(Image source from: nytimes.com)
Despite the concerns raised by the legal experts, President Donald Trump has reported on Sunday that US would be designating Antifa as “terrorist organisation”. The legal experts have reported that the President doesn’t hold such authority and it is questionable on how the same would be implemented.
Antifa, which is an abbreviation for anti-fascists is an umbrella term for the movement charged for a far-left leaning movement as opposed to the far-right ideologies. It doesn’t have a designated leadership role to it.
Some of the anti-fascists directly challenge the neo-Nazis and the white supremacist groups at the demonstrations.
The announcement made by Donald Trump came around as he tried to find ways to blame the protestors, some of whom have turned violent over the murder of the African-American man, George Floyd. Not just that, the same aims at the other cases of police brutality as well.
Following the gathered evidence, Trump along with some of the leading officials from his administration along with the Attorney General William Barr have been consistently putting the blame behind these protests on Antifa and regarded them as the agitators in US.
"The violence instigated and carried out by Antifa and other similar groups in connection with the rioting is domestic terrorism and will be treated accordingly," said Barr in an issued statement.
But, listening to the decision made by Donald Trump, the legal authorities have mentioned that he doesn’t have any kind of legal right to designate a domestic group in the same way as some of the foreign entities.
Mary McCord, a former senior Justice Department official reported saying that no current legal authority exists in the US government that allows the designation of the domestic organisations as terrorist groups.
“Any attempt at such a designation would raise significant First Amendment concerns," said McCord.
The experts have time and time clarified that Antifa is an amorphous movement and not an organisation, which further raised the next question of how any sort of legal proceedings and implementation of the terrorist status would be inflicted on the same.
It is at this point still unclear whether or not the Trump administration is still planning on pursuing the designation or will likely step down from the formal channels or not. Any attempt in actually going through with the demands will likely provoke legal challenges.
The local governments, on the other hand, have consistently blamed the outsiders for the nationwide protests and violence. They further reported that the “agitated protestors” are flooding the cities to avoid calling for justice.
The constant finger pointing at both sides of the political spectrum has been happening consistently with no possible solution in sight. This is likely going to further cause an even more political divide which allows the politicians to further advance the theory with the existent political views of the individuals.
These remarks came following the protests that have been happening in Minneapolis and all across the United States demanding justice for the lives of Black people and the constant acts of police brutality that goes unpunished.
By Somapika Dutta
