Saturday, August 5, 2017

Alan Dershowitz Uses Racial Stereotyping On Behalf of The Racist Trump

Torture advocate who sometimes takes a civil libertarian position, Alan Dershowitz, is yet again getting his name in the news by attaching himself to yet another high-profile criminal case on behalf of another total sleaze, Donald Trump.  And, unlike his celebrity advocacy for O. J. Simpson, this time he's using anti-Black stereotypes to do it.

He's in the news with an accusation that Robert Mueller has used Washington, DC grand juries instead of those elsewhere because of who lives in DC:

"The District of Columbia, which is always solidly Democratic and has an ethnic and racial composition that might be very unfavorable to the Trump Administration, so I see the significance not so much that he impaneled the grand jury — you have to impanel the grand jury to get subpoena power — but where he impaneled it,"

Which is an overtly racist accusation that could be made, twisting the prejudiced assumptions about people who live in any particular jurisdiction to fit any purpose.  In this case Dershowitz is using the fact that outside of official Washington, the large majority of everyday people who live in Washington are black and that they are, largely, therefore not likely to be supporters of the racist Trump.  It is an overt claim that Black people cannot be trusted to put aside prejudices they may well not have as individuals on a grand jury to deliver impartial justice, a racist claim.  If someone said that about his own ethnic group, Dershowitz would probably be the first to howl in protest for the camera.  As the old saying says, it's probably dangerous to get between the Dersh and a camera. Only, I'll bet if it suited one of his high profile, celebrity defendants and would get him media attention, he'd probably make that accusation, himself.

Alan Dershowitz, media celebrity lawyer is someone I see as a sleaze who will twist and weave and dodge for reasons other than to serve either the truth or American democracy and I think that's what he's doing in this case in which he seems to want to be Trump's "liberal" supporter for God knows what reason but I suspect he'd do just about anything to get in the media.  Only, I would never classify Dershowitz as a liberal.   If given a choice in a contest of his integrity verses Robert Mueller, I would not hesitate to choose the Republican in this instance.

I think the best thing would be to just subject Dershowitz to the ignoring that he has so earned over the years.  That would be the best punishment.  But that won't be done, consistently and, you shouldn't ignore the racism intrinsic to his claim in this case because it is too widespread.

If what he said is taken seriously then it would entirely undermine not only the grand jury system but all trial by jury, as well.   You can make up any claims based in racial or ethnic or regional or religious stereotypes of the kind Dershowitz overtly did in this instance,  you can add in the kind of gender stereotypes that have been used to keep women out of jury pools as well.  Such have been used by lawyers on both sides to try to rig trials for their clients and it is a sleazy practice.  One which, when it suits him and the guy who hires him to hack for him, I'm sure he'd have no trouble taking the exact opposite stand he used to get his name in the media yesterday.

With this I have no hesitation to say that Alan Dershowitz is a total sleaze.  His integrity is non-existent.

2 comments:

  1. I wouldn't even classify Dershowitz as a "legal expert." This was the most racist and idiotic "legal" analysis I've seen from someone not named Jeff Sessions.

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    1. Oh, but he taught at Harvard Law.

      What with the Trump legal team, assorted celebrity sleazeball lawyers, the OJ "dream team" and various other assortments of others, I wish it were a rule that lawyers were not allowed to comment on cases in the media as a responsible professional practice. The Dersh is totally disreputable as far as I'm concerned.

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