it is clearly above this guy’s pay grade to be single handedly tangling with a movement that might well kill him for the effort with no repercussions.
It is the army’s place to say “clearly this is a violation and we DGAF what the staffer in the ground thinks about it” in order to try to shield him from responsibility, and then do their 1,000% best to rake Trump and the people responsible over the fucking coals regardless. This is like institutionalism responsibility mechanics 101.
You should read the article. The Army already bent over for him.
Oh, I’m aware that the army for some fuckin reason decided to let it slide. I’m saying that THAT, you can get mad at (or at the federal prosecutors in VA who aren’t working on a grand jury right now). Not the totally powerless person who has no ability to do anything but invite retribution to herself and her family.
Isn’t having knowledge of a felony enough for a public prosecutor to indict someone independent of the victim?
That’s how it works in Germany at least - if the authorities get information about a criminal offense, they are obliged to start a criminal investigation. A victim not pressing charges only matters in terms of a civil lawsuit.
In the UK, you can’t decide whether to ‘press charges’ or not, the decision is the CPS’s.
But in practice, saying you aren’t interested in pursuing a conviction often ends it, because:
1 - the prosecution must be ‘in the public good’ which is undermined if the victim isn’t interested
2 - a lot of the time the testimony and cooperation of the victim is key to the prosecution case
3 - the system is horribly underfunded so if they can justify dropping it they will
CPS is? City Prosecutor … ??
as to 1) - that’s judged differently in Germany - in part to protect victims of domestic violence who will often “change their mind and not want to” press charges after filing an initial report.
-
in that case, yes - but again, if it’s a criminal offense, the victim has an obligation to testify, even if they have no interest
-
I have no idea how the funding of our judicial branch looks like atm
ah right - forgot UK still has one foot in the medieval ;) thanks for the clarification!
One foot? More like five feet ten inches!
I was thinking figuratively of the UK as a person, and of persons as bipeds…
Ah, I was referring to the current owner of the crown.
-
The CPS only does this for England and Wales not the whole of the UK. In Scotland the procurator fiscal prosecutes crimes and in Northern Ireland it is the Public Prosecution Service
There were two separate crimes here.
The crime of abusing the ANC for a political photo and the crime of physically assaulting someone who worked for the ANC.
The crime of abusing it for political purposes is currently being ignored and the person assaulted has chosen to not press charges for the assault.
Assuming the only evidence for physical assault isn’t just the victims statements (but even then), I feel that both crimes are currently being ignored.
To go back to the example of Germany: If you accuse someone of a crime (directed against your physical well-being or property) here, towards authorities (e.g. police) and then say “but I don’t want to press charges”, that no longer matters - they are obliged to record a report of a potential criminal offense and leave it to a judge to decide on how to proceed.
Isn’t this Army jurisdiction? Is pressing charges even relevant?
Oh yeah actually good point. Probably still relevant since it involves a civilian though, it’s not like civilians can be tried through military court afaik
Although I wonder if he could claim he was acting as Trump’s agent. Trump, being a former guy who tried to overthrow the government and technically former Commander in Chief of the military, maybe could be court martialed, right? If this is considered an attack by him, like a coup, on our Armed Forces?
After review by any of these intermediate courts, the next level of appeal is the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces (CAAF).[17][21] The Supreme Court of the United States has discretion under 28 U.S.C. § 1259 to review cases under the UCMJ on direct appeal where the CAAF has conducted a mandatory review (death penalty and certified cases), granted discretionary review of a petition, or otherwise granted relief.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniform_Code_of_Military_Justice
Idk. I doubt they will do anything regardless. But interesting thought experiment for sure.
Moral of the story is that terrorism works. Remember this once voting no longer does.
This is part of a statement put out by Chris LaCivita, a Trump campaign spokestroll:
For a despicable individual to physically prevent President Trump’s team from accompanying him to this solemn event is a disgrace and does not deserve to represent the hollowed grounds of Arlington National Cemetery. Whoever this individual is spreading these lies are dishonoring the men and women of our armed forces, and they are disrespecting everyone who paid the price for defending our country.
