Families of Boat Strike Victims Sue Trump Admin for Murder
The Trump administration is being sued by the families of two people killed in U.S. military boat strikes.Civil rights attorneys filed a lawsuit in Massachusetts federal court on behalf of the families of Chad Joseph, 26, and Rishi Samaroo, 41, both of Las Cuevas, Trinidad. Both were killed in a U.S. military strike on October 14. The lawsuit was filed under admiralty law by Lenore Burnley, Joseph’s mother, and Sallycar Korasingh, Samaroo’s sister, and alleges that the U.S. bombing campaign in the southern hemisphere is illegal.“These premeditated and intentional killings lack any plausible legal justification,” the lawsuit states. “Thus, they were simply murder, ordered at the highest levels of government and obeyed by military officers in the chain of command.”The families are represented by the ACLU, the Center for Constitutional Rights, and Seton Hall University in the first federal lawsuit filed over the strikes. Their lawyers echo concerns made by legal scholars and members of Congress that the bombings may constitute war crimes.“This is uncharted water. Never before in the country’s history has the government asserted this type [of] power,” Seton Hall law school professor Jonathan Hafetz told The Guardian. “This is a clear example of unlawful killing by the United States. The U.S. is assuming the prerogative to kill victims in international waters.”The October 14 bombing in the Caribbean was the fifth such strike by the U.S. Since then, the Trump administration has launched 31 more, including one on Friday in the eastern Pacific Ocean that killed two people. The government claims that they are targeting drug cartels and stopping drugs like fentanyl from making their way into the United States. The families of Joseph and Samaroo assert that the pair were fishermen who were arbitrarily targeted.“This is killing for sport, it’s killing for theater and it’s utterly lawless,” said Baher Azmy, legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights. “We need a court of law to rein in this administration and provide some accountability to the families.”