US Elections: Violence & Voter Intimidation

A few days before the election between Donald J Trump and Hillary Clinton, bands of Trump supporters and militias are harassing and threatening black people in various ways to reduce participation. Black Americans are being met with threats of violence or graffiti, arson and problems with voter registration from Trump supporters.  An onslaught of churches being burned across American is meant to send a message that there is no safe haven for black people in America. White supremacists have always set fire on black churches since before the civil war  and seem to be empowered by Trump’s rhetoric.

The ascension of Trump as the GOP Presidential candidate has brought back the old racial politics of the white supremacists who have been emboldened by the prospect of a Trump presidency. The white supremacist militias always speak of how they derive their inspiration from Donald Trump who has provoked violent mass intimidation not seen in more recent elections in America.

Perhaps the U.N. Security Council should be monitoring the US elections to ensure conditions for free and fair elections. Reports from states with early voting show the situation is likely to get out of control on the actual Election Day as Trump militia group carry out their acts of terror to prevent voting by minorities particularly black people. Human rights groups have warned that there is the potential for violence in America’s election by Trump supporters who Trump has called upon to engage in mass intimidation at the polls under the guise of monitoring elections.

During early voting in states such as Ohio, Nevada, North Carolina, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Arizona, New Jersey Trump supporters are engaging in the following:

• In North Carolina almost 5,000 voters were illegally removed from the voters roll through the action of private citizen groups targeting minorities.
• Hindering or delaying a voter from reaching polling station by interrogating them about who they are voting for
• Calling 911 on black voters and lying that a vicious crime is in progress
• Conducting ‘poll watching'” which violates the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, which was passed during Reconstruction to protect newly emancipated freedmen from harassment at polls, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which prohibits “intimidation,” “threats,” and “coercion” of voters.
• Trump’s people are questioning voters about who they voted for which is illegal
• In PA, Trump supporters are sending false message that people can vote using their phones so that they do not go to polling stations
• Interrogating, and verbally harassing voters

 

“I’ve instructed my people to look into it.”- March 13, 2016

At a North Carolina rally, a 78-year-old Trump supporter named John McGraw walked across a row of seats and sucker-punched a protester who was being escorted away by security. Video footage captured the incident, raising new questions about whether Trump was implicitly encouraging such violence — by, among other things, vowing to pay the legal fees of any supporters who fought protesters and faced arrest as a result.

Chuck Todd, host of NBC’s “Meet the Press,” asked Trump whether that meant he’d pay McGraw’s legal fees. “I’ve actually instructed my people to look into it, yes,” Trump said. “I don’t condone violence,” Trump added, although he also went out of his way to praise McGraw. “He obviously loves his country,” he said. “And maybe he doesn’t like seeing what’s happening to the country.”