I don’t know what makes me angrier, his assault on the English language (it’s “hallowed,” you utter dipshit), or his pathetic attempt at DARVO.
Hollowed, like, they hollow out the place to put in the bodies, ya know?
Hollowed because he requires rigorous application of Getsuga Tenshou
Bank AI
Funny, I would say the ones dishonoring the men and women buried there were the ones who assaulted a woman so they could take campaign videos in a restricted section.
Whoever this individual is spreading these lies are dishonoring
Yeah, every time I read this to try to understand the grammar, I get a little dumber.
Hollowed made me laugh
Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender for anyone else who didn’t know.
Is it pathetic if it works on his intended audience?
Yes?
Cool and normal.
Donald Trump just threatened Mark Zuckerberg with jail for life because he THINKS Facebook could be used against him.
Zuckerberg is in Trump’s fucking pocket already.
Trying to save yourself by not pressing charges won’t make Trump forget your face, your name, or the fact that you told him “No,” once in his life, which is enough for him to want to destroy your life entirely.
Everyone who said this person is protecting themselves and their family is missing the point that if Trump takes power in November he will absolutely go out of his way to ruin this person’s fucking life (and their families lives) even though they didn’t press charges.
Is that fucking worth it? To save your family for a short time just for fascists to never forget you told them no and ruin your fucking life anyway?
He is willing to attack people who are literally in his fucking pocket and threaten to jail them for life. He has worse in mind for this person. I guarantee it.
Spoken with the easy courage of someone whose family isn’t in the crosshairs
I agree with you that this should be a HUGE deal, but if the institutions who are the ones actually responsible for going after Trump are not going to act, why should this one guy be responsible to take a purely futile stand about it that might get him killed? I agree that he is not safe whatever he does, but amping up the conflict will make him less safe.
If you don’t think these asshats will dox and harass this person anyway without even pressing charges, I’ve got a bridge to fucking sell you.
They told Trump “no,” that’s enough of a crime in the eyes of these right wing freaks.
Further, no one is saying they need to do it alone. If asshats can organize to harass them, can’t we organize to protect them? This is literally what I mean by nobody will back each other up. Instead of organizing as a group to protect that person, we act like it’s their personal responsibility to fight it and then go “oh shucks” when they don’t. Jeeze, maybe it’s because we didn’t back them up.
Isn’t that why the Black Panthers fucking existed, because they knew they couldn’t trust the cops?
But I guess organizing and protecting people like that is too much to ask.
We could organize to get Trump some consequences for any number of the explicitly treasonous things he has done, without involving some third party in the potentially deadly consequences if they don’t want to become further involved than they are. Nothing was ever preventing that.
Nothing was ever preventing that.
Gotcha, so this is a tacit admission everyone in the USA is just a giant pussy out to save themselves, with no concern for the collective. Because we’ve been turning our tails and letting Trump get away with what-the-fuck-ever for literally over a decade now.
No wonder this country is falling to fascism.
Our communities were sold, literally, to capitalism and marketing. Free community spaces and events are encroached on every day. That’s why they want to defend libraries, for instance - too much free shit being given out. You can’t even organize at a library because you’re supposed to be quiet there. It’s just that capitalism seeks capital in everything including free services. So it takes little bites off everything until we don’t have benches or bathrooms or trash in parks anymore because we can instead force people to pay to use those services at the nearby gas station or whatever.
This country is falling to fascism because we literally do not have things like free spaghetti socials anymore. We have no community. If the cemetery worker had neighbors who cared about her and were part of her community, they’d look out for her and she’d be safe.
Go to your town hall and demand more free community events. This will fight fascism.
What have you done?
Bruh, you weren’t even willing to risk your bank account to set up a gofundme for the lady, but here you are telling her to risk her life? Aren’t you also in the same group, then?
Courage isn’t easy. Fear is the very definition.
Trump is a cunt and anybody who ever voted for him is a cunt.
I know it’s obvious and everybody already knows it but I saw his abortion of a face on my feed so now you have to hear it again.
Don’t disservice abortions by comparing them to Trump. Abortions save lives, Trump doesn’t.
He also lacks the depth and warmth to be a cunt.
This is how fascists win, by being free from consequences.
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