[:en]Who are Otto Warmbier and Philando Castile?
They are both US citizens and they are both dead. One had a trial and confessed to the charges the other had no trial and was executed. The police man who executed Castile was cleared at trial. The Washington Post called one trial ‘a sham’ even though the defendant confessed but not the other where no crime or offence was committed. In one case the State Attorney says we must ‘accept the verdict’ while in the other it is called a sham trial?
How did the US President respond?
US President Donald Trump has called North Korea a “brutal regime” after the death of a US student
President Trump said Mr Warmbier’s death had deepened his administration’s resolve “to prevent such tragedies from befalling innocent people at the hands of regimes that do not respect the rule of law or basic human decency”.
BBC Note 1
President Trump’s resolve to punish countries that ‘do not respect the rule of law or basic human decency’ applies to North Korea but not to his home country?
Washington Post refers to N Korea as a pariah state for doing less than what the US has done to its own citizens. How does that compute?
‘Wearing the jacket his son Otto Warmbier wore at the sham trial that ended with his imprisonment in North Korea, Fred Warmbier denounced the “pariah” regime that had brutalized his son and fought back tears Thursday as he talked about kneeling to hug him when he was returned to the United States in a coma.
“The fact that he was taken and treated this way is horrible,” Fred Warmbier said. “They’re brutal and they’re terroristic. We see the results of their actions, with Otto.”
Washington post Note 2
Can we compare that to Philando Castile’s treatment?
In Minnesota, protesters took to the streets Sunday for a third straight day after a St. Anthony police officer was acquitted Friday in the killing of a black motorist he shot five times during a traffic stop last year. Officer Jeronimo Yanez was acquitted on charges of manslaughter for killing Philando Castile, an African American who worked as a school nutrition services supervisor for the Saint Paul Public Schools. The shooting made international headlines after Castile’s girlfriend documented the aftermath of the shooting by broadcasting live on Facebook from the car moments after Castile was shot. In the video, Officer Yanez is seen pointing a gun at her and her 4-year-old daughter.
Democracy Now Note 3
How can US require other countries to treat its citizens better than it treats its own citizens?
One matter on which we can whole heartedly agree with President Trump: a country that does ‘not respect the rule of law or basic human decency’ is a brutal regime. We can also agree with the Washington Post that such a state deserves to be treated as a pariah state. Our suggestion to President Trump and the Washington Post: Look in the mirror – It is calling.
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NOTES
Note 1 – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-40337991
Note 2 – https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2017/06/15/after-his-release-from-north-korean-detention-otto-warmbiers-hometown-waits-anxiously-for-news/?utm_term=.89ef63fe824b
Note 3 – https://www.democracynow.org/2017/6/19/philando_can_be_any_of_us
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