Where’s due process?
On Friday (30 Sept 2011), US drones purposefully killed two US citizens without a trial. We can be confident that one of the men killed was active in supporting acts of violence against the US (and others); about the second man the situation is less clear.
Is this legal? Absolutely not. The fifth amendment states that “No person .. shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” Rising above actions like this are part of the bedrock of our country, explicitly vilified since the bill of rights was effected in 1791.
In practice, we have reached a point where sticking the label “terrorist” on a person unilaterally denies their fundamental civil protections. We look back on the days of the “unamerican” slur and laugh, yet here we are again. Black-box labels like this are dangerous, and have always been. Once someone is called an X, you’re not supposed to ask, “how do we know they’re an X?” or “don’t they still have rights?”
This is a slippery slope, one we may already be sliding down. Earlier today (2 Oct 2011), Aaron Bassler was shot and killed on suspicion of murder. The manner of his death seems questionable to me. Reading articles such as this one, it sounds as if he was shot without warning, and that he did nothing at the moment to provoke being killed. Use-of-deadly-force standards are tricky, but my impression is that they were violated here.
There’s something called the Garner standard, named after a supreme court case (Tennessee vs Garner 487 US 1, 1985), listing three major conditions in order to allow use of deadly force. One of these is that the suspect must be given warning if feasible. It sounds like Aaron Bassler was given no warning before being shot.
I have little sympathy for the individual targets of these attacks because there is strong evidence for their guilt (though I worry about the drone’s bystander victim). But we should not confuse personal judgment with justice. Something has gone wrong here. The due process of law is part of what make the US the US. It is part of civilization itself. I’m glad I’m not the only one to take note of this, and I hope we have the maturity to begin a course correction.