Felony Murderer-in-Chief: This is Our 5th Avenue Moment, America
Donald Trump famously boasted he could shoot somebody in broad daylight on 5th Avenue in downtown Manhattan and get away with it.
On January 6, 2021, the President of the United States, along with his co-conspirators Rudy, Jr., Eric, Ted, and Josh, committed felony murder live on television before our disbelieving eyes. A capitol policeman died as a direct result. It appears Trump has now proven his murderous boast.
I am a retired attorney and psychologist. As any attorney could tell you, committing a felony — in this case inciting a riot (textbook) and/or insurrection (arguably) — in the process of which 5 people died — including a cop — is called felony murder. Trump just rushed last month to execute a poor black man who, when he was 18 years old, participated in a botched felony during which one man died.
But Donald Trump is not poor. He is not black. And he is privileged. As are Don Jr., Eric, and all the actors in “Ted & Josh’s Not-So-Excellent Adventure,” which spiraled out of control yesterday thanks to our brave and valiant Capitol Police — many of whom escorted the mob into the Capitol Building Rotunda. One of whom subsequently died of injuries sustained during the riot.
Punishment for this low-rated reality tv show was swift and sure: all of the President’s social media was suspended. NYT columnist Michele Goldberg summed it up: “He may still be able to launch a nuclear strike in the next two weeks, but he can’t post.”
Why didn’t Nancy Pelosi order the Sergeant at Arms of the Capitol Police to arrest Donald Trump from her bunker, after her office was sacked, after her colleagues were forced to take cover from a live-fire event, after a terribly confused, veteran woman on steroids took a bullet in the chest on the porch of the People’s House — as she and others were breaking windows — and died along with four others?!? I mean, even the toady U.S. Attorney William “dis-” Barr has agreed that Trump just incited a riot live on his new reality tv show, “YOU’VE BEEN ROBBED”.
As Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi has a constitutional duty to act under such dire circumstances in order to preserve liberty. The line of succession to the office Trump has abandoned and turned into a terrorist outpost, goes from Pence to Pelosi. And Pence is complicit.
Instead of taking immediate action to secure our country from the deranged maniac with the nuclear football, all she and her stodgy old patrician allies really seemed concerned about was making everything look normal (NORMAL IS DEAD) while continuing to appease the very terrorists (a.k.a., MAGAs, Bundy Gang, Pretty Boys, Stephen Miller — I mean Q — etc.) who just sacked the capitol! OH NO — We can’t arrest Trump, that might provoke the brainwashed masses even further!
Or is Trump under “White House Arrest”? He was wanting to flee to Camp David, his bone spurs flaring up at the most inopportune time (preventing him from following through on his promise to march with his posse to the Capitol), but apparently he was not permitted to leave his gilded cage. And Pence, who assumed command by ordering the National Guard to respond after hours of inaction from the POTUS on Wednesday, was reported to be baby-sitting Trump on Friday — though Donny refuses to talk to him.
Sounds like he’s under arrest to me, but nobody will call it that for fear of his 15-million-patriot-strong army’s response. He’s grounded, and they’ve taken away his smart phone.
The most appropriate response amidst the anarchy of this attempted coup came from new House Rep. Cori Bush, whose rise to power began unconscious in the teargas-drenched streets of Ferguson, Missouri. Having witnessed the mob storm the capitol steps under the banner of the Confederacy on her 3rd day in office, standing on the other side of the line this time, she was asked to comment live from lockdown on the obvious police complicity in enabling the mob outside her office door. After processing some of her complicated feelings and then composing herself, she turned the spectacle into a proverbial bookend for both Ferguson and the murder of George Floyd on Trump TV:
“What we saw today was two things: White Supremacy, and White Privilege.”
Represent! Thank you Cori for your clear-eyed service to our country.
And none other than presidential historian Michael Beschloss proclaimed on CNN, while a video loop of some rotund Capitol Mall Cops escorting rioters from the barricades up to the steps played in the background, that this was an “inside job.”
An Inside Job! An attempted coup, with some undisclosed level of malfeasance from some law enforcement officers and their line of command on full national display. After a night to process things, Carl Bernstein appropriately called on Congressional leaders to place Donald Trump into a “constitutional straight-jacket” — and contain him in a padded room, I would add to complete Bernstein’s analogy.
To her credit, Pelosi responded in no uncertain terms to Bernstein’s, Iraqi War Vet Seth Moulton’s, Cori Bush’s, and many others’ call to at least demand Trump’s removal, via the 25th Amendment, under threat of an expedited impeachment proceeding. As Moulton eloquently stated, “it is never too late to do the right thing.” And Herr Trump is a clear and present danger.
But the right thing to do in this case is still to place the President of the United States under arrest. Along with his mob, of course — especially those who sided with the terrorists on the House and Senate floors after the attack was over, and after they had time to check for a conscience.
But make no mistake — the Donald is the leader of this organized terror outfit. And this was an attempted, orchestrated coup, with help from the inside.
He is clearly mentally unstable, incapable of distinguishing reality from fantasy (the legal definition of insanity), and is now being actively triggered hour-by-hour, interview-by-interview, day-by-day.
And he has the nuclear codes?
Donald Trump. The poster child for white privilege, white supremacy, domestic terrorism, and yes, our ruling class.
He committed felony murder on live television, on Pennsylvania Avenue in the middle of the day, and in an attempt to overthrow the government.
And he is still a free man.
So he was right. And that is who we are. As Indigenous and people of color have been trying to tell us since, well, forever.
