NYT: The Treatment of Migrants Likely 'Meets the Definition of a Mass Atrocity'

[teach1st]

The Treatment of Migrants Likely ‘Meets the Definition of a Mass Atrocity’
New York Times, 6/29/2019, opinion by Kate Cronin-Furman

The debate over whether “concentration camps” is the right term for migrant detention centers on the southern border has drawn long-overdue attention to the American government’s dehumanizing treatment of defenseless children. A pediatrician who visited in June said the centers could be compared to “torture facilities.” Having studied mass atrocities for over a decade, I agree.

At least seven migrant children have died in United States custody since last year. The details reported by lawyers who visited a Customs and Border Protection facility in Clint, Tex., in June were shocking: children who had not bathed in weeks, toddlers without diapers, sick babies being cared for by other children. As a human rights lawyer and then as a political scientist, I have spoken to the victims of some of the worst things that human beings have ever done to each other, in places ranging from Cambodia to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Sri Lanka. What’s happening at the border doesn’t match the scale of these horrors, but if, as appears to be the case, these harsh conditions have been intentionally inflicted on children as part a broader plan to deter others from migrating, then it meets the definition of a mass atrocity: a deliberate, systematic attack on civilians. And like past atrocities, it is being committed by a complex organizational structure made up of people at all different levels of involvement.

Thinking of what’s happening in this way gives us a repertoire of tools with which to fight the abuses, beyond the usual exhortations to call our representatives and donate to border charities.

Those of us who want to stop what’s happening need to think about all the different individuals playing a role in the systematic mistreatment of migrant children and how we can get them to stop participating. We should focus most on those who have less of a personal commitment to the abusive policies that are being carried out.

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[AlexSFCA]

1. God bless AOC - she is the best thing since Obama

that happened to our party. Fearless, courageous and smart.

[alwaysinasnit]

3. We need more like her IMHO.

[Wellstone ruled]

2. Well well,NYT it is a start to

trying to be the Paper of Record. Now dispatch a bunch of Reporters who know how to report as well as write a story to the Concentration Camps.

[Skittles]

4. YA THINK???

[orangecrush]

5. +1

[warmfeet]

6. This entire maladministration

should be locked up for life. The wheels of justice are turning far too slowly for my taste, and far too slowly to help the migrants. This is a permanent stain on the U.S.A. I feel sick, and very angry, that these monsters continue to get away with this crap, and without any indication that they will be held to account.

[Duppers]

7. K & R

[paleotn]

8. There's no likely to it.

[shadowmayor]

9. It's called

Kidnapping and child abuse. The democrats should make that a constant talking point every time this subject comes up.

[TNNurse]

10. I keep waiting for the UN or a decent country

to invade us and liberate the camps.